Apple Announces Jan. 27 Special Event: “Come See Our Latest Creation”

Taken from AppleInsider’s latest article on tablet computing. (via Neven Mrgan)

Adam Lisagor (aka lonelysandwich):

But the Tablet’s quandary, and the quandary of all tablets before it, is not how to touch it, but how to hold it. So we look to how we pick up and hold a tablet. Both hands? A hand and a forearm? A surface? (The answer is not a surface, by the way.) Holding becomes a problem because interaction with the screen requires reach. On the iPhone, holding and reach were never a problem because you hold the screen in your hand, and you reach it with your thumb.

The Week:

You may have heard the deafening buzz of rumors that a certain Cupertino-based computer maker is planning to unveil a world-conquering new gadget on January 27th. But few people are aware that speculation about the Apple tablet — much of it, of course, wildly inaccurate — began eight years ago and has been building ever since.

Yukari Iwatani Kane of The Wall Street Journal:

Amid all the speculation about Apple’s upcoming launch of a new tablet device, Silicon Valley gossip site Valleywag started a scavenger hunt for the elusive product. That, in turns, appeared to have triggered some of the most concrete evidence yet of the device’s existence.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball:

Thinking of the Newton got my gears turning. It’s a fascinating comparison point for both the iPhone and whatever it is Apple is set to release. I suspect most of you reading this have never used, let alone owned, a Newton, which is a shame. They really were remarkable, innovative devices.

Neven Mrgan:

But tell me, isn’t Steve Jobs just the type to walk out on stage this month, show a beautiful new handheld computer, and then go something like,

“So, how do you type on it?

*beat*

“You don’t. Nobody types anymore! So we thought, what if you could talk to your computer.”

It’s unlikely. Lord, it has to be. But I’m keeping my expectations in check. Courage.

Boy Genius:

One of our close Apple connects who haven’t steered us wrong dropped a little bit of information on us. Here’s what we know:

• The tablet’s multi-touch gestures are “out of control.”
• It’s powered by an incredibly fast ARM CPU
• It runs on the iPhone kernel.
• The internal model number is K48AP.
• There hasn’t been an updated iPhone OS build because there’s too much tablet-related code/references in the OS and Apple obviously didn’t want that to leak. Oops.
• The tablet is basically an “iPhone on steroids.”

Jason D. O’Grady of ZDNet:

Pulling down the Web site just two weeks ahead of a confirmed media event kinda is out of character for Apple. Cupertino either just gave us a huge hint or they’re bluffing and intentionally trying to throw us of the path. Cruel, but not out of character for Cupertino.