Apple Tablet Talk Revving Up! December 24, 2009

We’ve all been hearing rumors about Apple’s tablet production in process over the last year. But, the rumor mill hit was a-churnin’ yesterday as several reliable sources are now saying that Apple is scheduling a preview or release come January.

According to The New York Times, and a few other reliable sources, here is what we (‘we’ being the fanboys) are apparently taking as truth:

• Apple has reserved a space for a few days, specifically January 26, for a product announcement, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. This is the same site that the music events (iPod refreshes) are held each fall.
• The announcement will be a 7 and 10 inch Apple tablet.
• Apple has asked select developers to begin producing high-res versions of their apps for demonstration on a larger mobile device.
• It’s unlikely the product will be available right away, giving developers time to mature their apps for the new device.
• Users will be ‘surprised’ at how they will interact with the tablet.
• Possibility of an iPhone refresh – upgrading the camera to 5 megapixels, and possible high-res screen to compete with Nexus and Droid products.
• Steve Jobs, after many canceled tablet projects, now seems to be very happy with the new product that is expected to be announced.

Though there are a variety of specs floating around the internet, there is one thing that I think we should all expect on these tablets: SD card slots. I mentioned this in a previous post. Considering Apple has no other device that requires or uses SD cards, I thought it was interesting and peculiar that they would randomly refresh the iMacs and MacBooks to have SD cards. Of course people with digital cameras use them, but it seemed like a rather large and interesting update. I can totally see Apple promoting the idea of using interchangeable SD cards on the tablet and your iMacs/MacBooks, or some variation of this.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough!

The above picture is not what the new tablet is expected to look like, and is just a concept image I found on Google Images. Though I have to say I can’t imagine an Apple tablet looking dramatically different than that. We’ve come to nearly expect certain designs of products based on products of the past.