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I Need Bigger Pockets (10/13/98)
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Not that anything over at Mac OS Rumors should ever be considered "official," but if their evolving specs for next year's consumer portable (code-named P1) are at all accurate, it's safe to say that Apple's plans for a handheld replacement for the Newton are officially dead. Back when the Newton got deep-sixed, Apple claimed that it would re-enter the handheld computer market in 1999 with a new device. Since then, there's been all kinds of speculation as to what this new handheld will be like. Followers of Apple's announced product strategy have been forced to conclude that the consumer portable will be Apple's new "handheld," but if recent specs of the P1 are accurate, it's only a "handheld" in the sense that you could actually hold one in your hand.
The P1, according to Rumors, will be ergonomically designed to be kid-compatible, and so we anticipate that it'll look like the result of a particularly romantic evening spent between an eMate and an iMac. But the P1 will be a zippy little thing, boasting a 300 MHz G3 processor. The screen is rumored to be 11" in size and "visually similar" to the one used in the PowerBook 2400. In fact, the whole P1 is reportedly going to be 2400-ish in weight, as well-- over four pounds. There's no mention anymore of stylus interface or handwriting recognition (which is not to say that those features are definitely gone), making Rumors' description of the P1 an iMac-looking PowerBook, plain and simple. So much for being a handheld. Try slipping a PowerBook 2400 into your shirt pocket sometime.
So there you have it. An eMate-styled laptop with PowerBook 2400 dimensions and PowerBook G3 performance. It sounds great, no doubt about it, and we fully expect to buy one to replace our aging Duo 280c... but it's not exactly going to compete in the handheld market, and it's obviously not intended to do so. Which, we assume, means that Apple has quietly ducked out of the handheld space altogether, which we consider to be a real shame, because they could kick some serious kiester over there if they had resources to commit. Ah, well... perhaps we'll get a color Palm when they come out.
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 10/13/98 episode: October 13, 1998: Everyone awaits Apple's quarterly financial results with bated breath, but if those results aren't rock 'em sock 'em spectacular, will riots erupt in Cupertino? Meanwhile, now that the P1 consumer portable is pretty clearly not a handheld device, it appears that Apple has abandoned its promise to release a Newton replacement in 1999, and a faithful viewer points out a major clue that Disney has its hooks into Apple's OS development team...
Other scenes from that episode: 1073: Apple Pie in the Sky (10/13/98) Don't you think we all may be getting our hopes up a tad too far? When Steve Jobs announces Apple's quarterly and year-end financial performance Wednesday afternoon, there seem to be a lot of people who are going to be very let down if the numbers aren't spectacular... 1075: The Ears Have It (10/13/98) Look, it's not that we think there are a lot of skeptics out there in the AtAT viewing audience. After all, it takes a certain amount of paranoia open-mindedness to endure endless blather about Bill Gates mind control conspiracies and ninja death attacks...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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