Apple hints at ‘handheld tablet computer’ with European design trademark filing
Friday, August 13, 2004 - 10:00 AM EST"Apple has filed for a European design trademark which may provide a tantalising glimpse of the company's long-awaited tablet computer," Tony Smith reports for The Register. "The filing, made in May this year but only published this week, covers a 'handheld computer' and contains sketches of what look like an iBook screen minus the body of the computer."
"Back in November 2003, old pal Matthew Rothenberg at eWeek let the cat out of the bag with a "hunch" that Apple has seeded prototype tablet Macs with developers. It used Mac OS X's Inkwell handwriting recognition technology and a healthy amount of knowledge picked up during the development of the Newton OS. Inkwell has been a part of Apple's system software since September 2002's release of Mac OS X 10.2. So far, only graphics tablet users have been able to do anything with it," Smith reports. "August's Apple Expo Paris may prove more exciting than previously thought."
More details and sketches here.

Apple isn't going to make a tablet computer or a phone or a PDA. End of story.