Apple, Tablet Computer | featured news

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.”

The U.S. government has filed an antitrust lawsuit in New York against Apple Inc. and various major book publishers. The lawsuit said the alleged conspiracy came as Apple was preparing to launch the iPad.

Guess that overheating issue isn't such a big deal after all. Less than two weeks after Consumer Reports engineers found that Apple's new tablet can get as hot as 116 degrees while running games, the magazine has declared it the best in breed, placing it at the top of its tablet-computer rankings on Monday.

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.

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

Shares of the Silicon Valley giant has touched $600 for the first time, about a month after reaching the $500 mark.

On first glance, the new, never-to-be-actually-named iPad is exactly the same as its predecessor: Same size, same price, same colors.

Apple is holding an event Wednesday in San Francisco, and has hinted that it will reveal a new iPad model. Rumors speak of an updated tablet with a speedier processor, a sharper screen and an option for faster wireless broadband access.