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iSuppli has done a full component teardown of the Apple iPad, and the cost of the hardware for the cheapest model comes out to about $260 USD. It is also important to note, however, that the teardown is only for the hardware, and does not include R&D or shipping.

The cheapest iPad, which includes 16GB of flash memory sells for $499.

The 32 GB version, with a $599 price tag, has $289.10 worth of hardware. The top of the line 64GB version, which sells for $699, has $348.10 worth of hardware.

The most expensive components are, as expected, the touchscreen and the processor. The multitouch display adds $95 USD to costs and the Samsung processor is $26.80. Flash memory depends on the capacity: $29.50 for the 16GB memory, $59 for the 32GB, and $118 for the 64GB.

The aluminum back casing adds $10.50. There are more components of course, but they cost under $10 a piece.

According to the latest Experian Hitwise figures, two of the major search engines lost market share in March to Ask.com, which increased for the fourth consecutive month, and Yahoo.

Google fell marginally to 69.97 percent, Yahoo increased their share 3 percent to 15.04 percent and Bing fell for the third straight month, falling 1 percent to 9.62 percent.

Ask was the big winner, increasing 21 percent month-on-month to 3.44 percent.

Experian says 69 other search engines account for the remaining 1.93 percent.

Techcrunch has a very interesting article today that speaks about "new DRM," the embedding of personal info into tracks purchased from major retailers such Apple and Wal-Mart.

Here is their post from an anonymous music industry 'insider':

Hidden in purchased music files from popular stores such as Apple and Walmart is information to identify the buyer and/or the transaction. You won’t find it disclosed in their published terms of use. It’s nowhere in their support documentation. There’s no mention in the digital receipt. Consumers are largely oblivious to this, but it could have future ramifications as the music industry takes another stab at locking down music files.

Here’s how it works. During the buying process a username and transaction ID are known by the online retailers. Before making the song available for download their software embeds into the file either an account name or a transaction number or both. Once downloaded, the file has squirreled away this personal information in a manner where you can’t easily see it, but if someone knows where to look they can. This information doesn’t affect the audio fidelity, but it does permanently attach to the file data which can be used to trace back to the original purchaser which could be used at a later date.

Engadget is reporting today that the top selling e-reader, the Amazon Kindle, may be reaching Target retail shelves as soon as April 25th, marking the first time the device will be available outside of Amazon.

The move would make sense given the new launch of the Apple iPad, which is available in brick-and-mortar Apple and Best Buy locations and had extremely strong sales opening weekend. Additionally, the popular Nook is available in Barnes & Nobles retail stores.

Amazon and Target have been partners for almost a decade, with Amazon running Target's e-commerce website.

So far, both Amazon and Target have said they "do not comment on rumor or speculation."

The US Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia has ruled that the FCC lacks the authority to enforce network neutrality rules for broadband internet providers.

The ruling came in Comcast's appeal of the that agency's 2008 ruling on the cable giant's practice of throttling P2P traffic.

Although the court's decision means the FCC doesn't have the authority to punish Comcast for their "network management" practices, their legal problems aren't over yet. In fact it clears the way for lawsuits pending in federal court which have been held up by the question of FCC jurisdiction.

There's also the potential for action by the Federal Trade Commission over alleged false advertising of their service.

What makes things more complicated is that the FCC may still be able to establish jurisdiction over net neutrality by revisiting a 2002 ruling on the nature of internet service. At that time it was determined that broadband internet was merely an information service, and therefore not subject to the same level of regulation as common carrier service like traditional phone lines.

Nintendo has announced that they will be unveiling the next iteration of the DS line, the 3DS at the E3 event later this year, but today mockup pictures have shown up on a Japanese blog, and the design shown off by the site is interesting to say the least.

Their is one large touchscreen, which splits two simulated screen for DS backward compatibility, and games can be played vertically and horizontally.

The device can also take pictures, scan pictures, place 3D images on real backgrounds, "3D pointing," and more. 3D Pointing "tracks the movement of the user's finger, including distance, to manipulate an object on screen," says Kotaku.

Although the mockup is definitely a fake, it is still a pretty cool idea. Here are all the pictures posted:

ZodTTD, the developer behind the Snes4iphone emulator has made a video this week playing Super Mario Kart for the SNES on the new iPad.

Says the developer: "I just got my iPad and the first thing I did was install a build of snes4iphone made specifically for non-jailbroken iDevices. This is the video of the first test. I have 2x scale enabled on the iPad to make it full screen, and I enabled smooth scaling in the emulator. I'm playing Super Mario Kart on my iPad and it looks, sounds, and plays great! This is going to be amazing."

Unfortunately, the emulator app is not available to the public yet, and will likely need your iPad to be jailbroken.

Check the video here, it looks great:

Accessory maker Hori has unveiled an add-on LCD screen with speakers for the Slim PS3, making the console "portable."

The Hori HP3-87 is an 11.6-inch LCD with a resolution of 1366x786, allowing for 720p playback.

The system arrives in Japan on May 27th, and has a 500:1 contrast ratio, 7ms response time, stereo speakers, two headphone jacks and RCA and component inputs.

The HP3-87 has a $275 USD equivalent price tag.

Yesterday we reported that the iPhone OS 3.2 may have clues about rumored Verizon iPhone and today Verizon's CEO Ivan Seidenberg has confirmed the wireless company wants to carry the iPhone.

Speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations, Seidenberg would not give too much details, but did say the company is actively trying to get the iPhone over to Verizon's networks.

So far, the iPhone is only available for AT&T, and the phone uses the GSM standard. Verizon runs on CDMA.

Bloomberg has reported today that listings of the Apple iPad have surged on eBay since launch this past weekend, mainly due to early adopters overseas who want the device.

At its craziest, a buyer in the UK purchased a 64GB Wi-Fi version for $5000 USD, an 800 percent premium from the U.S. retail price. The iPad goes on sale in Europe later this month.

Adds Carl Howe, analyst at the Yankee Group: "This happens with nearly any hot product. Some people buy up copies and try to sell them on EBay to make a profit. There were iPhones going for $2,000 when they first came out."

eBay says the average selling price for an iPad heading into launch was $777 USD.

Pic via Tuaw:

Rhapsody, which was recently spun-off from RealNetworks and is now an independent company, has announced two major events today, the lowering of their standard subscription, and the release of an Android app.

The company is dropping the price to $9.99 per month, allowing for unlimited music on your home computer and playback on one additional media device.

The app, released into the Android Market, should help to expand Rhapsody's userbase, just like the Rhapsody iPhone app did over the past year.

Says Jon Irwin, president of Rhapsody: "We've got a large fan base ... and we heard loud and clear -- they wanted a more affordable price, and they wanted greater portability. That's where we're headed with these two announcements."

The monthly subscription used to cost $12.99 per month.

As of this morning, Xbox 360 USB Memory Support has gone live, as promised by the company in late March.

The support allows for USB flash drives to be used for storing profiles, game saves, demos and other data.

For more information on the update, check our previous posting here: Xbox 360 USB Memory Support coming April 6th

AllThingsD is reporting today that Time Magazine is setting the price of their iPad app at $5 per week, the same price as the print edition costs at a newsstand.

While the digital version will include bonuses such as video, it is clear that delivery of the electronic version is cheaper than a print edition, yet the price does reflect the difference.

The blog asked Time why the pricing scheme and got this response: "We are offering a compelling, robust and beautiful product. The production of this high quality, fact-checked reporting takes resources. We believe there is a real value to this product and as consumers experience it, they will agree. We are currently only offering single copy sales, just like at your local newsstand–and, the price is the same as the physical newsstand. We will soon be offering subscriptions–both digital subscriptions and print/digital bundled subscriptions. We anticipate these subscriptions will be discounted off the newsstand price."

At this point, however, the expensive price point doesn't seem to matter, as the app is top 25 in "top paid."

According to new stats from Net Applications, Windows 7 has hit 10 percent market share, doing so much faster than Vista did after launch.

Overall, Microsoft controls 91.6 percent of the operating system market, with Windows XP holding 64.5 percent and Vista with 16 percent.

Vista has dropped, market share-wise for five consecutive months, and will likely fall to under 10 percent by the end of the year. On the other end, Windows 7 is expected to surpass Vista by late May.

Back when it launched in February 2007, Vista took 16 months to reach the 10 percent mark, as it was mired in poor reviews and stability issues.

Engadget has got their hands on an HP memo that compares the upcoming HP Slate tablet to the much-hyped iPad.

The Slate will run on Windows 7, will cost $549 at its cheapest, and will include an 8.9-inch 1024x600 multi-touch screen.

Separating it from the iPad even further is the 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor, 1GB RAM, SDHC slot (with support up to 128GB), two cameras, a USB port, a SIM card slot, and five-hour battery life.

Check the screenshot here: