TechCrunch has posted pictures of what they're calling an "unlaunched Apple tablet." In 1990, as the story goes, Apple was supposedly working on a pen-based touchscreen tablet called the Pen Mac that was actually extremely small for the time -- just about an inch thick, with a screen the same size as a Mac Portable. They were bringing a few different companies in on the deal, and apparently it worked well -- ran a full Mac OS, used a pen to control or let you plug in a mouse and keyboard, and there was even a smaller version called the PenLite (bulky by today's standards, but remember that this is 20 years ago now).

So why weren't we all using tablet computers 20 years ago? TechCrunch blames John Sculley, who apparently thought the tablet idea was out, and the PDA idea was in, and we ended up with the Newton instead. I won't second guess him -- while it's easy to think that anything could have beaten the Newton, would the current Apple touchscreen tablet craze even be here if it weren't for the iPhone? And isn't Apple's smartphone just a hop, skip and a jump from their original PDA?

Surprisingly, the Mac mini, Magic Mouse, iMac, MacBook, AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule updates are not the only things Apple updated today. Several other products were updated today, which include:

• Apple Wireless Keyboard: This keyboard, the subject of several update rumors, did get revised today. It now only requires 2 AA batteries, down from 3 in the previous model.
• Apple 60W MagSafe Power Adapter: This adapter now has a aluminum connector, much like the one found on the 45 watt adapter for the MacBook Air; it should be more durable for use.
• VESA Mount Adapter Kit: This model for the 24 inch Apple LCD Cinema Display and the previous 24 inch iMac now supports the new 27 inch iMac.

Also, the wired mouse-formerly-known-as-Mighty Mouse -- which is still available -- was renamed to "Apple Mouse." This is consistent with the trademark for Mighty Mouse (the computer mouse) being finally picked up by Man & Machine, instead of CBS and Apple.

Are you going to enjoy the improvements in these products? Let us know in the comments below!

Welcome back to Mac 101, our series of tips for new and novice Mac users.

We've had a few questions about a forward delete functionality on Mac laptops lately, but the question isn't new. We realized that we sometimes take our readers for granted... little tips like this are actually huge news for a lot of the switchers in the audience. So if you know this, awesome! If not, here's a quick way to duplicate the forward delete functionality on a Mac laptop.

It's really simple: find the function key (it is abbreviated as fn) on the bottom left side of the keyboard. Hold down function and hit the delete key (fn+delete).

Yes, we know -- it's an extra step over a PC but your days of using the arrow keys to delete are over. There are a lot of arguments about why there isn't a dedicated key for that function and most of them focus on the aesthetics of the keyboard by keeping it minimal. If that means I hold function to forward delete, well, I'm OK with that. I think my keyboard is sexy.

Thanks, Logan!

We've been hearing a lot about a new mouse from Apple lately, and earlier today images and additional documentation about a new Apple Wireless Keyboard and Mouse (using Bluetooth) showed up in the FCC database. The new keyboard has a model number of A1314, while the mouse has a model number of A1296. The dimensions of the new wireless keyboard are smaller than the current Apple Wireless Keyboard, particularly in the distance between the top and bottom of the keyboard. There are still few details on the new mouse at this point.

The FCC images were quickly pulled from the FCC database, then re-added later in the day with details cropped out, but they can still be found in all of their original glory over on our sister site Engadget.

[via Engadget]

If there's one gripe I hear about the iPhone, it's that it doesn't have a "real keyboard." Sure, you can tap with one or two fingers (or thumbs) pretty quickly on the virtual keyboard, but it just doesn't have that nice tactile feedback that you get with, say, a BlackBerry keyboard.

Mobile Mechatronics, the same people who are bringing you the Blur Tripod mentioned on TUAW earlier today, will be officially announcing their iTwinge snap-on keyboard for the iPhone tomorrow. This is a cool little unit, at a price of US$29.99, that is likely to be very popular with the BlackBerry set. The iTwinge snaps onto the bottom of the iPhone, then allows you to use the keyboard for thumb or finger typing into any iPhone app that would normally use the virtual keyboard.

While you wouldn't want to keep the keyboard attached to your iPhone all the time -- it covers up almost half of the screen -- it would be perfect for those situations where you aren't near a laptop or desktop computer but still want to be productive. I'd love to have one of these to use with our blogging system so I could blog and edit from anywhere.

Mobile Mechatronics has begun taking pre-orders for the iTwinge, with shipping expected to begin on November 19th. I just wonder if the name has something to do with carpal tunnel syndrome or "BlackBerry Thumb" that you can get from overusing thumb keyboards...

Alan over with iPhoneXpert.com sent us in a tip on getting your Logitech mouse to work again after installing Snow Leopard. I didn't get a chance to try this out until my copy of Snow Leopard arrived last night. My keyboard/mouse combo of choice is the Logitech Wave Cordless Desktop (a fantastic combo that is well-suited for Mac users), and the OS upgrade did break the specialized configuration set up for them.

Logitech has not updated its drivers -- usually bundled with its Logitech Control Center application -- for Snow Leopard yet, and an upgrade to the software will take some time, Alan reports. In the meantime, you can work around this issue by doing the following:

1. Re-download Logitech Control Center 3.0 if you do not still have the installation package on your machine.
2. Unzip the download, then right-click on the installer package. Select "Show All Contents."
3. Navigate through the package to the Contents folder, then the Resources folder. There, you'll find the Logitech Control Center.mkpg. Double-click on it and install it.

Once your system has rebooted, you'll find that you regain full access to customizing your Logitech mouse (and it works for keyboards as well.) It even carried over all of my customized keyboard button settings from Leopard, so you shouldn't have to go through much hassle to reconfigure your equipment. The only thing I had to readjust was the scroll speed on my mouse.

If you have Exposé as one of your mouse/keyboard button settings, copy (do not move) the Expose.app file from /Applications/Utilities to the /Applications folder. Then Exposé will work properly again.

Thanks for the tip, Alan!

If you prefer to keep your fingers on the keyboard and away from mice or trackpads, MercuryMover will allow you to do something simple: move and resize windows with the keyboard. There are a number of hotkeys for wiggling the windows into place, in 2 different increments, and a method of resizing windows via the keyboard.

Highbrow gives you fine control over which browser opens a certain link. For example, if someone sends you a link in IM and you want to open in it Firefox, but your default browser is Safari, you'd have to copy/paste that link into Firefox, or Safari will open it instead. But with Highbrow, you can quickly choose which browser opens what. Instead of mucking around in Safari prefs, Highbrow sets the default browser via handy menu bar item. Plus, you can opt for a floating window each time you click a link, and choose on the fly.

MercuryMover is $20 and a free trial is available. Highbrow is $12 and a free trial is also available.

In this round of Ask TUAW we've got questions about connecting a MacBook to a plasma TV, using a Bluetooth headset with an iPod touch, backing up online, ripping DVDs to watch on an iPhone and more.

As always, your suggestions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!

Controlling your music while you're working (or playing) on your computer should be virtually seamless. While these days it's almost impossible to buy a keyboard without media keys built-in, there are many users that either don't have media controlling keys on their keyboards, or would simply prefer to keep their hands on the actual keys. While iTunes is not capable of assigning hotkeys on its own, there are a number of iTunes controller applications on the market that can add this functionality.

In my opinion SizzlingKeys deserves to be at the top of the list of iTunes controller apps for its simplicity, reliability, and extra features. SizzlingKeys installs as a preferences pane, and has a very intuitive interface that allows you to choose which functions to enable, and what the hotkeys should be for those functions.

The list of things you can control with hotkeys is fairly comprehensive:

• Play / Pause
• Previous / Next Track
• Volume Down / Up
• Mute / Almost Mute
• Show / Hide iTunes, Playlists, Search
• Set song rating
• Show floater (song information)

In addition SizzlingKeys offers some non-iTunes "extras" that you can control:

• Sleep computer
• Lock computer
• Activate screen saver

The standard version of SizzlingKeys is free, but there is also a Pro version for $5 that includes the ability to skip forwards and back by a customized interval, the ability to toggle shuffle and repeat modes, and the ability to control the system volume.

A tweet this afternoon pointed me to a post by Dave "MacSparky" Sparks titled The Netbook Experiment, in which he talked about his disappointment with a Dell mini 9 netbook. Since I was about to send out a tweet to the world at large announcing the sale of my Dell mini 9, I found it fascinating that Sparks had a similar experience to mine.

I wrote about creating a hackintosh (AKA hackb00k) out of a Dell mini 9 in a long post back in October of 2008, and at that time I was fairly impressed with the low cost and capabilities of the device. However, after actually using the mini 9 for six months, I find it almost useless as a "real computer" and have decided that it needs to go. The moral of the story? You definitely get what you pay for, and a $499 computer is not going to be a productivity tool. Even if you delude yourself into thinking that since you're only going to use it for email it will be a worthwhile investment, you're wrong. If you want to know how I came to these conclusions, read on.

One of the more subtle additions in the bevy of new hardware announcements this morning was the introduction of a new slim keyboard (scroll down) with the iMacs. It basically looks like a wired version of Apple's Bluetooth wireless keyboard in that it's missing the numeric keypad. On the other hand, like its bigger (still available) wired sibling it offers two USB ports at the ends.

If you go to the online Apple store and configure a new iMac the new slim version is the default, though you can select the keypad version for no extra cost. On the other hand, the new Mac Pros come with the extended version by default with the slim version as a free option.

This seems like a slightly strange extra option to me, but I suppose if you never use the keypad and want a bit of extra desk space it might be worth it. Strangely, Apple's keyboard page does not yet list the new model.

Thanks Aaron!

There's a very cool video at Ralf Ackermann's blog showing an iPhone receiving input from an Apple Bluetooth keyboard. Of course, it requires a jailbroken phone, but Ralf claims that it works in all iPhone apps that make use of the keyboard.

This reminds me of the Stowaway Keyboard I used with my old Palm IIIe. I didn't mind Graffiti as much as some others did, but attaching that keyboard to my Palm increased its usefulness many times over.

Of course, I'd love to use a wireless keyboard with my iPhone. Since I won't be jailbreaking, here's hoping Apple (or someone else) will make this available to scaredy cats like me.

Quick! The boss is coming! Hide your screen! What, you don't have Spaces set up so you can switch to that handy Excel worksheet you've got open? That's okay -- just put your display to sleep.

Of course, there are other reasons to want to quickly turn off your display, but they all have one simple key combination: Control + Shift + Eject.

It works with both desktop and laptop Macs. Moving the mouse or pressing a key on the keyboard wakes it right back up when you're ready.

Of course, if you want to put your whole computer to sleep, you can use Option + Command + Eject. There are other helpful shortcuts, too, in this article deep in the TUAW archives.

Thanks to our own Michael Rose for this one. Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.

Since the iPhone's introduction at Macworld in 2007, a large number of people have wanted a tactile keyboard. So far, Apple has not obliged. So, one iPhone owner took the initiate to make his own iPhone keyboard. Using a bit of Ruby code on a jailbroken iPhone, this user is able to connect a Palm keyboard via a 30-pin Dock Connector. The end result is an iPhone with a tactile keyboard. While we can't vouch for the validity of this video, it does look like a cool hack.


[via Engadget]

On an iPhone or iPod touch? Click here to watch this YouTube video.

Still haven't caught on to typing on that little non-tactile keyboard on the iPhone's screen? This little tech, from the creator of the T9 system (dreaded by some, loved by others) being shown off at TC50, could be just the ticket. Swype is kind of like a gesture-based system, except that it uses the keyboard knowledge you already have -- just run a stylus (or your finger) around a qwerty-board, hitting all the letters in your word on the way, and the program will guess the word you were drawing. If you're looking for something similar that's already appeared on the iPhone, you might check out ShapeWriter's WritingPad, which we hope will be returning to the App Store soon (warning: loud video on page).

It's pretty wild -- his drawing "Mississippi" set off my "awesometer." Unfortunately, while the iPhone is given just a slight mention (can you name another touchscreen device that's used as widely?), it'd probably need a little tweaking. He's using a stylus (which on the iPhone is a no), and it'd be tough to draw with accuracy on a keyboard as small as the iPhone, even on the bigger horizontal version. Still, I like it, and Apple could always consider something like this for the iTablet, whenever they decide to release that. It'd be an easy way to overlay another typing method onto an already-working nontactile keyboard.