Apple’s European PR team has confirmed that the new iPad will hit European shores inside of two months.  Here’s what they said to Techcrunch.com:shores.

“The Wi-Fi version will ship worldwide in March,” said a spokesperson, but she added, “Watch this space for Wi-Fi plus 3G.”

Reading between the lines, it seems Apple is still shopping for a mobile carrier (O2?, T-Mobile?) to partner with for the 3g data portion of the 3g equipped iPads.

Also, no word on international pricing – but don’t expect direct conversions from the US prices ($499-$829).  An educated guess would put UK starting at £399 or maybe, £349 if we’re lucky and topping out at £599.  Also, interestingly, no sign of the iPad yet at the UK Apple Store.

via [Techcrunch]

After much anticipation and speculation, as well as a few hoaxes, here it is at latest, the Apple iPad.  Announced today at 10am PST in San Francisco, Apple’s iPad looks like a 9.7″ screen’ed iPhone and, indeed, it will run all of the iPhone apps.

Here are the specs:

-1ghz Apple A4 Processor
-9.7″ IPS Display
- Full capacitive multi-touch
-16-64GB SSD
-802.11N, Bluetooth 2.1EDR
-Claimed 10 hour runtime, one month standby time.

-.5 inches thin
-1.5lb weight

More pictures after the break.

UPDATE #2:  Juding from this other leaked picture, the Calacanis / Matt Schlicht story might be hoax.  The picture above is what  Schlicht claims to be his Apple Tablet, but it appears to be the classic stretched (via Photoshop) iPhone.

UPDATE: Looks like another Twitter user has a Tablet, this seems pretty real now. ‘MattPRD‘ tweets:

It’s past midnight, no longer under NDA. Had an amazing video chat with @Jason via Apple Tablet. Zzz.

It seems Jason Calacanis has had an Apple Tablet for 10 days now and is revealing details since he says his NDA (non-disclosure agreement) is ‘basically’ over.  My guess is the NDA was until 1/27/2010.  Here’s what he’s shared via his Twitter account.

“For background: apple asked me to do press tomorrow on cnbc, cnn, etc. As a pundit they gave me tablet 10 days ago. 3people dropped it off!”  - Jason Calacanis via Twitter

General:

- Prices will be $599, $699, and $799 (in USD) “depending on size and memory in apple tablet. Also, wireless keyboard + monitor connection for tv”.
- Verizon will be the wireless partner in the US.
- The tablet will NOT go on sale tomorrow – just an announcement and pre-orders.

Hardware:

- Built in HDTV tuner, PVR, 2 Cameras (one facing the user, and one forward facing)
- Battery life is great in ‘ebook’ mode.
- “Apple Tablet has thumbpads on each side for mouse guestures, reads fingerprint for security. Up to 5 profiles by finerprint for family”
- OLED screen & back has solar pad for recharging (!? hmm…editor)  Calacanis notes ‘it really doesn’t work quickly’
- 3G compatible with US carrier Verizon.

Engadget posts a possible image of what appears to be the Apple Tablet.

Okay, we obviously can’t confirm this, but we just got two very interesting images of what certainly looks like a prototype Apple tablet, or what could be the tablet bolted down to a table. It’s big — really big — and it’s running what clearly looks like an iPhone app, although we’ve never seen an iPhone app with that interface or at that resolution before.

Check out all the latest Apple Tablet bews on our Apple Tablet News Page.

What: Apple’s latest product, speculated to be called the iTablet or iSlate. The latest rumours have it as a 10″ screened slim tablet like device.  Most likely no physical keyboard (in lieu of an on-screen KB).  Rumours

When: The official announcement is Wednesday, January 27th @ 10am. announced that , which might indicated that iTablets are already ready and will ship immediately following the announcement.

Price: Less than $1000 or ~ £600

Latest News:

- Mobile app analytics company Flurry is saying that it’s detected around 50 devices on Apple’s Cupertino campus that have the “characteristics” of a tablet, running a new version of the iPhone OS numbered 3.2. How? Around 200 different apps with Flurry’s tracking code were downloaded and used on these mystery devices — mostly games, followed by entertainment and media apps — and Flurry first noticed this new device in October, with numbers picking up in January.

- The Apple Tablet May Come With A Barnes & Noble Bookstore.  Will Apple’s new Tablet put the Kindle to shame?  [Engadget]

Check out the latest Applet Tablet news on our feature section here.

Apple Tablet Mockup

The WSJ is reporting that the rumoured Apple Tablet device will ship in March after an announcement late January probably the 27th or the 28th, according to various sources. The Wall Street Journal writes:

Apple Inc. plans to unveil a new multimedia tablet device later this month, but doesn’t plan on shipping the product until March, people briefed by the company said.

New rumours indicatate that the tablet will sell for under $1000 USD (~600GBP),. come in multiple finishes and may be bundled with a Wifi and/or 3g data service plan.