Jason Calacanis isn’t a a nobody. He’s a serial web entrepreneur, founder of Weblogs, Inc., co-founder of TechCrunch50 and CEO of search engine Mahalo (amongst others). And just a few minutes ago, via his Twitter account, he (possibly) dropped some major hints on the Apple tablet that’s going to be presented tomorrow. Calacanis claims he has been given a tablet by Apple ten days ago, adding “For background: apple asked me to do press tomorrow on cnbc, cnn, etc.”.
If he isn’t pulling a major PR stunt (I think he isn’t), Calacanis is stoked. Here’s the gist of what he says about the device. I know many of you are sick of hearing about it, and this may turn out to be totally false info tomorrow – but what he said seemed just too interesting.
Editor’s Note – Serkan has been beaten. There is nothing to see here.
Calacanis’ impressions:
- it’s “the most amazing device ever”
- it’s “really amazing for newspapers”
- video conferencing is “super stable”
- battery life is “great” when it comes to reading ebooks but not so great (2-3 hours) in Wi-Fi mode or when playing games
- tailor-made games are “sick”, on Wii level
- the customized Farmville app (which Jobs is going to demo tomorrow with the CEO of the company behind it) is “insane”
Functions and features:
- OLED screen
- solar pad for recharging on the back (the device is mainly battery-powered)
- the tablet is running on an iPhone OS variation
- it can run multiple apps at the same time
- it has thumb pads on each side (for mouse gestures)
- fingerprint verification (up to 5 profiles can be registered on one device)
- HDTV tuner, a PVR and a chess game built-in
- back camera and front camera (quote: “u shoot what’s in front of you + yourself. Augmented video conferncing!”)
- wireless keyboard + monitor connection for external monitors
Availability and price:
- the tablet will be offered by Verizon and ATT
- it will cost $599, $699 or $799, depending on the screen size and internal memory
Calacanis says he can’t reveal the name and can’t show pictures of the device (for two possible spy shots, see here). We know in a couple of hours if he was joking or not (he says he isn’t).
Update: Not for real. We had our doubts. Screen size and internal memory options with such a carefully manicured ecosystem? Not so much!
If this turns out to be true I will be very shocked. But nicely shocked. The morning sure will be interesting! I will be curating all the best reports on my twitter feed.
Wow this is so cool! With two cameras you can do a lot of magic! Imagine a clear see thru glass like device that you see in star trek. It’ll be like that!!!!
Years in the making, turned into months.. and now hours…. and I guess majority of people are already excited.
Honestly, a few months earlier, when the rumors were flying around about an Apple tablet; I could care less. But now, I absolutely can’t wait. Was it the build up of hype? Or maybe the prominent features it has to offer are really wowing me, even though they are only rumors. Could it just be Apple itself that has this effect?
The statement of Apple will surely be amazing. Compiled details: http://bit.ly/iphone-4g-apple-tablet-details
I think you mean you ‘couldn’t care less’
Tis’ funny how you see people like Mr. Arevalo correcting people on a blog, thinking this site is your ‘grammar and compo” classroom.. Seriously get a life!
LOLS
I just can’t wait!
Calacanis didn’t get where he is because he leaks information early.
This is strictly a PR stunt to get more people to Mahalo and following Jason on Twitter.
It would be the dumbest move in the history of tech punditry to receive a device that has been talked about for over a decade, sit on it for a week, then start talking about it a day before the launch. He would be laughed out of any future “secret” product meetings.
And we’re talking multiple leaks in print, not some accidental one-off comment.
Jason has no tablet, if he did he’d probably also have 2-to-the-head now, too.
I guess only time will tell eh? Can’t wait. Just a few more hours. ; ) Woot!
Going way out on a limb: I think it will have 3D with no glasses needed.
Apple does have a patent that would make it seem possible…
http://www.examiner.com/x-24816-New-Technology-Examiner~y2010m1d26-Apple-Tablet-will-have-3D-prediction
Jason is not dumb. Apple’s NDA either had a gaping hole in it to allow him to make the comments he did or the NDA expired just prior to his comments. Would be kind of amusing if the NDA expired at midnight EST instead of PST due to a typo.
Robert, I’ll be watching your feed! Ben Parr is also getting ready for the major offensive this morning. It feels like we are all waiting for the white smoke to pop from the top of the Vatican!!!!
It sure sounds like too much info. Regardless, the video conference would be the killer app for me.
Also, why be so excited about Farmville? That makes me more suspicious than the other stuff.
Really great blog exceptional job guys!
“the tablet is running on an iPhone OS variation”
read “another device bound to the App Store”
o….. bravo….
Calacanis asked by Apple to do press? Say it ain’t so Steve, but if true.. sounds pretty sweet.
If this was posted on his blog I wouldn’t have believed it.. (best linkbait ever..) now, maybe.
So it doesn’t have a button that cures death?
Of course not. It has an app for that. Buttons are so 1999! :P
Is this the real deal or just fanboy BS like we have seen for generations of “i” products.
I haven’t read this in it’s entirety but some things don’t add up.
Amongst other things… “it will cost $599, $699 or $799, depending on the screen size and internal memory”
There is only one screen size. We first knew about the tablet because of news that Apple had purchased loads of 10.1″ (not any other size) screens.
It’s not April 1st is it?
Except Jason didn’t say “screen size”. The exact quote: “price will be 599, 699 and 799 depending on size and memory in apple tablet”
At the bottom of the article it says… “it will cost $599, $699 or $799, depending on the screen size and internal memory”
:oD
If you read the actual tweet it doesn’t mention the word “screen”.
If these are true, than i will accept that i don’t know anything about anything.
cool. now i can sleep in tomorrow
“customized Farmville app”. come on people.
Yes, very strange. But Calacanis says Zynga CEO Pincus will be on stage tomorrow to present it. Who knows, who knows….
The Farmville stuff Jason was joking with Leo Laporte on TWIT the other day… sounds like predictions more than fact!!
The points he raised are obvious. Of course the device will be be all of the above. I could have made the same list. I doubt he has ever seen the device at all.
Exactly. why break NDA and tell us all this, but not spill the name, with a “Sorry”?
He doesn’t know the name. Because he doesn’t have a tablet.
This guy’s a douche. Always has been.
CPU?
Aside from the solar power I don’t see anything especially interesting about that unless the UI’s gestural commands are particularly well implemented.
That Farmville app comment kinda seals it as BS for me. You’ve got to be joking.
Why does the farmville app sound fake? Its an incredably popular (albeit very stupid) application. It would make perfect sense for Zynga to make one.
He also does mention that his NDA just expired a few hours ago.
I think it would be a really bizarre thing for Jason to lie about this late in the game.
Wireless keyboard? I thought it was a keyboard, IN the tablet? Like the iPhone for example.
And, offered by AT&T and Verizon? No other options or? Apple store, for example?
In the hours leading up to an Apple event anyone can make an insane prediction and people will believe it. The trick is to make it just barely absurd enough that it’s still believable – kind of like an Urban legend.
I’ve had my hands on the Apple Slate for weeks now and it only comes in one 10.1 screen size. Follow me on Twitter (@hmltn) and I’ll tell you all about the rad Chain Rxn app that’s being developed for the Slate.
I don’t think he’s kidding. Instead my money is on Jobs making the things above the “basic features” followed by a “oh, and one more thing …” moment when he reveals the “real cool features” …
Boom!
Solar pads, thumb verifications, front and back camera, framville…. does not sound like apple. they usually do not include impractical/useless marketing features
isn’t it quite expensive? and only available in the US?
I don’t think any of this is true. Why would Apple ask Jason to do PR for them after he went on an anti-Apple vendeta a few months back?
Also the farmville thing was a joke on Twit. They also joked about people throwing their tablet for wii type of games.
I also don’t believe Steve Jobs would put a solar panel on this thing. He likes being green but I doubt he would want customers leaving tablets in sunny places.
Tuner is a no go too. Why would steve want to give away content? Apple wants it’s customers to buy through iTunes.
Due diligance please.
diligence* sorry for any other typos. Sent from my droid ;)
I’m guessing that none of the people who posted here watch TWiT.
Extremely skeptical
#1 He says won’t violate his NDA but then goes on to divulge major surprise features of the device. Uh huh, so Apple’s NDA lets you talk about HW features major launch software? I’d be interested what the NDA prevents then.
#2 Solar power? A large enough panel to be anything but useless would cover most of the back of the device and look cheesy. Does Steve Jobs do Cheesy? No, he does slick industrial design, aluminum.
#3 HDTV tuner + PVR. While it is theoretically possible (some phones have tuners), I would expect this device to try and be space efficient. So Apple engineered a super-system-on-a-chip with 3D, dual cortex A9s, H264 encoding/decoding, Wifi, bluetooth, AND an ATSC tuner? It’s within the realm of the possible, but remember, jobs didn’t put 3G in the original iphone because 3G chipsets at the time were too large!
#4 FarmVille. Unless Apple is announcing Flash support tomorrow, this would mean FarmVille would have had to be ported to Objective-C, but if it had already been ported to a native OSX client, why didn’t they sell it in the Apple Store for the iphone yet?
#5 Chess? CHESS!? With over 100,000 apps in the App Store, Apple chose a chess app as the built-in demonstration game?
Color me super skeptical, but I hope to be proven wrong and surprised.
Why would Apple have choosen Calacanis??
The wanted someone with a bigger ego than The Situation.
Load of rubbish!!
I mean solar panels on the back to charge it. Yeah right it won’t be able to charge whilst using it so only when not and then you lie it face down in sun on the screen. Hog wash!
So many random comments that are just educated guesses or uneducated for someone pulling this kind of crap purely to generate links to his mahalo page tomorrow
Love the way Apple builds a buzz for new products by drip-feeding feature rumours and images through reputable industry sources – they are THE dons of this type of marketing. Genius.
Apple Tablet, found on Facebook: http://bit.ly/aq8WmC (Just for fun)
1. too good (and “cheap” – for the alleged features) to be true.
2. “not for real” seems kind of protracted. was it a fake twitter account? was calacanis lying through his teeth (in which case he should make the honorable move and disappear the $%& of the internet as a, shall we say, possibly reliable source)? whatever happened to the policy of accurate information or no information in reporting? some things you don’t joke about, that’s my stance.
please advise :)
i mean OFF the internet, sorry.
Asshole.
frank, you are a true master of eloquence and refinement.
Wow, Calacanis is an excellent troll…
1. Front camera for VC –> make sense
2. Back camera for AR apps –> make sense
3. Solar cells –> already patented by apple, plausible
4. Farmville–> one of the most used app in facebook. If the device is aimed for-all-the-family market, make sense.
5. fingerprints recog. –> OK, if working properly, to see in other devices.
BONUS
-I’m betting for an anti-theft system too.
This is a JOKE – listen to last TWiT :-)
Calacanis is an attention seeker who likes to brag.
If it is true, why does he feel he has the right to spoil the suprise and make all this information public before Apple do?
I’m happy to wait for the official announcement and will take anything announced by others with a grain of salt…
Twitter screen says: “Bio I’m a cereal entrepreneur: ….” I’d say we’re either looking at a Twitter hack or a moron.
No way Jason spilled the beans – I call this hot airware.
Crunch Gear fails again…
If this is true then Jason needs to start putting spoiler alerts on his tweets.
“Solar pads, thumb verifications, front and back camera, framville…. does not sound like apple. they usually do not include impractical/useless marketing features”
Not to mention HDTV tuner and PVR. ATSC doesn’t work with a device in motion. Jason is a buffoon.
Well I think this is a joke, but would feel good If I am wrong and Jason is right… I have good respect for him and love his take on tech on TWIT so would give him benefit of doubt… :)
Im calling this big old crapola.
No HDTV that is a damn lie.
OLED has been proven to be near impossible given the panel market, but I will say maybe on that.
Solar is lame. I doubt that.
Sounds like Jason is a jerk! Can’t wait to find out.
Why on earth would apple put a TV tuner in this when they want you to buy your shows from iTunes?
Of all the things that shout joke, this is the biggest to me.
Jason Calacanis had a saying for vaqlleywag/gawker
‘they will print anything I say..cool pr hack’
is Cruchgear now the valleywag of 2010?
I called his bluff last night. You guys were taken for a ride. http://twitter.com/kingkool68/status/8265004205
P.S. Does this mean I get a Nexus One?
I hope the wifi is strong enough to work across te entire Brentwood compound.
This is freaking hilarious that you took him seriously and actually reported it.