Beginning a week from today, on March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store (www.apple.com) or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.

“iPad is something completely new,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

The new iBooks app for iPad will feature books from the New York Times Best Seller list from both major and independent publishers, including Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster.

Pricing & Availability
iPad will be available in Wi-Fi models on April 3 in the US for a suggested retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

iPad will be available in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models in late April in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. International pricing will be announced in April. iPad will ship in additional countries later this year.

The iBooks app for iPad including Apple’s iBookstore will be available as a free download from the App Store in the US on April 3, with additional countries added later this year.

Gizmodo received the following statement from Apple.

“We’ve addressed the issues that caused display flickering and yellow tint. Customers concerned that their iMac is affected should contact AppleCare.”

Users are still reporting the receipt of affected Macs; however, these reports are slowly dwindling.

Gizmodo considers it safe to buy an iMac as long as you run this test upon receipt. If any part of that screen doesn’t look right you may need to contact AppleCare to get a new system. Since Apple has acknowledged the issue you shouldn’t have a problem getting proper support.

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Among the factory employees sickened, 41 are still hospitalized, said Huang Zhongjie, a spokesman for Wintek in Taiwan.

Workers at the factory suffered nerve and muscle damage after working with the toxic chemical hexane to clean component touch screens for electronic products. The company and local government both say Wintek’s factory has since stopped using the chemical in its manufacturing process. Several media outlets, including the official China Daily newspaper in Beijing, have reported the factory makes screens for Apple’s new iPad tablet computer, but a factory manager said Thursday he could not confirm that. Workers were uncertain about the ultimate destination of the LCD screens they made.

Apple did not reply to GlobalPost’s requests for comment; however, they did just release an extensive report on supplier responsibility in which they address how the company is committed to ensuring the highest standards of social responsibility from their suppliers.

Apple found that 75 percent of the 100 plus suppliers it audited were in compliance with health and safety codes. They did not name the specific companies that failed to meet standards.

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According to RollingStone, Louie Sulcer from Woodstock, Georgia thought he was bring pranked.

“He called me and said, ‘This is Steve Jobs from Apple.’ I said, ‘Yeah right,’ ” Sulcer tells Rolling Stone. “I have a son that loves to play tricks and he does that every now and then — calls me and imitates somebody.” After three or four times of asking “Come on now, who is this,” Sulcer realized that his caller ID read simply “Apple,” and only then did he believe that Jobs was on the line.

Sulcer’s winning download was Johnny Cash’s “Guess Things Happen That Way.” He downloaded the song for a mix of Cash songs he was making for his son. Completely unaware of Apple’s contest and having never heard the song before, listened to iTunes’ 30-second preview and bought the track. “I really liked it. It had some really good pickin’ in it. So that’s how I got to that song,” Sulcer says.

With $10,000 to spend I’m sure he will be able to make a lot more mixes in the future.

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U-Board will give you a brand new experience. Whatever your job maybe, U-Board will simplify your working environment and help you to reduce the working time. Additionally, U-Board’s simple and slim design will fit perfectly into your desk top.

Features:
- U-Board will make your disarranged desktop simple and efficient.
- Monitor too low, inconvenient keyboard, U-Board will make you notebook more efficient.
- U-Board can make the most optimized working environment possible-where you could use the keyboard and the tablet at the same time.
- 3 port USB hub
- Cup holder

You can purchase the U-Board for $49.95.

Read More [via iLounge]

Morgan Stanley research has found that the highest barrier to greater iPhone adoption is the cost of hardware, followed by the service plan.

Analyst Katy Huberty expects Apple to introduce a new model in June that will be economically friendly to even more consumers.

“We expect Apple to launch new iPhones in June that offer both a lower total cost of ownership and new functionality, potentially including gesture-based technology,” she wrote.

Huberty is bullish on Apple’s stock and optimistic about the iPad.

“We expect Apple to ship its first iPad and announce additional content deals in late March to better than expected demand,” Huberty wrote. “We see the iPad targeting the sub-$800 consumer notebook market which equates to 30M annual units just in the US (120M globally).”

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No word yet on any changes; however, its likely just some minor fixes given the version number. Once posted you should be able to read the release notes here

You can download the software update via your AppleTV or directly from here.

If you discover any new features please let us know in the comments!

Step One
Click to launch iChat from your dock or your Applications folder.

Step Two
Select Preferences… from the iChat menu.

Step Three
Click to select the Accounts tab then click the + button at the bottom left of the window to add a new account.

Step Four
From the Account Type dropdown select Jabber.

Enter your Account Name as username@chat.facebook.com replacing username with your own username/vanityname. For example: iclarified@chat.facebook.com. Next enter your password into the Password field.

Expand the Server Options and set the Server to chat.facebook.com and the Port to 5222

Click the Done button to continue. Notice you will see a new account in the list on the left side of the window.

Step Five
You can now sign in and use iChat to message your Facebook contacts!

TrendyDigital Design, a leading supplier of high-quality custom eReader jackets, sleeves, bags and cases for portable digital devices, unveils the first of several tailor-made cases for the Apple iPad: the WaterGuard Waterproof Case. The WaterGuard Case features a double waterproof zipper closure, press-and-fold seal, buttons, and a touch fastener. This multi tier sealing mechanism provides excellent protection when iPad owners use their gadget in watery environments. The WaterGuard Waterproof Case is currently the world’s first and only waterproof case designed for the iPad.

Made of UV-stabilized plastic, the WaterGuard Waterproof Case guards against any wet environment that the iPad might be exposed to. It provides great protection when you get stuck in a rainstorm or accidentally drop your bag on a wet surface. When using the WaterGuard Case, the iPad can be slipped directly into the WaterGuard pocket and the transparent surface provides full access to the iPad’s touch interface and keyboard

“People are likely to take the iPad with them everywhere and use them in a variety of everyday situations,” noted Mark Zheng, vice president of sales and marketing. “We would like to provide a broad range of stylish and protective cases when people use their iPad in different environments. The WaterGuard Case is an excellent example of how we anticipate our customers’ needs and devise a solution to meet them.”

Availability and Pricing:
The WaterGuard Waterproof Case is available for pre-order from TrendyDigital or from Amazon online. It will be shipped the same week as the Apple iPad’s ship date. It comes in two color selections: transparent with a blue border decor and transparent with a purple border decor. The retail price for the WatertGuard Waterproof Case for the iPad is $19.99 (USD).

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Aardvark

Aardvark, founded by ex-Googlers, has raised around $6 million in venture capital to date. The service let’s users ask questions and get immediate responses from their friends and friends of friends.

Earlier this month the company published a research report that included some key stats about their business:

As of October 2009, Aardvark had 90,361 users, of whom 55.9% had created content (asked or answered a question). The site’s average query volume was 3,167.2 questions per day, with the median active user asking 3.1 questions per month. Interestingly, mobile users are more active than desktop users. The Aardvark team attributes this to users wanting quick, short answers on their phones without having to dig for anything. They also think people are more used to using more natural language patterns on their phones.

The average query length was 18.6 words (median of 13) versus 2.2-2.9 words on a standard search engine.  Some of this difference comes from the more natural language people use (with words like “a”, “the”, and “if”).  It’s also because people tend to add more context to their queries, with the knowledge that it will be read by a human and will likely lead to a better answer.

98.1% of questions asked on Aardvark were unique, compared with between 57 and 63% on traditional search engines.

87.7% of questions submitted were answered, and nearly 60% of them were answered within 10 minutes.  The median answering time was 6 minutes and 37 seconds, with the average question receiving two answers.  70.4% of answers were deemed to be ‘good’, with 14.1% as ‘OK’ and 15.5% were rated as bad.

86.7% of Aardvark users had been asked by Aardvark to answer a question, of whom 70% actually looked at the question and 38% could answer.  50% of all members had answered a question (including 75% of all users who had ever actually interacted with the site), though 20% of users accounted for 85% of answers.