Is this the new, rumored Apple tablet? Or an old patent filing from the MessagePad days of yore?
The Next Web’s Boris says it’s an old Newton patent resurfacing, and that the rumored Apple tablet will not have stylus-based input. Little clues, like how the patent isn’t about a tablet but the stylus recognition system itself, and how weirdly familiar that bottom row of buttons looks, seem to say Boris is right.
These new patent pictures were released into an online hornets nest, with everyone waiting for news on this long-rumored iSlate thingy. Any clues, no matter how old or mundane, turn into a tea-leaves-reading session. Thing is, Apple applies for wacky patents all the time.
We’ve seen other patent pictures floating around the Web for years now. None of us know if this new, still-unseen Super Newton is anything like what we’ve seen before.
What do you think? Is this a new tablet, or an old MessagePad?
[Via Tai Shimizu and NewtonTalk.]
I was so excited when I first saw this. It looks like the child of the iPhone and Newton, but then I read about it being a continuation patent. Hopefully Inkwell will at least be in the version of OS X this thing runs on so that 3rd party developers can make newtonesque apps.
Posted by Tai Shimizu on November 16th, 2009.
At first glance, I would say it looks like an iPhone running Newton OS, so I’m just going to hope that is what the “tablet” amounts to…
Posted by obi1kenobi1 on November 16th, 2009.