New York Times Editor Spills the Apple Slate

Here’s a shocker: The New York Times has been working closely with gadget makers to get its content onto new platforms, and one of those devices is the Apple tablet. Speaking at an all-hands meeting at the TimesCenter, executive editor Bill Keller spoke of new strategies for the digital age, but here’s the quote you care about: “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.” The speech was supposed to be off the record, but now it’s online and can’t be taken back. Still, it’s surprising that Keller acknowledged the Apple tablet’s existence to the Times’ entire digital group.

Of course, Keller’s remarks bring us no closer to knowing what the tablet is (aside from a large-screen multi-touch device), when it will be released or how much it’ll cost. “Impending” is a relative term no matter how urgent it sounds. I do wonder, however, whether Keller meant the “Apple slate” or the “Apple Slate.” It’s not a term I’ve heard in the tech world, but for what it’s worth, “Slate” isn’t a bad name for the product. [via Gawker]