Yes, we realize that it’s hard to provide too much visual differentiation between tablet PCs with large, ebony bezels, but we can’t help but think that this 8.9-inch multitouch tablet looks a lot like another, recently announced 9.7-inch multitouch tablet. Nevertheless this one’s quite different on the inside, delivering “the web without compromise,” meaning full browser support with flash courtesy of Windows 7 on an Atom N270 at 1.6GHz, with 2GB of DDR2 memory and a 32GB SSD with SD expansion. Yeah, those specs are familiar too, and while we’re not thinking this will deliver the sort of snappy performance seen on the iPad, it will certainly be a lot more functional. Battery life is only four hours, but at least it’s user-replaceable, and a price of $599 matches the 32GB iPad. Likewise it will be available in March — or you can get a non-multitouch prototype for $780 right this very moment. If, that is, you speak enough French to manage the order page.

Source [via ExoPC]

After nearly a decade of rumors and speculation, Apple’s finally unveiled the iPad. It’s a half-inch thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds, with a 9.7-inch capacitive touchscreen IPS LCD display, and it’s running a custom 1GHz Apple “A4″ chip developed by the P.A. Semi team, with a 10-hour battery life and a month of standby. It’ll come in 16, 32, and 64GB sizes, and it’s got the expected connectivity: very little. There’s a 30-pin Dock connector, a speaker, a microphone, Bluetooth, 802.11n WiFi and optional 3G, as well as an accelerometer and a compass.

It starts at $499 for 16GB, 32GB for $599, and $699 64GB. Adding 3G costs a $130 per model, so the most expensive model (64GB / 3G) is $829. The WiFi-only model will ship in 60 days, and the 3G models will come in 90.

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Piece together all the Apple iPad tablet rumors, supposed-leaks and speculation and you’d end up with a Frankenstein’s monster of a device, one capable of hypnotizing the whole blogosphere ahead of Apple’s press conference next Wednesday.  Latest to throw their oar in is iLounge, who reckon they have the scoop on two hardware details for the touchscreen slate.  Most curious is the suggestion – so their source claims – that the iPad will have dual dock connectors.

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With the announcement of the Apple tablet most likely a week away, more details of the device are slowly surfacing. Now it seems that Apple is in talks with mobile phone operators in the UK. Apparently the tablet will not be an exclusive item, unlike the iPhone when it was originally launched. Since Apple is partnering with operators, it seems that the device will sport 3G connectivity, and will come bundled with broadband contracts. The bad news is that the estimated price of the device might be a tad high at £800, though that isn’t an official figure just yet. The operators that are mentioned to be working out a deal for this device are Orange, O2 and also Vodafone.

Source [via pocket-lint]

It’s been a quite week or two for Apple Tablet (iSlate, iTablet, etc.) rumors. This latest one is big and may make waves in the publishing industry. It’s a possible partnership between The New York Times and Apple for what could be journalisms savior. As CNET reports:

The newspaper is expected to announce in coming weeks that it will institute a metered pay plan in which readers would have access to a limited number of free articles before being invited to subscribe, according to a report in New York magazine that cited sources close to the newsroom.

Continue… [via cnet, digitaltrends]

Boy Genius Report has a few more rumors to add to the ones already in mad circulation in the Web, most interesting of all is the supposed “out of control” multitouch feature of the iTablet. The phrase, I suppose, is not meant to be a negative one but on the contrary. Apple has a few patents on the touch-based navigation and some of them are bound to appear for the first time on the Apple Tablet. Another interesting detail is the new Apple OS. There is indeed a new Mac OS X version, and that indeed could be Clouded Leopard. The iSlate will be an “iPhone on Steroids” if you believe the next rumor that the processor will be more powerful than we’ve seen in a device of its sort, but it will be an ARM CPU.

Continue… [via wowio, bgr]

Now that the Crunchpad is officially vaporware, we can look towards China to slake our thirst for 10-inch multi-touch computer tablets. The K.R.T. X9 is officially a 10.2-inch tablet running on Windows 7 with multi-touch support. It’s powered by a 1.6GHz Intel  Atom N270 processor and has WiFi plus 3G connectivity (WCDMA, TD-SCDMA,  CDMA2000). Also in the list of features are 3 USB ports, VGA port and a 5-in-1 card reader. The battery lasts 4 hours. The 4000 yuan price tag will bring the K.R.T. X9 to  about $588 USD.

Source [via clonedinchina]