CNet claims that the next iPad that is due to be announced on Wednesday will be named "iPad HD". A developer who's previously provided reliable information with respect to things Apple and otherwise tells us the next iPad uses the HD moniker instead of going with "iPad 3." The next generation iPad has been referenced as the "iPad 3" in most reports as a natural successor to the iPad 2 which was released last year

The New York Times today addressed Apple's record growth in both revenue and stock price in the context of the " law of large numbers ". Apple is so big, it’s running up against the law of large numbers. Also known as the golden theorem, with a proof attributed to the 17th-century Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli, the law states that a variable will revert to a mean over a large sample of results.

Following Apple's release of iBooks Author last month to support creation of iBooks Textbooks, significant controversy arose regarding the software's licensing, which specified that the output from the software could only be sold via the iBookstore and not any other marketplace. Some confusion had resulted from Apple's language, with some believing that Apple was claiming rights to all content used in the production of the iBooks Textbooks, perhaps attempting to exclude books from being published in any other form

We briefly mentioned WDC's press release that they would be showing their new MyBook Thunderbolt Duo at Macworld. Here are photos from the show floor of the unit

AT&T today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2011, revealing that the carrier saw record-smashing sales of 9.4 million smartphones, nearly double the previous quarter's sales and 50% higher than the company's previous record. The iPhone was clearly the primary driver of smartphone sales for AT&T, as the carrier reported 7.6 million iPhone activations during that quarter, with the "majority" of those activations being iPhone 4S devices.

According to a new report from Israeli business newspaper Calcalist ( via 9to5Mac ), Apple has begun hiring for its research and development center in Haifa, Israel with a goal of opening the center by the end of February. The report claims that Apple has already received "several hundred resumes" from engineers looking to work in the new center, which is being headed up by Apple's newly-hired Israeli high-tech executive Aharon Aharon . The report notes that is likely to set up its research center near existing facilities run by Intel, Microsoft, and Phillips, with Apple seeking expertise in chip development, specifically with electrical circuits and hardware testing and verification

Apple sold 1.4 million Apple TV set-top boxes in the Q1 2012 quarter, Apple CEO Tim Cook disclosed during today's earnings call .

After today's record breaking results , Apple will be holding a company-wide Town Hall for employees discussing some "exciting new things going on at Apple." Tim Cook sent a company-wide email to employees, as posted by 9to5Mac : Thanks to everyone’s hard work, we’re off to a great start in 2012. Last week in New York we launched a groundbreaking initiative for education with iBooks textbooks, and today we reported the strongest quarter in Apple’s history.Please join me tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. in Town Hall

Details of Adam Lashinsky's new Inside Apple book set to debut tomorrow continue to surface, and while some of the ideas behind the company's "Apple University" program for training the next generation of executives were previously disclosed in Lashinsky's original Fortune piece on the topic and in a Los Angeles Times article last October, the new book takes a more extensive look at the concept. As had been previously disclosed, Apple in 2008 hired Yale School of Management dean Joel Podolny to head up the Apple University initiative on management training. Several other professors, including Harvard business historian Richard Tedlow, came on board in consulting roles to help develop the curriculum

In his biography, Steve Jobs was so infuriated by Android's similarities to the iPhone that he swore to spend all the money Apple had in the bank to defeat the platform. Newsweek columnist Dan Lyons passes along a rumor that Apple has spent $100 million in legal fees on just its first set of claims against HTC. Who knows if it’s true, but if so, Apple didn’t get a lot for its money.