Erroneous reports have surfaced that Apple plans to charge existing iPad owners for the next major operating system upgrade. iPad users have been anxiously waiting for iOS 4 on their devices, which Apple plans to release this fall. The company shipped iPads running iPhone OS 3.2 this spring and specifically stated that iOS 4 would be free.

When asked about the current rumors of a firmware charge Apple of course has no comment, since the question is based on speculation. The fact remains that the iPad firmware licensing agreement contains text guaranteeing iPad users a free update to iOS 4. Not all functions of the new operating system will necessarily work on older generation iPads, but the update will not cost anything.

Now that there are three million iPads in the wild around the world, users are anxiously waiting for all of the updated features available in iOS 4 such as multitasking and folders. Apple has already announced that the firmware update will come to the iPad in Fall 2010. This latest mobile operating system launched on June 21 for late-model iPhone and iPod Touch owners.

What iPad fans might not realize is that the latest update to Apple's firmware patches a record 65 security holes and bugs. iPhone OS 3.0 fixed 46 different operating system vulnerabilities when it was launched around a year ago. Approximately half of the patches delivered with iOS 4 corrected serious issues.