Wednesday, January 20, 2010 by Adrian

The invitations went out late, but Apple have given us a date and venue to meet their newest family member: Wednesday 27^th January at the Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts Theatre, San Francisco.

So it's friends and family only and the service starts early, but what exactly is being christened is deliberately unclear - boy or girl - iTablet or iSlate? Or even Applet or iPad?

We have our suspicions. In fact, you could say the doctor practically gave it all away a few months ago when former Google China President Kai-fu Lee leaked what he claimed was insider knowledge in December. He blogged that Apple planned to launch an Apple Tablet, priced at $ 1000 U.S. and gave details about what we could expect to see.

"According to informed friend said that this Tablet looks like a large iPhone, there are 10.1-inch multi-touch screen, and amazing user interface, 3D graphics, virtual keyboard, video conferencing, e-books, Internet this and other functions."

At this point, we'd argue that the tech-blog world and its mother already know to expect a tablet, and so a lot of the mystery surrounding the introduction is about what it will be called. According to a Guardian tech blog by Charles Arthur, a strong contender is iPad, thanks to the mysterious roots of the domain name iPad.com. For similar reasons, Arthur wonders if iSlate or iBook are also in the mix.

In terms of presentation, Fox News writer, Clayton Morris goes as far as to put forward a full list of areas likely to be covered on the day, "the event would likely focus on three projects: The tablet device, iPhone 4, and a new round of iLife 2010 software. While we won't see new iPhone hardware just yet, we will see the next-generation software."

So what's there left to find out and can we still be excited by the launch a product we feel we already know?

BBC technology blogger Maggie Shiels offers the point that "there is now so much advance hyperbole about what the company will and won't do that come the day, come the hour, the actual announcements tend to be disappointing, simply because we get what we expect."

Certainly further, rapid developments in digital publishing, including an expected announcement of an arranged-marriage between Apple and Harper-Collins publishers that could rival Amazon.Inc, are what we have to look forward to from the event, and certainly in its aftermath.

Also, as designers, we can't help but take note of, and look for clues in the invitation itself. Wired.com note that the graphic accompanying the invitation "is unique compared with those we've received in the past." So we aren't the only ones wondering if the paint blobs are hint at a painting application Apple plans to demonstrate with a tablet - and we know we're not the only ones to still be excited by that.

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