Looks like the iSlate is finally due to be launched. Apple has booked the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and is expected to make a 'major product announcement' on Tuesday, January 26 according to reports.

It is understood that iPhone app makers have been advised to update their code to fit a larger screen but no one seems to know if we'll see a 7inch or 10inch model on the 26th.

A new problem involving serious data loss after Snow Leopard install has emerged. Some users are reporting here and here that the system has deleted their home directories after logging in to the guest account. Without backup this is a disastrous situation.

"We are aware of the issue which occurs only in extremely rare cases and we are working on a fix," an Apple representative said in a prepared statement delivered to CNET.

If you have installed Snow Leopard we strongly recommend that you disable the guest login until further notice.

Apple appear close to releasing a new 'tablet', half way between an iPhone and a laptop. It will probably have a 10 inch screen and include a slot for a SIM card for internet access.

Reports from Chinese factories suggest it looks like an oversize iPhone and might also be available in 13 and 15 inch versions.

The new project is rumoured to be obsessively micro managed by perfectionist CEO Steve Jobs. It is not clear if the tablet will run an extended version of the cut-down iPhone OS X or the full version of OS X.

Australians are moving to broadband and downloading twice as much data as they did a year ago.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics give a revealing snapshot of our internet use. Australia has 8.4 million internet subscribers. Of these around 30% are on broadband (1.5Mbps-8Mbps), almost double last year's numbers.

Internet connected businesses total 1.4 million, of these only 215,000 are still on dial-up and the number is dropping fast.

I've just installed Snow Leopard, Apple's new operating system version 10.6 and it's working very nicely on my quad Intel Mac Pro (Snow Leopard is the first version of OS X that does not support older Power PC Macs). As it is optimised for Intel the speed benefits are apparent as soon as you start using it and it has a number of attractive new features.

There are a few things to watch, however.

I have client reports of simply putting the new Snow Leopard disk in and upgrading. It didn't go well. These Macs have, in some cases, become extremely unstable.

Blind Carbon Copies in Mail are email addresses that are hidden from the persons you've sent the email to. Maybe you've received an email with a long list of recipients in the To: field? Maybe you want to send to a list of recipients but you don't want the list to be seen? Use the BCC field for your list of recipients.

This Apple video show you how to do it.

Blind Carbon Copies in Mail

Hard drives are the most commonly replaced hardware item but, until recently, actual failure rates have been a matter of anecdotal experience and small scale research. Now there are hard facts.

Recently released data derived from Google's server farms proves hard drive failure rates take a big jump after two years and then keep on increasing. They typically don't last the five years the vendors say they should.

If you don't back up you're definitely asking for trouble. What are the options for Mac?

Did you know Google now provides free, online, Microsoft Office compatible, word processor and spreadsheet? It's called Google Apps.

5 things you probably didn't know you could do in Google Docs & Spreadsheets

As a Mac user you don't have much to worry about for a couple of simple reasons:

1. Macs comprise less than 10% of computers worldwide, Windows 90%. If you were going to write a virus or a worm or a trojan or spyware which would you write the program for? It's a no brainer.

The likelihood of you getting hit on an Apple is insignificant compared to PCs