No problem -- I hope other people chime in. For the record, I don't own a tablet. I'm just thinking of things that would make me want to buy one.

The more I think of this, the more I think the plug-ins would be something like desktop applets. The differences would be:

1) You wouldn't have the left-hand side bar and status icons up top. I understand they can be useful for power users, but they take up screen space and add to clutter. I like the idea of letting the user decide what are the important things to put on the screen.

2) Grid-based arrangement simplifies aligning icons and eliminates wasted space between applets. If you want to get fancy, you could let the user set the resolution of the grid.

3) There would not have to be a window around an applet / plugin. Instead, plugin backgrounds would be transparent (like icons). For example, the background for the "clock" applet might be transparent, so it just looks like the time is naturally displayed on the tablet-top.

It might be worth considering a white background, but is a black background better for battery life?