Those Apple tablet rumors just never let up, do they? Not a week after the company’s latest media event and they’re already back in force. The latest, from China Economic News, claims the device is being prepped for a February debut at a price somewhere between $799 and $999.
So that mysterious media tablet Apple’s rumored to be developing? It exists, but it probably won’t ship until 2010. This according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who offers up a heaping pile of grist for the Apple rumor mill in a new research note today.
Apple and Research in Motion may disagree on many things, but they’re of the same mind when it comes to the the netbook phenomenon: It will be short-lived. Asked about Apple’s interest in the category during a late-April earnings call, COO Tim Cook said the company has none. Turns out, Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie feels pretty much the same way.
Apple has fleshed out its chip design group with another key hire. The company has recruited Bob Drebin, former CTO of AMD’s Graphics Products Group, as a senior director. Apple won’t say what it is exactly Drebin’s going to work on, though it’s a safe bet it’s related to the multicore graphics processors in which Drebin has his expertise.
Macworld 2009 is still about a month away and already, Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry is frantically turning the hand crank on the rumor mill. In a note to clients today, Chowdhry claims Apple will debut an entirely new device category next year.
Apple’s efforts to build its own chip development brain trust out of its acquisition of PA Semi have run afoul of IBM. Mark Papermaster, a 26-year IBM veteran and vice president of its Blade Development unit–a division that designs corporate data centers, plans to take a new job with Apple in early November, and Big Blue is doing its damndest to stop him. The company has filed suit against Papermaster, claiming his noncompete agreement with IBM prohibits him from taking a job with Apple.
The media will gather tomorrow at Apple’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters for an invitation-only event–presumably about updates to its MacBook and MacBook Pro lines. And, as with every Apple product launch, tomorrow’s has been preceded by feverish speculation about what form, exactly, those updates will take. Among the rumors currently making the rounds …
So that “future product transition” Apple’s headed for later this year? The one that will bring with it “state-of-the-art new products that [Apple's] competitors just aren’t going to be able to match”? It’s looking more and more like it may involve a new chipset–possibly even an internally developed one.
Apple’s finally found a worthy use for the more than $18 billion in cash and short-term securities gathering dust on its balance sheet. The company’s acquiring P.A. Semi for about $278 million in cash.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
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