iPad 3 to come this fall? And HP's killer new touch tablet

We haven't seen iPad 2 yet, but folks are expecting it in a few weeks, and the Wall Street Journal has reported that the new iPad is already in production. The WSJ says it's thinner, lighter and has at least a front-facing camera for videochat.

But today's rumors -- on the heels of a killer debut of a new HP tablet -- has Apple dropping a new iPad version, version 3, this fall.

There are also rumors that Apple will introduce a new Verizon iPhone 5 in June and a whole lot of Verizon customers are about to sign new two-year deals on iPhone 4 tomorrow. Maybe there will be some type of upgrade program, but I can see where Apple is making the moves it's rumored to be making.

A host of tablets, many running Android, are due out in the coming months, and right now iPad is released in spring. If you're thinking of buying an iPad as a Christmas gift, you may think twice knowing a new one is coming out just a few months after Santa. And I could see two releases per year, too, in order to better deal with all the new Android offerings that are released every month or so.

Will any of this happen? I don't know.

I do know the new HP Touch Pad, which looks a lot like iPad, is awful impressive. It's got the same 9.7 inch screen as iPad, plus a front 1.3 megapixel camera and a super fast 1.2 gigahertz processor. Screen resolution is a neat 1024x768.

It also runs Flash, unlike iPad. You can charge it wirelessly on the dock. And you can start an email by simply typing on the screen. You don't even have to launch an app.

It's an impressive package and the WebOS operating system it uses is a proven winner, too. This looks like a Super Tablet. We'll find out this summer.