Ok, so maybe Bill reads us. It's a pleasant thought. The Times does have its own online efforts in the Times Reader, and they did a pretty good job with it in terms of preserving the look of the print product. You can probably guess the reaction in Cupertino.

But Bill Keller isn't the only spoiler out there. The e-commerce site China Ontrade.com let things leak with this entry:

Apple iTablet iPhone 4 Generation SIM Tray

Original Apple iTablet iPhone 4 Generation (Probably iTablet) SIM Tray OEM This part came from Foxconn to our warehouse at 10.23.2009.

For those of you who don't follow Apple too closely, Foxconn is the maker of the iPod and iPhone and is the rumored maker of the iTablet. 

Now, why would there be a fourth generation iPhone product when the third generation has only been on the market for four months? It would also seem to indicate the iTablet (as they are calling it) will indeed have a telephone connection. Better get a Bluetooth headset; you will look real stupid holding a tablet with rumored dimensions of 8x10 inches up to your head.

And then there's the clue found in a beta build of Mac OS 10.6.2, build 10C531. The Spanish Web site Applesfara.com (and the American site 9to5Mac.com) noted the following references to new MacBook Pros:

This is notable because the current generation of MacBooks are the MacBookPro5_5. So what are these two future MacBooks? Speculation is that they could either be quad-core MacBooks, most likely using Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processors.

Some times I wonder if Apple plays this secretive game to give their faithful the amusement of ferreting out these clues. Probably not, but the Mac blogs sure do have fun digging this stuff up.