While Apple has not yet been sued for anything related to iPad 2, give it some time. Most of the information concerning the device and currently burning up gadgethead forums is unsubstantiated rumor and conjecture. Fast Company provides a round-up today. Using Holmesian deduction, Apple fanboys determined the new device would be thinner and lighter. They tracked cases that had been shipped from China allegedly for the device and used, you know, common sense. Much too has been made of the new iPad's "enlarged slot," but as dirty as that sounds it relates to the bigger ports …

A new class action lawsuit claiming iPhone and iPad devices share personally identifiable information about their users habits with advertisers has been filed against Apple. The suit alleges the devices, "allow advertising networks to track what applications users download, how frequently they're used and for how long," reports Bloomberg Businessweek. Additionally the suit, which also claims the transmissions are a violation of federal wiretap laws, names several app publishers including Pandora and the Weather Channel as defendants along with Apple, charging that the apps sell information "including users' location, age, gender, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and …

The sneaky leaker thats transforming investigative journalism with new media tools will have its story told in book form. Wikileaks beleaguered founder Julian Assange confirmed his book advances total more than $1.5 million. "I don't want to write this book, but I have to," Assange told the Sunday Times of London. "I have already spent £200,000 [$250,000] for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep Wikileaks afloat." The White House has not yet announced that it will be leaking the manuscript in advance.

When Skype posted a FAQ about its forthcoming iPhone app, which will enable video conferencing via the phone's two cameras), it may have inadvertently leaked confirmation of a Verizon iPhone (that or the people who slapped it up just made an honest mistake). Skype released extensive details about the apps features (which will compete with Apple's own Facetime), but tech reporters were distracted by the Verizon logo next to the Skype logo over the heading "How do I make video calls with Skype for iPhone?" The gaffe caused 9to5mac.com, (which quickly posted screen shots) to ask, "Ever get …

The snow blanketing the East Coast over the weekend and, in many instances, giving holiday revelers an extra day to sleep off hangovers and food comas could skew some traditionally heavy shopping days. Stores that have been advertising post-holiday sales (counting on traffic boosts from returns) are smarting from the crippling storm. "The NPD Group's retail analyst Marshal Cohen said today that it will take two to three weeks longer for retailers to recover from the loss of sales thanks to the snowstorm," writes TechCrunch. However, there's always a bright side, isn't there? "The silver lining to …

A community dedicated to cracking Apple devices has announced that it has cracking software for Apple's new Mac App store, before the store has even opened. The two-year-old community has the goal of circumventing the DRM on iPod, iPhone and iPad products and apps (in essence creating free access and also allowing non-Apple-approved apps to be used no the devices) done largely in protest to the fact the app store does not let you "try before you buy." Apple has pegged the store's launch on January 6. A spokesperson for the group, Dissident, says it will hold …

The Federal Communications Commission's new net neutrality rules are now almost a week old, and the fighting over them has just begun," writes Ars Technica. Republicans seem to be steeling for a fight, calling the new rules a "blow to personal liberty" and neutrality advocates say the rules are not nearly strong enough. But reasons, Ars Technica, why leave the kvetching to the professionals? Aras offers up a links to forms and emails address to shish can be filed both informal and formal complaints. So you now have a forum, wether you are a broadband provider …

Sorry Harry Potter, the third-generation Kindle has overtaken the final installment of your book series to become the most successful product in Amazon history, so the entail giant reported on Monday morning. The newest Kindle had been available just three months when it passed J.K. Rowling's wizard wunderkind, proving once and for all that gadget hounds have a greater need for instant satisfaction than do 12 year olds. As GigaOm points out, Amazon Kindle CEO Jeff Bezos said in the release, "We're seeing that many of the people who are buying Kindles also own an …

Do you spend time on Facebook talking about work, sleeping, eating and "thinking?" Unfortunately, then, that must mean you're not a particularly popular person -- and you'll probably be served different ads than those directed towards popular people.  The finding comes directly from Facebook -- that great aggregator social trends and behavior -- based on text analysis of 1 million anonymized messages. "Facebook's data team proved once again today that when you analyze a large set of anonymous user data from the world's biggest social network, you can learn some very interesting things about the …

Tech analyst and blogger Paul Kedrosky tells Ad Age that Groupon was, in fact, hoping to sell to Google, but it feared the deal would have been sidelined by antitrust regulations. "Groupon wanted to sell, but in case the deal fell apart, they wanted to get paid anyway, and that's the purpose of a break fee," Kedrosky explains. "At the end of the day, since Google couldn't come up with a large enough break fee, it means there was a real likelihood that the deal could have fallen apart and they had something to worry about." Meanwhile, despite the obvious …