With less than 7 days till the iPad hits stores officially on April 3rd it’s time to make one more roundup of news concerning one of the most anticipated gadgets in modern history. I know it sounds all too Hollywood like but that’s the truth. If you don’t believe me just search for ‘iPad’ on this site or any other IT website and count the number of news written in the past 6 months and compare it with any other subject. The iPad will win the race with a mile advantage.

    But let’s not get carried away, again, and see the latest bits about the iPad:

    1 – Apple solved the trademark issue with Fujitsu for the ‘iPad’ name as it just bought the name. Of course the amount of money paid by Apple for the settlement was not disclosed, but I’m pretty sure Fujitsu’s shareholders are sleeping now with even more cash under their mattresses.

    2 – The number of pre-ordered iPads reached a nice round 500.000 units. This number includes iPads ordered via the Apple online store, via their ‘offline’ stores but doesn’t include units ordered for educational purposes by universities and schools. So apparently things aren’t going too bad for Apple’s new wonder, as analysts have predicted a while ago. Of course final figures will surface later, after the official appearance in stores.

    3 – Thanks to the inclusion of the Gutenberg project into the iBookstore the iPad will ship with a few free eBooks. Few means 30.000 so there’s plenty of reading to be done, but remember those are old books, like the kind we are told to read in school. So for more up to date info you might want to dig deeper into your pockets and buy some new titles.

    4 – Advertisers are rushing to buy the space inside digital versions of magazines meant for iPad. That’s good news for the ‘classic’ media which might have the chance to make the switch successfully to the online world in a few years and stop complaining about how the Internet destroyed reading, newspapers and the radio.

    5 – Apple is already working on schemes to make iPad apps in its AppStore appear differently so users can distinguish with ease between an app developed especially for iPad and one upscaled from the iPod/iPhone version. I think this is a good idea as the iPad offers superior capabilities to its little brothers and I think users want to know what they’re buying.

    That’s it for this week with the iPad news. Check back next week to see how the iPad fares to other Apple launches when it will hit stores on April 3rd.

    If you can’t remember how the iPad looks like here’s a gallery with official pictures