Testing Apple’s new secret tablet

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I know I’m going to get in trouble for this but I can’t help myself. Through my work I’ve been testing Apple’s new tablet for a week or so now – i’s insanely great and I want everyone to know that mobile computing is about to make a huge leap – never mind the NDA.

It’s not smaller. Like the new iPhone it’s now wider – more than 11 inches across. The colour and resolution of the image is fantastic – which is great but that’s not the point. The resolution of the touch is hugely improved – Apple have licensed the technology in Wacom’s professional tablets to give you pressure sensitivity and per-pixel accuracy. No more painting with crayons – when using a pen this tablet records your brush strokes with complete fidelity – or just use your finger as before. I always hated the clumsy touch in the old iPad and it’s like having gloves removed from your fingers. You can finally really paint on this.

Good thing then that this tablet can run PhotoShop. No, not a cut down version – the real PhotoShop. In fact this new tablet runs the full operating system – that means real applications like Pro Tools, Live, Reason, the Adobe suite – even 3d tools like Maya – all with multitouch and complete portability. You can forget about using Garage Band and cut down crap – look at the photo. Of course that means you don’t have to translate between your desk tools and the tablet using iTunes anymore. Just link by WiFi and get busy.

My old iPad on the right (in a case) and the new secret tablet on the left. Notice that it’s running Ableton Live – and how bright and sharp the display is. Retina really is great technology.

Apple have realised that you need a real keyboard and a dock that holds the tablet so you can sometimes type notes and do your office stuff (yes, you can run Office). So they’ve included these in the price… no more hidden extras. And… amazingly… you can expand the memory with SIMs. It comes with 32Gb but I doubled that by plugging in a micro SIM – now there’s two volumes available on the system. Of course it works fine with Time Capsule and other external drives.

Only Apple could come up with something this powerful and innovative. They’ve begun a site where you can see more about the tablet – it’s supposed to go live at year’s end – but I’m going to make enemies and let you see it right now.

 

8 thoughts on “Testing Apple’s new secret tablet”

    • Now, now. This is just a prank, get people excited about something and then point out the good news that it’s already on sale. That iPad is mine as well. I use it to see maps of what the world would look like if JG Ballard was a cartographer.

      • Hey, I use an iPhone and would love an iPad! But your post was a clear riposte to the Cult of Jobs. If they can’t take a joke…

        Ballard as cartographer — spot on!

  2. How’s the latency? Does it run ok with external soundcards/midi controllers (follows that it probably does). Let us know if you get a moment to do so, it looks nice.

    • It runs ASIO4All so the latency is OK out of the headphone socket. I have yet to get time to try out sound cards.

      Ableton Live – works well.
      FL Studio – works well.
      Pro Tools 10 – crash and burn.
      PhotoShop – amazing. Like a Cintiq.

      It’s basically a 4Gb RAM laptop with a SSD drive. The drive space is the main limit. Once docked you have 2 USB ports (tablet and dock) so I guess any heavy duty work happens there.

      Main issue was pointed out by a US reviewer. They have packed a full sized i5 chip in there. It gets hot. Don’t know what that means under stage lights!

      • I remember reading on this blog that you ran more than a conservative number of channels live, so that’s promising. I’m sure presently there’s some sort of weird cooling accessory and future ones will nail it. Exciting times…

  3. Of course if you didn’t need the touchscreen aspect you could save $400 and buy a macbook air with 64 gb of in built storage. So if money was an issue you might prefer that option? Anyway, my point is just that at the price point the Slate sells for it’s competing more with the Air than the iPad, is it not?

    There’s that little issue of having to use Windows as well. That’s something I’d rather not do.

    • Multitouch is part of what I’m working on. E.g. pushing multiple audio faders at the one time. Still testing what can and can’t accept multitouch (e.g. FL Studio specifically does).
      Price is always a consideration, but I’m well within budget for INFORMATION EMBARGO DO NOT DISCUSS UNTIL OCTOBER 31.

      Windows: I have to use Mac all day at work :-)
      More serious – I like VDMX. I also like Touch Designer. Such is life.

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