Terry McGraw, get thee to media training! Speaking to CNBC Tuesday night, the McGraw-Hill Companies CEO appeared to let slip several new pieces of information about the highly-anticipated Apple tablet.

He confirmed the device would be based on the iPhone operating system, and that it would double as e-book. (And – though the tablet is arguably the worst-kept secret in technology history – he confirmed the launch of the tablet itself. Apple's invitation coyly says only "come see our latest product," but when CNBC's Erin Burnett asked him whether McGraw-Hill would make its textbooks available on the tablet, McGraw responded: "They'll make their announcement tomorrow.")

McGraw was being interviewed about the company's fourth-quarter results when he seemed to break Apple's notorious omerta. (To see a video click here – it's about minute 2:50).

Asked by Burnett about McGraw-Hill's links with Apple, he said: "Yeah, very exciting. Yes, they'll make their announcement tomorrow on this one." So far, so anodyne.

Then he went on to say: "We have worked with Apple for quite a while – the tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system, and so it will be transferrable. So what you're going to be able to do now... we have a consortium of e-books – we have 95 percent of all our materials that are in e-book format on that one – so with the tabloid you're going to open up the higher education market, the professional market. The tabloid, the tablet is going to be just really terrific."

(At least he didn't let the name slip, calling it both a "tabloid" and a "tablet.")

If it was a flat-out gaffe and not part of the campaign to build buzz, then Apple founder Steve Jobs – he of the flamethrower-like temper – isn't likely to be thrilled that a content partner has put a crack in the tablet secret code. Jobs calls himself a "big bang guy" – building anticipation to feverish levels as part of the marketing game.

Other people unlikely to be happy about McGraw's comments: executives at Amazon and Sony, who make their own e-book gadgets. Industry experts speculate that sales of the monochrome, button-operated Kindle and reading devices like it will plummet following Apple's expected launch of a touch-screen, full color tablet.

This is a post by guest blogger Jeff Bussgang.

I've been worrying lately that we are suffering from a lost generation of entrepreneurs.

That was my first reaction when I read what Sequoia's Doug Leone said a few weeks ago about innovation and age at a recent talk with MIT Sloan students visiting Silicon Valley, where Leone claimed that only people under the age of 30 are truly innovative. Over 30 folks can manage innovation, Leone observed, but you need to be under 30 to create it. Examples cited included Jack Dorsey, Twitter's founder who was 30 at the time that he started the service.

Now you can argue whether this is right or whether it's a hyperbolic statement for effect, but let's put that aside for now. Here's my worry: when I was under 30, I had the opportunity to be a part of a rocket ship start-up (Open Market), that promoted me into an executive team position of a public company in my 20s. The lessons and skills from that experience inspired me to delude myself into thinking I could be the founding president of another start-up, Upromise, when I was 30. At the time, when I looked around at my peers and friends, they were all doing the same thing at a similar age. Folks like Jeff Glass, who started m-Qube at around the same time and age, Scott Friend, who became president of ProfitLogic, Russ Wilcox at e-Ink and many more). These companies all eventually became substantial companies that each resulted in exits north of $100 million.

Now fast-forward to today. During the period of 2001-2009, there have been very few substantial start-ups built to allow that generation's 20-somethings to learn and develop company-building skills. As a result, we have a lost generation of entrepreneurs. Not enough 20-somethings, or let's even say under 35, have had the opportunity to see success at a young age and learn the important lessons of start-up leadership. I think once you've seen some success in your 20s, you are that much more likely to be a strong entrepreneurial advocate, mentor and serial starter in your 30s.

When my partners and I tried to develop a list of today's under 35 entrepreneurs who had started companies and seen meaningful success with them, it was a depressingly short list. In addition to Twitter's Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerburg is an obvious one, as are the YouTube founders, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. Less well-known standouts include the Great Point Energy team (Andrew Pearlman and Avi Goldberg), who saw some success at Coatue (sold to AMD) which led them to starting what looks to be a fascinating and potentially game-changing clean energy company. And there's Ric Fulop, who co-founded A123 in his late 20s, last year's IPO darling.

So what do we do about it? I suppose one thing we can do is celebrate the heck out of the under 35 entrepreneurs we know who have seen success because we need their peers to know that it's possible and encourage them to serve as role models to today's students so that we don't suffer from yet another lost generation in the years ahead. So who else should be on our list?

Serial entrepreneur Jeff Bussgang is a partner at venture capital firm Flybridge Capital in Boston. Follow him on Twitter @bussgang.

Apple finally unveiled its hotly anticipated tablet today at a press conference in San Francisco hosted by CEO Steve Jobs. The iPad, which  looks like a large iPhone, has a 9.7 inch LED-backlit display with a multi-touch screen. It weighs just 1.5 pounds and is one-half inch thick. The big surprise? It will cost  $499 for 16 GB of memory, $599 for 32 GB, and $699 for 64 GB. That’s much lower than the  $700 to $1,000 price tag expected by analysts. Like the iPhone, the iPad connects to iTunes via USB, allowing users to sync movies, contacts, calendars, TV shows, and apps. The device runs iPhone apps, which means you can transfer apps from your iTunes account. On the downside, it has no flash capability, so you won’t be able to watch flash videos on it. And the battery lasts only 10 hours, which could be a deal breaker for heavy users, though a fully-charged iPad can stand-by for 30 days. In the United States, you will be able to buy 3G models with service provided by AT&T.  You’ll pay $14.99 for 250 MB of data per month or $29.99 for unlimited data usage. To sweeten the deal, AT&T, which has caught a lot of flack for its subpar iPhone service in New York City, is throwing in free use of WiFi hotspots throughout the U.S. You can activate the service right on the iPad, and there’s no contract, so you can cancel any time. Apple also introduced a new suite of iWork apps includes touch-friendly Keynote software for creating slideshows with animations, a Numbers spreadsheet app that lets you easily move and format data, and a Pages word processing app, available in the app store for $9.99 each. More sophisticated gaming is another major component of the iPad. One new game, called Nova, debuted today. Desinging apps for the iPad is likely to be a major focus for video game developers in the coming weeks.In a shot over the bow at Amazon and its Kindle e-Reader, Apple announced a new iBook app that will let you browse through and purchase books and publications, including the New York Times, right on the iPad. The app contains a virtual bookshelf for storing your tomes and an e-books store button that opens  an iTunes-like marketplace. Finally, Apple also unveiled some cool iPad accessories, including a sleek keyboard dock and a stand for typing and watching movies. Unfortunately, anyone eager to get their hands on the iPad will have to wait a while longer; the device isn’t slated to ship for another two months.

Seth Godin bypasses mainstream media to promote book by being on every blog everywhere.

To pay for rising health costs, business owners have only three levers they can pull, a Planet Money reader explains.

Ten types of businesses you can start on the cheap, by Anita Campbell at Business.gov.

Angel group participation is on the rise, Jonathan Matsey reports at VC Dispatch.