According to Focus Taiwan, iPad manufacturers are working overtime to release the iPad 3 on Feb. 24 to mark Steve Jobs' birthday anniversary. OEMs and ODMs are asking their employees to work during the holidays to meet the deadline.

"To meet the iPad3 delivery date, the sources said, main assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry's iPad division will only allow its employees to take five days off during the Lunar New Year holiday, while staff at the company's other divisions will have a longer holiday."

Apple is looking to improve display technology on its next generation iPad, and we're not just talking about a Retina display resolution. A patent filed by Apple in the first half of 2010 reveals designs for dual OLED backlights, as reported by Patently Apple. The diagram below shows a cross section of the OLED backlight layers.

Part of what makes this technology so impressive is its simplicity. Current LCD displays have multiple layers requiring more thickness, and as has been seen in the past on the iPad and iPhone, they can be prone to manufacturing problems. Light leaks and yellow discoloration have been reported on some defective units.

Adobe has announced the end of mobile Flash development after a long and public battle with former Apple CEO Steve Jobs over the technology. Jobs cited Flash as too inefficient and insecure to run on Apple's devices, including the iPad and iPhone. Initially some questioned the decision but the adoption of HTML5 has skyrocketed along with iPad sales, making Flash less relevant.

Manufacturers of Android tablets have long contended that the inclusion of mobile Flash on their devices makes them superior to the iPad. Now that Adobe is abandoning the technology on mobile devices, some reports have declared a posthumous victory for Steve Jobs. Adobe has already begun to invest in HTML5 technology despite its refusal to acknowledge the limitations of Flash on mobile devices.

Apple patents seem to be filed on a constant basis, and determining which concepts will make their way into next generation products is almost impossible. We know an iPad 3 is due for release in March 2012, but we also know that several patents relating to 3D user interfaces on mobile devices have been filed in the past two years.

PC Magazine reports that Apple may deploy an iPad gesture control that would operate using the front camera of the tablet. This would make it possible to operate the iPad from across the room, or by simply gesturing in space to control options on the screen.

Looking for a deal on the iPad or iPad 2? Bargain hunters can rejoice now that Apple has slashed another $100 off the prices of selected refurbished iPads in the online store. Special limited time prices are the lowest yet, with a 64GB Wi-Fi only original iPad going for just $399.

That's a full $300 off the original retail price. Similarly, the Wi-Fi + 3G iPad with 32GB of storage is running $399, saving $330 off of the price at launch. For an extra $100, you can purchase a 64GB refurbished Wi-Fi + 3G iPad, putting the total at $499. Last year's iPad models aren't the only ones for sale at discount refurbished prices.

J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz says Apple fans will have to wait to get their hands on the iPad 3 because their is no rush for Apple to release the new device.

“In our view, Apple should be in no rush," he wrote. "The other tablet entrants have stumbled so far, and that trend-line could persist deep into 2012.”

Apple has a tight grip on the tablet market share, but Amazon may challenge their lead by releasing a rumored $250 slate in November. It looks like Apple trusts the iPad 2 to hold off Amazon until they get around to releasing the iPad 3 in 2012. Meanwhile, they're concentrating on increasing their mobile phone market share by introducing a low-end iPhone on more carriers. Moskowitz said investors should expect a "big bang" come October when Apple taps into the Chinese mobile phone market and expands its carriers in the U.S..

As the Tablet Wars heat up, Apple is keeping the pressure on Samsung by winning an injunction blocking German sales of the Galaxy Tab 7.7. This weekend Samsung was forced to pull the device and its advertisements from the IFA show floor and its German website.

The Tab was originally on display with a note that read "Not for sale in Germany," but on Saturday Engadget noticed that Samsung's entire display had been removed from the event.

Samsung has agreed to halt sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 due to its intellectual property battle with Apple. The Korean manufacturer announced on Monday, that it would refrain from advertising or selling the tablet in Australia until September 30.

Apple lawyers told the court that Samsung's modified tab still infringed its patents. Apple said the new version, which was supposed to launch in Australia on September 12, did feature some reduced functionality, but it still copied the iPad's design. Samsung called shenanigans, saying Apple has presented no new evidence on how the modified Galaxy Tab still infringes.

I guess the $99 HP TouchPad sale wasn't enough to woo the coaching staff of the National Football League's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. All of the Bucs' players received an iPad 2 to replace their oversized playbooks.

The iPads also allow players to watch tape of games and practices.

"It's convenient. It's fast," safety Cody Grimm said. "I was snacking out on the couch and watching some film, and realized I was, like, two quarters through a game already."

Apple released iOS 4.3.4 (4.2.9 for the Verizon iPhone) to patch the vulnerability that was used for JailbreakMe 3.0, but could also be used for malicious reasons. The PDF exploit allowed hackers to access your passwords, built-in-cameras, contact databases and so on. The description of the update says it "fixes [a] security vulnerability associated with viewing malicious PDF files."

Apple acknowledged the hole last week after the German Federal Office for Information Security issued a warning about the possibility of infected PDFs remotely taking over devices.