One of the many long waits associated with the iPad is finally over – even though you won’t be getting your hands on one today, you can still place your order starting now if you live in the US.

Do you ever expect an e-reader maker to make something out of its technology for the iPad? If you haven’t yet thought of such a possibility, here is something that can give you reasons to deliberate on. Barnes & Noble is, in fact, working on a B&N e-reader for iPad application.

Though iPad-maker Apple has not yet commented on the move, we hope that Apple may not say no to competition. But then, we will have to wait to know.

After lots of waiting – agonizing for some of the more dedicated fans of Apple – the official launch date for their newest product, the iPad, has been revealed – the device is launching in the US on April 3, and the 3G model will be released some time later during the month.

This bit of information comes across as a breath of fresh air for Apple iPad freaks who had sullen faces after an AP endorsed report claiming a delayed launch of the Apple Tablet. Those faces need to cheer up as the Apple inventory is absolutely on track and the scheduled release this month will see no changes being made.

The AP report mentioned that Apple will either have to cut down on the number of units released to 300,000 in March and not a million or else the entire launch will have to be delayed as a Taiwan-based supplier of Apple products was facing production woes.

The world has waited patiently enough to read this and albeit an unconfirmed prediction, it still feels good to know that the US pre-orders for the WiFi version of the Apple iPad may happen as early as February 25th. It is only the WiFi version of the Apple tablet that does not require a long time contract, which is why we can probably trust the Appadvice floated rumor. Whether Apple is ready with minor applications hailing from the iPod and iPhone territory is another query we need to look into before getting too excited.

The Apple iPad is scheduled for a release next month and it is sure to face some fierce competition from the HP Slate PC. HP intends to tighten the competitive noose furthermore by pricing the 3G laden, Windows 7 blessed, Slate PC, below the 3G version of the iPad which features a pretty similar spec sheet as the iPad. The Apple 3G enabled iPad will cost $629 and HP intends to price Slate PC below this mark.

HP officials are meeting in US and Taiwan to finalize the features and the pricing of the Slate PC within a matter of weeks.

The Apple iPad is gonna go cheap. Before you all rejoice, this piece of good news is only for readers in Austria who are planning to get hold of an iPad. Carrier Hutchison has plans to offer a discount on the Apple tablet wireless version, we are told.

Amazon and Macmillan have finally called off their pricing dispute after days of wrangling over pricing of books. With the new settlement, books by Macmillan authors are queuing up to be back on sale on Amazon’s Web site. The agreement on a new model is what Amazon has resorted to and this could be seen as Amazon’s climb down, acknowledging the arrival of a rival in the form of the Apple iPad, which could have been a threat to its Kindle franchise and domination of e-books.

Amazon is sprucing up its Kindle e-reader bringing in touch screen start up company Touchco by way of an acquisition. It is expected that the Touchco’s interpolating force-sensitive resistance technology that allows for flexible, transparent and pressure-sensitive touch-screens would be soon be injected into the Kindle hardware operations.

The iPad is everyone’s mind and shopping list. Even as the whole world seems to be waiting for the first Apple iPad to start shipping, here comes yet another piece of wonderful news. The grapevine has it that Apple has already started building a new advanced version of the iPad and that it would sport Mac OS X.