I got an anonymous email today from someone purporting to know the stats of a forthcoming iPad.

While the stats describe a machine marginally different than the full-size 'thin-client' tablet I had envisioned, they (not the spelling errors in the spec sheet) have an air of credibility. It makes sense.

I'll do a more complete write-up later, but in short, the iPad, as described, would be a handheld (3" by 4.5" by 0.8") half-pound device with a high-density 256x512 pixel 16-color touchscreen, a thin version of Mac OSX, and a firewire port.

The only real miss in the product seems to be a lack of wireless, depending on a firewire adapter. That seems pretty silly to me, but then it seems to be intended as more of an unfettered device than the 'around-the-house' iPad I envisioned. This is much more a star-trek 'padd' device.

Base price: $550

Release date: Unknown

Rumor validity: 5 on a scale of 10