The long-awaited iOS 5 update for Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices will be released on October 12th. It will be available for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, iPad 2 and iPod touch 3G and 4G. The update will be free. Apple’s iCloud services, including iTunes Match, Find My iPhone, iWork in the cloud and more will also be launched on October 12th. This is the date that we predicted last month as itcoincided with Twitter integration events....

There is no doubt that iPad 2s are already floating around China’s infamous black market but according to a report fromThe Global Times, the Asian country may soon witness an official release. It is reported that Apple’s iPad 2 was recently awarded the China Compulsory Certification (3C), a compulsory license for products being sold on the Chinese mainland. The product obtained the license after passing a series of tests, and has a validity of five years, expiring on April 8, 2016....

Sources close to component manufacturers in China have suggested recent touchscreen orders by Apple for its new iPad 2 tablet have left panels in such short supply that its rival RIM had to postpone the launch of its BlackBerry Playbook by a month. Chinese trade publicationDigitimes reportsthat shipments of the PlayBook were pushed back by a month from the original schedule because the Canadian smartphone manufacturer experienced delays in software testing, but also because of a shortage of touch panels for its device – with Apple booking up most of the available capacity at Chinese component makers....

A new reportfrom research analysts IDC notes that the worldwide media tablet market grew 45.1% in the third-quarter of 2010 with Apple’s iPad accounting for 87.4% of tablets shipped in that period. IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker puts total tablet shipments at 4.8 million units globally in the third-quarter, rising by 1.5 million units from the previous quarter and Apple’s iPad shipping nearly 4.2 million units, showing just how popular Apple’s tablet has become....

A new report from mobile advertising specialistsInMobihas revealed that Apple has become the most popular mobile handset manufacturer in Europe, with the iPad now the sixth largest advertising device in the continent, based on ad impressions. In May, the iPad accounted for over 80 million ad impressions in Europe, helping push Apple past all other manufacturers in terms of ad requests with an overall share of 19.5%. The iPhone remains the most popular handset, accounting for 509 million impressions and a 13....