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OK, forget the Giant iPod Netbook Thingie (aka the Apple Tablet), supposedly due to be announced some time real soon by Apple for release in 2010…the last 24 hours the internet has been a seething cauldron of rumours concerning the Miniature Surface Zune Tablet (at least that is what I am calling it).

A couple days ago the old Pink whispers began appearing again. Pink is the supposed code name for some top secret Microsoft Mobile device and is often mentioned by Microsoft Swamis Mary-Jo Foley and Paul Thurrott and has changed form a good deal over the months. According to Foley, Pink is no longer the Zune Phone or a set of mobile services or a type of search technology (as previous rumors have all suggested). Instead it is once again a phone (or two phones as suggested on 9to5Mac of all places) to be Microsoft branded and designed, built by a third party and based on Windows 7 with certain Zune software elements baked in, utilizing Danger’s Sidekick technology.

OK, that is all well and good…but we have been hearing variations on that old saw for ages…the OTHER part of this rumour cauldron is the hot part.

Also included in this project is apparently a portable version of Microsoft’s much ballyhooed but dead on arrival as a consumer project Surface technology. After all, who REALLY wants a multitouch coffeetable? Just think how expensive all those coasters would be. Surface DOES make a lot more sense as a TabletPC then it does as a piece of furniture.

The Surface Tablet rumor has been around for a few months with the project sometimes codenamed “Oahu” and currently “Alchemy Ventures” supposedly, but is now heating up fast. J Allard, one of my favorite Microsofties and one of the fathers of the XBox 360 and Zune is apparently in charge of this project which means Microsoft is hoping for it to be hip and happening.

OK, up until now despire some extra glamour this is all pretty typical Microsoft “Fog of War” rumour mill stuff…but now things get really weird.

9to5Mac (yeah, I know..how the hell did THEY get this???) has been reporting a rumor from an unnamed source that a Miniature Surface Zune Tablet late–model prototype is ready and will be outed by Gizmodo today (more weird…why Giz, and why does 9to5Mac know what Giz will report tomorrow?). They also keep giving a clue about the device that in some way involves the font Courier New (Perhaps the device will be named Courier? Perhaps it will be blocky and angular? Perhaps it will actually be a typewriter? Perhaps I need to put on a tinfoil hat to find out?). What’s more, 9to5Mac say they are VERY IMPRESSED with the Microsoft device (OK Mr. Ballmer, who are these guys and what have you done with the editors of 9to5Mac?) as well as the following…

What’s even more exciting about this device is that we keep hearing, over and over again, how Apple is also working on a device in this class – though with just a single 10-inch display.

So if Apple is working on a device with a “single 10-inch display”, that infers that the Microsoft Tablet will have multiple screens. A MULTI SCREEN TABLET??? Two sided perhaps? Or two separate 5 inch screens side by side? Why? Why not? Can I have some of whatever 9to5Mac is drinking?

Like Foley, 9to5Mac indicates the physical product will be made by a third party…could this be another fruit of the recent agreements between Microsoft and Nokia? Nokia DOES have experience in tablet-form internet devices.

If this device IS outed tomorrow on Gizmodo, that will go against Foley’s contention that Redmond was going to wait and see what Cupertino finally announced concerning a tablet…but I am not so sure they would wait. One of the few negatives I keep hearing against the Zune HD was that it is a me-too product following the iPod Touch and that Microsoft does not innovate any longer and is content to follow Apple (not true in my opinion, but a lot of people are saying it). Perhaps Steve Ballmer (who has been known to do things in a mad, emotional rush at times) or Allard (who knows the value of geek cred and blog buzz) has decided to move up the announcement to make it clear that MS is leading on this product and to leak it to Gizmodo to make sure all the fanbois of all flavors can’t miss it or say it is coming from a Microsoft flak.

What’s going to happen? No idea, so much of this is very very strange…too strange not to have at least a kernel of truth. I can’t think of ANY REASON for a bunch of Cupertino Irregulars like 9to5Mac to come up with a Microsoft/Gizmodo rumour unless…it’s true. Or it could all be a load of hooey.

Wait and see, and make sure your tin foil hat fits well…you may need it.

Zealot (473 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).