Apple's market-leading iPad is becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to keep up with. At the beginning of this year, we were up to the iPad 2, but as 2012 draws to a close, we are already - rather extraordinarily - talking about the iPad 5. Apple dropped a bombshell on iPad 3 owners by announcing the iPad 4 last month, but ever since the tear-downs of the A6X device concluded Apple's rather wasteful design techniques, it has seemed only a matter of time before a thinner, lighter iPad emerged.
There have been so many media and press events held by technology companies recently that it's extremely difficult to keep up with what has been announced and what we can expect to see imminently hitting the market. At the extremely recent event, that was dedicated to all things mapping, Nokia took the opportunity to announce their intention to release their Nokia HERE Maps app onto the iOS App Store to allow iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users to feel like a local wherever they are in the world. The Finnish company have stayed true to their word with the HERE Maps app now available as a free of charge download for iOS users.
Oprah Winfrey is one of the most celebrated television presenters of a generation, but today enters the blogosphere having made a quite comical tech faux pas in Tweeting about her love for the Microsoft Surface, but doing so using the official Twitter app for Apple's iPad.
The iPhone 5 may only have been out for just shy of two months, but that hasn't stopped the talk of its eventual successor. Following on from suggestions a couple of weeks ago that the next-gen iPhone would release in the first half of next year, it has now been reported the handset could be launching in the summer of 2013.
Towards the end of last month, we introduced Letterpress - a fun and addictive puzzler invented by the same development team behind popular Twitter app Tweetie. Since then, we've become completely engrossed, and every single member of the Redmond Pie team has joined in. Now, Letterpress has been updated to version 1.1, and as well as a bunch of bug fixes, there's also a new rematch feature.
Apple's iPad mini is still a fledgling device in the market, and as such, accessories from third parties are something of a scarce commodity. Belkin has long since been considered the go-to official third-party supplier of Apple peripherals and such, and with the Wi-Fi and Cellular model of the smaller Cupertino slate just about to retail, has launched a specially-made keyboard case for it.
Facebook has today released relatively major updates to its two biggest mobile apps, with iOS and Android users being treated to a bevy of new features and fixes.
If you use your iPad for the purpose of reading news and magazines, you haven't adequately done your tablet justice until you've used Flipboard. A stunning, innovative interface makes keeping up with the latest content a real joy, and if you like reading books as well skimming through the content of Flipboard, you'll be pleased to know that the app has just added a Books category which integrates with Apple’s iBookstore.
Although the fourth-gen iPad has been on sale for a couple of weeks now, the Wi-Fi + Cellular model has yet to surface. As is often the case, the fruit company has readied the Wi-Fi model and already sold countless units of the iPad 4, but the 3G / 4G LTE version has been slightly delayed. If you've been waiting on the cellular iteration, you'll be pleased to learn that some Apple Stores have just started stocking up, and although nothing has been officially uttered with regards to when they'll be available for purchase, they could feasibly go on sale at any point as of now.
Steve Wozniak, known to most simply as "Woz" was part of the original Apple team alongside Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne, and although the Cupertino co-founder prefers to spend his days enjoying all forms of technology, giving seminars and following philanthropic ventures, it was always written that he'd return to the Apple fold in one way or another. While he won't, of course, be chipping in on how to move forward with iOS, or mulling over the hardware implementations of the next MacBook, he will be gracing the App Store next week as a character in a shoot-'em-up title for the iPhone. Sound interesting? More after the jump!

