"We need to figure out the right journalistic product to deliver to mobile platforms and devices," Keller said. "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."

In Australia, Robert Whitehead, director of marketing for Fairfax Media, confirmed media talks with Apple, telling the Sydney Morning Herald that the company was uninterested in Amazon's model for the Kindle. "We're continuously examining all options for extending the reach of our mastheads and we'll be very interested to see what Apple comes up with," he said.

Paperless Society?

"It seems they're trying to preload it with content deals, rather than just create an elegant general-purpose device," Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Research, said in a telephone interview. "What Apple has done with the iPhone is to integrate software and hardware together in an elegant device. Apple's idea with the tablet may be to build on that by integrating content."

For 30-odd years the technology world has talked about a "paperless society" in which news and books are delivered digitally. Could a compelling Apple device be the tipping point that makes all-digital delivery a reality?

"If you got some really impressive experience, it would certainly accelerate the transition from print to digital. Devices like this and the Kindle and other devices are forming a beachhead that could generate enough enthusiasm to advance the transition," Sterling said.

Still, it's not entirely clear if Apple has been talking to media companies. Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, said in an e-mail, "Knowing Apple, I really doubt that they are out talking to any media company at this time. I think this is more wishful thinking on their part."

The device has been the king of the rumor mill for months now. A post on the iLounge blog gave very specific details of the rumored device and promised delivery in January 2010. iLounge editor Jeremy Horwitz claimed the device will have a 10.7-inch screen, 720-pixel resolution, and be ideal for reading books and magazines. He also said the project was awaiting final approval from Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Good for Textbooks, Too?

Gizmodo reported in September that two people "related to The New York Times" had conversations with Apple about putting the paper on a "new device." The site also said executives at textbook publishers McGraw-Hill and Oberlin Press have talked to Apple about putting textbooks on iTunes.

Apple, which has always been strong in academia, may have a great opportunity to deliver digital books to a captive market on a slate-like device. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently launched an initiative to move the state's K-12 textbook purchasing to digital -- and recent surveys indicated students find Amazon's Kindle to be wholly inadequate. A pilot program at Princeton found the device "clunky, slow and a real pain to operate," in the words of one student.

Meanwhile, newspaper publishers aren't happy with Amazon's content-licensing proposals. Whitehead said Amazon's "business model represents a very unattractive partnership deal for newspaper publishers."