Apple Jan. 27 launch event... what will it be?

[Walter Sobchak]

{ redacted }

[Surfah]

I'm just not sold on the tablet. Though I am sure it will be much better than this launch:

[Moliere]

Whatever it is i'm gitty with delight. Inhave Apple fever and can't wait to see the new product even though indont plan on purchasing a tablet in the nearnfuture.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I wonder what the price will be. This sounds like a much better option than the Kindle.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Looks super awesome, although I am not sure why I would get that instead of a MacBook. I would assume many of the features will also be available on future versions of the MB.

My question would be how does it perform in the daylight? Since it appears to be more of a web content driven device instead of a reader.

Edit: I will be curious to see how investors respond to the launch, Apple has been on a major growth since January of 2009. Opened today at $206.81

[Moliere]

I'm just not sold on the tablet. Though I am sure it will be much better than this launch:

I felt the same way when I heard about Apple doing a tablet, but then I got to thinking that Apple could really make this thing better than a simple notebook with a screen that swivels or a very large Palm. A tablet could be Apples way of entering the cheaper netbook market...well cheaper by Apple standards anyway.

I wonder what the price will be. This sounds like a much better option than the Kindle.

The guy next to me on the bus this morning had a Kindle. It seems like a nice device if you want a one-dimensional reading apparatus. It did look like something out of the 1990s with its black and white interface.

I just hope Apple doesn't name the tablet the "iPad" since that will doom the product from day one.

[Slim]

I hope this does to textbooks what the ipod (and other mp3 players) did to the walkman.

Textbooks can be improved on soooooo much. They really shouldn't exist anymore the way that they do. It would be more conducive to the way we learn now to have much more linking, audio, and video content. We are required now to learn so much more in the same amount of time and this would speed up the process.

[thesaint258]

I don't really get the tablet as an ereader. I think the strength of an ereader is that it uses eink which doesn't strain your eyes like a backlit display does. I'd take an ereader or a real book over a tablet any day. That said, there are a lot of other reasons I'd like a tablet. I wish I had one every time I use my laptop when I fly or use public transportation.

I've also read a couple of articles that say Apple's going to announce that AT&T won't be the exclusive iPhone distributor anymore.

[Green Lantern]

I'm guessing it will be a new mode of transportation that will change the way we commute through urban environments. Maybe some kind of scooter. It will feature gyroscopes and will respond to the movements of the rider. It will be the most groundbreaking invention ever. They just need to think of a name...

[beefytee]

I'm guessing it will be a new mode of transportation that will change the way we commute through urban environments. Maybe some kind of scooter. It will feature gyroscopes and will respond to the movements of the rider. It will be the most groundbreaking invention ever. They just need to think of a name...

That is awesome, I can't wait for the $25 cars that get 1000 miles to the gallon!

http://www.wussu.com/humour/gm.htm

[RobinFinderson]

I wonder what the price will be. This sounds like a much better option than the Kindle.

The benefit of the Kindle is its battery life. The e-Ink technology requires no power to maintain the printed screen once it is loaded. You only use power when you flip a page, so a tablet and an e-reader would be serving entirely different purposes.

Naturally you can read books on a computer, or an iPhone (Kindle reader for iPhone is sort of interesting), but you have serious limitations. You can't toss a laptop into the backpack for a 40mile trek. Kindle, si se puede.

[TripletDaddy]

Steve Jobs has panache. There is no way around that fact.

[RobinFinderson]

Not 40-mile trek friendly, but competent for an overnighter?

cheers.

I'll bet that is ten hours of typing, with screen brightness turned all the way down. Bump up the screen brightness to an enjoyable level, and pop on a movie or 3D video game, and I'll bet you get significantly less battery life.

[TripletDaddy]

Wow.....this things looks very acceptable!

[Moliere]

I'll bet that is ten hours of typing, with screen brightness turned all the way down. Bump up the screen brightness to an enjoyable level, and pop on a movie or 3D video game, and I'll bet you get significantly less battery life.

Here is the synopsis from the wsj.com blog:

It is powered by Apple's custom silicon, comes with 16, 32 or 64 GB of flash storage. It has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, an accelerometer and compass. Ten hours of battery life.

"I can take a flight from SF to Tokyo and watch video the whole way on one charge," Jobs says. It has over a month of standby life.

Again, the truth is probably somewhere between Robin and Steve.