Behold: The new Apple iPad. Let the lust begin.

Last month, Apple unveiled the iPad that acts almost like a giant iPhone in many ways with the inclusion of a book store.  It’s with no doubt that Apple thinks that it can challenge all the existing competitors in the eBook market and from what we saw with the original iPod, it’s with good reason.  It’s interesting to hear, however, that there has already been some jabs being thrown by Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs even before an actual release date has been set.

As originally reported by the AppleInsider:

“As for the device’s uptime when reading e-books, Jobs said he believes the 10 hours provided will be more than enough for most users. He discredited Mossberg’s suggestion that a backlit LCD display, versus the e-ink on the Amazon Kindle, produces a ‘battery cost.’

‘You know, there isn’t,’ Jobs said. ‘Because you just end up plugging it in. You end up docking it or whatever you’re going to do with it. It’s not a big deal. Ten hours is a long time. Because you’re not going to read for 10 hours.’”

We can only see how this feud is going to play out in the future but can we really expect avid readers to fork over an additional $250.00 for an iPad to serve as a reading device when there are alternatives available that are way more affordable? But then again, it is Apple.

One of our readers came across this article so we thought we’d share it with everyone.

Ever since electronic books emerged as a major growth market, New York’s largest publishing houses have worried that big-name authors might sign deals directly with e-book retailers or other new ventures, bypassing traditional publishers entirely.

Now, one well-known author is doing just that.

Stephen R. Covey, one of the most successful business authors of the last two decades, has moved e-book rights to two of his best-selling books from his print publisher, Simon & Schuster, a division of the CBS Corporation, to a digital publisher that will sell the e-books to Amazon.com for one year.

Read more at NYTimes.com …