If you’re in the market for an iPad — and you know you are, because it’s killer — you’re probably wondering which model to buy. Naturally, you’re looking at the cheapest $499 iPad, which has Wi-Fi only, but you’re thinking you might also want 3G. After all, you can pay-as-you-go for data, and who knows when you

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Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPhone , iPod touch , iDevice Apps , Originals You’ve all pre-ordered your iPad , right? Better get on that before the available stock is gone. And since you’re only about three weeks away from delivery, you should also stock on free apps to transfer to it when it arrives. This week’s list is all about driving games, Twitter and limited time freebies.  Half of this list won’t be free for long, so I’d better cut to the chase. Brizzly – There’s a new best Twitter app on the App Store every week, it seems. This week’s new best is called Brizzly.  It has most of the snazzy features like trends and news, lists, multiple Twitter account support, pics and more.  If you don’t already have a Twitter client, this is as a great app to take for a spin. Mini Desktop Racing Arcade – Take a toy car for a spin on your desktop.  You control the car entirely with your finger, just don’t hit anything. Transformers G1: Awakening Free – You ready to roll out?  Play as the classic Autobots against the Decepticons in this turn based strategy game.  Obviously you can transform and this is to your advatage when you want to travel faster.  And it’s all in 3D; not the red and blue 3D, this is the kind that stays in the screen

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A cool shooter with an even cooler soundtrack, Bullet Candy Perfect resembles the renowned top-down shooter Geometry Wars, only with better graphics. Since you play to the rhythm of the beat, the techno music really sucks you in, and that synchronicity can be helpful when going for a perfect run. You pilot your tiny ship around the space levels, zapping laser-firing enemy ships, clumps of gold rings, and some menacing green orb-like things that follow you around. In some stages, you’ll become so surrounded by the green orbs that you only have two choices: Let them kill you, or commit suicide. As a strategic option, committing suicide results in the loss of two lives, but you get to keep all your perks and power-ups. So if you find yourself trapped but have lots of lives left, it’s in your best interest to right-click to be reborn to fight another day. Everybody dance now! While shooting other ships, of course.   You gain perks by picking up spinning objects that look dangerous, but they’re actually power-ups. Rounder objects resembling planets boost your laser, while others allow you to become invincible for one round, fire triple-shot ammo, pick up an extra life, and rack up bonus points. The fluid controls have you using the normal WASD keys to move your ship around and the mouse to aim and fire. We like the game’s progress bar, which tracks your achievements, high scores, average score, highest level you’ve reached, the amount of games played, play time, and your rank. You can also look at high scores online and compare them to others around the world. Even better, though, is the Radiohead-style “pay what you like” price: Developer Charlie’s Games is selling Bullet Candy Perfect for whatever you think is fair, starting at a minimum of $1.

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Don’t worry, don’t worry, you’ll still be able to shut the sound off. We’re just not sure how you’ll do it and how quickly you’ll be able to manage it. But but but, you say, I’ve spent hours poring over every physical detail of the iPad from the photos and there’s a little button right above the volume controls, just like the iPhone. What does that do? Well, since the iPad is not a phone, there’s little reason you need to have such immediate access to the mute. No one is going to be shutting off the ringer on their iPad before going into a meeting. At least we hope not. And according to AppleInsider , that little button’s getting a needed makeover. Besides a mute button is a bit of unnecessary on a dedicated e-reader/media device with all that touch screen real estate. Instead, Apple has altered the functionality of the switch to be an orientation lock. That means just because you shift a little in bed while you read, you don’t have to let the e-book rotate to landscape then rotate back. There are plenty of apps that give you that functionality in their settings (Stanza, for instance) but just as many other apps do not (we’re talking about you, Facebook). And really, who wants to be toggling back and forth through their settings interface looking for an orientation lock that may or may not be there when they need it? Wouldn’t it make more sense just to put that master control right at your fingertips

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Still confused about which iPad to pre-order? In collaboration with handsome Wilson Rothman, Gizmodo’s lovely own Rosa Golijan put together this handy, haiku-ified iPad buying guide which — while thoroughly tongue in cheek — more or less lines up with my own feelings on the matter: if you’re buying the iPad WiFi, there’s little reason

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For years, the letter ‘i’ has been a goldmine for Apple; apply the letter to an ordinary object and you have lines outside your door waiting to buy the gadget. Apple may have to find another letter now that an Australian trade court sided with a handbag maker. IP Australia, the government board that watches over

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Pre-oders for the iPad start at 5.30 AM PST on Friday March 12, Apple PR told TUAW. That’s 8.30 AM for East Coasters. Better set your alarm clocks. All models of the iPad will be available for pre-order, but only the Wi-Fi model will ship on April 3. The 3G model won’t be available until late April.

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Pre-oders for the iPad start at 5.30 AM PST on Friday March 12, Apple PR told TUAW. That’s 8.30 AM for East Coasters. Better set your alarm clocks. All models of the iPad will be available for pre-order, but only the Wi-Fi model will ship on April 3. The 3G model won’t be available until late April.

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PopCap’s games aren’t ones that require eight-figure budgets and massive media campaigns, but we defy you to find anyone who plays games on any sort of basis who hasn’t poured hours into Peggle, Plants vs. Zombies, or one of the studio’s other addictive hits. While the company initially made its mark on Mac and PC, the last couple of years have seen expansion to other platforms, notably the iPhone, which has hosted pitch-perfect iterations of those aforementioned favorites. Now, with the iPad release looming on the horizon, the big question is this: What’s PopCap planning for Apple’s tablet, and how soon will we be able to play it? Andrew Stein, director of mobile platforms at PopCap, wasn’t able to share many specifics in a recent phone interview, but did offer some insight into how the company approaches new platforms, as well as what opportunities they see in iPad development. Plants vs. Zombies on the iPhone "The iPad offers a new experience for both developers and customers, given that it has higher performance," says Stein. "Having the additional horsepower under the hood and the bigger screen, the higher-resolution graphics give a tableau for developers to get more creative with games. We can do things with the iPad that we can’t do on a smaller iPhone screen." In particular, Stein believes the large 9.7-inch screen will initially surprise iPad users, and likens the upgrade from an iPhone to that of bumping up to a new video game console. "I think that the size of screen is going to make the experience much more immersive, and it’s going to be more than what people expect

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It’s no secret that many recording artists — especially those from the bygone era of the long-form LP record format — prefer listeners to enjoy their music as a whole, rather than on a song-by-song basis. One of the pioneers of such concepts, Pink Floyd, has just scored a legal victory that may change the way we buy such music from iTunes in the future. BBC News is reporting that Pink Floyd has score a legal victory with its record label, EMI, over the company selling its songs by track through Apple’s iTunes Store, according to MacRumors. The high-profile band objects to the label splitting up what it considers to be single pieces of work. “The rock legends, signed to EMI since 1967, said their contract meant their albums could not be split up without their permission,” BBC News reports . “A judge agreed, saying the contract contained a clause to ‘preserve the artistic integrity of the albums.’ EMI has been ordered to pay £40,000 ($60,000) in costs, with a further fine to be decided.” Of course, Pink Floyd’s contract with EMI predates digital music downloads, particularly those from the iTunes Store, which pioneered the “99 cents per track” option that’s become so popular in recent years. Rather than having to buy an entire album just to get one or two favorite tracks, customers can pick & choose which tracks they’d like to own. The band’s lawyers “argued that it made little sense that the contract’s restrictions against the splitting up of ‘seamless’ material would apply to physical distribution while digital distribution would be treated as a ‘free for all.’” EMI argued that the use of the word “record” in the contract suggested that it applied only to physical media. For now, Pink Floyd’s music remains for sale by track on the iTunes Store — so get it while the getting is good, we figure that will change soon enough, and probably start affecting other classic rock bands as well…

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