“We haven’t heard this first hand, but we’ve heard it multiple times second and third hand from completely independent sources. Senior Apple execs and friends of Jobs are telling people that he’s about as excited about the upcoming Apple Tablet as he’s ever been.”

The quote about Steve being extremely happy made my day back then, but him saying the tablet computer will be the most important thing, is making me extremely happy as well. Lucky for me and everybody else the event is only  a little more than two days from now.

P.S. January 27th is only a few days from now and I will be working together with the people from iPhoneFreakz.com to deliver a live blog on that day. You can follow that live coverage here on this page as well as on iPhoneFreakz.com. Hope to see you then.

“A search in the Canadian trademark database reveals that Apple’s dummy corporation Slate Computing, LLC also applied for a trademark for “iPad” under the categories of handheld mobile digital electronic devices with a broad range of applications. This application was filed in July 2009 — much more recently than the original iSlate trademarks which date back to 2006-2007. Slate Computing, LLC did not apply for a similar trademark in the U.S. due to the fact that Fujitsu appears to control the U.S. trademark as it relates to handheld computing. Of course, this didn’t stop Apple from using the iPhone name despite it being owned by Cisco in the U.S. at the time of the iPhone’s launch.”

Another ‘confirmation’ comes from a new blog called “The Jesus Tablet”. They discovered that Apple’s lawyers have filed three requests with the USPTO over the past few months asking for extensions to the allowed time for parties to oppose the trademark application filed by Fujitsu.

The name is nothing new according to the video below. The iPad showed up in MadTv’s iPod parody. Funny clip.

P.S. January 27th is only 6 days from now and I will be working together with the people from iPhoneFreakz.com to deliver a live blog on that day. You can follow that live coverage here on this page as well as on iPhoneFreakz.com. Hope to see you then.

“I spoke to a source at Apple this morning, before the invite hit my inbox, who said the event would likely focus on three projects: The tablet device, iPhone 4, and a new round of iLife 2010 software. While we won’t see new iPhone hardware just yet, we will see the next-generation software.”

Clayton Morris, the author of the report, previously claimed Apple will deliver a keynote on January 26th. Even though he was wrong, Apple could also have had plans for the 26th but changed its plans to move it to the 27th. Morris also said something about the media event focussing on “mobility space”, which could be right, since the iPhone OS and a possible tablet both belong to that segment.

We’ve heard a rumour about a possible multi-touch version of iWork a few days ago, but a version of iLife has never been mentioned before. Does this mean we can see a multi-touch version of iLife? It remains unclear wether this version will be specially developed for the tablet or if it’s just the 2010-version of the software suite. This leaves me with my last couple of questions about the invitation Apple has sent.

What does the picture of the invitation mean? And the tag line: “Come see our latest creation”? The tag line seems to suggest Apple is planning to show us something completely new. Something they haven’t shown us before. A new device. Maybe the iTablet/iSlate. But what about the colorful paint drops? It could be a hint to the tablet device. It could mean that you can draw on the tablet. It could also mean the device comes in many different colors. It could even mean totally nothing. Just a colorful invitation. But the tag line keeps showing up in my head. Apple latest creation…it must be the Tablet…right?

What do you think? What do you expect Apple will show us on January 27th? And what do you think about the invitation, the colors?

The tag line seems to hint at the upcoming tablet: “Come see our latest creation”.

The devices introduced at CES all have similar functionality. All have multi-touch screens, a build-in webcam and a relatively powerful processor. Still the audience is a little disappointed. Why? Because so far there’s no news about the Courier, which seemed it could have been the big surprise. A much heard comment is that all the tablets run an unadapted version of Windows 7 or Android. Even more disappointing is the fact that all these products seem to be in a concept stage. No computer developer dares to set a launch date or name a price.

I first thought Apple would be too late with introducing a tablet (later this month), but with all this disappointment at CES I now think Apple will be the big surprise of 2010. At least they know how to introduce a new product on the market with their stylish events. And at least they dare to name a price and tell the world when everybody can buy the device.