Apple rumors are like crack for gadget bloggers. They make us do strange things, like lifting up police cars and jumping out second-story windows (all proverbially, of course), in order to score a taste of that sweet, sweet bloggy candy [kids: don't do drugs]. Now that the iPhone, the iPod touch, Jaguar, and those Santa Rosa Macbooks are confirmed and out, it's time to move onto the next big super-secret project.

Next up is the Apple Tablet (or Macbook Touch, iTablet, et al.), the spiritual successor to the took-forward-thinking Newton. Slashdot has word that the rumored device is coming in the form of a collaboration between the Cupertino company and Asus, which will apparently combine a tablet version of Leopard with the touch-screen Coverflow of the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Tablets have long been the territory of industry professionals. Apple's entry into the field would no doubt be an attempt to expand the reach of the device into the public at large. So the question is: Can the company that reinvented the MP3 player and cell phone successfully market a tablet to the masses, or is the fabled device simple the Newton's second coming?