Laptop, notbook, tech news

Sony has said some of its Vaio laptops are equipped with faulty graphics chips from Nvidia, which the graphics company has said could cause some laptops to overheat and ultimately fail.

The PC maker is offering free repairs and extended warranty on certain Vaio models with Nvidia graphics chips made of faulty die and weak packaging material. Sony is the latest addition to a growing list of PC makers carrying faulty Nvidia chips, including Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

A user will know their model is affected if a laptop shows distorted video, duplicate images or a blank screen due to failure of the Nvidia chip, the company said on a support Web page.

Sony will cover the cost of repair. The PC maker is also providing an extended three-year warranty in addition to the standard 12-month warranty. No refunds for the laptops are being offered by Sony.

Nvidia last year reported some graphics chips were overheating due to faulty material and the thermal design of some laptops. The overheating could cause laptops to fail, the company said at the time.

After the disclosure, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Apple offered either a BIOS fix or free replacements for laptops with faulty chips. On Web sites like HP Lies, customers are still complaining about PC makers not offering free repairs for models that may be affected by the faulty chips.

The issue has also taken a toll on Nvidia’s earnings. The company has taken more than US$300 million in charges to cover warranty and product replacement costs. Last week Nvidia took a $119.1 million charge during the second fiscal quarter of the year, while it recorded a $196 million charge a year earlier.

The issue applies to these specific Sony Vaio models with Nvidia graphics chips: VGN-AR1xx, VGN-AR2xx, VGN-AR3xx, VGN-FZ1xx, VGN-FZ2xx, VGN-FZ3xx, VGN-FZ4xx, VGC-LT1xx and VGC-LT2xx.

The story was first reported by enthusiast Web site Semiaccurate on Monday.

Is this week’s title in reference to silly technology pundits and their penchant for hyperbole when it come to Apple, the Windows 7 upgrade matrix, the App Store approval process, or the iconic ’60s song by the Temptations?

Sadly, just the first three.

People are strange

You may not have noticed this, but the Macalope is something of a media critic. Specifically, an Apple media critic.

Yes, it’s a niche market, but when you’ve got a classic Mac for a head there really aren’t all that many job options. The antlers don’t help either. And the hooves. The cud-chewing can also be off-putting. People can be so narrow-minded.

People at NASA, for example.

Anyway, this week brought the Macalope a veritable smorgasbord of criticizable Apple coverage.

First we have PC World’s Todd R. Weiss asking Is Apple’s iPod Dying — And Does Apple Care? Yeah. Dying like a fox, Todd.

Which is probably not a good analogy since foxes get hunted with dogs and die kind of miserably, but you get the idea. The iPod may be slightly less important to Apple than it used to be, but it’s still huge. Save the histrionics.

Then there’s ZDNet’s Zack Whittaker, who knows for a fact that the tablet that hasn’t been introduced yet is flawed from the start. Zack, Zack, Zack! We covered this material last week! Please, if you’re not going to do the required reading, just drop the class.

Finally, in the realm of more annoying than irresponsible, CBS gave ex-future Apple CEO Jean-Louis Gassée over 2,200 words to make lame “Jesus tablet” jokes (maybe they’re funnier in French) and give us a history lesson about the Newton and how he started Be. It’s not all about you, Jean-Louis!

The Macalope realizes that, for better or worse, this is the beat he was born to cover, but forgive him if he sometimes looks wistfully at his rejected application to astronaut training school.

You can’t always get what you want

The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg asked Microsoft for a matrix that would show the definitive list of combinations for upgrading to Windows 7. The result should not be viewed by pregnant women or people prone to seizures.

Now, to be fair to Microsoft, it’s not as confusing as it looks. If you already have Vista and you want to go to the comparable version of Windows 7, it’s an easy upgrade. Anything else, though and your whole weekend is shot. And if you were to plot it as a probability chart…

Oooh. Walt should totally ask them to plot it as a probability chart. And then he should ask them to plot it using a least-squares regression algorithm to account for seasonal variances.

Because it doesn’t mean anything!

It must be pretty nice to be Walt Mossberg and be able to call up Microsoft and absolutely ruin some poor intern’s week by forcing him to figure out that matrix. That’ll look good on a resumé, though. “Danced like a monkey for Uncle Walt.”

The Macalope did do a little math and going by Internet usage stats, about 80% of Windows users are looking at having to do a fresh installation instead of an upgrade.

It’s a good time to be glad you’re not a PC.

You’ve lost that lovin’ feelin’

Speaking of Microsoft, the pointy one has been seeing some commentary lately on how Apple is the new Microsoft. And that’s not really fair. While the company has gone through some growing pains of late, particularly with the App Store, the worst you could say is that it’s the new Microsoft, except with style. And class. And senior executives who aren’t nearly as sweaty.

It is, however, almost a truism that the bigger a company gets–whether it’s in terms of physical size or market presence–the more there is to criticize about it. That part’s just physics. It’s hard to run a big omelette-making business without breaking a few eggs.

So far the complaints are all coming from the developer side. In all this discussion of how screwed up the App Store is (and it is), it’s still easy to use for customers, and that gets the butts in the seats. This week, for instance, we all got incensed that Apple won’t let us have a simple dictionary until the developers get rid of the Seaward (which, apparently, was not really even the case), but does your average iPhone owner follow each app’s road to the App Store like we do? The Macalope suspects they don’t. They just know that practically everything’s a dollar and they’re real easy to download.

Apple’s pleading, “We know it’s not perfect. We’re trying!” Well…keep trying! Until developers start leaving en masse, they don’t have too much of a problem. But the crowd’s getting a little surly.

After much consideration, I finally dove into the do-it-yourself Mac netbook pool. With rumors of an impending Apple tablet spreading like wildfire–including analyses, mock-ups, and even commentary on why a non-existent product is destined to fail–this may seem like an odd time to do such a thing. “Why not just wait and see what Apple’s doing?,” you may be thinking.

While waiting is always better in the computer business (after all, computers never get slower and more expensive as time goes on), I just couldn’t wait–with a couple of trips coming up, I wanted to stop lugging around the 15-inch MacBook Pro for simply reading e-mail and browsing the web while traveling. My beloved 12-inch PowerBook G4 was an alternative, as was purchasing a refurbished Macbook Air (though I’m not a fan of the large-but-flat form factor).

In the end, the temptation to try one of the ultra-small PC laptops (but running OS X, of course) was too great to resist, despite my experience with hacking a desktop Frankenmac last year–there’s just something about carrying around a full-blown computer that’s slightly larger than a paperback book that appeals to my inner geek.

The hardware

After doing some background research on the various netbook models and their degree of OS X compatibility, I was all set to order a Dell Vostro A90, which is the machine that Dan Frakes used for his HackBook project.

When I mentioned this to Dan, however, he pointed me toward the new Dell Mini 10v, which is basically the Vostro A90, but built with a 10-inch screen of the same 1,024-by-600 resolution. Note that you can’t buy the Mini 10 for a project like this, as it uses a video chipset (Intel GMA500) that’s not supported by OS X.

When all was said and done, after fighting my way through the 2.5 million combinations offered by Dell’s two online stores (Home and Small Business; they often have different prices), I wound up ordering a Windows XP version ($50 cheaper than Ubuntu, go figure!) with the 1.66GHz/667Mhz Atom CPU, equipped with a 160GB hard drive.

That’s right, an actual hard drive. While an SSD would have been nice, there was a long delay in shipping any of the SSD-equipped versions, and I needed to get the machine in hand quickly, before my upcoming trip.

When the machine arrived, my first reaction, as you might expect, was “Boy, this thing is small!” As seen in the image at right, it’s nearly a palmtop machine. It’s also light, at 2.5 pounds, coming in a half-pound below that of the MacBook Air.

As Jason Snell noted in his look at the MSI Wind (which has a similar shape), it’s also pleasing to carry, as it’s like carrying around a somewhat-larger (but light) book, instead of a computer.

About the keyboard

One of the things that swayed me to the 10v was Dan’s commentary on the A90’s keyboard–to summarize in family-friendly language, he told me it was abysmal. The Mini 10v is 1.1 inches wider than the A90, which translates to a keyboard that’s 92 percent of the size of a “normal” laptop keyboard, versus the A90’s 89 percent.

More important, however, is that all of the keys are in their usual positions. The apostrophe/quote key is in the middle row, and the tilde is under the Escape key (though it’s a bit on the skinny side). I believe the actual key caps are also slightly larger than on the A90, but I’d have to see one side-by-side to be certain.

So far, I can report that this keyboard is fine for extended use–I’ve prepared this entire write-up using the Dell Mini 10v and its built-in keyboard. I did, however, resort to using a Bluetooth mouse, as the 10v (like the A90) has an abysmal trackpad (more on that later).

Having all the keys in the right spot is a large part of that; if I had to search for the tilde and apostrophe keys every time I needed them, that would drive me crazy. That extra inch of width definitely pays off in the creating a usable keyboard. I’ve got a few hours’ use of the keyboard now, and so far, it hasn’t bothered me at all.

My experience with the 10v’s keyboard shows that Apple’s thoughts on the importance of the full-size keyboard in the MacBook Air are spot-on. Dan (and Jason as well) both called out the cramped keyboard as a limiting factor in the usability of the machine. With my slightly-larger Dell, the keyboard is no longer a major usability issue. Yes, there are concessions due to size, but on the 10-inch chassis, they’re much less noticeable than they are on the 9-inch version.

Upgrading the RAM

One other key–and very maddening–difference between the A90 and the 10v relates to installing additional RAM. Even for a machine that’s primarily going to be used for Web browsing and e-mail, I felt 1GB of RAM just wasn’t enough (especially because the Intel GMA950 graphics chipset will claim some of that). Dell doesn’t offer 2GB RAM as an option (why not?), so I ordered a chip from a third party, and figured I’d just pop it in myself.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t anywhere near that easy. While the A90 has a door on the bottom that provides direct access to the machine’s RAM chip, that’s not the case on the 10v. Instead, you have to basically rip the entire machine apart to add RAm to a 10v.

So that’s what I did–even before booting my new machine for the first time, I broke it into many pieces. As you can see from the above link, this isn’t a trivial process; I’d liken it to replacing the hard drive in my 12-inch PowerBook, except in smaller spaces with even smaller parts.

As you can see, you really do need to take the entire machine apart; it took me about 40 minutes to reach the RAM chip. Disassembly goes slowly because a couple of major components are held on with plastic clips, and you have to detach them without breaking the clips. It’s a long, slow process…and in the end, I wasn’t successful: two of the tabs on the palm rest came loose during disassembly.

Without these tabs, the palm rest wouldn’t stay down, which is a bad thing. Superglue to the rescue! I glued the two tabs back into their positions, waited about 10 minutes, and then tried snapping the palm rest back in place. Amazingly, it held (and continues to hold). All told, installing the new RAM took about 90 minutes from start to finish. It’s not necessarily a hard process, but it is an involved process, and can be frustrating at times.

With the RAM upgraded, I booted the machine into Windows for the first and only time, just to make sure everything worked. It did, but I was stunned by how ugly Windows looked. The buttons were huge, some of the text was jaggy, and even simple windows filled the screen with their oversized widgets. I should have grabbed a screenshot, but I was in a hurry to move on to the next step in the project.

The OS X conversion

While the 10v and the A90 are closely-related siblings, it turns out that they’re not quite identical inside. When it came time to install OS X, those differences caused some problems. I had to work through a number of installation methods before I found one that worked.

At first, I couldn’t even get the OS X installer to run. Eventually, though, I found the right combination of voodoo, and the installer booted. The first thing I noticed is that OS X looks great on the 1,024-by-600 screen–nothing seems oversized, and there aren’t any jaggies to be found.

After working through the initial installation, my AirPort card wasn’t seen (but it worked in Windows, so I knew it wasn’t a hardware issue). A few restarts, Apple Software Updates, curses, and finger crosses later, and it miraculously started working. I honestly have no idea what I did, but it’s fine now.

That left the last, and largest, issue: sound out and microphpone in don’t work on the 10v without using a third-party system extension. Even then, sound may vanish after sleep and wake, forcing some Terminal trickery to keep things working well. I can live with these limitations, as I didn’t buy the machine to be a multimedia workhorse.

Aside from the audio issues, though, the machine has proven to be quite OS X compatible. I set up a networked Time Machine backup, and it’s working fine. The audio and brightness controls on the function keys work, even displaying the on-screen bezels. The built-in camera works with iChat. The battery life indicator works. Sleep works too, even when I just close the lid. When I reopen it, the machine awakes instantly, even quicker than does my Macbook Pro.

All the software I’ve tested runs fine, which is to be expected–the 10v is running a full retail version of OS X, so there’s no trickery there. The only problems are applications, such as Photoshop, that won’t install due to screen size checks in the installer.

The Dell Mini 10v isn’t a speed demon, of course–when I ran Xbench on it, it scored about 10 percent better than did my 12-inch PowerBook G4. In my test use with e-mail, Web surfing, writing, watching video, and browsing photographs, it’s more than fast enough.

Final thoughts

The total cost for my Dell Mini 10v, including overnight shipping and a 2GB RAM stick from a third party, came to $412. That’s less than half what I would have had to pay for a refurbished MacBook Air, and perhaps $250 or so less than what I might pay for a used one from eBay. Yes, I have concessions that a MacBook Air does not–but then again, I also have three USB ports, an SD card reader, a VGA port, and built-in 10/100 Ethernet.

Until Apple comes out with its tablet or a small low-cost laptop, this little Dell looks like it will easily meet my needs for an OS X-compatible netbook. Of course, the real test of any such machine is a road trip, and I’ll be taking this one along with me later this month to see how it works out in the real world.

Unless Geekbench is reading results incorrectly, someone is testing a Mac Pro that doesn’t exist yet … outside of Cupertino anyway.

The tester’s name is Tutor and he’s running a 3.19GHz Mac Pro with 32GB of RAM. The processor used is an Intel Xeon W5580 and the BIOS reads “Apple Inc. MP41.88Z.0081.B04.0903051113″.
The current Mac Pros top out at 2.93GHz and uses Intel Xeon X5570 on a BIOS marked Apple Inc. MP41.88Z.0081.B03.0902231259.

I had a friend run Geekbench on his top-of-the-line 2.93GHz Mac Pro. He scored significantly below Mr. Tutor, so the machine seems to be legitimately faster than any Mac you can buy, today.
Now, there could be some other reasons for this special test result. Perhaps Mr. Tutor is an overclocker or he pulled the Intel CPU himself and added a newer, quicker one. It doesn’t explain the BIOS update however.

Also, Apple could be doing some of their famous silent updates which get announced at a later time. Though, this would be strange as the tests were run over a month ago in June.

Interestingly, Mr. Tutor also has been testing another Macintosh running Windows Vista Ultimate on a CPU that registers as 3.3GHz?

Also, of note, the new Macintosh registered the 4th fastest computer checked with Geekbench behind some 24 nd 32 core behemoths.

In the past few weeks a new market has emerged for ultra-cheap laptops priced under US$300 that boast some of the features found in more expensive, mainstream laptops.

Laptop prices don’t generally dip that low, but some sub-$300 laptops from Wal-Mart and Best Buy this week have included large screens, reasonable graphics and DVD drives. Considering the price the laptops are a step up from low-cost netbooks, which have smaller screens and often cramped keyboards.

But how much performance do these cheap laptops provide, and what do you get for your money? I’ve been trying out a $298 Compaq Presario CQ60-419WM from Wal-Mart to find some answers. The laptop, made by Hewlett-Packard, has a strong suite of features including a 15.6-inch screen, 3GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a DVD-RW drive and robust Nvidia GeForce 8200M integrated graphics.

The less desirable features include a Sempron SI-42 processor from Advanced Micro Devices running at 2.1GHz. It’s one of AMD’s lowest-end chips and more comparable to a netbook processor than a mainstream laptop chip. Another drawback for me was the pre-loaded Windows Vista Home OS, which can’t be upgraded to Windows 7 for free. But for $298 I couldn’t ask for a world of top-notch features.

I bought the laptop mainly as a substitute for netbooks, whose cramped keyboards, small screens and poor graphics engines have left me wanting more. The relatively powerful Nvidia chip prompted me to buy the Wal-Mart laptop over Best Buy’s $299 Toshiba Satellite L305-S5955, which is still available on the retailer’s Web site.

To my surprise, the laptop performed well past my expectations. The machine booted the Vista Home Basic OS (and all the bloatware that comes with it) in around 30 seconds, and the Nvidia graphics engine was able to handle YouTube video and casual gaming effectively. Video did not jerk or stall when playing “Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures” game, which includes heavy animated graphics.

Images appear bright and vibrant on the 1366-by-768 pixel screen, which is slightly wider than other laptops with 15.6-inch screens. It played a standard DVD smoothly. Playback of high-definition video was very jerky, however, so for HD video and intensive gaming you’ll want to shell out for a mid- to high-end laptop with a faster processor and better graphics.

The laptop has some drawbacks. At around 6.5 pounds it is not designed for mobility. It also lacks desirable features like a webcam and fast wireless networking based on the latest 802.11n protocol. The laptop ran for around two-and-a-half hours on a six-cell battery, which could be a concern for some users.

My biggest concern was around the performance of the Sempron SI-42 processor that sits at the heart of the laptop. Chip enthusiasts have given mixed reviews to the Sempron, which sits on the lowest rung of AMD’s processor family ladder. Faster processors — like AMD’s Athlon and Turion, or Intel’s Core chips — perform faster but are more expensive.

However, the Sempron SI-42 was good enough for day-to-day activities like word processing, casual gaming and online video, assisted by the generous 3GB of memory.

In the end it comes down to balancing the features you need with price. If you expect screaming performance from a laptop under $300 you’ll be disappointed. But for its rock-bottom price, the HP laptop is an acceptable desktop replacement that can perform basic tasks while providing a reasonable gaming experience. Acquiring this laptop filled a need to replace the fleet of aging PCs that litter my home.

But it’s clearly not meant for everyone. Netbooks or ultrathin laptops may be a better choice for those who want good mobility. For intense gaming or HD video, buy a more expensive laptop with a more powerful processor and graphics engine.

In the past few weeks a new market has emerged for ultra-cheap laptops priced under US$300 that boast some of the features found in more expensive, mainstream laptops.

Laptop prices don’t generally dip that low, but some sub-$300 laptops from Wal-Mart and Best Buy this week have included large screens, reasonable graphics and DVD drives. Considering the price the laptops are a step up from low-cost netbooks, which have smaller screens and often cramped keyboards.

But how much performance do these cheap laptops provide, and what do you get for your money? I’ve been trying out a $298 Compaq Presario CQ60-419WM from Wal-Mart to find some answers. The laptop, made by Hewlett-Packard, has a strong suite of features including a 15.6-inch screen, 3GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a DVD-RW drive and robust Nvidia GeForce 8200M integrated graphics.

The less desirable features include a Sempron SI-42 processor from Advanced Micro Devices running at 2.1GHz. It’s one of AMD’s lowest-end chips and more comparable to a netbook processor than a mainstream laptop chip. Another drawback for me was the pre-loaded Windows Vista Home OS, which can’t be upgraded to Windows 7 for free. But for $298 I couldn’t ask for a world of top-notch features.

I bought the laptop mainly as a substitute for netbooks, whose cramped keyboards, small screens and poor graphics engines have left me wanting more. The relatively powerful Nvidia chip prompted me to buy the Wal-Mart laptop over Best Buy’s $299 Toshiba Satellite L305-S5955, which is still available on the retailer’s Web site.

To my surprise, the laptop performed well past my expectations. The machine booted the Vista Home Basic OS (and all the bloatware that comes with it) in around 30 seconds, and the Nvidia graphics engine was able to handle YouTube video and casual gaming effectively. Video did not jerk or stall when playing “Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures” game, which includes heavy animated graphics.

Images appear bright and vibrant on the 1366-by-768 pixel screen, which is slightly wider than other laptops with 15.6-inch screens. It played a standard DVD smoothly. Playback of high-definition video was very jerky, however, so for HD video and intensive gaming you’ll want to shell out for a mid- to high-end laptop with a faster processor and better graphics.

The laptop has some drawbacks. At around 6.5 pounds it is not designed for mobility. It also lacks desirable features like a webcam and fast wireless networking based on the latest 802.11n protocol. The laptop ran for around two-and-a-half hours on a six-cell battery, which could be a concern for some users.

My biggest concern was around the performance of the Sempron SI-42 processor that sits at the heart of the laptop. Chip enthusiasts have given mixed reviews to the Sempron, which sits on the lowest rung of AMD’s processor family ladder. Faster processors — like AMD’s Athlon and Turion, or Intel’s Core chips — perform faster but are more expensive.

However, the Sempron SI-42 was good enough for day-to-day activities like word processing, casual gaming and online video, assisted by the generous 3GB of memory.

In the end it comes down to balancing the features you need with price. If you expect screaming performance from a laptop under $300 you’ll be disappointed. But for its rock-bottom price, the HP laptop is an acceptable desktop replacement that can perform basic tasks while providing a reasonable gaming experience. Acquiring this laptop filled a need to replace the fleet of aging PCs that litter my home.

But it’s clearly not meant for everyone. Netbooks or ultrathin laptops may be a better choice for those who want good mobility. For intense gaming or HD video, buy a more expensive laptop with a more powerful processor and graphics engine.

Kinpo Electronics, a Taiwanese electronics maker, debuted a new netbook on Thursday with a Via Nano microprocessor and integrated 3G/WiMax chipset to make sure users are always connected to the Internet.

The Kinpo N03 appears to be aimed at China, since its 3G options include TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), the home grown 3G standard in China.

The company did not say when it would be available nor its price.

The company’s choice of a Via Nano microprocessor over Intel’s popular Atom processor shows the battle between the two processor maker continues to rage in the netbook arena. Via has made a number of important product wins in netbooks bound for China, but Intel has stepped up its China activities.

Kinpo’s N03 netbook comes with an 11.6-inch screen with 1366×768 pixel resolution, either Microsoft Windows XP or Vista Home Basic, and up to 2GB of DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM and a 1.3-megapixel Web cam.

The Via Nano processors inside run at either 1.2GHz or 1.3GHz, depending on the configuration, according to Kinpo.

The netbook comes in a variety of configurations, including with either a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD).

It also includes a variety of high end wireless communications technologies due to an integrated chipset, according to Kinpo. The device can handle WiMax, the Intel-backed technology meant to someday replace Wi-Fi, as well as a range of mobile telecommunications technologies, including HSDPA/HSUPA (High Speed downlink/uplink packet access), TD-SCDMA, W-CDMA, and EVDO.

The device also includes 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.

The N03 weighs around 1.3 kilograms depending on the configuration and can run for 3-hours in normal use, Kinpo said. It is 281-millimeters long, 198mm wide and 27mm thick.

 

Acer remains on track to launch a version of its Aspire One netbook with Google’s Android mobile operating system in the third quarter of this year, a company representative said Wednesday.

The company decided to reiterate its commitment to the project after news reports said the project had been delayed or changed.

The world’s third-largest PC vendor plans to debut Android in an Aspire One with a 10-inch screen and an Intel Atom microprocessor. A similar Aspire One is currently available from Acer but it comes with Microsoft Windows XP.

At the Computex electronics show in Taipei last month, Acer displayed an Aspire One running both Windows XP and Android, prompting questions on whether the netbook would be a dual-boot machine or not. Executives at the show said the Aspire One with Android would not come with Windows XP installed.

Acer became interested in Android due to its growing popularity and the strong development movement behind the software. The PC vendor announced the Aspire One with Android a day after saying its first Android-based smartphones would launch in the fourth quarter of this year.

Acer was the first company worldwide to show an Android-based netbook with an Intel Atom microprocessor. Other companies have shown Android mini-laptops they call smartbooks, with chips from Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Freescale Semiconductor that have ARM processing cores.

Acer worked with a Taiwanese Linux outfit called Insyde Software to port Android over to a netbook with an Atom microprocessor.

Apple is racing to launch a tablet-sized device in time for the Christmas shopping season, according to a report from the Financial Times (FT). Featuring a 10-inch touch screen display, Apple’s tablet is also said to launch alongside “Cocktail,” a project designed to increase sales of CD-length music.
The Apple tablet, rumored for more than a year now, has finally gained some credibility with FT’s report today. The publication also quotes “executives familiar with the plans” saying that Apple could be planning a simultaneous launch of the tablet with a new service that is “all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music.”

What we know about the Apple tablet

FT is scarce on details about Apple’s upcoming tablet device. The report describes device as a “full-featured, tablet-sized computer” which will be out just in time for the Christmas shopping season. The tablet’s screen is reported to be up to 10 inches in diagonal but it won’t have phone capabilities like the iPhone.

The FT says the Apple tablet will have Wi-Fi, allowing it to access to Apple’s online stores. Besides Amazon Kindle-like capabilities, the Apple tablet is reported to be great for watching movies, according to an entertainment executive quoted by the FT. No word on pricing, but previous speculation points to an $800 price point.

What’s in Apple’s “Cocktail”

The FT is also reporting that Apple is working on a project code-named “Cocktail,” a collaboration between the Cupertino company and record labels, namely EMI, Sony Music, Warner Music and Universal Music Group, which will bundle liner notes and video clips with the music sold on the iTunes Music Store (iTMS). The initiative is reportedly expected to be a reality as early as September.

The FT says Cocktail is a new type of interactive album, which will combine photos, lyrics sheets, video clips, and liner notes, all gathered into an interactive booklet. This new breed of album booklet will also play songs directly, without having to go back to iTunes, the report adds.

Myth or Reality?

Convinced by the Apple tablet? Judging by the expected screen size and rumored capabilities, the Apple tablet will not only be an oversized iPod Touch, ready for prime-time movies and music, but also a direct competitor to Amazon’s Kindle if Apple will start selling books in the iTunes music store.

Although so far the “Cocktail” news would put multimedia at the heart of the Apple tablet, Internet connectivity is the key to delivering the content to the device. And this is where last week’s rumors and today’s FT report conflict: Apple Insider said the tablet would feature 3G connectivity, same as the iPhone, while the FT reported today that no such capability will be present.

So while this intricate detail is up for debate, the question to users remains whether they would want a 3G tablet that would be chained to a wireless carrier (be it AT&T or Verizon) or the somehow limited freedom to use any Wi-Fi access point they have handy?

The rumors just keep coming. We’ve heard Apple is negotiating with Verizon, perhaps to make AT&T a little nervous about maintaining its iPhone monopoly, or perhaps to actually expand service options. Or, perhaps, Apple is angling to cut a deal with another carrier in regard to a different product.

Here’s another clue: TechCruch is reporting Verizon Wireless is to expedite the roll-out of its LTE network (also dubbed 4G), possibly in conjunction with the release of a new Apple device. iTablet anyone?

In February Verizon announced it is aiming to have two test markets this year, and have 25 to 30 markets ready for LTE by the end of 2010. Verizon’s new plan (according to TechCrunch’s unnamed, but reliable source) is “putting just about everything it has in to moving many of these markets up to Q1 2010.”

Rumors of an Apple tablet have been circulating for some time, most have predicted a 2010 release. TechCrunch’s source speculates that a tablet makes sense for Verizon. No microphone means no calls. No calls means the device would play nice with AT&T’s exclusive iPhone contract, which is set to expire sometime in 2010.

Then again, let’s not forget other rumors that Verizon has been in negotiations to get its own iPhone in 2010.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing a Verizon LTE iPhone with speeds of up to 80Mbps coming sometime down the road.