If you haven’t heard an Apple Tablet rumor by now, you’ve most likely been living in a cave somewhere for the past year. It’s all anybody can talk about, especially since it could launch at the end of the month.

With the daily deluge of rumors flooding your class='blippr-nobr'>Twitter class="blippr-nobr">Twitter stream and RSS feeds, it’s easy to become cynical about the mythical device. Why should you care about a device that has no confirmation at all of its existence?

The answer is that its potential impact could be nothing short of revolutionary. Like the iPod and the iPhone, an Apple-built tablet could not only become a consumer hit, but actually redefine multiple industries and how they do business. Here are just some of the ways an Apple Tablet could spark a revolution.

1. Publishing and Media

Let’s start with the most obvious choice: Media. We’ve covered the previous rumors that Apple wants to redefine print with its rumored tablet. While the Kindle has done a lot to bring print into digital form, a tablet could be far more suited for reading the newspaper, opening up your textbook, and even sharing notes. Hell, Wired’s already preparing for the tablet.

The simple point is that it’s easier to carry a smart tablet than 300 hardcover books and 20 newspapers with you. Apple’s tablet will almost certainly have a focus on bringing all of print into the digital world, whether the industry is ready for it or not.

2. Healthcare

/> Above: The AirStrop OB iPhone App. It allow doctors to check on their patients vitals on-the-go. />

A few days ago, a rumor spread that Apple was designing the tablet specifically for the healthcare industry. While we, of course, have no idea whether the tablet is being made for doctors or whether it’s being made at all, the notion is very logical.

First, the iPhone is already a tool that doctors use to save lives. If the tablet can run apps, then those tools will immediately be at their disposal. Second, it has the capability to replace the clipboard by accessing digital records, making medical data easy-to-search, and having references built right into the tablet.

Healthcare is a lagging industry in terms of technological adoption, but if any company has the resources to break that barrier, it’s Apple.

3. Entertainment

Entertainment is another industry that could be immediately affected by an Apple Tablet. It’s big enough to provide easy viewing for your movies and television shows. And if the 3G rumors are true, you could access that data via an iPhone app. Having the ability to view TV from anywhere is no small deal.

It’s not just the TV and movie experience that could potentially be upended, either. Gaming would get a completely new platform, paving the way for a new wave of touchscreen games, depending on how the tablet is designed (I wouldn’t want to hold the tablet in one hand and touchscreen with the other). It probably won’t have the same effect on the music industry as the iPod had, though.

4. Finance

The finance industry is a giant behemoth with many arms — trading, banking, personal finance, and investment banking, just to name a few. The tablet could have a dramatic impact on all of these areas.

Trading: Traders need to have information at their fingertips and make trades in an instant. Many use their mobile phones or specialized devices for this, but a tablet could present a lot more information and be far more dynamic. You could see tablets everywhere on the floor eventually.

Banking: Bank tellers could process information with the tablet and easily hand it over to someone else when the situation arises. A tablet would be a far more effective way of sharing financial data or even making payments. The need for paperwork would be gone.

Personal Finance: With apps like Mint class="blippr-nobr">Mint at your fingertips, managing your finances would be a snap. If tablets have a wireless way to communicate with one another, it could also prove to be the ultimate payment system.

Investment Banking: In addition to facilitating faster and more effective trading, investment banks could use them to quickly conduct research and swap notes.

The right software and the right interface could stir many financial institutions to purchase Apple Tablets in bulk.

5. Computing

Consider the big picture with this final industry. For years, we’ve relied on desktops and laptops with bulky keyboards. Only recently has mobile become a computing force, but even that is nothing compared to the computing industry.

Imagine that the Apple Tablet comes with a new type of tactile, gesture-based keyboard, something a recent Apple patent supports. Imagine you can type almost as well on it as you can with a keyboard, or even 75% as well. It immediately becomes a great device for computing on the go, an object that could be used as a primary computer if you wanted to.

Now imagine that the devices does have a few input ports, specifically two USB ports. Now you have a device that can be connected to your keyboard and mouse, as well as your other devices potentially. Stick the tablet on a stand and it’s a computer. Unplug and take it with you and your computer can come with you, even easier than a laptop.

While this was a thought exercise, this is the type of thing Apple has clearly thought about in the tablet process. If the Apple Tablet proves to be real, you can expect this type of imaginative thinking to be present in every aspect of the tablet’s design, interface, and functionality.

This is why the media and millions of early adopters care so much about the potential tablet and the rumors: Its potential as a revolutionary device is very real.

More Apple resources from Mashable: />

- 5 Mac Apps to Boost Your Productivity /> – Mac Gift Guide: 10 Buying Ideas for Apple Fans /> – HOW TO: Create a Mac Theme for Windows 7 /> – Top 10 iPhone Apps as Judged by Mashable Readers /> – APPLE TABLET: Ultimate Gallery of Concept Designs and Prototypes /> – 10 iPhone Apps to Avoid Work Disasters /> – 20 Creative Apps For Your iPhone

UPDATE: Is Wyclef Jean's Charity the Best One to Help Haiti?

There's no doubt Wyclef Jean — who has raised $1 million since the Haiti earthquake — wants to help his homeland. But a look at his personal foundation's finances raises questions about whether it's wisely managing the donations it's collecting.

UPDATE: Go here for more on why Jean's charity may not be the best way to help Haitians right now.

The Smoking Gun took a look at the finances of Yele Haiti, the foundation Wyclef Jean founded to help his homeland—and it's ugly. Jean founded Yele Haiti in 1998, according to TSG, but didn't file any tax returns until five months ago, in August 2009. And the returns filed so far—for 2005, 2006, and 2007 only—reveal that Yele directed huge sums of money to commercial entities that Jean and his business partner Jerry Duplessis own stakes in.

The most eye-popping expenditure is $250,000 that the foundation paid in 2006 to Telemax, S.A., a Haitian television company that Jean and Duplessis own a controlling interest in. The payment for “airtime and production services” appears to have been related to a telethon of some sort that Yele Haiti produced in the country—its chalked up to “outreach”—and amounts to one out of every five dollars that the foundation took in that year. The return claims the fees were “below market” and constituted the “most efficient” way for Yele Haiti to conduct outreach.

The foundation also paid Platinum Sound, the production company that Jean and Duplessis co-own, a $100,000 fee for Jean's performance at a Yele Haiti fundraiser in 2006.

And Platinum Sound charges Yele Haiti more than $31,000 in annual rent for office space at its Manhattan studio. UPDATE: A tipster familiar with Platinum Sounds' set-up just e-mailed to say that the “office space” that Yele rents from the studio consists of one staffer who works out the kitchen, at a cost of $2,600 each month paid from the charity to Jean and Duplessis.

All told, TSG says, Yele Haiti has paid out $410,000 in the three years for which it has provided tax returns to businesses owned by Jean and Duplessis.

Which makes it even more stunning that the foundation ended 2007 with a $489,000 deficit. That year it took in only $79,000 in direct public support—not much more than the $54,711 it spent on travel—and reported $503,000 in cash with $956,000 in liabilities, including a “30-day demand note” in the amount of $500,000 borrowed from a foundation controlled by music impresario Lou Adler. Its only charitable activity that year was a $270,000 grant to Yele Haiti's Haitian operation, which presumably then distributed the funds to recipients there.

When we called a contact number for Duplessis listed in Yele Haiti's tax return, a receptionist at Platinum Sounds answered the phone and referred us to a public relations firm. We haven't heard back from the publicist. We also tried to contact Hugh Locke, the head of Orsa Consultants, a firm that Yele Haiti paid $82,000 in 2006. According to this 2005 press release, Orsa is a “corporate social responsibility consultancy” that managed Yele Haiti's programs; we couldn't find any public references to Orsa independent of Yele Haiti, and the firm's web site is no longer operative. When we called Lock, he immediately handed the phone to someone identifying herself as “Mrs. Lock,” who referred us to the PR firm. When we asked her about Yele Haiti's expenditures, she said, “Our finances are totally straightened out. We have filed, and are up to date on everything.”

None of this means that Jean, Duplessis, and Yele Haiti aren't doing important work in Haiti, or that they can't play a constructive role in responding to the earthquake crisis. It does mean that, if the past is any guide, they are unlikely to wisely manage any of the money they are currently collecting from concerned Americans on behalf of the victims in Haiti.

Send an email to the author of this post at john@gawker.com.

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