Media Pad In an interview with Hexus, Mike Rayfield, the general manager of NVIDIA‘s mobile unit, mentioned a “media pad” that sports a “3G capable touchpad” with display sizes ranging from 7- to 13-inches that will use the company’s Tegra, a high-power, low-weight chipset. Combine this with the rumor that Apple is working on some type of a media pad with a 9.7-inch display, falling squarely in that size range. I think it will be called the iBook but there are rumors that it will be called the iPad. This media pad will certainly compete with netbooks and ebook readers like Amazon’s Kindle. I include netbooks because most of the activity on the tiny notebooks are mostly of the consumption variety: read email, surf Internet, listen to music, read books, news, magazines, etc. The iBook or iPad will probably center around consumption activities. I do think it will have an on-screen keyboard for real ‘touch’ typing but the primary focus will be on media consumption, not creation.
AT&T No, Verizon Yes The 3G connection could be with current partner AT&T. But with its ginormous size and sluggish response (no SMS, no tethering while all other iPhone 3GS providers in the entire world already supports these two services), AT&T might not be the best choice. In addition, the US government has initiated an investigation probing whether there is a case for antitrust proceedings. When the US government gets nosey the company suffers greatly: IBM and Microsoft are good examples. On the other hand, Verizon has already started field testing its 4G data connection called LTE (Long Term Evolution). A much smaller Sprint has a 4G connection too.
