tablet

Steve Jobs announced a brand new product with some impressive specifications today. The long-awaited tablet is named the iPad and sports a 9.7 inch IPS LED capacitive touch screen. Apple has redesigned the operating system and of course included multi-touch on the new device.

Fast response times and sharp graphics are made possible by a custom processor, the Apple A4 chip running at 1 GHz. The iPad will come with built in flash memory with different models carrying between 16GB and 64GB of storage.

For the second straight quarter, Apple has blown away analyst forecasts to post record revenues. Net income in Q4 2009 compared to the same quarter in 2008 jumped 50% to a record $3.4 billion.

Apple's overall sales are up 32% to a record $15.7 billion. Analysts had predicted the company would make $12.1 billion in sales. New accounting laws made it possible for Apple to report iPhone and Apple TV revenues immediately instead of having to spread them out over the length of a consumer's contract.

Next Wednesday Apple will announce several new products at its special media event in San Francisco. Pictured is the invitation the company sent out to selected media outlets today.

Sources inside Apple have reportedly confirmed that iPhone OS version 4.0 will be announced along with a new touch screen tablet computing device. In addition, Apple will be announcing iLife 2010 software that will support multi-touch.

Apple tablet watchers have completely bypassed CES 2010 in anticipation of the company's special event at the end of this month. More evidence is mounting that Apple will announce the tablet and begin selling the product during the second quarter.

According to Reuters, AVY Precision Technology begins manufacturing aluminum casings for the tablet computer body in February. Two other Taiwanese companies, Wintek and TPK Solutions, are both said to be shipping 10-inch touch screens to Apple.

With descriptions of the upcoming Apple tablet's user interface featuring words like "awesome" and "surprising" it's possible some patents filed by the company have been used in the device.

Plans for a tactile feedback virtual keyboard describe buttons and frames that would pop up when keys are displayed and retract under the surface at other times. This would make typing on an on-screen tablet keyboard feel much more like typing on a standard keyboard.