I’d say we should hang Scoble for getting me — er, US! — all worked up. But hanging’s too good for him. Let’s just make him hand over his new HDTV!!

Well, I was about to break down in the next week and purchase a Q1. (Not sure where to order to have delivered to Canada, still a beef of mine) But if this happens, I’ll be going down to my local Apple Store and picking one up. (provided it uses a full version of Mac OSX and not a subset of features)

A few words if this comes to pass:

Goodbye Q1!

Hello Apple!

A Mac Tablet would be named “Mac Tablet”. This will keep “Mac” front and center.
“iTablet” would be a detraction from the “Mac” brand.

In any case, I want one. It would make a great eBook reader.

it’s called an iPad – d’uh

I believe that this comment is talking about the speech recognition part. There has been rumors for months now that Apple is going to add speech recognition in their iPods. They want to do this for safety concerns. Just like the stupid volume throttle.

I would think a Portable Media Center type device would be out prior to a Tablet PC type device, but then again I saw another quote in one of Robert’s blog postings yesterday (http://blogs.zdnet.com/mobile-gadgeteer/?p=70) that indicated his son wanted another portable to replace his iBook and that he wanted to be at the Apple Store to get one after Jobs’ keynote. Granted, this could just mean a Core 2 Duo MacBook variant, but it sure would be cool to see a Tablet PC/UMPC device from Apple.

Based on all the patents that have been flying around an iTablet would require significant UI enhancements, on the order of a 10.5 release. Since Apple won’t be shipping 10.5 next week I predict it highly unlikely Apple will announce an iTablet (since they only pre-announce OSes not hardware.)

I think he’s referring to a Media Center one-upper myself as well.

People have been waiting for an iTablet since 5 years and my personnal guess is that they’re going to wait somewhat more. Too bad, I agree… but Vista is coming sooner or later no?

The name iTablet is already taken: http://www.itablet.com/. There is no Web site at http://www.islate.com/ but such a name would subject Apple to endless ridicule about their tardiness in entering the market.

If it is a Tablet or UMPC form factor Apple then you can bet I’ll probably be one of the first in line at the Apple Store in Seattle next week