In five hours time, Apple will reveal all about its new ‘creation’ but until then we have Jason Calacanis, Silicon Valley veteran, entrepreneur and reporter, who has been gifted this tablet device and began leaking tidbits of information through Twitter.
According to Calacanis, who cannot post pictures of the device or even reveal its name under his NDA with Apple, this device does indeed run on a flavour of the iPhone operating system.
Some things we didn’t expect: it has two cameras for video-conferencing purposes – one in the front and one in the back – this will blow regular Skyping out of the water.
The Apple tablet is also a solid gaming machine – it comes with thumb pads on each side for mouse gestures, has a custom Farmville app on board, as well as chess and is optimised for connecting with other tablets over Wi-Fi for multiplayer gaming.
More? Yes, it is also an e-book and apparently “really amazing” for reading newspapers and magazines, so we can expect a knock-on effect throughout the publishing industry if these publications can be downloaded as easily as App Store content.
We may also be looking at a few different form factors, as Calacanis explains that prices will vary from US$599, US$699 and US$799, “depending on size and memory in Apple tablet”.
Some interesting features that many may not have anticipated: it has a solar panel on the back for charging the battery and fingerprint security.
“This is best gadget ever made and NOT overhyped,” enthused Calacanis who declared that “Steve Jobs outdid himself”.
By Marie Boran
Photo: An artist’s rendition of Apple’s tablet device
