On doing a little research via the B2B (business to business) site Alibaba.com, it appears they may have outed the tablet early.  There are numerous sellers now selling the iSlate as a new product on the site.  The distributors are reputable and all show the same image of what looks to be a 7.1inch tablet.  The image looks similar to what we have seen with an iPhone form factor.  The design if accurate also has the home button, and a couple of touch scroll arrows on the face.  The side and/or top shows two usb ports and a headphone jack.  The design definitely looks similar to others we have seen online, but with a different keyboard and what appears to be running OSX with the dock on the top or left depending on orientation.

This photo had me a little suspicious, but then I noticed that specs were shown on the description.  If at all accurate the iSlate will have a 7.1inch display, 2.26 Core 2 Duo with 3MB L2 cache, 2GB RAM and 120GB hard disk for storage.

This was still not good enough as far as the story goes so I decided to question the seller as they were online and available to chat.  I logged into my Alibaba account and spoke to the distributor about the tablet.  My first question was about the availability, seeing how Apple had not yet announced their new device yet.  They promptly responded as having 5 units which would be available within 48hours.  This would not be too far fetched to believe, given the time frame of the announcement and normal distributor channel availabilities.  As far as price goes they said the cost would be $749 each plus shipping.

All of this sounds like it could be an accurate description, although I still remain skeptical.  The price tag is not out of the range that we all expect, but the 120GB hard drive along with the Core 2 Duo does make me a little skeptical if any of this is real. The form factor appears to be right if the iSlate case with camera hole is any proof at all. This was also found on the same site.  Check out the case for yourself and lets all brace ourself to see if Apple can match the hype with their new device.

The other odd thing is the description says used despite what the wholesaler told me.  He also assured me this was the very hyped tablet.  We’ll see tomorrow and the announcement could not come soon enough.  Now lets all get some sleep if we can.

[Alibaba]

  The speculation and rumors of an end of the month Apple event are indeed true.  People are receiving an invite for the 27th of January with the tag line "come see our latest creation."  The place is the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theatre in San Francisco.  The event will start at 10AM Pacific and judging by the tag line and art splotches we are guessing this is for a tablet of some sort. 

After hearing last weeks MacBreak Weekly and the fact that Andy Ihnatko already booked a plane for the unaanounced event had me thinking the event would indeed take place.  If anyone would know it would be Andy as he had the iPhone 3GS prior to its release.  The real question is, is the new creation really a tablet or did Apple leak those stories to get people off the real trail of something completely different?  Either way we have out date and we look forward to see what Apple has for us.  The bad part of all of this…I have to spend more money.

[via Engadget]

  The Chief Executive Officer Delegate of the European carrier Orange today confirmed the announcement of an Apple tablet later this month.  In his radio interview he basically said the tablet is coming along with a webcam.  See the quick interview after the break:

"Jean Pierre Elkabbach: According to Le Point, your partner Apple will launch a Tablet…

Stéphane Richard: Yes.

Jean Pierre Elkabbach: …with a webcam…

Stéphane Richard: Yes.

Jean Pierre Elkabbach: …would Orange users benefit from this?

Stéphane Richard: Sure! They are going to benefit from the web cam, they are going to be able to, in effect, transmit images in real time. We are going to modernize, in essence, the video phone that we knew a few years ago… the size of the resolution, and the quality of the resolution will be better, and it will be available to all in France."

This confirms what we pretty much already knew, but it doesn’t hurt to have the input from someone most likely to be in the know.

[via Gizmodo] [via Nowhereelse]

  Some time ago Apple purchased a company by the name of P A Semi.  This company was in the market of making their very own microchips and now the newest Apple Tablet rumors are saying a new chipset of their own will be at the heart of the new device.  According to Northeast Securities analyst Ashok Kumar, Apple chose to do away with Intel for its tablet and instead use a chipset of their very own design.  The rumor would make the purchase of P A Semi make sense instead of just picking them up for their talent.  Apple has a tendency of wanting o control every little aspect of their components as much as they can.  If this rumor turns out to be true, lets hope they don’t do away with Intel altogether and go back to the days of a PowerPC-like era.

[via The Street]

  Previously it was pretty well thought that the upcoming Apple event would be on January 26th.  However, a new report from All Things D are saying they have inside information that an event will take place, but on the 27th of January.

Sources in a position to know tell me Apple (AAPL) is indeed planning a media event later this month at which it will announce a major new product. The gathering is to be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, a space Apple often uses for media events like these. According to other sources, it will occur on Wednesday Jan. 27, not Tuesday Jan. 26, as had been rumored.

It appears that the date is really up in the air at this point.  Until someone gets the official invite we just won’t know.