The New York Times' Executive Editor, Bill Keller may have inadvertently confirmed the existence of the oft-rumoured Apple Tablet in a private speech earlier this month. Keller may have also let slip the name of the new device: Apple Slate. Then again, he may have been speaking hypothetically based on the common assumption that Apple is about to release a tablet device in the next few months.
Here's what happened: The Keller Speech
On October 15 or 16, Keller gave a speech during an "all hands" meeting for the Times' digital staff at TheTimesCenter in New York, according to a post by Harvard's Nieman Journalism Lab.
During the speech, Keller made a reference to the Times' strategy for mobile devices. "We need to figure out the right journalistic product to deliver to mobile platforms and devices," Keller said. "I'm hoping we can get the newsroom more actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism in the form of Times Reader, iPhone apps, WAP, or the impending Apple slate, or whatever comes after that."
The entire meeting was supposed to be off the record, but a video of the speech was made available to Nieman, which it posted on Vimeo on October 19. Nieman's interest in the video had nothing to do with Keller's possible hint at the device.
Instead, Nieman was interested in the Times' thinking about the future of the newspaper industry. So it took a few days before technology pundits discovered the tablet reference, which was first uncovered by Gawker late on Sunday.
Apple slate or Apple Slate?
So did Keller let information about the Apple tablet slip or was he simply making a reference to a product that many believe to be in Apple's pipeline? Earlier this month, The Times was rumoured to be working with Apple on the rumoured tablet as a part of the device's pumped-up e-reading capabilities.
If the e-reader rumour is true, then Keller would almost certainly know about the device, and it's likely he would be constrained on what he could say about the tablet by some sort of secrecy pact between the Times and Apple.
Assuming Keller agreed to keep his mouth shut, why would he have spoken so freely about an Apple slate/Slate to his staff? Maybe he thought it was acceptable since he believed he was speaking off-the-record, maybe the entire digital staff at the Times has been developing content for Apple's device for months, or maybe Keller doesn't know a thing at all. It should be pointed out that "slate" is a less common, but by no means unused, term for Apple's rumoured tablet device.
Regardless of whether he knows anything or not, Keller's comments are a tantalising tidbit of information while we wait to see if Apple really will show off a tablet device in the near future. What do you think? Did Keller inadvertently confirm the Apple tablet or is he in the dark about Cupertino's plans just like everyone else?
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Comments received
Richatthecroft said on Tue, 27 Oct 2009
The fabled tablet will be released when it's released, simple as that! And then all the other computer makers will have to play catch up just like what's happening with smart phone's currently and the winner will be the consumer better devices across the board, price points to suit all and Apple leading the way.
Dragonfly said on Tue, 27 Oct 2009
There was talk about launching the iSlate back in 2007 but it seems the iSlate... iS late (sorry). (The following is a URL and doesn't have a 'www' prefix)
wowio.wordpress.com/2007/09/27/islate-vs-iphone-a-clear-reading-advantage/
Probably the word slate is too much of a headline writers dream to be used eg "Apple'<b>s late</b> to market", or even the british use of the word 'slated' eg 'Apple Slate slated by its critics'.
But then again, if it's brilliant and on time..., they won't have a use for them :-)
Richatthecroft said on Tue, 27 Oct 2009
The fabled tablet will be released when it's released, simple as that! And then all the other computer makers will have to play catch up just like what's happening with smart phone's currently and the winner will be the consumer better devices across the board, price points to suit all and Apple leading the way.
Jeff Guthrie said on Tue, 27 Oct 2009
Much ado about nothing. It seems fairly obvious from the usage that he is referring to Apple's upcoming slate of products, not a product named 'slate'. Both the NYT exec and Apple must be laughing themselves silly at the 'news' coverage of these remarks. Particularly the assumption that Apple (so notorious for its secrecy) now shares details of upcoming products with newspaper editors.
Luckily the exec didn't say 'what Apple has on their plate' or Macworld and cohorts would be reporting on the upcoming Apple Plate rather than the Apple Slate.
ricodico said on Tue, 27 Oct 2009
I think Jeff has hit it on the head. keller's comment is bout Apple's products slated for delivery - i.e. in the development pipeline for release soon - or whatever comes after that. Slow news day
vader said on Tue, 27 Oct 2009
no, he was right. it's 'slate, from apple', dark grey, brushed aluminium.
i also have a newspaper reader...it's called a newspaper..it cost 40p
Richie said on Wed, 28 Oct 2009
I don't know why but when I tryed entering www.appleslate.com in safari I got my own apache web server showing up in the browser.
www.appleslate.com domain takes me to localhost place on my Mac, has anyone else had this issue.
David Rowbory said on Sat, 31 Oct 2009
Yes, curiously appleslate.com resolves to a locally hosted account in Safari but other similar addresses do not. a DNS lookup yields 68.178.232.143 (parkwebwin-v03.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net).
On Windows (in VMware Fusion) I get a domain for sale placeholder page as you would expect from a domain squatter. But I wonder if it's detecting a Mac and redirecting to localhost. That's quite possible in PHP, for example.
Interesting. Not sure what quite to make of it.
James C said on Tue, 03 Nov 2009
According to Whois and Godaddy, www.AppleSlate.com is not owned by Apple; It's being squatted by this guy: www.bennyek.com and is available for auction.
iSlate said on Sun, 08 Nov 2009
Hell yea Keller spilled the beans. It's iSlate alright. islate.org
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