Game changer?

Again with the Apple rumors piling up. As much as I love Apple products, it seems I can only take so much of the bombardment of rumors. Even with less than a week left until Apple's event to announce their "latest creation," tech blogs can't seem to slow down their Apple talk. Theorize all you want now, but in six days, we'll know for sure. I suppose it's the money that can be made with the internet traffic. So I guess it's my turn to do it.


Is Apple's latest, unnamed, unicorn-like tablet a game changer?


Well, let's start with the proposed names. I've read iSlate was a popular name. Hmm. iSlate. Not bad, but it's also the name of an app on Apple's App Store already. That wouldn't stop them from naming it iSlate though. And of course it fits the standard naming scheme of "i" something. Next up is the iPad. Very similar to iPod and if you had a thick foreign accent, nobody would know which you're talking about. Then you got the whole feminine hygiene product to joke about. MadTV did it, look up "iPad MadTV" the next time you're on YouTube. Mac's iPad and Maxipad may see each other in court (jk). The marketing would be fun though, and I'm being serious. "First, the iPod, then came the iPhone....and now...duhn, duhn, duhn...introducing the revolutionary iPad." ...Okay, that's why I don't work in that industry, plus I didn't really think it through.


Moving on to it's first function, an e-reader. Will the iPad (as I will refer to it now) be for books as the iPod was for music? The Amazon Kindle and similar e-readers are too specialized, though great products. I feel a multi-functioning device such as the iPad will do much better in the market (plus it doesn't hurt to be shiny and have an Apple logo on it). As for the screen, people are loving the e-ink displays because they're so easy to read, so is Apple going to put one of these in there? Not likely. Though they have the option of a new screen technology being engineered by a company called Pixel Qi (pronounced "chee"). The founder is the lady responsible for One Laptop Per Child's (OLPC) screens (the ones that went to poor countries). The screen in question, the 3Qi is capable of being a full LCD screen and, at a flick of a switch, a black and white "e-ink" type display. Using reflective mirror-like material, the ambient light is reflected back so that you don't have to use a draining backlight. Truly brilliant. We'll see if Apple is happy with the technology.


Next the other functions. It'll likely run all of the iPhone's/iPod Touch's apps on it in a large screen format. It'll be more powerful (I hope) and be wirelessly connected via Wi-Fi, HSDPA, and (cross-fingers), Verizon's CDMA. This, of course, means a monthly service plan. It'll likely have GPS and a camera too. The camera may even be front-facing for video chats, or it may have two cameras.


I was really hoping it wasn't going to be just a big iPod Touch, but it seems it's looking that way, at least appearance wise if we believe the leaked parts images on the net. I was hoping for some Mac OS X action on the thing, but I suppose we'll see in six days.


So after I complained about everyone else talking rumors all the time about Apple's mythical product, I turn around and do it myself. That's my way of getting back of them! Ha.