It's the perpetual motion machine of rumors, the neverending rumor mill. The latest -- and greatest -- new factoid coming down the pike is that Apple's possibly developing a 13-inch and a 15-inch  tablet, as well as the 10-inch one. Sweeeeeet.

The source of these rumors is described as "100 percent reliable," and quite frankly, how else would a source be depicted and be expected to be taken seriously? What's described are two aluminum body touch screen tablets, in a 13-inch configuration and a 15-inch as well, one of which is described as running Mac OS X 10.5.

While most previous rumors have operated on the idea of the tablets running on the iPhone OS, this is the first mention of the tablets operating on Leopard. It certainly makes more sense to push for the full-fledged operating system, or at least a bare bones version of the Mac OS rather than just the iPhone iteration.

Such sizable devices are considered by some to be Apple's Kindle killers or perhaps the mainstreaming of handheld medical records devices or Apple's attempt to enter, up-end and completely dominate the low-price netbook market. Such a device, in any of the sizes now up for considertation, would likely operate as all three if positioned properly.

While these may be no more than prototype modules Apple is taking to completion for testing purposes or whether these are the next great product line is anyone's guess at this point. Heck, these rumors may be just as much smoke as so many previous ones, but one thing is definitely certain: these kind of rumors are too fun to ignore, and we'll be waiting eagerly for the next one coming down the line.