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!