Less than one week after its unveiling and three weeks before its retail debut, the iPad is already generating buzz about its hardware, and lack thereof.

The story all began when Apple first started to ship iPad replacement items to various ceritified repair shops. With a big release on the horizon, Apple obviously wants to make sure that technicians are equipped to handle any early models that may possibly break down or suffer damage.

One of those shops to receive the various spare components was Kansas-based Mission Repair, which noticed something curious in the frame. It seems that the top part of the iPad's frame is perfectly equipped for the exact same camera that is built-in to the MacBook and MacBook Pro models.

This has touched off a new set of rumours and speculations about a camera shipping as an option in either the current iPad model or a future revision version. Since Steve Jobs made no mention of a camera during his carefully-prepared unveiling last weekend, I'm inclined to believe the latter.

So why would a camera have been scrapped? There are a number of reasons, the first being price. Given everything already included in the iPad, Apple's profit margins have to be pretty thin. Though not super expensive, the camera hardware may have been part of the compromise to get the tablet down to $499.

The second being battery life. Every time you add bells and whistles, you add a drain on the battery. For a tablet system designed to be portable, this is a big deal. Not only is there the drain from the camera itself, but you also have the processing power stepped up to crunch all the imaging. If Flash was left out because of its drain on batteries, the same fate befalling video would not surprise me much.

Finally, you have the relative usefulness of a camera. At some point Apple must have weighed the number of people that would really make use of a built-in camera and decided that it was not enough to trump the first two concerns.

Perhaps, as Mission Repair suggests, we could see the camera come back in the iPad 2.0, when power management and battery life improve.

Well, that was certainly an interesting day. Apple delivered everything we expected and a bit more.

Steve Jobs formally unveiled the new iPad, and while most of the specs were already known, there were some surprises and plenty of things worth discussing.

First off, the "iPad" name itself. Not to get too into titles, but in this case I think it merits a brief discussion. Apple is increasingly viewing its hardware as falling in two categories: "Mac" computer and "i" electronics. That Apple made this the iPad and not MacPad could really indicate that Apple is not seeing this as challenging computers, meaning it is and will be more of a tablet than a netbook. Those who were looking for any sort of serious photo/video editing or higher-end gaming features probably didn't want to hear that.

Big thumbs up to Apple for the development and inclusion at launch of the dock. As much as Jobs and others like to talk up the keyboard, it's pretty clear that a touchscreen keypad is simply not going to cut it for most any task beyond Tweeting. For students this is huge. The textbook store component of iBooks is a tough sell on its own, but when you have a word processor and keyboard/stand combination, you have something that could be a huge hit in campuses around the world.

One question, however, is how the iPad will connect to printers. The iPhoneOS was never designed with the need for printing. I'm sure Apple has already addressed this, but it will be interesting to see how it works.

The vast range of devices being offered was a change of pace for Apple, and could indicate just how much Apple wants the iPad to succeed. Even the Mac models come with three or four options with a fairly short range of prices between each. iPad ranges from $499 to $825 and ranges from a Wi-Fi-only 16GB device for students and home users to the 3G-equipped 64GB system for road warriors. Apple obviously wants the iPad line to succeed in a big way, and it looks like it has higher hopes for the iPad than the iPhone or iPod. A lofty goal indeed.

Finally there's the question of 3G. Currently in the states the iPhone is tied in with AT&T, and with today's announcement that partnership will continue, unless the rumours or new carriers floated earlier this week are not only true, but also applicable to iPad. Will the company also go for exclusive deals in Europe? And if so, will anti-trust authorities go after Apple for it?

Steve Jobs and his company answered a great number of questions today, but a great many remain in the 60-day run up to the iPad's release. Those hoping for an end to the years-long Apple tablet hype will have to suffer for at least another few months.

Amazon has to be more than a little worried by this. iPad makes the Kindle look completely antiquated. E-ink displays are said to cause less eye-strain than LCD screens, but that's not much of a selling point against the laundry list of advantages iPad has. If it's going to compete in this market, Amazon needs a massive overhaul and fast. Perhaps even the adoption of a new platform. Which leads us to our final point...

The wild-card in all of this: Android. At this year's CES there were several devices demonstrated, but only sparingly and as little more than prototypes. With this news, Google and its hardware partners are on the clock. If they can not only show but give release dates on rival devices to the iPad, the Android community can take some of the wind out of Apple's sales.

Out here in the States one of the biggest gripes about the iPhone has nothing to do with the phone itself, but rather with its exclusive carrier, AT&T. Complaints ranging from sluggish and spotty 3G speeds and dropped connections are common with any carrier, and in different parts of a state or even a city, reception can vary greatly from one network to another.

If a recent analyst report is anything to go on, however, we could see that issue resolved for a great many people. Apple's biggest and oldest carrier deal may be set to expire and the company could be preparing to expand to other networks.

Oppenheimer analyst Tim Horan recently suggested that the deal with AT&T will expire in May, and that Apple may spend the following months rolling out deals with T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint.

Should those carriers agree to Apple's current subsidisation rates, such a move could send iPhone sales and Apple's profits through the roof. That doesn't seem as likely with multiple deals, however, as the companies would not want to pay those sorts of costs without getting an exclusive contract.

Instead, if true, the news could mean that Apple is willing to take a cut in profit margins and make up for it by selling more iPhones. Given the popularity that the iPhone has had with even one carrier, that may not be such a far-fetched idea.

It might not be long before you fire up your iPhone's copy of Safari, tap the search window and run yourself a search on... Bing?

If a recent report from BusinessWeek is correct, Apple and Microsoft are in talks on a new partnership which would replace the iPhone's current Google search bar with a Bing search in Safari.

While it's possible that this is the result of Apple being impressed by Bing (and if such a deal goes down I'm sure that will be Apple's standard explanation) it's just as likely that Apple is in fact pretty miffed with Google. It's hard to imagine a company being disliked enough by Apple to make Microsoft a favorable alternative. Perhaps Steve Jobs was a lot more upset about Eric Schmidt and the rest of the company's actions with Android than we were led to believe.

On another note, if Apple does in fact turn its back on Google and go to Bing, will the faithful follow suit? For so many years Microsoft was seen as the enemy, and the upstart Google was viewed by Mac users as a close ally. How long would it take for longtime Mac users to come around to the company's new stance?

As the rumoured release date for the new mystery tablet creeps up, a pair of new rumours are adding some intrigue.

First off is a new report that the market for 10in touch screens has become increasingly tight in recent days. It seems someone has been buying up as many 10.1in units as they can get their hands on. The mystery buyer is said to be none other than Apple Inc.

In case you've recently been lobotomised and haven't quite been able to connect the dots, this would indicate that Apple is going into production mode for a 10in tablet, quite likely the one due for its unveiling in the next few weeks. Given Apple's prefered timetable for unveiling new products, taking pre-orders and shipping, this means that those analyst predictions of early March are looking more and more likely.

There have also been new reports on the nature of the device. A few blogs are reporting that the device will utilise the iPhone OS, and operating as what has been described as "an iPhone on steroids". If true, those reports would suggest that the device will function more like a conventional e-reader/tablet system rather than as a netbook/sub-notebook type of device.

For months, all we've had on the mysterious Apple tablet was speculation and predictions. Now, finally, we may just have a date to go with it.

Reports are beginning to surface that Apple is planning an event for 27 January for San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The downtown San Francisco location has been Apple's home away from home when it comes to product unveilings. If a new product isn't rolled out at company headquarters in Cupertino, it's going to be unveiled at Yerba Buena Center.

While Apple has backed away from the Macworld expo in the last year, January has remained a popular time for the company to roll out new products, and given the speculation that has been going on since last fall, this could be it. Apple analyst Gene Munster has gone so far as to predict a March release.

As an aside, how much of a slap in the face to Macworld would it be for Apple to walk away from the show, only to make its biggest announcement in years just days before the show? One has to wonder if there was more to the story than Apple simply wanting to go on its own time frame.

Mac scourge Psystar is far from admitting defeat in its long running battle with Apple over the right to sell Mac clone software, despite a recent court injunction.

About a fortnight ago the District Court for the Northern District of California granted the injunction, which effectively bans Psystar from selling PC hardware running Apple's operating system. However, in a statement last week, Psystar said that it would only be halting sales of the Rebel EFI software product which allows PC users to run Mac OS, while it seeks clarification over its legality.

"Our patience has been tested but our resolve is unwavering," read the statement.

"Psystar's vision of bringing the Mac OS to generic PC hardware is and always will be unyielding. Although Rebel EFI may be temporarily unavailable for purchase on the Psystar online store, those who purchase a t-shirt or donate over twenty dollars will receive one free copy of Rebel EFI once the court has ruled in our favor on this issue."

And in a sign that the legal battle with Apple could be far from over, Psystar then launched a stinging attack on the court's judgement, saying it is not a "hardcore copyright infringer".

"Psystar has never, and will never, condone software piracy. It's your software, you should be able to use it where you want to. If you purchase an off-the-shelf copy of OS X Snow Leopard, its your right to use that software," the company said.

"A publisher cannot forbid you from reading a book in the bathroom or listening to a music disc while riding your bicycle. There should be no difference in the software realm, no matter how much money Apple or anyone else throws at it. That is the real issue here and what we have always been fighting for."

It's a fair point, but without any major legal precedent, fairness doesn't really come into it. Either way, expect the PR battle in this tech David and Goliath match to hot up in 2010.

If you've been in the US over the last couple of months, you have no doubt seen Verizon's 3G map advertisements. The ads compare Verizon's nationwide 3G network to AT&T much smaller coverage area and in the process take a not-so-subtle swipe at the iPhone.

AT&T soon filed a lawsuit against Verizon, claiming that the ads were false and misleading. Verizon countered by asking AT&T to prove that the ads were false.

Apparently the ads were true, because AT&T has agreed to drop the case. Verizon has in turn dropped its counter-charges and both companies can now get back to lobbing snarky commercials at one another.

AT&T had a good counter, but they missed it. When you look at their coverage map (both of the coasts and major cities) you see that it matches up nicely with population dispersal in the the US. Had they simply pointed out that their network covers 80-90 percent of where Americans live and work, Verizon's ads would have lost their teeth for the most part. Instead they decided to use the threat of a courtroom, and Verizon called the bluff.

After all the activation issues, slow feature rollout, and other headaches AT&T has caused for the iPhone, one has to wonder if the execs at Apple aren't counting down the days until the exclusive deal ends.

A recent job posting combined with some interesting hardware sightings is prompting renewed speculation on what the new iPhone model will look like.

The job in question is said to concern the development of a new mapping application for the iPhone. While the iPhone already has software based on Google Maps, the planned application is reportedly going to be an in-house development from Apple and some have speculated that it may even have roots with the company's recent purchase of mapping firm Placebase.

Given the recent minor falling out Apple has had with Google and the growing competitiveness between the iPhone and Android platforms, this seems like a pretty natural step for Apple to take to distance itself a bit from Google.

The second rumor could shed even more light on the next iPhone. A developer in San Francisco has picked up traces of a new iPhone device. Using a public transportation monitoring tool known as iBart which monitors mobile traffic on the Bay Area subway system, researchers have caught wind of an "iPhone 3.1" device.

The update is not wholly unexpected, as Apple loves to issue annual updates to its products, and the iPhone has traditionally been unveiled in the winter/early spring and gone live in late June with an iPhoneOS firmware update.

In an effort to boost sales in the UK, Apple has extended its Black Friday offer outside of the US, promising to slash prices on a selection of its products.

Black Friday has been a retail tradition in the US for some time now - referring to the Friday after Thanksgiving when stores online and off cut prices to kickstart the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

Apple customers will have already received an email promoting the one-off sale tomorrow. "You'll find lots of great iPod, iPhone and Mac gift ideas - all with free shipping," the message reads.

Any more details have been pretty unforthcoming, however, which is not really surprising given the usual secrecy an intrigue surrounding any Apple announcements.

Not to be outdone, however, Microsoft has announced it is partnering with eBay to make it easier for IE8 users to find "products at deep discounts" in the run up to Christmas.

Daily deals to be found on the popular online auction site will be displayed for users via the Internet Explorer 8 Web Slice - functionality in the new version of the browser which previews users' favourite sites.

Happy shopping.