Verizon and other carriers have been talking for some time about the idea of shared data plans that would allow users to draw from a single monthly allotment of cellular data for multiple mobile devices, much the same way family plans can share minutes among their phones. While European carriers have led the way in allowing users with both an iPhone and iPad to share a single bucket of data, Verizon and AT&T have indicated they are working on similar workings with Verizon indicating early last month that such plans were likely to launch in 2012. Engadget now reports that Verizon appears to be continuing to make progress on shared data plans, with the offerings now showing up in employee training materials.

Last July, Taiwanese site Apple.pro posted photos of what was claimed to be the dock connector and ribbon cable for the iPad 3. While the connector doesn't reveal much of anything about the full iPad 3 device other than some speculation about the connector itself being white as opposed to black on the iPad 2, it was one of the first reported leaks of iPad 3 parts

Engadget highlights the economics of publishing iBooks Textbooks to the iBookstore, noting that paid downloads follow Apple's traditional App Store and iBookstore model where the company takes a 30% cut of the purchase price of each book. Authors are free to set their own pricing, although Apple has placed a maximum price tag of $14.99 on the textbooks. In addition, the report notes that Apple requires all iBooks Textbooks to be exclusive to the iBookstore.

Fortune publishes a lengthy excerpt from Adam Lashinsky's forthcoming book, Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired -- and Secretive -- Company Really Works , highlighting the company's famous secrecy and how its organizational structure and policies foster that security. Those readers interested in reading the book from cover to cover when it debuts next week may want to avoid the excerpt, but for others the piece is an interesting look into how Apple keeps its employees on a need-to-know basis with a patchwork of clearances to ensure that very few know the company's full plans for a given project. Secrecy takes two basic forms at Apple -- external and internal.

According to the Wall Street Journal , Roger Rosner is the executive in charge of Apple's digital textbook tools.

Since at least 2004, Apple has offered a rebate program that has typically offered users a $100 rebate when they purchase a new Mac and an eligible printer directly from Apple. The program was typically offered as a three-month program that was consistently renewed upon expiration, although in recent years the company shifted toward a perpetual program while reserving the right to discontinue it at any time

Apple's education-focused media event isn't until Thursday, but Japanese blog Macotakara reports that Apple is already making plans for an early February event to introduce the iPad 3 ahead of an early March launch. The event is said to potentially also feature iOS 5.1, which is currently in developer testing. According to asian supplier and a source in United States, Apple seems to prepare to hold Special Event in early February

The question of whether Apple will continue to offer the existing iPad 2 as a lower-cost option alongside the forthcoming iPad 3 has been the subject of a fair amount of rumor and speculation, but if new display panel shipment plans provided to Digitimes are correct, it appears that the iPad 2 will indeed live on. According to the report, production of the "Retina" resolution iPad 3 display panels at 2048x1536 pixels will surpass that of the lower-resolution 1024x768 iPad 2 panels by the second quarter of this year, but Apple's suppliers will still push out approximately 25 million iPad 2 panels in 2012. That will be down from an estimated 48 million panels in 2011, but still a substantial number

Apple's education-focused media event is scheduled for this Thursday, and more details seem to be leaking out.

Earlier this month, we reported on Hong Kong company In Icons, which was attempting to release a realistic-looking Steve Jobs figurine.