Photo courtesy of Engadget.com

Apple is yet to announce a new tablet device on January 27th, 2010. The long-awaited device which gossibers called names such as Touchbook, iTablet, iSlate and iPad, etc, according to Steve Jobs, is the most significant invention of Apple in this century.

Over the recent years, despite the ever-growing popularity of the NetBook market over the existing portable computer market in which Apple has highly popular notebook products such as the MacBook and MacBook Pro, Apple had declined to enter the Netbook arena. Instead, Apple chose to develop a new tablet product which was thought to resemble Amazon’s mono-chrome eBook reader Kindle or so suggested the ongoing rumors, especially after the success of its smart phone-hand-held mini-computer combo iPhone and iPod touch.  A more recent report by Macrumors stated that Apple was working closely with the New York Times and some book publishers on an eBook reader app – obviously targeted for the new tablet device – and maybe for iPhone and iPod Touch as well.

Due to certain ongoing legal issues, the name of this new tablet device was uncertain at the time of the drafting of this article, but the last two enduring candidates for the device name were iSlate or iPad – the latter of which is most likely to be announced tomorrow.

What good is an iPad for?

With an iPad, you can read eBooks, eMagazines, e-publishings, etc, play 3D games (like those on the PC and the PSP), surf the Internet, watch TV and videos in HD, do word processing, spreadsheets, page layout and animated presentations using the iPad version of Apple’s iWork software which is a simpler and easier-to-use rival of Microsoft’s Office software. iPad makes use of both wi-fi and 3G for connectivity.

iPad Photos

The wi-fi only model of iPad (very identical to Wi-Fi + 3G models)

A lot of rumors, speculations and gossips kept going on about what the iPad was going to be like as well as many concept illustrations were found all over the Internet.

You can view some of them below:

The iPad Concept Art and Photography

Related posts:

1. Apple’s Announcement of January 27th featuring the iPad
2. All the mysteries of Apple’s Tablet Unlocked: Ladies & Gentlemen, the iPad