AT&T plans to offer app developers and other mobile content providers the ability to pay for its customers' data usage on the carrier, according to the Wall Street Journal . The carrier compares the proposed service to toll-free 800-numbers for the mobile-broadband world

While Apple has been rumored by several sources to be planning to deploy a quad-core processor as part of what was presumed to be a new "A6" system-on-a-chip in the iPad 3, that assumption was called into question earlier this month with the appearance of a logic board photo showing an "A5X" package instead. Some have suggested that the implication of the package being a beefed-up A5 would limit it to a dual-core processor

Over the past several days, several unverified rumors about the iPad 3 have been showing up on Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo , offering tidbits of information about Apple's plans for the device. One post seems to depict a price comparison between the iPad 2 and iPad 3 possibly revealing a price increase for the iPad 3. The headings are labled left to right: "Apple iPad Model", "iPad 2 US Price", "iPad 3 US Price", "iPad 3 RMB equivalent price".

Apple today released a new iPhone 4S commercial focusing on iCloud. Entitled "iCloud Harmony", the ad offers no voiceover and instead utilizes a series of fast-paced cuts to show music, photos, calendars, apps, contacts, and books all automatically syncing among Macs, iPads, and iPhones.

The Digital Reader points to reports that Apple's iBooks Digital Rights Management (DRM) copy protection has been cracked for the first time: Reports are coming in today that the latest version of Requiem, an app that removes Fairplay DRM from music and videos sold via iTunes, will now also remove the DRM from iBooks ebooks.

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.

Associated Press reports that an iPhone user in California has been awarded $850 in a small claims lawsuit filed against AT&T over throttling of data speeds. The user, who was on a grandfathered unlimited data plan, saw his data speeds drastically slashed once he reached 1.5-2 GB in a given month, even as other users on limited 3 GB plans at the same price see no similar restrictions at those levels.

Reuters reports that the dispute over the iPad trademark in China has taken an interesting turn, with Proview Technology filing suit against Apple in the United States over alleged deception related to the deal between the two companies.

iMore claims that Apple may be transitioning away from the standard 30-pin dock connector to something more compact in the very near future. An updated “micro dock” could make room for bigger batteries, 4G radios, and other components far more important to the iPhone and iPad in a PC free world. As the site points out, Apple has worked hard to miniaturize other components in their iOS devices.

Apple is acquiring three-year old startup Chomp and plans to use the company's technology and expertise to improve the App Store's search and app discovery technology, according to a report from TechCrunch .