Dreamville: iPad Duo

[Chupa Chupa]

I saw this on engadget:

It's a hybrid netbook/tablet from Dell. Lenovo has one too. A Win/Android or Win/Win type product doesn't interest me but an OSX/iOS one would.

Take a MBA but make the screen a removable iPad. Essentially what you have is a keyboard dock w/ mobile processor and HD built-in.

When the iPad is connected to the keyboard you can either use OS X and use it like a Mac or flip a switch and use it as an iPad w/ keyboard. When the iPad is removed from the dock it's an ordinary iPad.

Does this interest anyone else? At what price over an iPad (any model) would you pay? I like this b/c it would eliminate the need for a 2nd laptop. I'm thinking $600 over the cost of an iPad, so say $1429 for a 64GB 3G iPad w/ 120GB HD/2.2Ghz C2D dock.

 

[Zcott]

Worst idea ever. Not a tablet, not a notebook.

 

[gatearray]

Hmmm... Personally, I don't like it so much, but the guy demoing it in the photo looks thrilled about it.

 

[iThinman]

Unless the two OS's shared a file system somehow, I don't see how this could be even remotely attractive.

 

[darngooddesign]

Worst idea ever. Not a tablet, not a notebook.

Its both. When docked its a MacBook Pro, when separate is an iPad.

In a rough sense you could accomplish this by pulling the screen off a MacBook and running an app like iDisplay.

 

[blackNBUK]

As far as I can see that Dell isn't a dockable tablet/keyboard combination. Instead it's just a different design for a convertible tablet. Instead of having a single swivelling hinge the screen is attached at two points which let it turn around like a rotating door. I guess that this design is probably stronger in exchange for having a much wider bezel; however it's not something that I can get particularly excited about.

As to the idea of docking a tablet to a laptop base it sounds cool initially but the more I think about it the more practical problems come to mind. With a iOS/OSX combo the only obvious shared component would be the screen; would sharing this produce a significant weight loss? Similarly, would sharing a screen let Apple reduce the cost low enough to meet customers expectations? Wouldn't Apple rather sell you two machines anyway? Integrating the tablet and laptop in a deep way would be a hard task, especially as this isn't something that the iPad does well at the moment.

 

[bcaslis]

Worst idea ever. Not a tablet, not a notebook.

I agree. This is just like the Windows tablets before the iPad except only part of the screen rotates instead of all of it. You get to carry the weight of keyboard and hard drives when using it as a tablet and the reduced battery life of a Windows 7 tablet. What a deal!

 

[My name is Alex]

It's funny how these are meant to be the iPad 'killers'

 

[saberahul]

Carrying around the bulk and limited features - this idea will def. be a superhit I tell you!

Edit: Not sure why I italicized

 

[pukifloyd]

What about OS? Can't be OSX since ipad is iOS. And what about internals? and battery? and I bet it will be too thick to be like MBA.
Nice idea...but maybe not possible...apple wants to make thing easy...and they won't do this at all. Just my 2 cents.

 

[darngooddesign]

What about OS? Can't be OSX since ipad is iOS. And what about internals? and battery? and I bet it will be too thick to be like MBA.
Nice idea...but maybe not possible...apple wants to make thing easy...and they won't do this at all. Just my 2 cents.

I'm not sure why the concept is hard to grasp.

You have two machines, an iPad and a display-less MacBook. When docked it would be the MB's OSX using the iPad as a display, and when separate it would be a stock iPad so iOS.

I had/still have the Powerbook Duo. An updated version would be great.

 

[nixiemaiden]

I think it would be cool. I know I have read threads in here about people using their iPads as displays for their mac minis...I don't see how doing this would be any different.

If all you wanted was your iPad, you wouldn't have to carry around the keyboard and extra batteries and all that stuff..you could just carry the iPad and leave the "dock" at home.

I don't get all the comments about carrying around the extra weight and bulk...you would only do that if you needed the functionality of a laptop...in which case you would be carrying a laptop anyway.