Just confirmed from the earnings call: OS X Lion will launch tomorrow, July 20. This was an unusual way to announce the launch, but it confirms the week's rumors.

I don't have any inside information about Apple's long-term operating system plans, but I'm starting to wonder if "Lion," the next version of OS X, might be the last version.

About time too!

Uses the iPhone as a controller. I think this opens up new possibilities for the device and I'm off to try it out for myself!

The new wannabe....well, what does it want to be....Dell device gets slammed by PC World.

Digital Daily has published an interesting report about the profitability of Apple retail stores. The report states that in Apple’s last quarter — Q3 for Apple — the fruit company’s retail arm brought in $2.58 billion, a 72.8% jump from Q2 of 2009. In a retrospective comparison, Digital Daily notes that $2.58 billion is, “greater than the company’s total quarterly revenue from the second quarter of fiscal 1996 through the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004.” The iPad is being given credit for much of the retail success, the launch has, “generated a 38.7 percent increase in visitors per store, a 52.9 percent increase in same-store revenues, and a stunning 106.3 percent increase in non-Mac revenues.”

Iconic music mag Rolling Stone has released an interactive 500 Greatest Songs of All Time issue for the iPad which allows readers to sample and purchase music from iTunes while they read.

The Resolve study also shows that for 37% of respondents, the iPad would be their first Apple product. For many people, the iPhone was a gateway product that resulted in future purchases of other Apple products, so there's a possibility that the iPad could also create the same halo effect.

According to NetApplications, browser usage share on the iPad has already surpassed usage share on both the Android platform and the iPod touch.

Since the number of Android and iPod touch units sold vastly outnumber iPad units sold, this is an indication that the iPad is used much more frequently per user for browsing, NetApplications concludes.

Apple reported this morning that it has sold 3 million iPads in 80 days. You'll remember that the first million were sold within 28 days of the US launch, and that 2 million had found owners in "less than 60 days." Let's assume the second million sold within 31 days of the first batch. That would put the 2 million mark at 59 days.

If 2 million were sold within 59 days, the third million went out the door in 21 days, meaning the pace had actually picked up. Of course, the the international release introduced a huge new pool of potential customers, but that doesn't detract from how impressive these numbers are.

Graffiti artist Phetus recently created a spray can app for the iPad, which went on to garner over a million downloads in less than a month, and hit number one in the “entertainment” category on iTunes in numerous countries.

Today -- only three months since the iPad's release -- the app store is listing the current iPad-native app count at over 10,000. To see this, you can visit the "Featured" section of the app store on an iPad, then select the "Release Date" tab. It's likely that, by the time you do this, your number will be a hundred or more higher than ours (pictured at right).

We are now entering a brave new world of e-reader price wars: Amazon has slashed the price of its Kindle to $189 from $259, and Barnes & Noble’s Wi-Fi-only version of the Nook will retail for $149.

Gmail for the iPad is getting a new interface, we’ve just learned via the official Google Mobile blog.

As a part of the 25th anniversary of Toshiba’s laptop business, the company unveiled a dual-screen laptop concept named the Libretto W100.

Although Toshiba calls it a concept PC, it looks very finished and ready for market release. Toshiba claims it will be later this summer, albeit in a limited capacity (the price is reported to be $1,099). As far as specifications go, one thing definitely stands out: dual 7.0-inch multi-touch displays with 1024×600 pixel resolution, together with a virtual keyboard with haptic response.

Surely this would be more use for iPad users?

It's not as neat as a built in camera, but at least it's a solution.

After what seemed like a shaky unveiling – with mockery of its name and disappointment at its lack of certain functions – Apple's iPad has become a roaring success in the US, selling more than a million devices.

About 1,200 customers had lined up outside Apple's flagship store in Tokyo's Ginza district when the doors finally opened at 8 a.m

Property companies launch iPad apps for househunting!

The Apple iPad is taking over the world, okay we’re just kidding. However, soon it will be taking over Mercedes-Benz dealerships. The automaker will be putting iPads in 40 of its dealerships with the company’s MB Advantage application that will allow dealers to answer a customer’s financial questions and kick of the purchasing process.

The iPad goes on sale in Britain for the first time today, with many in the newspaper industry backing it to change journalism.

The Apple device, which has already sold more than 1 million in the US, has been much anticipated in Britain. Hundreds of thousands of people are thought to have placed orders.

The BBC have updated their iPlayer app to suit the iPad, fresh to UK shores, and the Flash-free tablet can now stream TV and radio via its wireless connection. Where the previous version required Flash support in order to stream to a mobile device, the updated iPlayer gets a finger-friendly interface and iPad-friendly codec.

Wired magazine sold 24,000 copies of its iPad app in the first 24 hours it was available in Apple’s iTunes store, company executives said.

I really enjoyed taking an iPad for a spin, if three weeks and counting can be called that. I almost don't want to return it to Apple; it's a lot harder to misplace than a mobile phone, and it's far less awkward than a notebook computer. I can do work on the iPad that would be impossible on a phone, even one with a QWERTY keyboard. For me, this is simple device lust.

A new application called Air Display will let you use your iPad as an external display for your Mac. Coupled with a 13-inch MacBook, this adds around half the screen again to your work area. The connection is made over Wi-Fi, and you need a small helper application on your Mac.

Until recently, netbooks have been hot sellers in the consumer computing market, thanks to their small form factors, long battery lives, and affordable prices. However, the introduction of cheaper full-scale laptops coupled with the launch of Apple's iPad may spell the end of the netbook's market reign.

Experts used different data today to conclude that strong iPad sales have created a "halo" effect for Apple, boosting the number of Mac computers the company has sold.

Apple Inc. is ramping up production of its iPad computers and by this summer could be making more than 2.5 million of them each month to support the device's international launch and back-to-school shopping, an analyst said Tuesday.

In tandem with the arrival of the iPad in the UK, the BBC has updated its iPlayer web app in order to support the device's layout. iPlayer lets British residents stream BBC radio and TV shows after their original broadcasts. The iPad site has a tabbed interface, with larger text and images than its iPhone counterpart.

Amount of iPad compatible video more than doubles since Jan 2010

In a research note released today, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky increased his estimate of 2010 iPad sales from 5 million to 8 million, citing upcoming international launches and continued strong sales in the U.S. as evidenced by retail store shortages.

Designed exclusively for iPad, the BookArc Stand is a beautiful slice of heavy gauge steel that provides a perfect perch for the latest stroke of genius from Apple. BookArc for iPad uses a soft silicone, reversible insert to hold iPad in four different positions. Four positions that let you use your iPad just the way you want to.

Apple has opened the iPad section of the iTunes app store for business outside the United States - kinda, sorta. Previously, iPads not being on sale yet anywhere other than the US, the iPad just wouldn't let you log into the app store directly unless you had a US iTunes account. Now it will, although in various respects the non-US stores still seem to be not quite with us.

One of the hottest device in the world today is the Apple iPad. In just 28 days, Apple’s iPad has hit the one million mark. Apple added that iPad users have downloaded more than 12 million apps from its App Store and more than 1.5 million e-books from the iBookstore, via Wi-Fi or wireless data connection.

Apple today announced that iPad™ will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK on Friday, May 28

Apple has sold 1m iPads since its launch on 3 April, passing that sales milestone faster than many analysts had expected.

Apple said today that the 9.7in touchscreen iPad – a new type of device that combines the mobility of a smartphone with the speed of a laptop – reached the million sales mark in 28 days. That was much faster than the iPhone, which took 74 days to sell its first 1m units in 2007.

It all adds up to one conclusion: the iPad is a success, and there are plenty of other reasons (new iPhone version, falling prices with higher demand, potential for larger screens/cameras/other features) that will keep it selling. So for those saying you'll never buy one, and that they'll prise your laptop from your cold, dead hands - quite possibly. But lots of people around you will have iPads. Bit like iPods and pretty much every other MP3 player, perhaps.

As many forum regulars know, one of the key areas of interest is media integration between the MediaSmart Server and devices like the iPad. HP makes the iStream application that allows for streaming of video, picture and music files from the MediaSmart Server to the iPhone and iPod Touch, but this application is slow, a bit clunky and is not optimized for iPad screen real estate.

Chart showing the % of web traffic driven by the iPad http://bit.ly/9AAzdi

The New York Times has reported the iPad online usage may be approaching Android and BlackBerry numbers. Since the iPad release, the presence on the Web seems to be rivaling other established devices.

Sunday night, Ustream will begin what it believes to be the first live music concert delivered to the iPad: Bon Jovi’s sold out show in Dallas, Texas.

If the lack of Flash support on the iPad concerns you, be sure to check out Apple’s new page for video support. The page lists the major sites that will offer compatible video for its newest gadget. While the usual HTML5 sources (Vimeo, YouTube) are featured, other content providers and major publishers are featured as well.

Analyzing their own data (i.e. – companies that have setup Flurry analytics on their apps), iPad apps have represented 22% of new project starts over the past 60 days. That’s taking a big bite out of Android, with its share of project starts falling from 18% to 10%.

Well, we didn't really expect this to come so soon after the iPad release, but sure enough, Apple is going to show us the iPhone 4.0 operating system this Thursday. That doesn't give us a lot of time for speculation, but I'm sure we'll squeeze it in. As per our reader expectations, various rumors and leaks, and other random news and scuttlebutt, what can we expect to see in a new iPhone OS?i

It's pretty clear that new iPad owners are hitting the app store in droves. Books, games and movies are all flying off the virtual shelves. Since you may be suffering from sensory overload, or just looking for some ideas, here are some things I've seen that might be worth a look.

Exclusive: Screenshots of Yahoo!, Omnigraffle, Bento, Brushes from the iPad App Store

With the imminent arrival of the Apple iPad, it seems at least one major television network is updating their website to provide video playback support for new tablet device -- without Flash. CBS.com's website began displaying a couple of strange "iPad - test" video links, first noted by The Other Mac Blog.

Advertisers including Unilever, Toyota Motor, Korean Air and Fidelity have booked space on Time’s iPad application. In a draft press release, The Wall Street Journal said a subscription to its app would cost $17.99 a month, and the first advertisers included Capital One, Buick, Oracle, iShares and FedEx.