Ten Apple tablet details

Apple's heavily rumored media tablet has received added details today through a leak from a historically accurate source. The device is now thought to have a 10.7-inch screen -- up from the 9.7 most often suggested -- and to have versions both with a 3G modem as well as without. Resolution would logically increase, but it's now said the display may reach near 720p (1280x720) and would be large enough for comfortably reading books and magazines as well as larger websites and videos.

Which carriers would support the tablet's 3G aren't clear, as some rumors have pointed to HSPA (and thus AT&T in the US) while others have pointed to a Verizon version that would use EVDO for its 3G instead. An all-in-one chipset like Qualcomm's Gobi could support both.

Echoing past reports, iLounge says the hardware would run an iPhone OS variant and wouldn't be a direct replacement for a netbook, instead serving as a media device and app platform with communications as a side focus. It may well look like the iPhone 3G/3GS with a rounded back.

As has been suggested in the past, Apple chief Steve Jobs is claimed to have overseen multiple versions on the path to the increasingly finalized device; at least two prototypes have supposedly existed in the past, one of which was a 7-inch model that had been reported in early rumors but scrapped because it was too small. The launch may also be carefully managed with a public unveiling scheduled in January, before the 19th, but an actual release in May or June. This would contradict a February ship date but would support notions that Apple is using a custom PA Semi processor, which might not be ready so relatively soon after the April 2008 takeover.

There also remains a small chance that the tablet might be canceled late into development, although it's said there's an "80%" chance it will ship. Apple in the past has been known to axe projects late into development, in some cases just days before they would have been unveiled.

By Electronista Staff

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