Barnes & Noble is keeping its fingers crossed that Apple will allow their own books catalog on the iPad. Apple has allowed Amazon's Kindle app on the iPhone, so there should be no reason why they wouldn't allow B&N's offering. It is important to point out also that the iBookStore does not come preinstalled on an iPad, but must be downloaded from the App Store. Apple has always maintained that the end game for selling content through the iTunes Store has always been to sell more devices. The iPad will have access to the Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iBook stores - in other words, the Kindle and the Nook (in their current capacity) are effectively dead.

Steve Jobs was also spotted on the red carpet at this year's Academy Awards in support of Pixar's hit animation "Up!". During the announcement of the iPad in January, Jobs who was previously the CEO of Pixar and is now the majority shareholder of Disney, said that Up contained his favorite film sequence. Up won 2 oscars for Best Original Score and Best Animated Feature Film.

[AP Photo/Matt Sayles]

Apple showed off the first ad of the iPad during the 82nd annual Oscars last night. This is reminiscent of the first iPhone commercial in 2007 which also made its debut at the oscars.

Apple today announced that its magical and revolutionary iPad will be available in the US on Saturday, April 3, for Wi-Fi models and in late April for Wi-Fi + 3G models. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

Apple® today filed a lawsuit against HTC for infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.

Ubisoft has launched Assassin’s Creed II: Multiplayer, exclusively for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game is a unique mobile experience in the Assassin’s Creed universe that allows players to compete against up to three other players using a Wi-Fi connection. The ultimate goal is to hunt down the other players and assassinate them by utilizing stealth and successfully blending in with non-player characters, while simultaneously avoiding assassination attempts. The game provides three different playing environments from Assassin’s Creed II, six different power-ups, online leaderboards and an integrated friends system for challenging other players.

And, for a 48-hour period (beginning today), fans can download the game for free. Once this promotion expires, Assassin’s Creed II: Multiplayer will be priced at $2.99. Grab it now! [iTunes Link]

The counter has just passed the 10 billion song mark! If you haven't done so as yet, hop over to the iTunes page and check out the all time top song downloads in iTunes. - http://www.apple.com/itunes/10-billion-song-countdown/

I wonder if I won...