The speculation is reaching fever pitch, bloggers everywhere are stockpiling caffeine and guarding their broadband connections in anticipation of Apples latest "Creation" . the itab, islate, ipad, isketch, itablet, itouch pro whatever it might eventually be called IF its finally announced next week!

When the mythical tablet is released, carved from the horn of a unicorn and cooled with dragon scales, it will get the usual media coverage followed by weeks and weeks of people arguing as to whether its revolutionary or underpowered or a niche product or the best thing since the iphone. One thing will be clear and that is that Apple sure do know how to whip up a frenzy!

Assuming we will be seeing this new device launched I've been chatting with some other photographers to see what we would like this device to be, all our conversations have been based on the fact that the device will be a supped up, larger iphone OS running device not something running the full OSX. But this has still produced LOTS of great thoughts and ideas as to what this device could do, particularly as most of our thoughts are actually not only plausible but in many respects already exist for the iphone.

So lets get the media capabilities out of the way first, the obvious generic stuff.

1) Photos & Videos
Obvious really take the high quality screen from the iphone, make it 10 inches and you have a beautiful HD screen that will look fantastic for both photos and videos, showing photos and slideshows to clients will be a dream.

2) Browsing, books, mail & scrapbooks
The first 3 above are obvious, the idea of subscriptions to books and magazines to destroy the kindle is an obvious and easy thing for this device, mail and browsing, either by 3G or wifi will again taken for granted. My idea of 'scrap-booking' would be for a touch screen version of pages where people could grab images and bits of websites and create documents but in a very scrap-booking kind of way, very intuitive and easy to use.

3) Flash
This will be interesting, with the extra horsepower of this device surely flash can't be too far behind?

Now we get into the wish list :) Now as far as I'm aware all of this is possible purely by using 3rd party apps, but all of it should be able to be built in right from the start.

4) Wireless second monitor
We already have usb powered monitors and software allowing you to remotely control a computer, but the idea of being able to have the tablet run as a second monitor to either you MBP/MB or MP using wifi is a VERY tasty idea. Imagine being able to control your computer but hand the tablet to a customer and take them through images, work or anything, moving things from the main machine to the tablet and back, allowing them to add notes and comments and draw on the screen. This alone would almost make it a must have device for me.

5) Running beefed up iphone apps
Running programs like bento but being able to have the tablet to the customer for them to fill in an on screen form with their finger! In fact you can take a whole bunch of the really good iphone apps, give them the extra functionality possible with the extra power and screen size and suddenly we are blurring the lines between iphone app and OSX app.

6) Camera tethering
The idea of being able to tether to such a compact HD screen would be fantastic in the field, also the ability to download and review photos, utilizing all the best pinching and zooming (and hopefully more on the larger screen) multitouch gestures they can harness.

As much as I would have loves a macbook powered device in a tablet form (I used to love my old compaq t1000 tablet - if I could get OSX on it it would still be a great device) The market for Apple will be in the form of something that builds on the success of the iphone and the Apps that exist for it, if Apple manage to get this device right then it will be a massively powerful device and at the right price demand will outstrip supply for a while. By my own admission I'm an Apple fan but this is another case where if Apple re-writes the rule book on tablets and creates something it helps to push everything forward, CES saw the same tired laptop-into-a-tablets computers thrown about hoping to ride the wave of the Apple device but the will end up looking like the chunky 'smartphones' of old before the iphone came out.

I love it when Apple combines things that have been around for years and puts there spin on it to come up with something new, but I love it because it means we have great new gadgets to lust after but also because it kick-starts the whole industry in fresh new directions which is great for all of us.

So now we have the long wait for next weeks announcement, how much of the above will be in the mythical tablet, who knows, but if Apple history has taught me anything its that if I can think of it then its nowhere near exciting enough to be included! and whatever this thing does I'm sure that it will sellout fast and be copied for years to come!