Unless you go cold turkey on the internet during your Christmas Holiday, then you know all about the building rumors about the Apple tablet, and possible upcoming event.  We thought since we took a quick break from posting during the Holiday that we would give you a simple rundown of what you missed.

• Apple is planning an event for late January, possibly the 26th to showcase some new products

• Silicone Alley Insider has reported that some developers are being asked to showcase large screen versions of apps.

• Jobs is supposedly very happy with the upcoming tablet and an upcoming surprise

• A new patent from Apple shows what is called “Keystroke tactility arrangement on a smooth touch surface”.  Possibly a way t interact on a tablet.

• iSlate.com was purchased by Apple in 2007.  Possibly the name of the new tablet?  We certainly hope not.
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There you have it in condensed form.  Now we wait to see what is next in this fog of rumors. 

UPDATE:  “Our holiday line-up is set,” Apple spokesman Bill Evans told Macworld. 

We have some new rumors surrounding Apple and what they intend to do in the near future.  Dennis Sellers of Macsimum News has said that November 10th is the date of the iMac refresh of which is just expected a bump in specs and display power.  The other interesting refresh comes in the way of a new Mac Mini.  We have heard there would be a refresh, then it was put in the trash bin and now it comes back refreshed on the same date as the iMac.  The other tidbit is about a new Mac Pro coming at this years MacWorld Expo.  The Mac Pro is up on specs right now, but lacks the most current hardware and the new "Display Port" for the new cinema display line which makes this a very plausable rumor.

If you take all of this information into consideration, it is likely for Apple to do a stealth refresh of the iMac and Mac Mini and keep the Pro for MacWorld.  The interesting part is this would leave Apple with a huge hole to fill when it comes to their current Mac and refreshes for MacWorld in January.  Is a tablet coming? according to Stve Jobs, no.  We think there has to be something up their sleeve and we’ll just have to sit back and wait for the reveal.

  Ballmer has been letting a lot slip lately with the notification of "Windows Cloud" and now with Zune coming to Windows Mobile.  In an effort to make Zune the player of choice for windows users, Microsoft is integrating their services and social aspects of all products into one convenient place.  Now for users of Windows Mobile you will have access to all your songs and media.  

In a rather long interview the follow excerpt was captured:

CIO: Why has Microsoft developed Zune?

Ballmer: At the end of the day, one of the big trends is that all content is going digital. And if we don’t have the software and services that are useful, helpful and valuable for the consumption of music and video, we are sort of not really a player.

Now, we built the Zune hardware with the Zune software – and what you’ll see more and more over time is that the Zune software will also be ported to and be more important not just with the hardware but on the PC, on Windows Mobile devices, etc.

Is Ballmer, Microsoft’s Seteve Jobs, only if he can stay calm would this be good…

[wmpoweruser] via [Engadget]