Happy Nerd Day

For those of you that are NOT nerds, today is a big day in the technology world. Apple has an "event" scheduled for today to announce new products. You may think this no big deal but let's think about the last few years of these Apple product announcements. The iPhone was announced in this way back in 2007 with the 3G iPhone following in 2008 (along with the revolution of Apps for the iPhone) and the 3GS iPhone in 2009. Not a big enough deal for you? In 2001 one of these events was held for the launch of an small product called the iPod followed by the iTunes Store in 2003. Just think about the leaps forward in consumer electronics those two products represent. The iPod revolutionized the portable music player market and the iTunes store is now the largest retailer of music in the world. The iPhone has created an entire new market of "Smart" phones in just under three years, something that Microsoft had tried for nearly ten years prior to that with their Windows Mobile initiative.

So what's Apple up to today? Well if you've been sleeping in a cave for the last six months then you'll have no clue but if you read nearly any online new sources you know that the entire tech world is on the edge of it's collective seat waiting for the Apple tablet device. A brief history; Apple has supposedly been working on a tablet device since 2003 but none of the devices they proposed were good enough to meet with Steve Jobs approval. Supposedly the iPhone itself was born out of the previous failures of these tablet designs. The recent innovation of "Unibody" construction of Macbook laptops was probably originally intended to make this tablet device a reality(IMHO). You don't need to have that ultra-strong rigid aluminium backbone in a laptop but in a thin and light "tossable" device like a tablet it will be critical.

At this point speculation is rampant but in my opinion this device(s) will end up being like an iPod Touch/iPhone on steroids. It will have at least a 7" screen and more likely a 10" screen that is geared towards watching video and reading newspapers, magazines and books. Apple has already dominated music with the iTunes store so this device is their gateway to dominating eBook, news and TV shows. It will be a gorgeous device that people will lust after...and it will have shitty battery life just like my iPhone.

If you want to follow the announcement in real time then I would recommend Engadget's live blog of the event.