Image courtesy of AppleInsider

Take a nice, long look at the accompanying Apple tablet mockup: Sources say this is basically what you’ll be seeing come next Wednesday.

That’s the latest tablet rumor de jour today, with AppleInsider reporting that the above rendition created by Flickr user Fotoboer.nl last August is “strikingly close” to the real thing expected to make its debut next Wednesday, Jan. 27 in San Francisco.

The bottom line appears to be that Apple’s tablet is mostly a bigger iPhone: “Nestled in an aluminum shell that leverages Apple’s expertise in unibody construction but thinner proportionality than the original iPhone,” AppleInsider writes, “the tablet reportedly sports all of the same buttons found on the handset, right down to its iconic home button -- which, like the volume toggle, is missing from the rendering.”

Among the tablet’s other iPhone-esque qualities are the “same in/out connectivity as the current iPhone 3GS,” which equates to a 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack, built-in speakers, microphone, GPS, 3G data connectivity and a 30-pin dock connector. Their sources also claim the tablet’s 10-inch multitouch display is “framed by a black border that bleeds into its wrap-around aluminum enclosure.”

AppleInsider was one of the first to report back in September, 2007 that Cupertino would follow its mammoth iPhone success with a “completely new category of device” -- essentially the modern equivalent of Apple’s former Newton tablet which was so beloved by fans but probably way ahead of its time.