MacOS Rumors posted a blurb about the future direction of the rumors iPad. This name has been used to describe the rumored Apple/Palm handheld.
Talk of this has sprung up since Jobs killed the newly spun-off Newton Division. But the latest word from MacOSRumors sounds so implausible that I would think it was an early April Fools joke.
The buzz is that instead of an Apple/Palm hybrid, that instead there would be a fully functional PPC Based machine capable of running Mac OS X. Sketchy details are given regarding the form of this device (pad vs. clamshell) - but doing that would be a ridiculous choice if looking to compete with WinCE/Palm computers. WindowsCE itself, is aiming more towards the Pad-formfactor in it's coming incarnation.
Continued...There are so many reasons why this could not or should not be true.
1) Power Consumption
Regardless of PPC power consumption relative to Intel chips, handheld cpu's (such as the StrongArm and DragonBall) draw much less power than PPC's.
2) Hard Drive
MacOS X is a Unix system. Running this (in it's current incarantion) would require a large swap drive for VM.
3) Interface
Regardless of Aqua's appeal, CE got much criticism for implementing a "desktop" OS onto a handheld device.
and there are certainly more...
