Many others are padded nonfiction books one can skim through over coffee. Like a lot of business books.

Some others are compilations, only a couple of whose entries are of interest (e.g., one story in a collection).

Some I keep for up to nine weeks and pick at here and there.

Some are just duds and I give up after 20 pages. This still counts. (Books I bring home but never get to are marked up, inevitably, with DEL and deducted from the total.)

Others I in fact get all the way through.

Most of my recreative use of the internet happens away from a desk, in bed, couch or on the carpet, and involves minimal typing. A tablet form factor would be perfect for that. Consider screen orientation too, a portrait screen is much more suited for reading.

Of course if I was chatting or composing a long email a physical keyboard would help. I’m pretty confident anyway that Apple will allow bluetooth keyboards to talk with the device, unlike the iPhone.
You’ll probably have your third party stand with a keyboard on the desk (or even a portable clamshell case) for when you need to type a lot.
Imagine having a netbook with a detachable touchscreen right now, wouldn’t it be handy?

Regarding a broader usage than reading and consuming content, I agree that a tablet form factor can’t be a complete replacement for a computer with a keyboard, mouse and large screen.

Yet I think that having a general purpose computing platform in a decent sized screen tablet form factor with a well tought UI could enable lots of interesting uses.
Think about control surfaces – eg, for musicians. Think about POS. Think about field workers. Think about social gaming – put the tablet on the kitchen table and play a board game or puzzle game in 3/4 people on it…
It won’t supplant traditional computing but the possibilities are endless.

Joe: Holy shitballs. I just added you to the post. Is that actual high-comprehension reading or reading with a lot of skimming built-in? I can’t even imagine what it’s like to read that much/fast.

kyle: Yeah true. Games. I’m not much of a casual game player so I don’t think much about it, but you’re right.

I think when you add the gaming aspect to all of the other points you mentioned, you have a fairly compelling ecosystem. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the price point was lower than many people are expecting, mostly because when you add in all the media + wireless services that could be sold through this product, they ought to be able to subsidize the cost.

In the end though, I don’t expect this product to be the revolutionary product many are hoping for, at least not on the level of the iPhone.

Anyone who has used a mac laptop for any length of time knows how natural and effective their touch pads are. Well, imagine if on top of everything else this slate can do you can also plug it in and have a wacom-style touch display replacing your mouse.

I am also in favor of a couch device, a super book-reader and a go-anywhere multimedia screen. I’m with Peter, I find myself using my iPhone a lot around the house and it’s really not quite what I want it to be. It’s too slow and it’s too small. Sometimes I just want the internet at my fingertips without worrying about pulling up a laptop. All the better if the thing is couched as a peripheral for my computer OR my TV.

Ultimately, though, we won’t know what it is until the end of the month. If it’s cool I’ll buy one – if it’s just a big iPhone, I won’t.

Cheers!

I am interested in this form factor to solve the “Couch PC” problem.

My regular laptop doesn’t work on a couch – doesn’t work when reclined, hard to balance on your lap and use the trackpad at the same time, etc.

OTOH, there are a lot of things I’d like to do with a computer from my couch – surf the web, watch a video, scan email, skype, etc. Today I do all those things on my iPhone – but it seems odd to use a device optimized for portability (small screen, slow processor) when I’m in my house.

When I’m on my couch, I’d prefer something optimized for couch – large screen, fast, etc.

I think Apple could have an interesting product by using multitouch to solve the mouse issue, and also making something that is fast and also highly couch-compatible….

The $900 price point may hurt mass appeal – however for my purposes I’d be an easy buyer if this solves my couch PC issue.

It seems this time that more of the rumors are being driven by bigger media companies and less from blogs in France reported by Macrumors. Perhaps this is Apple seeding rumors to drive the anticipation level.