Larger iPod Touch In Apple's Future? 197
Ender_Stonebender writes "TechCrunch is reporting that three independent sources have mentioned to them a large form factor version of the iPod Touch, with either a 7- or 9-inch screen, to be released fall of 2009. The device is expected to have access to the iTunes App Store. Beyond that, everything about it appears to be pure speculation."
Re:An 'on/off' switch would be nice. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I don't see it (Score:2, Informative)
Appstore items are binaries for the ARM architecture that runs the iPhone/iPod Touch. Dashboard widgets are HTML(like)/Javascript contraptions running on PPC and x86 machines.
Apple already has a central repository for Dashboard widgets, so why would they move all that to iTunes?
OTOH, if they limited iPhone-apps-on-Dashboard support to recent Macbooks, they'd only have one architecture (x86) to worry about, for which they already have the ARM emulation software running (iPhone dev kit), the touchpads already do multitouch, and AFAIK those machines also have an accelerometer on board.
It's a stretch, though, and a large one at that.
Re:Mmm, pixelly resolution goodness... (Score:3, Informative)
The challenge of the tablet mac is allowing iPhone and iPod applications to run, while the device itself run the normal Mac OS X WIMP interface. Not necessarily all programs, but not the PDA like interface used on the iPod Touch and many netbook. Virtualization will allow this, and iPod applications will run in a window.
In terms of resolution, this should not be so hard. Mac OS ran on a 12", 1024X768, only about twice the touch resolution. So, if we assume the 7", screen, we have something that the interface has run on, so it is just a matter of using the Atom or similar processor.
Re:7 or 9 inch iPhones (Score:3, Informative)