Those of us in the Mac rumor and news business (is there a difference?) love it when we get a good tip, especially when that tip is from someone who has given us good, solid info in the past. iLounge featured a post last night called "Ten New Details on the Apple Tablet" that passed along some rumors that they've received from one of those solid sources.

While I won't parrot back the bullet list of ten details that are in the iLounge post, here's the gist of the article: Apple has created at least three prototypes of what editor-in-chief Jeremy Horwitz calls the iPad. The prototype that is still in the running has a 10.7" diagonal display, runs iPhone OS, and looks like a large iPhone 3G.

The device will have two variations, one with 3G networking built-in (think of it as an über-iPhone 3GS) and another without it (a mongo iPod touch). The larger display is expected to have about 7 times the surface area of the iPhone, and about 6 times the resolution, allowing easy reading of books, magazines, and cropped newspapers.

With the extra screen space, the new devices are designed to bring ebook functionality to the iPhone platform as well as make a more compelling platform for games, media, app, and the web. Apple doesn't expect this device to compete with netbooks, hence their continued denial that the company will come out with a netbook killer. Instead, this will be an extension of the iPhone platform.

Horwitz finishes his list by noting that the device is still awaiting a green light from Steve Jobs, and that it has about an 80% chance of making it to market. If it's given the go-ahead, the source is stating that the device would be announced on or before January 19, 2010 and would go on sale in May or June.

While this is still a rumor, the information is from the same source that gave iLounge the scoop on the iPod nano 5G, the iPhone 3GS, and the Chinese iPhone 3G. It appears we'll still have to wait until 2010 before the fabled tablet appears in our local Apple Stores.

TUAW presents to you the best of the obviously fake device shots we've seen in the last couple of weeks. On occasion they're beautiful renderings that are worth a second glance, other times they're out of focus shots that tipsters swear were taken quickly at a meeting on the Apple campus. In any case, they're a lot of fun.

Let's begin with this gem from the French blog Le Journal du Geek. In a post titled "Encore un peu de MacBook Touch?" ("Again a little MacBook Touch?"), we see what looks like a page from an Apple website:

As if it isn't getting bad enough with the iPAD / iTablet rumors, now book retailer Borders has been adding to the rumor mill.

Numerous TUAW readers including Jennifer, who supplied the screenshot below, have received a marketing survey from Borders about using Digital Reading Devices (also known as e-readers or ebook readers). Hidden among the responses about Kindles and Sony Book Readers was the response "I plan to buy an Apple iPAD (large screen reading device) this year." Lest any of our readers think that this is just a doctored screenshot, we did receive multiple unique full-screen shots from several readers. This can mean one of three things:

1. The company performing the survey for Borders knows something about an upcoming Apple tablet device
2. The survey company is clueless and loves operating off of rumors and innuendo
3. The iPAD was thrown in there just to see if anybody would fall for it

The survey also refers to the iPod touch as the "iTouch", so I'm pretty sure that #1 is probably out of the realm of possibility. Still, it's fascinating to see just how pervasive this rumored device actually is!

Thanks to everyone who sent in this tip

Kafkaesque is defined as "characteristic or reminiscent of the oppressive or nightmarish qualities of Franz Kafka's fictional world." That's the way Wall Street Journal All Things Digital blogger Peter Kafka (no relation as far as I know) must be feeling.

Music industry sources are telling him that Apple is planning one of their classic September keynotes, but they're not giving him a date other than "the week of September 7th", and have no idea what exactly Apple is planning on revealing. That sounds nightmarish to me...

So, he fired up the Apple rumor machine this morning and wrote a post about the upcoming event. Kafka feels that the event will probably be used to announce something about music (duh!), most likely "Cocktail", which is Apple's rumored album format that adds cover art, liner notes, and other interactive goodies.

Kafka also notes that unless Apple announces the legendary iTablet at the event, Apple faithful are likely to be very disappointed (My personal feeling? Turn on the tears, folks).

The September event is often used to announce new iPods, and there have been rumors of a camera-enabled iPod nano, so we might hear more about that.

Whatever happens, it would be nice to see Steve Jobs on the stage again, especially if the mythical iPad is finally announced. Any reader comments on this announcement of an Apple event with no set date or concrete topic will be greatly appreciated.

Update: While Gizmodo's Brian Lam is adding fuel to the iTablet fire with a recounting of a phone call with a reputable source, The Loop's Jim Dalrymple is categorically contradicting any suggestions that the September event will include the tablet device -- it's going to be a pure music announcement, he says.

Digital music purchases have been dominating the market for some time now as physical CD purchases continue to fall. For Apple, a significant lead over the rest of the music proprietor world is not enough: according to the Financial Times, the company is now working together with the four largest record labels in the business to add new features to accompany digital music purchases through its iTunes Store in hopes of stimulating full album purchases.

[The FT also reports, without hedging, that Apple's "media pad" tablet device will ship in time for the holiday shopping season. According to the paper, the long-rumored iPad is intended as a full-featured portable computer and video & music player, like an oversized iPod touch, including wireless data connectivity but no built-in phone functions.]

Apple has formed an alliance with EMI, Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music to bundle whole albums with perks like interactive booklets, digital sleeve notes, and video clips. By doing so, Apple hopes to increase sales of the albums over single track purchases, a sales model that has been immensely popular in the advent of digital music.

The project, codenamed "Cocktail," is intended to recreate the former experience of album-purchasing, where you could browse the liner notes, follow lyrics, and look at the album artwork as the music played. Executives have said that users will even be able to play music straight from the proposed interactive booklets without having to use iTunes. Of course, the main motivation for increasing album sales is to increase profits, as albums have a higher margin than individual songs.

This change is one that should have taken place a long time ago- having to search for lyrics on shady, ad-ridden websites should already be a fading, shudder-inducing memory (though liner notes have been available on some albums, a change across the board has yet to take place). As items like liner notes and photos are possibly the last benefit that physical CDs can offer over digital purchases, this may turn out to be a very serious blow to the CD market. The iTunes Store album add-ons are set to roll out in September.

You know things have gotten out of hand when they start designing buildings to look like the iPod. We were tipped off on this a while back, but now the first pictures have popped up for the iPad, soon to be built in Dubai, United Arab Emerates. I would say the building is more iPod "inspired" than an actual building size iPod, but you can certainly see a family resemblance. To me this model also has a sort of Tron feel to it.

The 23 story residential building will have 200 units and is due to open in 2009. Yet again you have to wonder whether Apple Legal is going to let this pass be unremarked. So you iPod junkies out there: do you love your iPod(s) enough to want to live in one?

[Via Digg - Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Mad TV has produced one of the raunchier iPod spoofs we've seen to date (meaning: probably not safe for work) in the form of an advertisement of, how shall we say, pads for women who 'think different'. The 'iPad' ad wins bonus points for coming complete with a spoof of the iPod silhouette ads and a mock voice-over of Bono.