Is the long, treacherous wait for the iPad 3 nearly at an end? That’s what anonymous sources tell All Things D. The site caught wind that an Apple event next month will host the announcement of the company’s latest tablet. The event is said to be slated for the first week of March at that popular Apple haunt, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco — and seeing as how last year’s event was held on March 2nd, that timing doesn’t seem all that crazy to us. As for an actual release date, said sources are a bit less chatty.

SOURCE via All Things D

We’re all pretty eager for Apple to announce the iPad 3, if only to put a stop to the rumors and leaks that we’ve been hearing since the launch of iPad 2. That said, now that we’re apparently getting close to the actual unveiling of the device, the rumors are getting pretty juicy. The latest comes courtesy of Repair-Labs, 9to5Mac and Apple.pro. 9to5Mac claims that there are iPad 3 shells ‘floating around China,’ where the devices are manufactured, and all three sites have obtained their own photos of the casings.

Repair-Labs shows the iPad 3 shell next to that of an iPad 2 for reference and says the case points to a larger battery, a new camera, and an LCD different to the display currently in the iPad 2 (possibly a Retina display).

9to5Mac obtained its own high resolution photo of one of these casings showing the inside of what purports iPad 3′s clothing, alongside the old iPad 2, while Apple.pro has posted the only image of the outside of the shell.

Obviously, it’s impossible to verify the authenticity of these photos, but there does seem to be an awful lot of the cases floating around, which suggests the device is well into production. Either way, the latest rumors are saying we’ll see an iPad 3 announcement in the first week of March, so we don’t have long to wait to find out.

BGR is claiming that one of its sources has access to an iPad 3 prototype which, at this stage of development, it may be true. According to them, these debug screenshots confirm some of the speculation about the next Apple tablet:

• A faster A6 processor, “model number S5L8945X.” (The A4 is the S5L8930X and the A5 is S5L8940X, so the “45X” part makes sense.)

• The model numbers are J1 and J2. BGR claims these represent the Wi-Fi and cellular flavors.

Like always, take all rumors for what they are worth: nothing until they’re proven correct. What I really want to see is data about the final resolution of that screen.

Early Thursday morning OnLive sent over an email stating that the OnLive Desktop app, slated to launch for the iPad on Thursday, won’t hit Apple’s App Store until Friday the 13th (insert scary movie sound effect here). The delay is due to an overwhelming response to the upcoming virtual Windows 7 desktop.

“As you know, on Monday OnLive announced the new OnLive Desktop app, which will deliver a seamless and media-rich Windows desktop experience on iPad, and opened up our websites for signing up for the service,” an OnLive rep stated in an email. “Although we had planned to go live on Thursday, Jan 12, we’ve had such a large influx of signups, we are taking another day to deploy more servers to handle the load, and we expect to go live on Friday, Jan 13.”

“Sorry about any inconvenience and appreciate your patience,” the rep added. “We want the first users to have the best experience possible.”

When it does arrive, the OnLive Desktop app will stream a Windows 7 desktop and include pre-installed Office applications like Word, Excel and PowerPoint. This virtual desktop will be fine-tuned for the iPad, supporting instant-response multi-touch gestures while offering a full on-screen Windows keyboard and handwriting recognition.

“iPad users will now be able to simply and securely view and edit cloud-hosted documents with full-featured Windows desktop applications like Microsoft Office, just as if they were using a local high-performance PC,” said Steve Perlman, OnLive Founder and CEO. “Multi-touch gestures respond instantly and smoothly, while HD videos, animations and PC video games—never before usable on a remote desktop—play seamlessly.”

The free iPad app will also come packed with 2 GB of secure cloud storage. Later, OnLive plans to release a Pro version that comes with additional Windows-based apps and 50 GB of cloud-based storage, costing $9.99 USD per month. An Enterprise version is also in the works for businesses and organizations of all sizes.

As for other platforms, the OnLive Desktop app will be available for Android, smartphones, and the stand-alone OnLive MicroConsole (with Bluetooth and keyboard/mouse support). The Windows-based virtual desktop will also arrive on the PC and Mac clients with support for your typical desktop LCD and HDTVs. So far there’s no word on when these will be available, only that they are “coming soon.”

For more information and to set up a free account early, head here.

If there’s been one must have accessory at NAMM this year it’s been the iPad. That’s right, no mixer, instrument or microphone is stealing the show, it’s Apple’s 9.7-inch slab of touchability that everyone is after. Alesis is just one of many companies creating compelling musical offerings around the iOS tablet with its latest products, the AmpDock and DM Dock. The DM Dock turns your iPad into the thumping, bumping and crashing heart of an electronic drum system. You can tap out rhythms and build drum sets with the touchscreen, but it’s when you start plugging triggers into the 13 1/4-inch inputs that it really comes to life. The AmpDock, as you may have guessed, turns that A5 processor’s attention towards your axe. There’s a standard 1/4-inch jack as well as a combo XLR / 1/4-inch plug for connecting a second guitar or a mic. The AmpDock also has a separate pedalboard that allows you to control some program parameters while keeping the tablet safe from stray stomps.

Apple’s iBook 2 app comes with some interesting media bundled in it. Developers have uncovered high resolution images that seem designed for use in a Retina display but the iPad 2 doesn’t have one. Is this evidence that the iPad 3 will?

The pictures are denoted with “@2x” in their filename and at, 2048×1536 pixels, they are double what the iPad 2 can natively display. What’s more, they display at 260 pixels per inch (PPI). That’s not quite the 300PPI that the latest iPhones can do—and what Apple has said officially constitutes a Retina display—but still dense enough to fool your eyes at the increased viewing distance.

This isn’t the first time that Apple’s leaked @2x pictures. An earlier version of iBooks (version 1.1) included similar pictures back in 2010, which led to speculation that the forthcoming iPad 2 could have a Retina display. So, is Apple prepping for a surprise iPad 3 launch or is someone on the iBook development team just trolling us?

SOURCE via Mac Rumors

Though Apple’s got an event planned for tomorrow morning, you’d be forgiven if you’re not jumping up and down with excitement. Though the announcement will be extremely important and will no doubt affect the publishing and education industries in a huge way, it hasn’t garnered the quite the level of anticipation that we see with iPad and iPhone launch events. However, if the latest to come out of the Apple rumor mill is correct, that level of excitement is just a few weeks away.

Japanese blog Macotakara has kicked off the latest ipad 3 rumor with a report that Apple is planning another media event for February. According to a translation from MacRumors, Macotakara cites an Asian supplier and a source in United States in reporting that Apple is preparing for an early-February event. This event is believed to be the iPad 3 launch event and will also apparently feature iOS 5.1.

The timing is about right. Apple announced the first iPad in January of 2010, and the iPad 2 was announced in March. As such, a February release is not only plausible, but almost expected at this point. Of course, Apple hasn’t confirmed or denied anything, so let’s take this one with a massive grain of salt and the ‘wait and see’ approach. In the meantime, you can catch all the latest new on tomorrow’s event right here, so stay tuned!

SOURCE via MacRumors

There’s nothing nicer than rushing home with a new gadget, tearing open the box and inhaling that sweet new gadget smell. Similarly, there’s nothing worse than discovering your new toy is broken or there’s a part missing and being forced to pack everything back up and return to the store. Sadly, for as many as 24 Canadians, that’s what happened when they purchased their iPad 2s.

CTV News reports that Best Buy and Future Shop have announced the launch of a major fraud investigation after as many as 10 customers opened up their new iPad 2 box to find a bag of clay. Walmart and London Drugs have also confirmed incidences of clay iPad 2s being sold to as many as 14 customers. Future Shop told CTV that the company believed scammers purchased the iPad 2s, and replaced them with clay before repackaging everything and returning the fake tablet to the store. The re-packaged tablets, which the scammers had shrink-wrapped before returning, were then put back on shelves and later sold to other customers.

According to CTV, London Drugs, FutureShop and Best Buy have all changed their return policy on wrapped tablet computers as a result of fraud. The stores now require the customer to wait while the box is opened to ensure all components are present. Walmart said that while it is upset by the scam, it won’t be changing policies at this time.

SOURCE via CTV BC

When Apple launched the iPhone 4S, many people were disappointed. For one thing, it wasn’t the iPhone 5. For another, it was basically just a copy of the iPhone 4 with some minor hardware upgrades.

Something similar happened with the iPad 2. It made no real huge departure from the original iPad in terms of design. It was a little slimmer, sure, and there were some minor upgrades inside, but the two devices looked largely the same. Many assumed that this meant the iPad was subject to the same iPhone 3G to 3GS (and now iPhone 4 to 4S) update cycle in that there would only be a major upgrade every other year, with small tweaks to these models in the years between. However, it seems those looking forward to an all new iPad will be disappointed yet again with the iPad 3.

The folks over at iLounge claim to have seen and handled an iPad 3 at CES 2012. Now, of course, we all know that Apple isn’t actually at CES, and iLounge doesn’t mention which company brought along an iPad 3 for show and tell. That said, iLounge’s Jeremy Horwitz is reporting that the device is present at the show but is so similar to the iPad 2, many wouldn’t even know they were looking at the unannounced, unconfirmed iPad 3.

“I’d show you a picture, but there’s honestly nothing to be seen,” he writes, before describing a tablet that is 1-mm thicker but otherwise almost identical to the iPad 2. The camera in the upper left corner is a little larger, and Horwitz says it looks very similar to the improved camera in the iPhone 4S, but, again, this isn’t all that noticeable, especially from a distance. There are also rumors about a slightly small display for iPad 3, but (once again), if that was there, it wasn’t obvious. Interestingly, Horwitz also mentions that the device he handled didn’t look like it had just rolled off the assembly line a few weeks ago.

“I don’t get the impression that what I saw was just manufactured—it actually seemed to be more than half a year old,” he writes. “That’s not a huge surprise given how long pre-production takes for a “new” device, but a lot can change between mid-2011 and early 2012. All I can tell you is that every company I’ve asked about the next iPad seems to think what I’ve told you above is correct, apart from the possible screen size tweak, which remains uncertain.”

Assuming iLounge did actually play with something that was not an iPad 2, we think there’s a couple of possibilities. First, this could be a now out-of-date prototype developed months ago. As Horwitz said, a lot can change in six months. It’s possible this is just an early design for the iPad 3 (or an iPad 2S?) and the product we’re expecting to be announced in the near future will be quite different. Second, it’s also possible that this is the iPad 3 and Apple just hasn’t seen fit to change the design, because the current design is just fine.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

Just because the exterior looks the same, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a boatload of changes under the hood. Horwitz did mention that this model was 1-mm thicker than an iPad 2, which would indicate to us that there was a need for a little more space inside, so we’re hoping that this is the case. Notably absent was any mention of the rumored Retina display, which we had hoped to see with iPad 2. This would only be noticeable if the unit was actually operational, though, and we’re guessing it wasn’t.

Perhaps we’re a little bit jaded, but we’re taking this one with a pinch of ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ and hoping the iPad 3 will, at least in terms of hardware, be quite a departure from iPad 2. Only time will tell. In the meantime, if you’re eager to hear more about iLounge’s experience with this new breed of iPad, you can head on over to the article and check it out for yourself.

If you’ve flown recently, it’s likely you’ve seen someone check in with a digital boarding pass on their mobile phone or iPad. You might have even done this yourself. However, no matter how often you travel, it’s unlikely you’ve ever seen someone use a digital copy of their passport to cross an international border.

According to a report from the Associated Press, Martin Reisch was traveling from Montreal to the U.S. when he realized he’d forgotten something very important: his passport. Reisch was just 30 minutes from the border when he realized he didn’t have his passport. However, instead of going the two hours home to get it, he decided to try and gain entry to the United States using a scanned copy of his passport that he had on his iPad.

When Reisch arrived at the border, he showed the officer on duty his scanned passport on his iPad and his driver’s license, and told him that he was going to the U.S. to drop off presents for his friend’s kids. Though the officer was apparently visibly annoyed, Reisch’s digital copy of his passport (which he made ‘years ago’ in case his passport was ever stolen) along with his driver’s license, was enough to get him across the border. It was also enough to get him home when he returned to the border later that same day.

“I thought I’d at least give it a try,” the AP quotes Reisch as saying. “He took the iPad into the little border hut. He was in there a good five, six minutes. It seemed like an eternity. When he came back he took a good long pause before wishing me a Merry Christmas.”

No public statement has been made about Reisch’s ability to cross the border into the U.S. using a scanned copy of his passport by either country’s border agency, but we can’t imagine this is common practice. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has, for several years now, only accepted passports, enhanced driver’s licenses, or Nexus passes from Canadians entering the U.S., so Reisch was definitely a rare exception. At least, he should have been. We’ll update if either agency releases a statement regarding the incident.

SOURCE via USA Today