It’s that time of year when the rumour mill likes to go into overdrive, spinning out concepts, sources, and suggestions faster than you can hope to read them. Fear not though, because Padvance is here to make sure you’ve got your finger somewhere close to the pulse of the comings and goings in tablet town

Apple

It seems a week doesn’t go by without a new Apple rumour springing up. Right now, the cash on the table is pointing to an iPad refresh in the first half of the year, with an overhaul of the larger device bringing it more in line with the iPad mini. If those rumours, courtesy of TabTimes, are true, then expect thinner bezels and a chamfered edge for the iPad 5.

Imagine this, only bigger.

Meanwhile the romanticists over at KitGuru think that the next iPad will be released to coincide with the cinematic release of the Ashton Kutcher-starring Steve Jobs biopic, Jobs. Sort of like the most expensive bit of movie merchandising ever. They also reckon iOS 7 will launch at the same time on 4G iPads.

There are also whispering about a cheaper entry level iPad that will try and steal back some of the thunder from the cheap and cheerful Android tablets we saw last year. We’d suggest taking that one with a massive pinch of sea salt.

Android

The big news comes from UK paper The Daily Mail, which is suggesting that Google are using Motorola to build a new generation of tablets under the mysterious moniker Project X. Apparently the tablet will be unbreakable, bendable, and made of ceramics. Some of that certainly sounds plausible, some of it sounds like gibbering madness. We’ll let you choose which bits are which for yourself.

Windows

In Windows world, PocketLint reckons that the next Xbox will be fully compatible with the oft rumoured 7 inch Xbox tablet, coupling up with it in the same way the WiiU couples up with its gamepad. Perhaps most interestingly though, a source close to the project has said that the Xbox Tablet won’t be powered by either Windows RT or Windows 8. Er… [Update - this story is baloney, as we expected]

And that’s you caught up with all the information you need. Join us next week for another dig around in the rumour basket.