Wow. There is not a very good atmosphere in this thread. It feels cold, and everyone seems to be against the Executive, "he's going to get beat up, what an idiot." Seriously? That's pretty ridiculous.
This is an intentional leak, no doubt about it. Leak an interesting feature, then spin the discussion off. Apple gets their name in the news, this telecom gets their service touted, everybody wins. Except for the people who seem to be the Bouncers of Apple. Sheesh.
I'm going to make a prediction here about the tablet, mostly so that I can reference back later and laugh at how I couldn't predict some then-obvious amazing feature
The iSlate:
Hardware:
-10" screen, running at 1280x720 or 1280x800, using the high-ppi technology from the new 27" iMac. The math doesn't perfectly make sense, but if it were 10.6" or something, I think it comes close enough. Either way, the 720p playback will be key. The Nexus One (3.7" diagonal) does 800x480, so it stands to reason that this screen could be much higher res.
-Dual core ARM Cortex, probably the new A9. Same architecture as iPhone, which allows core-OS compatibility as well as application portability. Since it's ARM, high speed, low power, low heat.
-Dual cameras, forward and rear-facing. The iChat one will probably be around 2 megapixels (like in the iMac/MacBook/MacBook Pro) and the rear one could be 3.2 or higher, depending. It'll do video and photo (off of both cameras) and have that fancy autofocus stuff from the 3GS.
-64GB/128GB of internal flash memory. This will be the same type of chip used in the iPhone/iPod touch, which is super low profile, and low power. Win/win.
-Dock connector, volume rocker, headphone jack and SDHC card slot. Thanks to the software on the iSlate (later on in this post,) it's perfect for recording and editing photos on vacation or out and about.
-WiFi (a/b/g/n) obviously, GPS, as well as cell technology. Now, while some of you cite AT&T as the provider (makes sense, they do iPhone, they have deals with Apple, iPhone people are AT&T people, etc) and others think Verizon's the provider (higher coverage, yet CDMA is severely unpopular internationally) I think the answer is simply both. Think about it. Apple puts a GSM radio and a CDMA radio in the iSlate. Apple can either make the device more expensive (a la Kindle) so that you have service for "free" or they can offer a deal, where you pay Apple. Something like $30/month to Apple for your iSlate to have connection on both networks (and it could have a kickback for iPhone people too, maybe a sweet discount).
Software:
-Obviously OS X based mobile platform, beefier than iPhone OS, less full-featured than OS X. I predict basic file navigation to be a feature (think home folder type of stuff) but you won't see the whole filesystem.
-All/most of the iPhone apps are there, but they're enhanced to work better on the tablet. Most of these enhancements are logical and simple, but the most significant one is Notes.
-Notes lets you do normal text notes as before. It also, through the filesystem integration, lets you organize your notes logically as you see fit with folders/tags. These notes can be written, using the patent on the "pen" gesture Apple holds, in which case they are OCR'd (if they are text) and stored, or left as drawings or diagrams. This also supports similar features to Voice Notes, and you can "play back" sessions of notes, hear what was being said, and follow along with the notes. This would be a killer app.
-In addition to iPhone apps, there are new additions. iLife Slate ships with the device, and has iLife features with a multitouch interface. iWork will be a simple $29 download. An iChat app will make an appearance, as well as a Book Store/News Stand app.
-Using the Book Store/News Stand you can buy all sorts of periodicals, textbooks, novels, magazines, newspapers, anything. These experiences have been designed (a la iTunes LP) for the device, and are therefore not bound to the restrictions of printed text. These text purchases are intelligent, save state, and provide note-taking functionality (either on the surface, or through some sort of "notebook" where you can clip content.)
-All iPhone apps work, but if they haven't been optimized, they're run in a pseudo simulator. If they've been iSlate optimized, then they could be integrated in iTunes (the iSlate Facebook and iPhone Facebook are the same icons, but two separate binaries.)
-Software for the device to act as a peripheral, such that it can be used as a drawing tablet, a keyboard, a mouse, anything for a traditional computer. I expect this app to be called "Magic Slate."
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As far as pricing goes, I wouldn't expect anything under $700. Probably $800 or $900. I am unsure of how subsidizing would raise or lower that price, but if anyone has any ideas, I'm interested.
That's my opinion on the iSlate. I can't wait to see what awesome feature all of us "missed"
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