“AP Gateway will serve as the launching pad for new products and services from AP and other interested news publishers,” Tom Curley, president and CEO of The Associated Press, said in a statement. “It will allow the news industry to deliver the news directly to the consumer in a variety of exciting new ways.”

Apple has reportedly been trying to land newspapers to be in its iBooks Store or otherwise deliver paid content on the iPad, but only a few have so far come on board, in part due to concerns about revenue sharing and issues over who has access to and controls subscriber information.

It seems as though this super iPod touch is just that. Because it runs on the same downgraded software from the iPhone, either one will have to use Apple-approved software from something like the App Store or someone will have to find a way to hack it, if it hasn’t been hacked already.

Analysts expect Apple to sell between 1 million and 5 million iPads in the product’s first year, which is well below what the hardware maker ships each year in iPhones and iPods. However, some believe iPad owners will spend more on accessories because of the device’s larger form factor and higher price point

We say that half-jokingly, of course. In the last few months, quite a few companies have signaled their intentions to go head-to-head (or at least offer an alternative) to Apple’s much-ballyhooed iPad, which should hit stores in March. Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer, and Sony have or are in the process of readying gadgets they say will compete with the iPad. We’ve seen some demonstrations at the Consumer Electronics Show and other trade shows, but several gadget makers admitted to waiting to see what Apple was going to do before setting the specifications and price of their competing touch-screen tablets.

Mainly, he says that Flash sites who are running now on the net can’t be adapted to work smoothly on any touchscreen display and it’s a bugging problem for all flash developer who would love to find a solution to resolve this.

The mystery key was noticed by Mac Rumors forum member Macduke, who posted the above image. He speculates that it may gain a function before shipping, and that function would be to invoke a Mac-like dashboard, complete with widgets (which would be great, by the way, especially for quick Twittering). I checked around the web to make sure that the blank key was indeed blank, and plenty of hands-on shots also have the mystery chicklet.

The folks at 9to5Mac and MacRumors have done some digging, and found references to front-facing camera, zoom, flash and video conferencing in the latest Beta 3 iPad SDK.

However, as I look to use an iPad to supplement my iPhone usage — or have a device that does sit between an iPhone and my MacBook Pro — I’ve been giving this question a lot of thought. I’m not a heavy traveller. Most of my “travel” time is spent on the commuter rail, and the MBTA has at least one or two Wi-Fi-equipped coaches per train. The service isn’t great — Edge access on my iPhone is faster — but it’s handy if I need to get my laptop online. Due to security reasons, I can’t get a device on the wireless network at work, so I would have to hope that if I needed to get a file onto the iPad, the rumored mounting solution would work.

Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, spoke at the Goldman Sachs annual tech conference in San Francisco Tuesday afternoon. He said the iPad will launch in retail, online education and other direct sales from Apple, but will also include the company’s assisted sales from partners like Best Buy.

The announcement suggests AT&T stores could also offer iPad sales, though Cook did not specifically mention Apple’s wireless partner in the U.S. Overseas, Apple’s premium resellers will also offer the iPad at brick-and-mortar locations.

AppleInsider reveals that the creator of the rejected “Wobble iBoobs” application claimed to have had a discussion with Apple in which he learned the company had removed more than 5,000 offending applications from the App Store. The New York Times now reports that Apple said it was responding to complaints from regular App Store users, when asked about the change.