On the eve of one of Apple's most yet anticipated product launches in history, McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw pre-empted Apple CEO Steve Jobs when he let slip confirmation on CNBC (video below) that Apple is indeed launching a tablet later today (Jan 27, 2010). McGraw revealed that it will run on the iPhone OS as well as details of the company's dealings with Apple. Separately, tech gadget site Engadget.com has what appears to be some very convincing photos of the device which it estimates to be 9 or 10" in size.The CNBC video (embedded below) starts with McGraw discussing some positive earnings results for his company. He reviews how many of the company's titles are doing and discusses some recent successes in China. He then deals with a question regarding potential conflicts of interest with S&P which makes up about half of McGraw-Hill's business.

For the latest Apple tablet news, opinion and conversation, be sure to check out InformationWeek's Special Report: Tablet Wars -- Can Apple Three-peat?

Then at 2:50 into the video, McGraw is asked about the company's dealings with Apple:

CNBC: And briefly, before we go, Apple... apparently you may get textbooks on the tablet that's comming out.

McGraw: Yeah, Very exciting. Yes, they'll make their announcement tomorrow on this one. We have worked with Apple for quite a while. And the Tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system and so it will be transferable. So what you are going to be able to do now, we have a consortium of e-books, and we have 95% of all our materials that are in e-book format on that one. So now with the tablet you're going to open up the higher education market, the professional market. The tablet is going to be just really terrific.

Separately, Engadget.com has what looks to be some incredibly convincing photos of the device. It looks like a giant iPod Touch or iPhone. The site reports that it's about 9 or 10 inches in size based one of the photos that shows an iPhone sitting on top of the tablet. It also appears to have a built-in camera opposite the home button.

David Berlind is the chief content officer of TechWeb and editor-in-chief of TechWeb.com. David likes to write about emerging tech, new and social media, mobile tech, and things that go wrong and welcomes comments, both for and against anything he writes. He can be reached at dberlind@techweb.com and you also can find him on Twitter and other social networks (see the list below). David doesn't own any tech stocks. But, if he did, he'd probably buy some Salesforce.com and Amazon, given his belief in the principles of cloud computing.

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