With all the fervor surrounding this week’s Apple announcement, I thought it would be appropriate to begin the week with a quote rumored to come from one Steve Jobs himself. It goes something like this:

“This will be the most important thing I’ve ever done”

Now, that’s not confirmed, but it’s being reported on several sites today that claim Jobs is as excited about the tablet as he has ever been about an Apple product. And let’s consider what he’s saying. For Jobs this is more important than changing the face of the smartphone market. More important than pioneering the App Store model for the cellular world. He’s essentially relegated the iPhone to amuse-bouche status, a preparatory device for what we’ll get to see this Wednesday.

I’m excited.

Apple’s tablet is definitely the topic of conversation as we head toward Apple’s January event, but there could be more than just a hardware unveiling. There’s been a lot of speculation, in fact, about whether or not we’ll see iPhone OS 4.0 along with a tablet release.

The tablet isn’t likely to be powerful enough to run a full-fledged version of OS X, which points to another, stripped-down version, much like the iPhone OS. Actually, it probably is the iPhone OS, just with some more robust features like multi-tasking. There have also been reports that OS 4.0 has been kept out of developers hands because it leaks features about the impending tablet.

Whether it’s an updated iPhone OS or something else entirely, you can bet the tablet unveiling, if it even is that, will be about a whole lot more than just the hardware. For my money, I’d bet on an updated OS launching with the new machine.

It looks like the rumor mill was right this time. Apple is holding an event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco on January 27th to unveil, as the invitation put things, to unveil it’s “latest creation.” The event begins at 10AM Pacific.

Obviously, I’m thinking tablet. A new iPhone wouldn’t be announced until June and what else could it be? A new Apple TV? Engadget also points out that the bright colors could point toward an art/media focused device, especially when paired with the word “creation.” That’s almost definitely a focus of any tablet, so it’s really just up to the power of the device to determine what all can be done on it.

Whatever it is, we’ll find out the morning of the 27th.

Source: Engadget

Valleywag, one of Gawker Media’s sites, recently set up a scavenger hunt for info concerning Apple’s upcoming tablet. The contest was pretty cool, offering up to $100,000 for a chance to look at the thing. It got something, too, though I don’t think it will be giving the grand prize to Apple.

See, Apple sent Gawker a cease and desist for the scavenger hunt, something they probably wouldn’t bother to do if the device was fake. It’s a weird kind of confirmation, but a smart play on the part of Gawker. A hundred-thousand dollars sounds great, even for an Apple employee. And you can bet Gawker would be discrete if it meant a chance to have a hands-on with the tablet.

Here’s a little excerpt of the letter:

“While Apple values and appreciates vibrant public commentary about its products, we believe you and your company have crossed the line by offering a bounty for the theft of Apple’s trade secrets. Such an offer is illegal and Apple insists that you immediately discontinue the Scavenger Hunt.”

The rest is a bunch of chest-beating legalese. You can read the rest over at Gizmodo.

According to several sources, Apple has been buying up every 10″ screen it can, in both LCD and OLED varieties. The company is buying so many, in fact, that there really aren’t any left.

“We were designing a product for a customer and we needed 10 inch screens, but we’ve been trying for months and can’t get one from any of the Asian suppliers,” an anonymous designer told TG Daily at CES. It’s not the first time Apple has done this, either. If you remember when the iPod was first getting started, there were zero 3.5″ drives available for the rest of the world.

The source said, surprise, it’s for the Apple tablet! I’m not really sure what else it would be for so that’s likely a safe bet. As for timing, though, it could point to a late Q1/early Q2 release instead of later in the year.