For those of you who aren’t interested or (alternatively) have been living under a pile of snow in your home-made igloo for the last few weeks it may have passed under your radar that Apple have arranged a very special “event” this Wednesday (27th January) to show off their “latest creation”. Although Apple haven’t yet disclosed what this latest creation is yet, the internet rumour mill has been hard at work since about November last year hinting and speculating about the launch of an “Amazon Kindle-busting” tablet computer, a sort of “supersized” iTouch iPod/ iPhone that will be the industry defining must-have tech device of 2010. If they get it right, then Apple could indeed set the bar for this kind of technology that all in the industry must at least match if it is to compete in this arena.

So, to pre-empt this tech defining moment in history I thought I’d write down my top ten must have list of features  the the Apple iTablet (or iSlate), so here they are (in no particular order):

1. Design Style – It is hard to dispute the fact that (Historically) whenever Apple have launched a new product they have done so with a fair amount of fanfare and flag waving. Obviously, a lot of this is all part of Apple’s marketing hoopla, however, I also think it generally does this because a lot of the time it develops and launches products that have the “wow” factor. Apple is known not only for its attention to function but also because of its attention to form. The iSlate, if it is to be a sucess, must not disappoint in this regard.

2. Awesome UI – In the way that we all love Apple for the effort it undeniably puts into the design of its products, we are all similarly used to its exceptional ability to produce products that are so intuitive  that this “ease of use” supplants the need for a complicated manual. For the iSlate to be a market defining piece of technology it must not forget all the lessons it has learned in UI design over the past 33 years.

3. Light enough to be portable - This is quite straightforward. We are going to want to carry the iSlate  in our briefcases, rucksacks, handbags, carrier bags and suitcases and although we want it to be big enough to keep zooming and scrolling to a minimum, it also has to be small enough (or thin enough) for us not to think twice about if we carry it with us or not.

4. Big enough to read a whole web-page - The iSlate has to be designed to read websites and e-books easily. The whole point of the device (unless I am mistaken) is to create something which takes the concept of an e-reader to the next level by integrating ease of use and portability with all that is good with current web standards. If the screen is too small then I will have to spend too much time scrolling and zooming to read text and that surely misses the point.

5. Rugged - Apple, please make the iSlate rugged enough not to make me worried about it too much. Obviously, I am not planning to run over it in my car or spill hot coffee over it but I know for a fact that my children will (at some stage) get hold of it and that it will (at some stage) find itself in a state of freefall towards my lounge carpet. I’d also not like to have to purchase plastic screen guards or expensive cases and I’d also like to be able to take it to the beach in order to read the latest John Grisham or Dan Brown blockbuster where it will invariably see a bit of sand.

6. Excellent Battery Life – Let’s be honest. For all of us who love the iPhone the one thing we have to admit to our Blackberry waving peers is that the battery life is shockingly bad. For it to be a sucess the iSlate must address the issue of battery life head-on. It needs to provide at least a 8-hour battery life if it is to compete with the likes of the Kindle and Nook for a slice of the e-book pie, saving the requirement of having to carry around a bulky PSU and hunt around for a power socket to use.

7. Flash Support – Again (sorry to be pernickety Mr Jobs) but apart from the battery life, the one thing currently missing on the iPhone is support for Adobe Flash. Now I have read all the reasons why the iPhone will never support Flash and also reports (more recently) that maybe the iPhone will have some kind of Flash support albeit in a drastically cut down format. However, for the iSlate to be truly unbeatable it must offer seemless integration with web technologies that are in use on a lot of sites out there. Flash is one of these technologies.

8. Wi-fi & 3G – Obviously these things go without saying.

9. Zero boot-up – OK “zero” boot-up might be a little too much to expect, but if the iSlate is to stand head and shoulders above the competition which invariably will come, it needs that almost instantaneous “power-up” feel of the iPhone. If we have to wait for the thing to boot-up (even if only for a few seconds) then we may think twice about switching it on before getting on the train or leaving the house and this may then make it less likely for the iSlate to become an indispensible part of our tech-kit.

10. Affordable - This is a difficult one. You see, I know the iSlate will be more than an e-book reader and I also know that the iSlate will be less than a fully featured laptop, but just how much would I / we be willing to pay for it. Internet rumours currently waver between $399 and $1000 respectively, which (given Apple’s usual pricing technique) will mean it will cost between £399 and £1000 in the UK. As a guess, I think the iSlate will be no more than $599 and will probably come out slightly lower, would I buy one at this price? Probably.