Right as we were whispering about the 7 inch display of the Apple tablet, the Apple tablet rumors simultaneously exploded. The Financial Times reported that Apple has reserved Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco for several days in late January. A source reportedly claims that Apple will use the venue to make a big product announcement on January 26th. The New York Times also chimed in with several rumors whose sources were current and former Apple employees. The NYT claims that since Apple has been working on the tablet for some time now, technology derived from the product was used in other devices and the development of tablet continued to progress, no doubt helped along by the re-hiring of Michael Tchao who worked on the ill-fated Apple Newton. According to a senior Apple employee, the current tablet has hit the sweet spot and Steve Jobs “is extremely happy with the new tablet”. Adding mystery and intrigue to the rumor, another Apple employee, recently departed from the company, says “you will be very surprised how you interact with the new tablet”. This, of course, has thrown the Apple fanbase into a frenzy with every past patent being scrutinized for some clue into this novel control mechanism. We have seen some wild patents come out of the Apple camp, the head-tracking eyewear and 3-D interactive display come first and foremost to mind, and some not-so-wild patents including a multitude of patents covering multi-touch and gesture-based controls. We will have to wait for the next leaky faucet until January 26th to discover what wild and crazy product Apple has designed.
Photo: Gizmodo
[Financial Times] Read [NYT]
