We have previously discussed the possibility of Apple producing a tablet-like Mac; I’ve called this rumored product a Media Pad. Now the folks at InfoTimes claim that Apple will release a Mac Tablet with a 9.7-inch touch screen later this year. According to InfoTimes, three different companies (Foxconn, Wintek, and Dynapack) will produce the device.

Steve Jobs has repeatedly said that Apple will not enter the netbook market because it cannot produce a quality netbook at a sub-$500 price. By using a touch screen, Apple could differentiate itself from the netbook market, and price the device higher. InfoTimes expects the new Mac Tablet to sell in the $800 range, and be available in October.

This isn’t the first time rumors have surfaced about a tablet-based Mac. So far, all of the rumors have been wrong, with each predicted date for an Apple announcement passing without any word from Apple. Is this rumor any different?

InfoTimes has a mixed track record. It isn’t really in the rumor business per se, but it does track and report on the electronics manufacturing and contracting industry in Asia. As such, it makes sense that InfoTimes could see a contract with Wintek, a maker of touch screen displays, and Foxconn, which among other businesses provides contract assembly services, as a sure sign of a new Apple device.

I think Apple wants to create a product that is not a netbook, but that could compete at the high end of the netbook market. An Apple tablet designed to emphasize multimedia usage would be a nice fit.

An October date is also feasible, provided the product is ready for sale at the same time. Apple would want any new fall products to be available for the upcoming holiday season.

What do you think?

Apple celebrated the one year anniversary of the App Store by announcing an amazing milestone: 1.5 billion files have been downloaded from the store since it went live last year.

If you remember, back in April we were waiting on the App Store’s one billionth download. Less than three months later, another half billion applications have already been downloaded, an amazing amount of growth. The App Store currently offers more than 65,000 applications, with over 100,000 registered developers.

“The App Store is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With 1.5 billion apps downloaded, it is going to be very hard for others to catch up.”

Apple delivered the App Store one year anniversary announcement today, July 14, although the App Store actually opened on July 11, 2008. Maybe Apple needs a new calendar app?

Many Mac utilities are provided as preference panes that are installed and accessed through the System Preferences function in OS X. Third-party preference panes display in System Preferences under the ‘Other’ category.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll collect a number of preference panes on your travels, some of which you’ll rarely or never use. If you want to remove an unused preference pane, you can drag the file to the trash. Of course, you have to remember where it was installed first. Or you can use the simple two-click method outlined in this week’s Mac Tip: How to Remove Preference Panes From Your Mac.

XMenu adds up to six new menu items to the Apple menu bar. These new menu items contain five defined categories (Applications, Developer, Home, Documents, Snippets) and one free-form category that lets you create your own menu items.

XMenu

For long-time Mac users, XMenu is the reincarnation of the old Apple menu from System 9 and earlier. Back then you could easily add files, folders, and applications to the Apple menu, and quickly launch your favorite items with a click or two of the mouse.

XMenu automatically populates predefined categories with all of the items from the associated location. For instance, the Application menu will be filled with all of the files and folders in your Applications directory. But it’s the user-defined menu option that I like the most. You can build your own menus of just the items you want, as well as sub-menus to help in organization and retrieval.

XMenu is simple to use and has plenty of options. It includes a PDF that explains how to create your own menu system.

XMenu is free and available for downloading from the DEVONtechnologies web site.

See other software choices from Tom’s Budget Software Picks.