Hot off CES a slate computer by Chinese manufacturer Hanvon. Specs are

• 10.1” multi-touch display
• running on the Menlow platform with an Atom Z530 processor and GMA 500 graphics
• HDMI port and 1080p support
• 2x USB, mic and headphone jacks,
• Wi-Fi
• Windows 7

Looks sexy!

Expectations of the iSlate are sky high. What would you want in your ultimate tablet? Here are our top ten wishes.

1. Flexible like the Skiff Reader. Not sure how useful it really is, but man, what a show-off.
2. Full color display. Resolution over 100ppi to get a paper-like reading experience.
3. Obviously multi touch.
4. Fast display that allows videos and gaming.
5. Attachable to an unit like the Lenovo IdeaPad. This completely redefines the idea of portable computing.
6. Wifi of course, preferably also global roaming like the international Kindle has.
7. SD-Card slot for photo viewing.
8. Please make it look good. Not something like from the 80s.
9. An app store model to make it easy to get apps and content.
10. Price below $1,000.

MacRumors ran an article today that the iSlate could be operating on an ARM Cortex A9 processor. This seems not to be based on leaks or any verified facts, but it certainly is an interesting speculation.

The A9 is a new successor to the A8 range of processors that for example power the iPhones. In fact around 98 percent of the more than a billion mobile phones sold each year use at least one ARM processor. The Cortex A9 represents the next generation which supports multi-core designs. The Cortex A9 multi-core processors are expected to scale beyond 2 GHz while drawing less than 0.25 W of power per CPU.

The biggest implication of this would be that the iSlate would not be able to run standard OSX or Windows (and its applications). However, several Linux distributions, including the Chrome OS, have been ported to the ARM platform. Also, the iPhone uses a ported OSX version.

Apple is believed to be one of a few unnamed large licensors that ARM mentioned in their Q3 2009 earnings.

Coincidentally, ARM showed earlier several protoypes of multi touch tablets. Here’s is a YouTube video of them:

Today the WSJ reported that the iSlate is indeed to launch in March 2010. The story has been written by the same journalist who broke the news about Steve Jobs’ liver transplant, so the WSJ’s sources seem to be credible.

The WSJ says:

“A tablet-like device from Apple has been in the works for many years, with its development coming in fits and starts, according to people familiar with the matter. As The Wall Street Journal previously reported, the tablet has been the biggest focus for Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs since he returned to work in June after taking a nearly six-month medical leave to undergo a liver transplant.”

The WSJ references the already known booked dates at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco (January 25 to Jan27) as launch date, with shipping to commence in March.

Supposedly the iSlate specs have been leaked, but it awfully looks like a quickly made up Word document. Anyway it’s something to tickle the geek inside you.

According to the  supposedly leaked document, the iSlate will run Mac OS X . Here’s more:

• Precision aluminum unibody
• 7.1-inch multi-touch touchscreen with some sort of “intelligent feedback” and an anti-fingerprint coating
• 2.26Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• 2GB DDR3 SDRAM
• 120GB hard drive
• Built-in projector
• Built-in iSight camera
• 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Mac OS X 10.7 Clouded Leopard

Not many products inspired so many blog posts with wishful thinking as the Apple Tablet iSlate. Judging from the interest in the early adopter niche, this product will be even revolutionarier (this word is actually reserved for Apple products) than the iPhone.

Paul Buchheit:

“I have no idea what Apple is planning to release, but to me the revolutionary product need is in bridging the virtual and physical worlds. If you spend your entire day in front of the computer, this need may not seem real, but if you move between the two worlds you may notice that they are strangely disconnected. For example, imagine that I’m looking at a picture on my computer and want to give you a copy. In the physical world, I would simply hand you the print (I would have gotten double-prints), but with computers it’s nearly impossible. Yes, there may be some complicated 10-step process that I can use to share the image, or maybe I can download and install some obscure software, but I’m not going to do that and neither are most other people. Imagine if I instead had a simple (built-in) gesture for passing the photo off to person standing next to me, and it were just as easy as handing them a real photo.”

John Gruber:

“The Tablet, I say, is going to be Apple’s new answer to what you use for personal portable general computing.

Put another way, let’s say instead of a MacBook and an iPhone, you’ve got an iMac and an iPhone, but you also want a portable secondary computer. Today, that portable from Apple (portable as opposed to the iPhone’s mobile) is a MacBook. With The Tablet, you’ll have the option of a device that will more closely resemble the iPhone than the iMac in terms of concept and the degree of technical abstraction.”

And dissenting, Joe Wilcox:

“Tablet is a nowhere category. For all the hype about an Apple tablet , it is at best a niche product. The world doesn’t need an Apple tablet, no matter what the hype about rumored features or regardless of what actually releases (if anything).”

The rumours about Apple creating a tablet computer have been going on since the release of the iPhone. However, in December 2009 they found new popularity when the Financial Times reported that Apple had booked the Yerba Buena Center for Arts in San Franscisco for a significant product announcement on January 26, 2010. Only a couple of days later,  Google China’s ex-chief Kaifu Lee wrote on his blog that an informed friend told him that an Apple Tablet appearance was likely. The details he gave were: 10.1-inch screen with awesome UI. Of course

Earlier, MacRumors stated that the Apple Tablet would most likely be called iSlate, because the domain iSlate.com was acquired by Apple.

Expect additional rumors until the upcoming launch of the iSlate or whatever it will be called. Always secretive and tight-lipped, Apple is playing silent observer at the moment and will – hopefully – speak on January 26, 2010.