I don't suppose this would be news were it not part of a much larger pile of evidence that Apple is, in fact, prepping a tablet for early next year. During an in-house speech to his staff, New York Times executive editor, Bill Keller, said this,

We need to figure out the right journalistic product to deliver to mobile platforms and devices. I'm hoping we can get the newsroom more actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism in the form of Times Reader, iPhone apps, WAP, or the impending Apple slate, or whatever comes after that.

See, toward the end there he made mention of that much anticipated device. The reason why people are jumping on what might otherwise be regarded as pure speculation is the fact that The Times is rumored to be a content partner for the device, so Keller and company may, in fact, have some inside information, something compounded by the fact that the editor never really expected the speech to get leaked to the Internet.

How could something like that happen in a room full of reporters, anyway?