Apple rumored to announce tablet on January 26th, Steve Jobs reportedly "extremely happy" with final product

In a matter of hours, rumors regarding Apple's mysterious and as of yet unreleased tablet reached a frenzied pitch as the scoops kept on rolling in. Here's what we know so far.

Yesterday afternoon, and in just a matter of hours, rumors regarding Apple's mysterious and as of yet unreleased tablet reached a frenzied pitch as the scoops kept on rolling in. Here's what we know so far.

First, and in terms of timing, a number of sources have indicated that Apple is planning to announce and demo a tablet device in late January with a planned shipment date to come sometime in late March. One report from the Financial Times even stated that Apple has already secured the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco for January 26th.  The last time Apple held an event at that particular venue, Steve Jobs unveiled a completely revamped lineup of iPods - and while it's possible that Apple may use January 26th to showcase new iPod Touch's with camera modules, the odds are that January's event will be tablet focused. Indeed, Silicon Alley Insider reported early on Wednesday, citing a "plugged-in source in the mobile industry", that Apple has already begun contacting developers and informing them to prepare their apps for a tablet demo set to take place in late January.

Apple has been telling some app makers to prepare apps for a demo next month, according to this source. "They've told select developers that as long as they build their apps to support full screen resolution -- rather than a fixed 320x480 -- their apps should run just fine," our source says.

And if that's not enough to make the tablet all but a sure thing, the New York Times ran a blog post late Wednesday evening with some eye opening comments from an anonymous senior employee from within Apple.

But the icing on the cake comes from a current senior employee inside Apple. When one of my colleagues here asked if the rumors of the Apple tablet were true, and when we could expect such a device, the response from his source was, “I can’t really say anything, but, let’s just say Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet.” Yet another recently departed Apple employee tipped me: “You will be very surprised how you interact with the new tablet.”

Okay, now I'm beyond curious and excited. Not only is Steve Jobs, who is notoriously nitpicky with unbelievably high standards, happy with the device, but users will also be surprised by the way they interact with the device? Up until now, everyone had assumed that using an Apple tablet would be very similar to how one uses an iPhone, but Apple may very well have an Ace in the hole that may completely catch everyone off guard. I'll put it this way - January 26th can't come fast enough.

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