The speculation about a possible tablet computer from Apple has come thick and fierce all over again. The latest rumblings have it once again that Steve Jobs continues to shepherd the project through various obstacles, such as finalizing an actual design.

Indeed, if you can believe those rumors, this gadget has gone through several major alterations, such as switching from Mac OS X to the iPhone OS, not to mention various screen sizes. If true, the alleged iTablet would be capable of running existing iPhone apps, including that huge quantity of games. Of course how they’d scale up to a larger screen is anyone’s guess, although great graphical display is a normal part of the various OS X versions.

Now nobody outside of Apple knows for sure whether such a product will truly see the light of day, despite the optimistic nature of some of those reports. The return to Apple of Michael Tchao, someone originally involved with the Newton, does make the entire concept seem sensible, though. In the end, maybe the stories are based on fact, and that some iteration of this gadget will appear. The real question, however, is what purpose it might serve.

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All right, this won’t really impact readers outside of Europe in any meaningful way, but it should. In response to a European Union edict to offer Windows users a choice of browsers, Microsoft has devised a ballot box scheme to allow you to make your selection.

Did I say scheme?

Well, if you can believe the critics, a widely-published representation of a proposed Microsoft solution stacks the deck sufficiently to scare people off choosing something other than Internet Explorer 8. So they may be following the letter of the law, but the spirit is something else again.

How so?

Well, the screen shot I’ve seen puts the ballot box in an Internet Explorer 8 browser window. If that’s the case, Microsoft is already cheating by preloading new PCs with its own browser. That’s bad enough, but evidently clicking on a browser choice takes you through several windows and a bunch of frightening warning messages before you can download and install the browser you want. If that’s the case, you can see where a fair number of Windows users would just decide that the cure is worse than the disease and stick with the pathetic browser they already have.

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I’m quite sure that the news that downloads from the App Store have exceeded the two billion mark a little over 14 months after opening day did not come as a surprise to most Mac users. Nor should it come as a surprise that there are 85,000 apps available, and thousands more are going up every single week.

Certainly, Apple helped make it easier to navigate through this incredible repository with improved search and “Genius” recommendations in iPhone 3.1. With over 50 million potential customers, you can bet that tons of developers are wishing and hoping for big paydays.

Obviously Apple’s competitors are struggling to spin the news in their favor without much success. Microsoft, for example, claims that developers can’t profit from their products on the App Store, since so many are available for very cheap prices — or free for that matter. What the Microsoft drone fails to comprehend is the fact that the developers set their own prices, and they clearly feel that selling 10,000 copies at 99 cents each is better than selling 1,000 copies at $4.99. It’s the basic math that eludes Microsoft.

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For the second time in recent days, I want to tip my virtual hat to liberal talk show host Ed Schultz for coining the phrase “psycho talk” on his TV show. Schultz applies that label to political figures and talk show hosts that inhabit the other side of the political spectrum and make what he regards as wacky statements. I’m going to apply it to people who write about the Mac with less than a full deck.

Recently, one tech pundit, who shall remain unnamed, wrote an article going on at length about why every personal computer user should consider upgrading to Windows 7. Although Microsoft’s successor to the failed Windows Vista is primarily a refresh with some interface refinements, the writer in question seems to regard it as a revolution in computer operating systems, and he says that Snow Leopard doesn’t come close.

Understand that Windows 7 has not as yet actually been released. Those who are writing those articles are actually using public betas, or a copy of the alleged “Released To Manufacturing” version, the one that supposedly went to the DVD pressing plants and PC makers to load onto their new computers.

Without personal experience, I’ll accept for the sake of argument that these preliminary versions of Windows 7 are close enough to the final version not to make a significant difference. That will help avoid any arguments on the subject, although we won’t know for sure until the product is actually on sale.

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