Not only that, but the promotional material for the event bears the tagline “Come see our latest creation.” For those who were still skeptical that Apple would release a tablet at all, I think you should consider yourselves quite wrong. That tagline definitely wouldn’t herald a new Core i5-based MacBook Pro, and given that Apple cannot be unaware of the hype surrounding its still-mythical slate, there’s really only one thing it could refer to. Judging by my Twitter stream, not everyone thinks it’s that obvious, though.

Some people are speculating that the evidence points to a software announcement. Creative software that could produce some kind of artistic output, possibly iLife for the iPhone? That’s a reasonable enough prediction, if you don’t take into account the fact that for years now the tablet rumors have been stacking up, and Apple would realize that announcing some lame software when everyone is thinking iSlate would absolutely destroy its stock price.

Another possibility is that this will just be an announcement of the next major iPhone OS upgrade, iPhone 4.0. If the tablet is running that platform, I think we’ll see it discussed here, but Apple is not a company to use words irresponsibly. Not to mention that the last time it held such an event was March of last year, so the timing is off, and the invitations for that event couldn’t have been more obvious about the nature of the announcement. Why be coy now, when doing so could only hurt the company in the eyes of investors?

No, if you ask me, it’s tablet time. Now that we don’t have long to wait, you may want to brush up on all the latest and greatest from the rumor mill. Honestly, if I was going to link to all of our tablet-related articles, I think every word of this article would be hyperlinked, so I’ll just do this and make it much easier for all of us. Now’s the time to start getting those last minute predictions in, so that you can point back to the comments section of this post and tell all your friends “I told you so.”

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In related news however, I did find some other ways that starving students (and teachers) can score some bonuses on their Mac purchase this summer. If you go to Best Buy’s Ad for this week, you will see (at least in my area, verify in the comments what your result is) that they are offering gift cards to Best Buy and the iTunes Store with the purchase of iPod Nano or Touch in preparation for Father’s Day. The values are $20 to $40 for the Best Buy gift cards and $25 or $50 for the iTMS gift cards. So, you get a new Mac, get the gift card, get the rebate, and you can totally afford to get MobileMe when it comes out.

(I did ask a couple Apple Store employees if the iTMS gift cards would work in the App Store, and they told me that the iTMS gift cards “are only for content in the iTunes Music Store” and not for the App Store. I guess it makes sense to separate them, but since it is all linked to your Apple ID, it should work out. Apple still has time to switch sides on that, though.)

Also, if you are a member of Best Buy Reward Zone, you can gift card rewards for your purchases. So, add up the cost of a new Mac and an iPod and you could get up to $50 in gift cards. All that together makes for a pretty compelling sale, even if you hate Be$t Buy. Hey, who turns down free money?

Circuit City is offering a similar deal on iPods (only $15-$30 gift cards, though), but they don’t sell Macs there, so it doesn’t help much.

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