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Tuesday, March 04, 2008, 10:00 am
Apple's Jobs probed over Newton reincarnation
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs was reportedly none too thrilled earlier this year when he sat down for an interview with a reporter who posed a question about the company's skunkworks operation to produce a modern day Newton tablet rather than chat about the MacBook Air."At Macworld, when I asked Mr. Jobs about the idea of an iPod Touch in a larger 'Safari Pad' format, he snapped at me, 'I can’t talk about unannounced products,'" writes the New York Times' John Markoff. "Intriguing."
In fact, Markoff claims that Apple's multi-touch technology was conceived as part of a "note-pad" sized project run by the company's then head of Macintosh hardware Tim Bucher, and that it was internally referred to as "Safari Pad." Implementing multi-touch as part of revolutionary cell phone came later, he suggests.
The report by Markoff and reaction by Jobs serve only to bolster claims laid out by AppleInsider last September in its report regarding a modern day reincarnation of the Newton MessagePad, reminiscent of a larger iPod touch, yet far more capable.
In his column in the Times this week, Markoff speculates that the long rumored device may be Apple's answer to Amazon's Kindle eBook reader given Jobs' blatant criticism of the product and its ability to succeed.
"A familiar Jobsian strategy is to denigrate an entire category -- he did this with cellphones, for example -- before reinventing it with Apple panache," he wrote.
For its part, AppleInsider believes that Apple's ambitions for the project go far and beyond a digital book reader.
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Previous Comments View All
A new Newton is an instant purchase for me as I still have three of them laying around.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sausage&Onion 
I for one always assumed that the Newton pad we were hearing rumors about was in fact merely the macBook Air. Unless I am mistaken, the 13" screens seemed to be the only concrete piece of evidence we had about these rumored machines. Hopefully, Job's angry reaction was a telltale sign of something ca-ca-ca-cRAzy in the somewhat distant future, however I bet he would likely react in the same way if asked about holographic displays or Apple robots that nourish themselves entirely with banannas. (BTW, I have a rumor from a reliable source on that last one guys)
I for one always assumed that the Newton pad we were hearing rumors about was in fact merely the macBook Air. Unless I am mistaken, the 13" screens seemed to be the only concrete piece of evidence we had about these rumored machines. Hopefully, Job's angry reaction was a telltale sign of something ca-ca-ca-cRAzy in the somewhat distant future, however I bet he would likely react in the same way if asked about holographic displays or Apple robots that nourish themselves entirely with banannas. (BTW, I have a rumor from a reliable source on that last one guys)
Exactly. Jobs wanted to talk about the Air. Macworld is a big free press extravaganza for Apple and whatever products it decides to announce there. Why would Jobs want to talk about an unsubstantiated rumor product that would only take the focus off his newest baby?
This is no evidence of anything at all. It's the same reaction the reporter would have gotten had he wanted to talk about ANYTHING other than the Air, the new iPhone release, Apple TV 2.0, or Time Capsule. Those were the only subjects on the table that day.
... indeed, people might not be reading novels, but they are reading alotof books about cooking and food. Not to mention life style magazines (Dazed & Confused, I.D., Vogue) and newspapers!
I do think Amazon's Kindle concept has a future (if only they would hire Jonathan Ive).
You know, maybe Kormac wasn't as off as some people thought he was back in the day. Apple obviously had some sort of major tablet project going, maybe he was getting snippets of that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrjoec123
Exactly. Jobs wanted to talk about the Air. Macworld is a big free press extravaganza for Apple and whatever products it decides to announce there. Why would Jobs want to talk about an unsubstantiated rumor product that would only take the focus off his newest baby?
This is no evidence of anything at all. It's the same reaction the reporter would have gotten had he wanted to talk about ANYTHING other than the Air, the new iPhone release, Apple TV 2.0, or Time Capsule. Those were the only subjects on the table that day.
Exactly. Jobs wanted to talk about the Air. Macworld is a big free press extravaganza for Apple and whatever products it decides to announce there. Why would Jobs want to talk about an unsubstantiated rumor product that would only take the focus off his newest baby?
This is no evidence of anything at all. It's the same reaction the reporter would have gotten had he wanted to talk about ANYTHING other than the Air, the new iPhone release, Apple TV 2.0, or Time Capsule. Those were the only subjects on the table that day.
I read that Times article, and I did find it to be a strange response. He can't talk about "unannounced products"? That does sound as though this is an "unannounced product".
He could have just denied the product possibility altogether.
He also could have said that he wanted to talk about products that Apple just came out with, rather than others' speculation about products.
Either would have been better than what he did say.
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross
I read that Times article, and I did find it to be a strange response. He can't talk about "unannounced products"? That does sound as though this is an "unannounced product".
He could have just denied the product possibility altogether.
He also could have said that he wanted to talk about products that Apple just came out with, rather than others' speculation about products.
Either would have been better than what he did say.
I read that Times article, and I did find it to be a strange response. He can't talk about "unannounced products"? That does sound as though this is an "unannounced product".
He could have just denied the product possibility altogether.
He also could have said that he wanted to talk about products that Apple just came out with, rather than others' speculation about products.
Either would have been better than what he did say.
Oh he ALWAYS responds like that.
Remember a live interview when a reporter asked him about the iPhone, and he said "you know, we don't talk about unannounced products. If we ever do announce such a thing, I'd be happy to tell you all about it." He can't deny rumors, anaylsts would go crazy!
Apple has stated that the technology for iPhone was originally intended for a tablet (it was in the original Time article); it's not a secret or a rumor. Jobs has also indicated (at "All Things D") that one of his best decisions was killing a PDA / new Newton project at Apple; it's not clear if the PDA and the multitouch tablet are the same thing though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blue2kdave
You know, maybe Kormac wasn't as off as some people thought he was back in the day. Apple obviously had some sort of major tablet project going, maybe he was getting snippets of that.
You know, maybe Kormac wasn't as off as some people thought he was back in the day. Apple obviously had some sort of major tablet project going, maybe he was getting snippets of that.
and everyone gave him so much shit for most likely accurate info...
i always thought he was just a little psychic or psychotic.. i forget which one!
MACTouch here we come!!!! Boooyaaaaaa!! hhahahahyeeeee yawwwwww *very happy* 
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I for one always assumed that the Newton pad we were hearing rumors about was in fact merely the macBook Air. Unless I am mistaken, the 13" screens seemed to be the only concrete piece of evidence we had about these rumored machines. Hopefully, Job's angry reaction was a telltale sign of something ca-ca-ca-cRAzy in the somewhat distant future, however I bet he would likely react in the same way if asked about holographic displays or Apple robots that nourish themselves entirely with banannas. (BTW, I have a rumor from a reliable source on that last one guys)