Technology, Ipad | featured news

As the mother of an autistic son, Marlena Odon says she used to worry about sending Kharon off to school into the hands of others who might not be able to interpret what he was trying to say. But now, thanks to the integration of the iPad into Kharon's New York public school, Odon says he is able to communicate his wants and needs -- and his excitement over this is unmistakable.

Apple generates more gossip than the Kardashians. There's a constantly spinning mill of rumors about Apple products, most of which turn out to be untrue. What's unusual this week is that talk has revived of a smaller iPad model, an idea company founder Steve Jobs derided publicly a year before he died.

By the year’s end, worldwide media tablet sales will approach 120 million. That’s according to new research from Gartner (NYSE: IT), which reports that tablets will experience a 98% increase from 2011 sales to 60 million. Not surprisingly, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is credited as the producer of the dominant media tablet operating system, iOS, which is “projected to account for 61.4% of worldwide media tablet sales to end users in 2012,” Gartner wrote in its release. “Despite the arrival of Microsoft-based devices to this market, and the expected international rollout of the Kindle Fire, Apple will continue to be the market leader through the forecast period.”

Apple is investigating several issues with its new iPad's Wi-Fi connectivity, according to an internal AppleCare document unearthed by MacRumors.

Google, undaunted by a short-lived attempt to sell a smartphone on its own, is now pushing into Apple's iPad market by selling tablets directly to consumers than an online store.

Apple Inc. says it has sold 3 million iPads since Friday when it released the latest version of the tablet computer.

Maybe it just seemed that way, but in the moments before Apple opened the doors to its Palo Alto, California store — hometown to former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and current CEO Tim Cook — there seemed to be as many blue-shirted salespeople inside getting pumped up for the day as there were blanket-wrapped fans in the line outside.

Walmart's 24-hour stores will start selling the least-expensive version of the new iPad at 12:01 a.m.

In everything it does, from product design to business deals, Apple strives for as much control as possible. But as the world's most valuable company sets out to define and dominate the rapidly evolving markets it created with the iPhone and the iPad, Apple is likely to face antitrust regulators who want to curb its power.

Apple's U.S. website said new pre-orders for iPads would not ship until March 19, three days after the official launch day. Earlier, the site had said the newest tablet would arrive at customers' homes on its launch day.