After much anticipation and speculation, Apple Inc. today finally unveiled its tablet computer, the Apple iPad (see more pictures). Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the device at an invite-only press event in San Francisco.

The iPad is only a half of an inch thick and weighs just 1.5-lbs. It is powered by a 1GHz Apple A4 processor and will come in three flavors: 16, 32, or 64GB sizes. The 16GB version will retail for $499, the 32GB for $599, and the 64GB version for $699. The 3G version will cost an additional $130 per model.

Other features include an accelerometer, WiFi, Bluetooth, among other features. It operates on the same operating system as the iPhone and does run applications from the app store.

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Apple is expected to unveil its very highly anticipated tablet computer at a press event believed to be either on Jan 26 or Jan 27.

It is rumored that Apple will unveil the device to the world at that press event, and is expected to launch the product by the end of Q1 2010.

New reports that have emerged now suggest the launch date will be sometime in Q2.

Asian suppliers that are familiar with the product, such as AVY Precesiion Tech (who is providing the structural casing parts of the device) say they plan to start production of the parts in February to meet a second quarter launch time-line.

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We’ve seen a lot of things happen in 2009, some things were expected, some were not, some were shocking, and some were simply never seen or heard of before.

From the biggest Ponzi scheme ever seen in U.S. history, to the global financial credit crisis, to historic health care reform championed by the first black President of the United States.

A lot has happened in 2009, and we’ve compiled it all up for you with the top 8 topics of the entire year.

1. The Global Financial Crisis

With the near collapse of the global credit market, and unprecedented actions being taken by global leaders to stave off a global economic meltdown, the financial crisis was plastered in the media almost every day and even became a primary presidential voting issue, thereby making it the story of 2009. With billions provided in emergency bailout loans to financial intermediaries, Wall Street was still paying millions in bonuses with outstanding government loans, while millions of Americans faced forclosurer and high unemployment rates. The Obama administration later moved to block $165-million in AIG bonuses alone and later blocked bonuses from being paid while the financial intermediaries had outstanding government debt. Warren Buffet’s company Berkshire Hathaway even reported its biggest loss ever (only its second loss in its history). There were also opportunities for firms to act on, such as Disney who acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4B. Despite households losing significant amounts of money primairly from their positions in risky equity positions, some did profit (though not for too long)…Bearnie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison following a conviction for operating the biggest Ponzi scheme ever seen in U.S. history that saw $50 billion defrauded from investors.

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A concept of what an Apple Tablet computer could look like

According to a report published today by the Financial Times that only cited “people familiar with the discussions”, Apple should officially unveil its much-anticipated Tablet computer as early as February 2010.

Apple has explicitly denied it is working on such a device.

The device will very likely support the iPhone apps from the App Store, and will likely be a cross of OS X and the iPhone OS. It is very unlikely the tablet would include OS X found on regular Mac machines.

The Financial Times report also says Apple is preparing to launch a paid online television subscription service sometime in 2010. According to reports, Apple is approaching publishers such as Time, Disney, and CBS to offer content through iTunes.

The market research firm Piper Jaffray, has released a new report on Apple’s unconfirmed tablet/UMPC/netbook like device.

The report predicts the product would launch in 2010, and that Apple would sell about 2 million units by the end of the first year of its launch, generating $1.2 billion in revenue for Apple, or about 3-percent of total revenue in 2010. The product and hence the direct forward earnings are currently not considered in the Apple stock price right now.

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