If for whatever reason, chance, circumstances, sloth, you were not able to secure a pre-order on a brand new, shiny iPad when they were announced last week, redemption is at hand for you. Well, on Friday at least.

That’s right, for those of you without an iPad pre-order, the devices will arrive in Apple stores this Friday at 8AM local time. In addition, you can go to your local AT&T or Verizon Wireless store at 8AM and pick up a new iPad too.

But wait, there’s more. If you don’t happen to have an Apple, AT&T or Verizon store conveniently located near you, the iPad will also be available at Best Buy and Target stores in the US. The iPad will also be released in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Kingdom on Friday as well.

For all the details, check out the official press release from Apple after the break.

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It isn’t just movies and music at the South By Southwest event, there’s also comics. Comics and technology, to be exact.

That’s right, at SXSW in Austin, TX yesterday Marvel announced a new initiative, in the form of an iOS and Android app, and the first of many steps in its Marvel ReEvolution called Marvel AR. This new app, developed in conjunction with Aurasma “brings the world of print and digital media together for a comics experience like never before.”

Sound exciting? Well, if you want to know more, check out all the info below from the official press release.

Yesterday, at the SXSW Interactive Festival, Marvel Entertainment unveiled Marvel AR, the first major augmented reality app from a comic book company. As part of the recently announced Marvel ReEvolution, which brings the world of print and digital media together for a comics experience like never before, the Marvel AR app powered by Aurasma will be released on April 2 for iOS and Android devices. Fans can first discover the power of this new app in Avengers VS X-Men #1, arriving in comic stores on April 4 and kicking off the comic book event of the year in which the world’s most popular Super Heroes go to war!

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You knew it would happen sooner or later. People just can’t seem to resist shooting video when unboxing new, shiny tech products.

Of course, one of the shiniest and newest of tech products is Apple’s latest iPad. The device, which was announced last week with expected arrival into eager hands this week, already has an unboxing video curtesy of Vietnamese Apple blog Tinhte.vn. Naturally, we’ve got it for you to see and enjoy.

In the video we get our first good look at the new device and that famed “reta-display” everyone is talking about. Sadly, the video can’t really do the display justice as it isn’t actually displaying at the resolution the screen is capable of.

However, that doesn’t stop us from being pretty impressed with the new iPad. In fact, it’s pretty clear we need to add this to our early Christmas list.

Or, perhaps to a gift list for a holiday that comes a bit sooner. St. Patrick’s Day present anyone?

Check out the unboxing video after the break.

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This year’s Boston Indie Showcase, the impressive list of independent games featured at PAX East in April, is a bit different than in years past- because the games are all mobile based, we’ll all be able to play most of them before the show even happens. Pretty cool, right? Here’s the first of the Boston Indie Showcase that I’ve tried out for myself, a word game that goes beyond Scrabble and Boggle.

SpellTower is like Words with Friends meets word searches, and will appeal to anyone who loves any kind of word puzzles. It’s a pretty simple concept: create words using the letters you’re given. In Tower Mode, you’ll only get 100 letters, but as much time as possible to rack up as many points as you can. In Puzzle Mode, a row is added for each word you make. Rush Mode is timed, meaning the quicker you create words, the longer you’ll survive. Words can be created diagonally, backwards, and even overlap, so you can really get creative in how you form words and clear the board.

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You have to hand it to the Hacker community. They are indeed persistant. Not even 24 hours after Apple updates iOS to version 5.1, there’s already a tethered tool available to jailbreak it.

Now, we don’t necessarily condone that kind of behavior around here (at least publicly) and we are just providing this as a public service and not endorsing it one way or the other. However, according to the website Redmond Pie, the iPhone Dev Team has updated its Redsn0w too which will enable users to jailbreak their iOS 5.1 devices.

The jailbreak is tethered, however, so you’ll have to connect your IOS device to a computer each time you power it on. However, expect that limitation to be lifted shortly, a it usually is.

This exploit works for all devices running iOS 5.1, except for the Phone 4S and iPad 2. Those are going to take a bit longer too.

Enjoy your “new” iDevice.

(thanks to Redmond Pie for the image)

It’s possible some people don’t care about Apple or its products. I’m sure people like that do exist. For the vast majority of us, however, tomorrow is sure to be a magical day as Apple is set to reveal the next generation of its hugely successful iPad.

The company will unveil the latest hotness at a press conference tomorrow morning in San Francisco at 10AM Pacific. As usual, Apple has keep the lid on pretty tight and tried to keep all details about the device out of the press.

However, some information has managed to leak out and we’ve got one or two sources of our own so unless something radical happens, we’ve got a pretty good idea what to expect tomorrow. Of course, it’s no fun keeping that kind of info to ourselves so we’re going to share it with you. No need to thank us.

Here’s some predictions on what to expect from the iPad 3. (Note: We’re not calling it the iPad HD and we don’t think Apple will either)

• HD  (aka “Retina”) Display — It’s pretty much a given the next iPad will at least have to match the iPhone 4′s screen quality. In fact, we think it will sport four-times as many pixels as the iPad 2. That’s 2048 x 1536 pixels in the same 9.7″ size. In other words, the display should be amazing.

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Every one with their fingers on the pulse of the gaming community knows today is Mass Effect 3‘s release date. Midnight launches around the nation were held, and right now most gamers are either playing or day dreaming about playing the epic final chapter of Commander Shepard.

What might be a little less known is that an iOS companion game for the hit to be has released on the app store today. Normally ‘little brother’ mobile games don’t make to much of an impact on our rader, but this release has two major things going for it. One it is Mass Effect, and two it was developed by Iron Monkey Studios, the folks behind the fantastic Dead Space iOS game.

EA is promising a console like experience for this game, and with Iron Monkey involved we are inclined to give this a shot. The game looks to be a concurrent adventure to the main title:

As Commander Shepard battles Reapers across the galaxy, veteran Cerberus agent Randall Ezno procures aliens for illicit experiments at a secret facility. But when the Director of the facility goes too far – Randall fights back and vows to bring Cerberus down! 

Can you fight your way off the hostile Cerberus base and deliver their secret research to the Alliance? 

Hop on your prettiest iOS device and download Mass Effect Infiltratior today for $6.99.

Because we can’t spend all our time watching movies, TV shows, reading comics or other indoor pastimes, we occasionally have to venture outside into the world. When that happens, we often need something to entertain us. I’m talking about, of course, toys.

Of course, being the mostly adult, very geek people we are, our toys can’t just be any old run of the mill item. Enter the Parrot AR Drone 2.0 Quadcopter.

The AR Drone 2.0 was announced at January’s Consumer Electronics Show and will be released in May for $299.99. It features a 720p front-facing camera that allows users to capture their flights in HD, and a 3-axis accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer.

The device also features a new “absolute flight” mode that enables users to pilot the Drone by using a smartphone or tablet. the Android and iOS apps can also be used to share flight data with friends.

Limited quantities will be available on April 9 from Brookstone and can be reserved starting today. In the meantime, click through to see the AR Drone in action.

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If you follow tech news very much, and Apple in particular, you know one thing is certain: even if you have the “latest thing” from Apple they will be releasing an even better one sooner or later. That’s never been more the case, and more the subject of scrutiny and speculation, than with the iPhone and iPad.

So, it should come as no surprise that pretty much everyone is in the “what will Apple release next” game, including the Wall Street Journal. This time around the Journal is reporting that Apple’s next generation iPad (aka iPad 3) will feature, among other things, 4G LTE wireless connectivity.

In addition, said iPad 3 will be sold at both AT&T and Verizon. That isn’t exactly earth-shattering news, though, as both wireless carriers have had 4G LTE for some time and have hardware that runs on it already.

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Even with a perfectly fine piece of software for reading Final Draft scripts on the iPad already available in the form of FDX Reader, some users were still waiting for an “official” solution from Final Draft themselves. Well, they need wait no longer — or at least won’t have to after February 16.

That’s right, the company is releasing its “official” app to read scripts written in Final Draft on your iPad. For some of you, this won’t seem like a big deal. For those of us who use Final Draft daily for work and have alwyas wanted a way to read scripts on our iPads with the same fonts, page numbering and formatting as on our computers, this is a great development.

Some of the apps features will include:

• Works with Final Draft version 8 FDX files – the Hollywood industry standard script file format
• Imports scripts using email, iTunes File Sharing, or Dropbox
• Perfectly paginates to US Letter and standard European (A4) page sizes
• Precisely displays production scripts, including colored production pages, locked pages, scene numbering, and more!
• Scripts accurately scale to actual draft size

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One of the biggest game releases this year is the upcoming Mass Effect 3, the sequel to the mega hit franchise that blends Sci-Fi action and RPG immersion. The game is already being penciled in for game of the century and fans are at a fever pitch in anticipation, so bringing the game to iOS devices seems a smart way to capitalize.

The just announced Mass Effect Datapad is still clouded in some mystery, but we do know it will be an iPad exclusive. Best estimation is that the app will work as sort of a strategy guide, or some sort of informational support for your missions.

Also, EA has announced Mass Effect Infiltrator for all iOS devices, a third person shooter that is meant to feed into the main game’s Galaxy At War system. The mobile game is set around freeing prisoners and gaining evidence against Cerberus, both of which will have a direct impact on your single player experience.

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Back in the early days of non-linear video editing Avid was the king. Their software was used in pretty much every situation and they dominated the post-production landscape for film and TV.

Then, Apple came out with Final Cut Pro and things changed. Plus, Avid ended up having some issues of its own which hindered it further.

Now, with Apple having issues with Final Cut Pro X, Avid has released its first application to compete with Apple’s iMovie mobile. The app is called Avid Studio for the iPad and is currently available in the App Store for an introductory price of $4.99. After 30 days it will increase to $8.

With this app just being released, its too early to tell if it will knock Apple’s iMovie off its perch as the iOS editing app du jour. However, it does have some nice features and a few iMovie doesn’t have, so chances are people will at least give it a chance — especially at that low price point.