Apple Media Event: Let’s see their latest creation.

Not since the introduction of the iPhone is January 2007 have we seen this much buzz surrounding a product that might not even exist.

Apple, Inc. is at it again, this time with what is presumed to be their new tablet computer.

Speculation throughout the tech world has been large as this media event has drawn near. There have been on and off rumors for years regarding the Apple Tablet. This time, however, it is all but known that Apple will be introducing their new tablet tomorrow.

In fact, the slogan for their media event, which starts at 1 PM Eastern time (1o am Pacific), is ‘Come see our latest creation’.

CEO Steve Jobs is once again banking on a huge demand for this product, exactly like he did in 1984 with the Macintosh, again in 2001 with the iPod and, most recently, in 2007 with the iPhone.

This tablet will almost certainly be just as impressive as the previous big bets that Apple has taken.

As far as naming goes, a lot of different names have been thrown around, iPad, iTablet and iSlate are the most popular choices among them all. It is known that Apple has filed trademark papers for the names iPad and iTablet, with the iPad paperwork being filed as recently as 2009, which makes iPad the most likely to be the name of the tablet.

The technical specs have been subject to a lot of rumors, too many to sort through actually, so I’ll add my own two cents into the game.

While the iPhone 3GS contains a 600 MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM, it would seem as though the tablet would need to be a little more powerful than that, but perhaps not much more if it is running iPhone OS. It is hard to predict what kind of processor will be included in the tablet, as it could be anywhere from an iPhone processor to something more like the small but powerful Intel processor found in the MacBook Air.

Another rumor that has been flying around without much basis of actual knowledge, which is common of yet to be released Apple products, is the size of the screen. The most consistent rumor has pegged the screen at either seven or 10 inches. I’m going to go with 10, only because 7 would just seem to me to be too much like an oversized iPhone or iPod Touch.

The final rumor that has been subject to much speculation is the possibility that the tablet will include cellular chips that will allow it to be used on cellular networks. This comes with the speculation that AT&T is most likely about to lose their exclusive contract for the iPhone and opens up the debate which network the tablet and iPhone will be able to use.

It would seem very likely that the tablet will at least be able to be used on the AT&T network, as they are on the same GSM network as the rest of the world, but it would seem that if there is cellular ability, it would be on multiple networks, at the very least T-Mobile, the other US GSM provider and probably Verizon Wireless, the US’s largest provider that runs a lesser used CDMA network.

So here are my predictions for the tablet announcement tomorrow:

It will be called the iPad and it will run a modified version of iPhone OS, most likely rebranded as iPad OS.

The processor will be similar to the 1.86 GHz processor found in the baseline MacBook Air, which would fit nicely into what has to be a thin profile.

The iPad will most certainly include 802.11n Wi-Fi capabilities,  something the iPhone has yet to gain, it is still running on 802.11g. Also, it would only make sense to include a cellular chip inside the iPad to make it useable anywhere there is cell service. I feel it will certainly have GSM capabilities for use on AT&T and T-Mobile, as well as anywhere else in the world, and probably a CDMA chip to allow it to be used on the Verizon network as well.

There will probably be other announcements as well, possibly including the iPhone 4.0 SDK and perhaps even the first developer build of Mac OS 10.7, although the appearance of anything Mac related seems unlikely.

So there you have it, my predictions for tomorrow’s Apple Media Event. Check back here and on the Online Rocket for a recap of what the table actually turns out to be.