It's an ultra-portable tablet running a thin-client version of Leopard (like the iPhone), syncing through an iPod dock connector (the only port on the device) to a 30GB "NAND drive" which shares documents over wifi using Apple's new Google-backed .Mac service and sports a multi-touch 10" screen as it's primary interface. This rumor is objectively perfect, the superset of all Apple rumors ever.
This is more or less exactly what I still think the maclet will be, just three years later than expected.
Now it's the trusty MacBook's time to go, the familiar product matrix remains intact. The MacBook's brand will live on, and this is reminiscent of replacing the nano with the mini, which was Apple's #1 selling product when it was killed. Maclet will cost a little more than you are hoping for. somewhere in the $800-$1000 range. It will not represent a quantum leap in industrial engineering - everything is made by Foxconn now anyway.
I predict that you will be able to drag a window from your desktop onto the maclet via some sort of Synergy/DisplayPDF magic to take it with you... :-P
Posted by: Steve Ivy | January 04, 2010 at 08:13 AM