Rumors that a thinner and smaller 7.85″ iPad to launch in the fourth quarter of 2012 has sparked an onslaught of rumors about how the device is being made and what changes would make it cheaper.

DigiTimes reports that Apple will be using thin-film technology supplied by Nitto and Nissha Printing and TPK will be constructing the touchscreens to be used in the iPad Mini. The design, called “G/F2,” uses one less layer of film compared to the screen technology used in the third-generation iPad and iPad 2. This will allow Apple to make iPads thinner and reduce production costs.

[via AppleInsider]

A Massachusetts man is held in jail without bond today. He’s accused of  murdering his girlfriend Kristen Pulisciano as their daughter’s friend watched via iPad video chat. Christopher Piantedosi, 39 years old, showed up at his girlfriends home Thursday and began a heated argument.

Police say the argument grew louder and their 15-year-old daughter who was in her room video chatting on here iPad went to go check on them. She found Christopher holding a knife. At that point, here mother fled to the girl’s bedroom and locked the door.

Christopher allegedly kicked in the door and proceeded to stab his girlfriend repeatedly with a butcher’s knife. All the while, the daughter’s male friend could see the murder taking place over video chat from the iPad.

“He could hear the victim saying, ‘Please, please,’ and he could hear the daughter yelling, ‘No! No!’”  Middlesex assistant district attorney Nicole Allain said. “He then heard the defendant say, ‘You’ve got to die. You’ve got to die.’”

The daughter rushed out of the home and called 911. By the time authorities arrived, Christopher had fled the scene. It was reported that Kristen Pulisciano suffered 34 stab wounds to the neck and chest.

On Facebook, Pulisciano’s daughter posted a photo of her with her mother and wrote, “im glad ur in heaven. no more crying. sorry for all those fights. i tried to help. it was [sic] to late. i love u forever.”

That’s right, out of the many mobile devices on the market, including all Android smartphones, tablets and even the iPhone, iPad wins when it comes to web browsing usage. According to April data Net Applications released recently, the iPhone had the iPad beat for some time but in the last few months the iPad had tied with the iPhone is web browsing usage.

April data Net Applications tells us that as of April the iPad now has a not-so-insignificant lead over iPhone, coming in at 33.7 percent to 27.4 percent. With a steady incline like that, iPad will soon be the most popular portable device to browse the Internet.

Some are quick to point out that it’s obvious the iPad would eventually take most of the marketshare for web browsing usage. It’s large screen size and vibrant display make surfing the Internet much more appealing that say, on a 3-inch display on a smartphone.

Sound a bit ridiculous? Maybe. An online casino site by the name of Roxy Palace recently posted an article saying that their research shows that 1 in 10 men would rather own the new iPad than find a potential love interest. Possibly a more surprising claim is that the poll conducted also found that about 3% of men would be prepared to leave their spouse if offered a brand new iPad.

On the other side, woman overwhelmingly preferred to find a man over being given an iPad. 84% to be exact. The numbers came as a shock to many, including myself. Roxy Palace is no doubt trying to pick up some extra traffic to their site by creating and publishing such a poll. It isn’t clear where or how the poll was conducted but it’s worth noting that the men and woman participating probably have a strong interest in gambling.

Remember a few months back when all the tech sites couldn’t help but report on rumors for the “iPad 3″ and a possible cheaper, stripped down iPad or even, a smaller iPad. Well it seems as though people are talking again but with no real information to add.

Steve Jobs himself spoke very negatively about the possibility of a smaller iPad. “The 10-inch screen size is the minimum size required to create great tablet apps. Seven-inch tablets are tweeners: too big to compete with a smartphone, and too small to compete with an iPad,” he said back in October 2010.

“Their manufacturers will learn the painful lesson that their tablets are too small, and increase the size next year, thereby abandoning both customers and developers who jumped on the seven-inch bandwagon with an orphan product. Sounds like lots of fun ahead.”

Last week Ciccarese Design posted some interesting mockups of what a smaller iPad would look like and put it alongside the iPhone and original size iPad. The designs got some buzz and one thing is for sure, nobody complained about how a smaller iPad looked. It was beautiful. See the more images of the mockup below.

With the Kindle Fire and a plethora of smaller Android-based tablets hitting the market every year, it may now make sense for Apple to disregard Job’s initial opinion of not wanting to further fragmenting iOS devices in favor of staying competitive in the lower-end, smaller tablet market.

The new iPad is faster and more beautiful than ever but for for most Windows-based desktop users, it’s hard to substitute one for the other. OnLive a primarily remote gaming service allows streaming of games and service so the device itself isn’t doing all the work. A while back OnLive released a virtual instance of Windows 7 that could run on the iPad for free complete with office 2010.

This move had virtual desktop companies in an uproar,  claiming that OnLive isn’t properly licensing the software. Microsoft later confirmed that OnLive was indeed, not licensing the software appropriately and Microsoft was in-talks with OnLive to reach an agreement.

Brian Madden, a technologist and blogger about virtual desktops, today explains that OnLive has converted their Windows 7 hosted instance service to a Windows Server 2008 R2 instance. Microsoft explains that it’s impossible to offer a hosted Windows 7 instance with each user paying for a license. Windows Server 2008 R2 is extremely similar to Windows 7 and with some tweaks can look just like the average W7 desktop would.

Prentke Romich’s Minspeak is a special touchscreen device that will let mute children and adults speak by using a set of buttons on-screen. When touched in sequence the device will recognize sentences and speak for the user. Minspeak, up until, now has has little competition.

startup Speak For Yourself found themselves in court after Minspeak claimed that Speak For Yourself’s significantly cheaper iPad application with “dynamic keyboard of symbols” and “the ability to redefine these keys” violated Minspeak’s patent.

Nieder of Speak For Yourself stated that it is needed on the market as an cheap alternative to the more pricy dedicated portable device:

I sent emails out (to users, AAC experts, and company reps) asking about whether PRC (Prentke Romich Company) was developing an app for the iPad, and the answer was a clear no.

For my daughter, the bottom line isn’t about what happens in the courtroom, it’s about what happens to her app. Her iPad, equipped with its special case and Speak For Yourself, is now her communication device. She doesn’t care about who is making the money, or patent law, or big guys vs little guys – she cares about being able to tell me that she wants milk instead of water, or she wants to go to the zoo, or about who she played with at school.

She wants to be able to talk.

The Reg asked Minspeak whether it had plans to make an iPad app, and a spokesperson got in touch to say:

Like most companies, we don’t publicly share our future product development plans. However, we recognise the importance of consumer technology as a permanent aspect of the assistive technology field, and are planning to participate in a way that will provide solutions that focus on client outcomes.

Rovio, the highly successful iOS, Android and PC software development company, tells us that Angry Birds Space is in orbit and on-track for delivery to iPads across the world. PCmag.com reports that Angry Birds Space runs flawlessly on Android devices but only features 65 levels. When the iOS version hits iPad, there will be 95 levels.

“After a giant claw kidnaps their eggs, the Angry Birds chase it into a wormhole and find themselves floating in a strange new galaxy – surrounded by space pigs! Luckily the Angry Birds have super powers of their own…” reads Rovio‘s description of the game.

So what makes Angry Birds Space different from any other Angry Birds game? Gravity. Yes, gravity brings a unique and interesting gameplay twist to an already tried and true concept. Now, you’ll not only have to hit those smug pigs but you’ll have to work with the gravitational pull of planets to get to them.

The new Apple iPad was released on March 16. Oddly enough, they didn’t call it the iPad 3 but simple left it as “The New iPad.” In any event, we are ecstatic about all the new features crammed into the new iPad, especially 4G LTE support. To celebrate FIG is flipping the bill for one lucky reader to win a free “new” iPad. A 16GB WiFi iPad ($499) to be exact.

So here’s how it will work.. In the past we just asked you to follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, ect. This time around there’s a nifty tool that will not only make entering this giveaway easier but also allow you to enter in more ways, improving your odds of winning. Not to mention, it makes things a heck of a lot easier for us. It’s called Rafflecopter.

The Rafflecopter widget below can be used to tally up all your entries. There are lots of ways to enter and some ways give your more than one entry. The new iPad giveaway starts when this post is published and will continue until May 18 2012. At which time we will investigate the entries and choose a winner at random the following Monday. This giveaway is open nationwide.

a Rafflecopter giveawaySo now your mouth is watery over the thought of holding a new iPad right? Well, we might be able to help out a bit. Here’s a video of SoldierKnowsBest unboxing his new iPad. Enjoy!

It’s likely that Apple will reveal the “new iPad’s” official name when the release date comes. Some speculate that the new iPad will be called “iPad HD” while others hold out that it will be called “iPad 3″. Just as a reminder, we will be giving our readers a chance to win the new iPad once the official name is released.