At 4 a.m. EST, the iPad 2 went on sale on Apple’s website. Between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. this afternoon, more than 200 Apple stores across the country will shut down to prepare for the release of the new tablet. And when those doors open back up, everyone is predicting a crush of consumers. With a story released just after midnight, Bloomberg reported that Apple could sell more than than half a million units over the iPad 2′s debut weekend, which would be double what the original iPad moved. The iPad line is the fastest-selling technology product in history, measured by revenue, said Tim Bajarin , an analyst at Creative Strategies Inc. In less than three months, it topped $2 billion — a milestone the iPhone took more than six quarters to reach. The second version has a head start on rivals, which are only now releasing their first models. It’s also benefiting from distribution through additional retail outlets. “Apple has such a huge lead,” said Bajarin, who has covered the industry for more than 20 years and works as a technology consultant. He projects 500,000 units in two days. “Competitors are going to be chasing Apple for many years.” Bajarin — along with analysts from Rodman & Renshaw LLC and Piper Jaffray & Co. — also predicts the device will outsell the first iPad, which came out in April. Apple will get a boost from offering a white model for the first time, he said. Read the full story at Bloomberg .

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Can Apple Sell 600,000 iPad 2s This Weekend?

The tablet market is getting more and more crowded, but the iPad 2 is still the best. “I can comfortably recommend it as the best tablet for average consumers,” Walt Mossberg writes in The Wall Street Journal. Mossberg says the new thinner model was…

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iPad 2 Reviews: Still the Best

The new iPad has arrived and there are noticeable improvements in speed, weight and thinness.

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State Of the Art: Appeal of iPad 2 Is a Matter of Emotions

Apple’s shiny new iPad 2 will hit shelves this coming Friday and the old model, only 11 months old at this point, will be replaced by tens of thousands of users. Instead of stuffing it into a junk drawer with those unused cell phones or tossing it in the garbage, consider the alternatives. Macworld ‘s Lex Friedman has laid out some of your options, including giving it away (to your wife or to charity), selling it (through Craigslist, eBay or one of several buyback services) and finding a new life for it. Of course, just because you’re camping out in front of your favorite Apple Store so that you can be first in line to buy an iPad 2, you don’t need to part ways with your original iPad at all. With a minimal amount of effort, you can turn that iPad into a more singularly-focused technology device. If you’re an avid reader, that old iPad could become a dedicated e-reading device once you get your hands on an iPad 2. For instance, why turn to Amazon’s Kindle if you can convert that older iPad into a dedicated e-reader? Just equip that old iPad with the reading app of your choice–whether it’s the Kindle app , Apple’s iBooks , or any of the other iPad e-reading apps available for download–and clear out your e-mail settings, games, and any push notifications to make the reading environment as distraction-free as possible. Other options include propping up your iPad with the lock screen’s built-in photo screensaver to make a fancy (if pricey) digital photo frame. Alternatively, use an app like iRule to turn your iPad into an oversized, hard-to-lose universal remote control. With an app like TouchPad , you can create a virtual Magic Trackpad of sorts. And you could even enlist your old iPad as an external monitor, using  Air Display . Read the full story at Macworld .

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What To Do With Your Old iPad 1

Clones of the iPad are not expected to be competitive on price. Apple has many advantages.

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So Far, Rivals Can’t Beat iPad’s Price

Apple’s chief executive interrupted a medical leave to introduce the much-anticipated new tablet.

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Jobs Takes the Stage to Pitch Apple’s New iPad

So those rumored delays definitely aren’t true: Apple is set to unveil the iPad 2 at an event next Wednesday, March 2. The device will be thinner than the previous generation and have an improved display, a front-facing camera, and FaceTime video-chat…

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iPad 2 to Be Unveiled Next Week

Early adopters will have to hang onto their first-generation iPads a bit longer: The release of the iPad 2 has been delayed from April to June after a key producer has hit a production bottleneck. The delay was discovered in a note from Taiwanese…

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iPad 2 Delayed Until June: Report

The past year’s relationship between Apple and newspaper publishers proves the old adage that love is blind. It’s clear from the new Apple app policy that love needs more time to prove itself. Apple’s new iTunes subscription policy throws a wet blanket over the efforts of leading brand newspapers to develop apps for the iPad platform. It is a wakeup call for publishers seduced by the beauty of the iPad, the simplicity of iTunes and the brand of Apple. The careful calculus that will emerge depends more now on audience and engagement than blind faith in one company. Wipe the slate clean and here’s what news publishers need: Data That Drives Business Model Options : The ability to capture customer data, manage the customer relationship, work toward an advertising model and generally control their own destiny when it comes to emerging business models. Policy That Works Across Platforms : The ability to incorporate smartphone and tablet app subscriptions with print and Web subscriptions in a platform-agnostic, multimedia “newspaper anywhere” strategy. What worries publishers is the additive effect of the Apple policy. Publishers are being told to live with a 30 percent cut for Apple and that they won’t own the customer relationship and how to price/promote their apps. Combined, the Apple policy now impacts the newspaper business model beyond tablets. What the new Apple policy does is treat all of the world’s 10,000+ daily newspapers the same. The fact is, the elite newspapers have robust CRM systems that are excellent at capturing and managing customer data. On the other hand, many publishers don’t have such systems and iTunes is the perfect service to sell subscriptions. I’d like to see flexible improvements to the Apple policy that take into account these different levels of publisher. When the iPad emerged last year, newspaper publisher optimism about the product, the platform and Apple itself defied P&Ls, market demand, and pretty much every credo by which newspapers live. Such is the case when love is blind. Last year, I visited newspapers in Europe, Latin America, the South Pacific and South Asia long before the iPad was released in their countries. It was one of those great creative moments when they proudly showed off their apps often read by only a few hundred business travelers that bought the tablet overseas. There was no market, but there was a lot of faith. It was a badge of honor. If the rules announced this past week existed one year ago, what you would have seen is a more rational, cautious approach to iPad app development by newspaper publishers. As it is, Apple changed the rules. Shame on us. The new subscription policy doesn’t kill the newspaper industry’s relationship with Apple, but it does deflate the irrationality of the relationship. In one swoop, Apple went down the path to being just another vendor serving the news industry — albeit one in too privileged a position for many countries’ antitrust laws. And publishers will respond in kind. They’ll look anew at their app strategy and take a more platform-agnostic approach. They’ll look more carefully at tablets in general versus the iPad specifically. There will be new energy and enthusiasm for HTML5 alternatives and tablet competitors — such as Google’s One-Pass service announced this week. Publishers will still work with Apple, but they’ll check their pockets before they leave the room next time. It will be a more sane, more sober relationship moving forward. And that’s probably a good thing. Our faith in Apple has been shaken. We can make up, we can make it work, and we can move forward. But the relationship may never be the same again.

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Newspapers Fall Out of Love With Apple Over Subscription Policy

A handy iPad accessory that lets you use the device in more places Today’s saturated iPad accessories market makes it hard to offer up an impressive new addition, but Portland, OR-based entrepreneur Jamie Smith has turned technology on its head with the Handstand . The user-friendly design allows you to hold the tablet in one hand and rotate it 360 degrees, to easily toggle between landscape and portrait orientation. An elastic band keeps it secured and comfortable; when you feel like setting the iPad down, the Handstand serves as a supportive stand, resting the iPad at a slight incline for easy viewing. “My career is one that has been characterized by identifying and filling a need that helps people run their business and personal lives more efficiently,” says Smith. The Handstand does just that, offering iPad users a convenient way of using the device in equally intelligible packaging. The Handstand makes it easy to make presentations, manage a guest list and multitask doing just about anything. Molded from silicone instead of plastic, the simple switch is a big improvement in terms of comfort and durability. The handstand currently sells online for $50.

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The Handstand for iPad

Apple has agreed to allow publishers to sell subscriptions through its popular App Store, an issue that has been a source of contention since the iPad went on the market.

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Media Decoder: New iPad Subscription Model Offered

This could make come true predictions that Apple will surpass Exxon this year as the world’s most valuable company: TechCrunch says Apple could be releasing the iPad 3 this fall, even though the iPad 2 hasn’t even come out yet, and still won’t for…

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iPad 3 This Fall?

Q:  I’m an iPad owner that is overwhelmed by the number of applications available. Where should I start if I’m looking for a way to utilize the iPad’s screen for browsing through photos? FLICKPAD Free lite version | $4.99 | Version: 2.1.3 | Shacked This one’s for those of us who travel in photo-happy circles. We’ve gotten a taste of what the iPad can do with loads of pictures (Exhibit A: the Photos app and its nifty stack-of-pix and scrolling grid layouts). Now we want the same treatment for those other two big sources of picture plenty: Facebook and Flickr. Flickpad is a special-purpose viewing, sharing, and commenting tool. Its name reveals its main method: you “flick” photos on and off a screenwide lightbox. Especially when you’re flooded with new pix, the app’s review-and-release system (you flick viewed photos offscreen and a replacement from the same album instantly appears) is not just efficient, but also great fun. PICK & PRESERVE : The app’s calendar-based approach (you can view this week’s haul, last week’s, or move day by day) is great for catching up on photo-viewing chores you’ve had to put aside for things like, you know, work. Save the gems you like best to a Flickpad favorite album and email any pic you like to anyone, even if they’re not a member of one of these networks (yep, still a few of ‘em out there). TONS O’ TOOLS : Other treats: double-tap any picture to see the full album it belongs to; hide friends whose photos you don’t want to see; and, in the Flickr icon, tap Explore to see a greatest hits selection — sorta like a tour through your friends’ best pix … if your friends were all pro photographers. HONORABLE MENTION: QUBICAL $0.99 | Version: 1.0 | Aleryon Half the fun of Facebook comes from the photos your pals share. But unless you’re on full-time news feed patrol, it’s easy to miss the latest pix. And even the ones you do see show up in that boring “click Previous, click Next” layout. This app stakes its future on a pretty distinct bet: photo browsing’s more fun when pictures get laid out like tiles on a twirlable 3D cube. And you know what? As you exit the Land of Lists and feast your eyes and fingers on the app’s photo-filled cube, the temptations to tap, to pinch, to — whoa, there, fella … these are your friends — well, let’s leave it at this: Qubical’s a fun way to browse. CUBE CONTROL : Grab the cube by tapping and holding anywhere onscreen (not just on the cube itself) and pivot it by moving your finger. Shrink or enlarge the box by pinching or spreading. For your autorotating pleasure, tap the arrow-around-the-pole icon. The app’s also got Facebook’s commenting hooks built in, so you can add comments. PICTURE POWER : Double-tap any friend whose photos you want to see an then head to the Albums icon. Here’s where you can roll through whatever photo collections your buds have broadcast. See something you like and wanna view it, uh, normally? Just tap the picture for a regular shot frozen in plain ol’ 2D space across your screen. Tools mentioned in this entry: APPLE IPAD More questions? View the complete Toolkit archive . Excerpted from Peter Meyers’ Best iPad Apps: The Guide for Discriminating Downloaders . Copyright 2010 O’Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission . Read more Atlantic Technology Channel book excerpts .

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iPad Apps: Best App for Friend Photo Browsing

News Corp has launched a paper for the iPad called only “the Daily”. It joins a long line of unusual-sounding newspaper names.

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10 unusual names for a newspaper

News Corporation’s Rupert Murdoch unveils the Daily, a digital newspaper made exclusively for the iPad.

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News Corp debuts daily iPad paper