By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com
January 4, 2010
You may think your iPhone or Droid is the latest in high-tech gadgets, but they are so 2009.
The consumer tech world is buzzing at the start of 2010 about two new products that have not even been confirmed by the companies allegedly planning to unveil them in the near future. The Apple iSlate and Google's Nexus One smartphone have the tech blogs humming.
The Nexus One could be announced as early as this week, according to the bloggers, who expect some announcement at Google's Android event. One site, the NexusOne blog, has already posted a review of the new smart phone, which is said to be thinner than an iPhone and equipped with a 3.7 inch WVGA AMOLED touchscreen display. The reviewer noted, with some disappointment, that Google didn't include multitouch into this phone.
The Nexus One draws praise for its speed, with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and the 512MB of RAM.
While the Droid runs on the Verizon network and iPhone is exclusive to AT&T, the new Nexus One will reportedly run on T-Mobile's Network. And of course, its thinner than the Droid because it lacks a physical keyboard, whereas the Droid has one.
While Google, as of today, had not confirm the existence of Nexus One, so has Apple remained silent about the iSlate, which everyone from the tech blogs to Wall Street is convinced is "the next big thing" from the computer maker.
The iSlate is said to be a tablet device, encompassing a netbook computer, e-reader and cell phone all in one device. Eric Zeman at Information Week reported Monday that alleged iSlate specs have begun appearing on the Web.
"According to Phone Arena, the iSlate will have a seven-inch screen and run a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB shared L2 cache and 1066MHz system bus," Zenman writes. "It will be sold with 2GB of RAM, but will support up to 8GB. The iSlate will feature a 120GB SATA hard drive that spins at 4200rpm. This I have a hard time believing. No SSD? C'mon."
According to the site, the iSlate will not run any of the existing Apple operating systems, but instead something called Mac OS X Clouded Leopard v10.7. It reportedly comes equipped with iTunes, Time Machine, Quick Look, Spaces, Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, Photo Booth, and Front Row.
Apple, meanwhile, has remained consistently mum, refusing to confirm or deny the existence of iSlate. But Wall Street traders are convinced. Apple stock moved sharply higher, to over $212 a share, at the end of the year.
