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Apple's iSlate Tablet - Apple Plans To Launch iSlate

Article ID: 221 | Rating: 4/5 from 1 votes | Last Updated: Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 1:50 PM

It seems that Apple has put a lot of effort into iSlate. Is that the name of the Apple Tablet?

Apple iSlate Tablet

When Apple iSlate will be released?

Update 1/4/2010: The Wall Street Journal again says it's shipping in March after being announced later this month (though the "ship date hasn't been finalized and could still change"), while All Things D says more specifically it's being announced Jan. 27.

Well, obviously everybody who picked a day before today is wrong. Which leaves everyday after today! The overall consensus is that's being announced in late January - note, though, that a lot of the people who're part of the new January cabal were the same people convinced it was coming in the fall.

iLounge predicted awfully specifically back in September that "Apple is currently planning to announce it on or before January 19, 2010." The Financial Times said two days ago that Apple is expected "make a major product announcement on Tuesday, January 26th" at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, where Apple's rented a stage for "several days." Silicon Alley Insider says that Apple is going to demo a tablet in January.

But when can you actually hold one? From most to least specific: The Wall Street Journal says the tablet is actually going to ship in March, and an analyst said it's coming in March or April. iLounge says it'll hit stores in May or June, like the iPhone. Digitimes reported Foxconn is supposed to have almost half a million of 'em shipped by April. Little emperor of Apple analysts Gene Munster says the first half of 2010. A bunch of connected Mac people just say 2010.

Everybody from the WSJ to Apple fan sites are convinced the tablet is being announced sometime late next month, shipping 2-6 months afterward, so hype and development can bloom, like the iPhone. (Though most of them were wrong three months ago.)

Patent Application By Apple

On January 7, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application patent application 20100001973 from Apple. The new patent would help create a thinner, brighter touchscreen for mobile devices. Here is the patent description:

A touch screen including display pixels with capacitive elements is provided. The touch screen includes first common voltage lines connecting capacitive elements in adjacent display pixels, and a second common voltage line connecting first common voltage lines. The pixels can be formed as electrically separated regions by including breaks in the common voltage lines. The regions can include a drive region that is stimulated by stimulation signals, a sense region that receives sense signals corresponding to the stimulation signals. A grounded region can also be included, for example, between a sense region and a drive region. A shield layer can be formed of a substantially high resistance material and disposed to shield a sense region. A black mask line and conductive line under the black mask line can be included, for example, to provide low-resistance paths between a region of pixels and touch circuitry outside the touch screen borders.