iPhone plans offered here are 3 years in duration. I wonder if this will be the same. That said, though, what use is a tablet anyway?

All in all the article was interesting but contracts in the manufacturing business generally aren't built around units destined for retail sale, they include this thing that people in the manufacturing industry call "spares" - you know, extras, to replace failed units, live up to warranties, etc...

For a portable device that number probably includes the sale of more than one battery to some customers (assuming the battery isn't trapped inside a la iPod). That's why there is the "up to" clause in that number.

There are actually a few more reasons for 300,000 batteries per month number, but they aren't as significant as the reasons cited above. Figure "up to" 20% lower for retail sales projections based on single part orders.

The last time there were article's in China proclaiming Apple parts orders as evidence of the tablet, it turned out to be the 13" MacBook.

...I don't care how good the thing is, if it is locked down like the iPhone I won't be buying.

matey, me not go buy 'nuthin tied to celly-plan! Takes up all too much pieces o' eight! *ARRRRR*

Lets look back, shall we, at all this rumourmilling, lets see how accurate its been -

The iPhone 3GS, before it was known as that, was meant to come with a whole swathe of cool new features, my hope was it might have an OLED screen, or at least a premium version of it have an OLED screen.

Its not like OLED hasn't matured enough yet, look at the Sony X Series, or the Cowon S9.

But no such result, they upped the speed and added a digital compass. Thats it. Mkay. All the features in iPhone OS v3 don't count towards a 'new feature set' cos you can do so with all iPod Touch/iPhones.

Lets look at the more recent iPod releases - No purported camera for the iPod Touch. Instead they idiotically tried to follow suit with this stupid Flip Camera fad. Shit quality video, idiot proof youtubing technology, for idiots. No still photos! And only in the Nano range. I mean, come on! The iPod Touch seems born for this, and that idiot Jobs' excuse - the iPod Touch is first & foremost a gaming machine! Of course Mr Jobs, no games have EVER used cameras before! idiot.

32Gb upgrade, just inevitable.

It seems Apple are also following the rumour-mill, and doing what seems to be the exact opposite in the end.

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Heres my rumour mill contribution - no iTablet ever, and if one does materialise, it'll perch itself uncomfortably between the full on MacOS, not quite managing to achieve the full power of the OS, and between the iPhoneOS, not quite managing the full portability aspects and lacking support for all the iTunes AppStore apps.

These rumours could even just be some kind of full Mac system with multitouch that you can detatch its screen or something - probably cost about £3,000.

Everything that Apple have released this year and last leads to the indication that the iPhone original was a design fluke. No more magic from Apple for at least a decade and a half.

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Oh and iPhone and Mac annoucements typically only take place during the summertime WWDC conferences, if this fabled iTablet were to ever materialise, that'll be the conference for it. Result: Another 9 months at least. Possibly 21 months!

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Apple - Please, I'm begging you, prove me wrong!

Wasn't the previous buzz that we'd have a September iTablet (or iProd?) disclosure from Cupertino? After last week's iPod fest, the rumoured inauguration is pushed back. Again. Of course rumours is free PR. The fanbois are spoon-fed. Again.

Of course you're right that the new gizmo will be Incompatible with existing iPhone apps, but I would expect it to see this as a paid upgrade, perhaps a bundle price based on what you've got already. Ie there would be sufficient marketing potential to get independent developers to work on porting their apps.

I suspect the camera on the Touch has failed to get vetted by the Reality Distortion Field (aka Jobs). The reason could be that the engineers haven't yet been able to put the lens on the display-side, to double up as a webcam.

I too expected to see a lot more OLED displays in Apple's gear by now, and personally I am waiting for a new iMac to replace my G5 ambient light edition. Yes, the one built with bad caps. In my case it worked fine until well after the extended warranty program had expired. Now the power supply will intermittently shut down... :(

All the "Chinese rumors" you list are unconfirmed reports from Taiwan. Is an unconfirmed statement by Jerry Yang, Ang Lee, or Lee Hsien Loong also a "Chinese rumor"? Or is there a hand that feeds you that you're afraid to bite?