When we introduced Social App Discovery on Mobile in October 2011, we enabled distribution directly to native iOS apps. Today, we are introducing granular controls for native iOS apps to provide an optimal user experience when driving traffic to your app from Facebook for iOS.

You can set up and configure distribution from the Facebook iOS app to your app through the Dev App. To enable requests, bookmarks, and search results to link back to your app, you must configure your settings as follows:

• Enter an iOS Bundle ID that corresponds to your app
• Enter an iPhone and/or iPad App Store ID
• Enable the “Configured for iOS SSO” setting

To enable any News Feed and Open Graph stories to deep link back to your iOS app or to the App Store (if the app is not installed) you must configure this additional setting:

• Enable the “iOS native deep linking” setting

You may want to turn on this setting once you have optimized your iOS native app user experience for deep linking. Keep in mind that when you publish a link in News Feed or Open Graph, a user can click on it from a Facebook in a number of contexts, including a desktop browser, an Android browser, an iOS mobile browser, the native Android app or native iOS app. this deep link setting enables you to enrich the linking behavior to your iOS app, but the link you provide should work well in all other contexts.

We will now show you how you can implement deep linking to optimize the experience for your users, drive re-engagements, and close the viral loop.

When a link is tapped in the Facebook for iOS app with deep linking enabled, the user is immediately directed to your iOS app. if the app is not installed, the user is taken to the App Store to download your app. To ensure an engaging user experience you should process the incoming link when your app is activated. for example, a news app will have the incoming link correspond to a news story. You would want to direct the user straight to that story instead of a generic app landing page.

Your app will be invoked in one of two ways:

1) if the user has authenticated your Facebook App:

fb[APP_ID]://authorize#expires_in=[ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRATION]&access_token=[USER_ACCESS_TOKEN]&target_url=[ORIGINAL_LINK]

2) Non-authenticated user:

fb[APP_ID]://authorize#target_url=[ORIGINAL_LINK]

Where [ORIGINAL_LINK] corresponds to the link in your app, for example, pinterest.com/aryehs/cool/.

You can parse the target_url to deep link your users to the correct content in your app.

Your app user experience may not depend on the user being logged in. if this is the case, you will handle both the logged in and not-logged in flows in the same way. You would do this in the App delegate methods that are invoked when your app is opened, for example the application:openURL:sourceApplication:annotation: method.

If your app requires an authorized user you should handle the processing of the target URL in the SDK call backs implemented after a successful login, the fbDidLogin method.

We will show code for the case where the user does not need to be logged in to properly deep link them. this code is added to the application:openURL:sourceApplication:annotation: app delegate method where we will check for a target URL.

In the code sample we are simply displaying an alert view to the user but you could direct users through the appropriate flow for your app.

/** * a function for parsing URL parameters. */- (NSDictionary*)parseURLParams:(NSString *)query { NSArray *pairs = [query componentsSeparatedByString:@"&"]; NSMutableDictionary *params = [[[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init] autorelease]; for (NSString *pair in pairs) { NSArray *kv = [pair componentsSeparatedByString:@"="]; NSString *val = [[kv objectAtIndex:1] stringByReplacingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]; [params setObject:val forKey:[kv objectAtIndex:0]]; } return params;} – (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application openURL:(NSURL *)url sourceApplication:(NSString *)sourceApplication annotation:(id)annotation { // To check for a deep link, first parse the incoming URL // to look for a target_url parameter NSString *query = [url fragment]; NSDictionary *params = [self parseURLParams:query]; // Check if target URL exists NSString *targetURLString = [params valueForKey:@"target_url"]; if (targetURLString) { NSURL *targetURL = [NSURL URLWithString:targetURLString]; NSDictionary *targetParams = [self parseURLParams:[targetURL query]]; NSString *deeplink = [targetParams valueForKey:@"deeplink"]; // Check for the ‘deeplink’ parameter to check if this is one of // our incoming news feed link if (deeplink) { UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@”News” message:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Incoming: %@", deeplink] delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@”OK” otherButtonTitles:nil, nil]; [alert show]; [alert release]; } } return [facebook handleOpenURL:url];}

In our sample code set up we will inject a deeplink parameter to the News Feed story and check this same parameter back to signify an incoming News Feed story link.

// Method that sets up the news feed story- (void)apiDialogFeedUser { SBJSON *jsonWriter = [[SBJSON new] autorelease]; // The action links to be shown with the post in the feed NSArray* actionLinks = [NSArray arrayWithObjects: [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys: @"Get Started",@"name", @"m.facebook.com/apps/uniquenamespace/",@"link", nil], nil]; NSString *actionLinksStr = [jsonWriter stringWithObject:actionLinks]; // Dialog parameters – the ‘deeplink’ we insert will be passed back for use in deep link // detection. The ‘ref’ parameter will be used for analytics. NSMutableDictionary *params = [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys: @"I'm using the Test iOS app", @"name", @"Test for iOS.", @"caption", @"Check out Test iOS to learn how you can make your iOS apps social using Facebook Platform.", @"description", @"m.facebook.com/apps/uniquenamespace/?deeplink=news", @"link", @"facebookmobileweb.com/hackbook/img/facebook_icon_large.png", @"picture", @"foo", @"ref", actionLinksStr, @"actions", nil]; [facebook dialog:@"feed" andParams:params andDelegate:self];}

In this simple example we use the deeplink parameter in the News Feed story link to direct users in your app. You could have additional parameters or URL paths to better direct users. Note that whatever URL you specify in your Feed story or Open Graph object will be echoed back in the target_url passed to your app.

Note: The ref in the Feed Dialog is a text reference for the category of the post. this category is used in Facebook Insights to help you measure the performance of different types of post as documented here. The ref parameter does not appear on the actual posted story, it is for your reference only.

View additional step-by-step documentation and sample code in the iOS getting Started Guide.

CHICAGO, Feb. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ –Seven-year-old Carlos Cornejo, a child with apraxia in Chicago, IL, was one of 40 children selected nationwide to receive an iPad through the Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America’s (CASANA) iPads for Apraxia Pilot Project, a program developed to investigate the uses of iPad applications for a population of children with a primary diagnosis of apraxia of speech.

“I found out about the iPad Pilot Program through a posting on CASANA’s Facebook page,” said Maria Cornejo, mother of Carlos.  “Knowing that Carlos was a visual learner, I knew that having an iPad would benefit him greatly, so we sent in the application and crossed our fingers.”

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a very challenging and complicated motor speech disorder in children, making it difficult or impossible for children to accurately produce sounds, syllables, and/or words despite having a good understanding of language. the iPads for Apraxia Pilot Project, funded by CASANA and the Silent Stars Foundation, has given 40 affected children the opportunity to use an iPad for speech practice, augmentative communication, and education purposes. in addition to receiving the iPad, each child was also given a protective case; a two-year protection plan; and one or more apps for speech or communication purposes.   Families also received consultation on iPad use and best practices from speech-language pathologist and app developer Lynn Carahaly, M.a., CCC-SLP.

As a result of the Silent Stars Foundation’s generous contribution to program funding, Carlos was one of eight qualified children selected from Illinois.  Founder of the Silent Stars Foundation, Marjorie Beto, saw the difference an iPad made in school for her own daughter, Rebecca Beto, who was diagnosed with severe apraxia in 2008.  her belief in the iPad encouraged her to raise funds through her annual fundraiser, “Strike out Silence” Bowl-A-Thon, to help give other kids a voice through the iPad. Beto started this annual fundraiser two years ago as a means to help raise funds for apraxia research and to help provide Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices for children who cannot afford one. 

“After learning about CASANA’s iPads for Apraxia Pilot Project, I decided I wanted to be a small piece of that puzzle.  it feels so wonderful to be able to help other children like my daughter and to be a part of this wonderful program,” said Beto.

Beto’s contribution would be more than a “small piece of the puzzle” for children like Carlos, who was diagnosed with apraxia at the age of four years, and his parents. when they received their notification letter in the mail, both fear and excitement set in for Mrs. Cornejo. This letter would soon become a moment she would never forget.

“I thought, it’s either a ‘thank you for applying’ letter or a ‘congratulations’ letter,” said Mrs. Cornejo.  ”So I opened it and saw we had gotten it. WOW! My first reaction was to cry. My second reaction was to call Ms.Creswell (Carlos’ teacher).”

Ms. Creswell first learned about CAS when Mrs. Cornejo informed her of the speech services Carlos received.  he has been in her class since kindergarten and describes him as having several friends in his general and special education classes.

Already, the Cornejos and Ms. Creswell are seeing a difference in Carlos from using the iPad. he is beginning to pronounce some sounds more clearly, speaking more during school, and has even been caught singing songs he learned from music class. 

“Now he seems to be more confident in trying to say words and telling us things,” said Mrs. Cornejo. “He even started to sing songs, whereas before he would mostly ‘hum’ the song.”

“Carlos has always been a visual learner,” said Mrs. Cornejo. “I am so thankful for CASANA and the Silent Stars Foundation for existing.  Without them, a lot of us would feel what I felt at the beginning of this journey, like I was the only mom with a child with apraxia.”

The iPads for Apraxia Pilot Project required that families or caregivers and speech-language pathologists of selected children complete pre and post surveys which will examine changes and quality of life issues.  CASANA will evaluate the outcomes of the project to determine whether to continue the program for additional children in the future. Funding for programs such as this one is made possible through private donations and special events like the Walk for Children with Apraxia of Speech held all over North America. To support future funding needed to continue this program, visit Silent Stars Foundation at silentstars.org/donate.html

About CASANA

The Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America (CASANA) is the only national non-profit public charity exclusively dedicated to the needs and interests of children with apraxia of speech and their families. CASANA, founded in 2000, strives to improve the systems of support in the lives of children with apraxia so that each child is afforded their best opportunity to develop speech and to achieve to their potential. CASANA works toward this mission through promoting national awareness of childhood apraxia of speech; providing high quality information and support to families and professionals; conducting multiple educational workshops, webinars, and conferences each year; and supporting as well as funding research. For more information on CASANA and Childhood Apraxia of Speech, visit the Apraxia-KIDS website at apraxia-kids.org.

About Silent Stars Foundation

The Silent Stars Foundation, based in Glenview, IL, has a mission to raise awareness of Childhood Apraxia of Speech, to raise funds for apraxia research, and to help provide Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices for children who cannot afford one. the Third Annual “Strike out Silence” Bowl-A-Thon, which contributed to the iPads for Apraxia Pilot Project, will be held on May 6, 2012 from 3 PM to 6 PM at Pinstripes in Northbrook, IL. To donate and/or buy tickets, please visit silentstars.org/bowlathon.html.

Media Contact: Marjorie Beto Silent Stars Foundation, 8476446591,

News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com

SOURCE Silent Stars Foundation

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More and more women (and men) are discovering the benefits of natural remedies for yeast infection. usually these are people who have tried and failed with mainstream drug-based treatments that only address the symptoms, not the root cause of yeast infection. And, of course, the drugs can eventually become useless when the Candida fungus, that causes the symptoms, builds-up a resistance to them.

One of the most popular that you may have heard about is apple cider vinegar for yeast infection. but what do you do with it? And how does it work?

Let’s first look at how it works its magic. It is believed that apple cider vinegar can help relieve your yeast infection by rebalancing your body pH. when your pH is out-of-balance, the Candida albicans fungus causing your symptoms can grow. but, in balance, the fungus has less chance of over-growing into an infection.

Now let’s go take a peep at how you would use apple cider vinegar for yeast infection correctly. you can use it both as a drink and as a topical application.

As a drink, just mix 3 teaspoons of the vinegar in a large glass of water and drink a glass 3 times a day. In this way the vinegar is helping to fight the fungus that is in your gut that can eventually break through into your bloodstream. Add a little honey if the taste is too harsh for you. but not sugar as this feeds the yeast

Topically, you can douche the affected area with a sponge or similar. Or, better still, make up a low bath with apple cider vinegar and warm water and sit in it for about 20 minutes. for the douche, mix 2 tablespoons of vinegar in 2 quarts of warm water. for the sitz bath, add 2 cups of apple cider vinegar into a low warm bath. The apple cider vinegar works in the same way, but this time, by attacking the fungus locally.

The important thing with apple cider vinegar for yeast infection is that it must be the raw, unpasteurized, un-distilled kind that has the sediment still in the bottle. only this will do. any other kind will probably have additives that can actually make your yeast infection worse. you would expect to get the correct raw apple cider vinegar for your infection in a health food store.

Now, whilst raw apple cider vinegar for yeast infection can be very effective, there are still many other issues you have to address for a proper cure. you see, although the Candida albicans fungus causes the symptoms, there are other things that actually trigger its overgrowth in the first place.

Without addressing these as well, your chances of success are greatly diminished. these are things such as; a lowered immune system, overuse of antibiotics and / or steroids, bad diet, stress, some drugs, etc.

Steve Jobs said that being fired from Apple in the early days was the best thing that happened to him. he could not see it at the time but he did say that the burden of success was lifted from him and the lightness of being returned as he now had the luxury of starting out all over again.

How many of us have been lucky enough to start all over again? my experience is that this starting over again many times nourishes our sense of adventure and discovery, helps our intimacy, friendships and family and even contributes to our material welfare as we find increasing significance in whatever work we do, not just in the reward at the end. we have nothing to lose.

Recently I read something else he said which rings true to me and maybe to you too. The last time he was ill he said that almost everything-all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure-these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. if you have been close to death, you will know this statement to be true.

Steve Jobs went on to say that, remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. you are already naked. there is no reason not to follow your heart.

Certainly starting out all over gets your creative juices working at warp speed and where survival is a question to be considered makes you all the more inventive, creative, adventurous and possible successful. after all necessity is the mother of invention.

If we really understood that we have nothing to lose what is it we would do, without wasting another moment? would we still want success at all costs, would creativity be enough unto itself, would we be more careful in our relationships, would we be more present in our actions?

And would we take more care about our health, both emotional, physical and mental?

The tablet-based publication (tab-lication?) the Daily is embroiled in a fuss about its leak of plans to bring Microsoft’s Office suite to the iPad. the Daily’s convinced the software is for real, but Microsoft has issued a tissue-thin denial that actually confirms or denies nothing material. meanwhile, the general feeling is that MS would be crazy not to expand its Office domain onto the best-selling tablet PC–one that’s causing a computing revolution. But Microsoft is actually facing a stickier problem here.

It’s about price and precedent.

MS would be foolish not to address the iPad App Store as a market space because Apple’s tablet is continuing to dominate the scene, is likely to do so for a while, is affecting PC sales, and is penetrating into business workplaces (with a recent survey saying 91% of business and IT pros using one for work). That’s MS’s traditional Office stomping ground. MS’s own Windows 8-powered tablets aren’t due for a while yet and will likely take a while longer to actually establish a decent market share, so delaying a tablet edition of Office until then could miss out on potential sales. It’s also arguable that while Android is building its tablet market share, writing Office to be compatible with so many subtle variations of Android OS and hardware would be a lot more work than aiming at Apple’s product. 

So, let’s assume that MS really is developing a version of Office for Apple’s iPad that embodies some of its own Metro mobile OS styling as the leaked imagery hints. Let’s guess that MS may even build in some of its upcoming SkyDrive tech to facilitate cloud storage, thus boosting business-user productivity (when users later download that PowerPoint slide they were working on to their office PC) and competing with Apple’s iCloud system. that sounds great, doesn’t it? MS fans, or those merely chained to MS by years of having to use its products, will get their familiar systems on a new and very chic computing platform that’s ideal for use while commuting and which will enable perfect compatibility with their PC apps at home or at their desk.

Now–how does Microsoft price this code?

Apple already has its own business productivity apps on the iPad with Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, and they offer compatibility with MS’s system and interlock through the cloud to Apple’s own desktop versions. if you use one iTunes account on several iPads, thanks to the way Apple’s system works you only need pay once for these apps. They sell for a very reasonable $9.99 each, allowing Apple to continue its PR effort that points out how many apps you have to pay for on PCs are free, already installed, or low-cost on its hardware.

Microsoft could easily price at or very near to the same point and compete directly, relying on the massive inertia the Office name carries.

But Office on the PC costs $119.99 for one user on a home PC for the lowest “Home and Student” edition, and $349.99 for the full “Professional” version. That’s four times the cost of Apple’s iPad apps for the entry level and over 11 times the cost for the top edition. it costs more still to install Office on a handful of PCs ($499.99 for the Pro version). So pricing the tablet edition at $30 for the full package could set a precedent among consumers to expect lower prices for the desktop software too. Which would hurt MS because Office is one of the world’s best selling pieces of software and it makes up a big part of the company’s profits (it may, or may not, have recently superceded Windows as the biggest contributor to MS’s bottom line, and was credited with boosting a 6% rise in MS quarterly profits to $5.74 billion late in 2011).

So MS could make the tablet versions not fully featured, arguing (perhaps without real basis) that the tablet environment isn’t suited for the full workload of, say, Excel or that the hardware wouldn’t support it. that sets a bad precedent for its own software on Windows 8 tablets then: why buy a Win 8 tablet if the apps are already on the iPad cheaply, and why buy them at all if they don’t work as well as the desktop ones? if MS then chooses to make the Win 8 versions of Office better than the iPad ones, this would be simply exposed as marketeering and could alienate a considerable number fo consumers who already love their Apple product. And don’t forget the rumors about the upcoming iPad 3–its super-high-resolution screen will best that on many PCs, and its hardware would thus seem perfectly capable of supporting as complex an app as Excel. it may even beat the upcoming Windows 8 hardware.

And Apple, seeing the app competition, could always spend a little effort to brush up its own iWork suite on the iPad to improve both functionality and cross-compatibility with Microsoft’s software, and quickly nullify any added value in buying Office and maybe even Windows 8 tablets. After all, the iPad is very publicly applauded right now, and who would spend $500 to $800 on one in March, complete with their familiar MS Office aboard, only to ditch it for an unproven Windows effort late in 2012?

Hence Microsoft is trapped in a version of the famous prisoner’s dilemma, being forced to cooperate uncomfortably with its erstwhile “enemy” in order to make profits from the iPad’s success, so both parties ultimately benefit. its one true path out of the mess is to really innovate, and deliver such serious added value from the iPad edition of Office and the Windows 8 version that it actually attracts customers because of its exciting strengths and cool new features. does that sound like a typical Microsoft solution to you?

Chat about this news with Kit Eaton on Twitter and Fast Company too.

Since Beethoven, Ninth Symphonies have been both a cause of joy — and dread. in the wake of Beethoven’s no. 9, composers view that massive, ethereal, choral symphony as a sort of musical Everest. And then there's the fact that the composer never lived to write a 10th.

Gustav Mahler, so fearful of embarking on a Ninth Symphony of his own,  insisted that the large orchestral work after his Eighth Symphony be titled “The Song of the Earth.”  Mahler eventually swallowed his fears and wrote another large work and called it his Ninth Symphony  — it can be heard at Walt Disney Hall three times this weekend as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Mahler cycle — but the fact that he died the following year while writing his 10th Symphony only added to the mystique around Ninths.

The theme of mortality was certainly in the air Tuesday night at Carnegie Hall, which saw the American debut of Philip Glass’ Ninth Symphony. Reached by phone two days after the premiere, Glass admitted, “Everyone is afraid to do a Ninth Symphony. It’s not that it killed off Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler … but it is a funny kind of jinx that people think about.”

No doubt. A recording of the Glass Symphony no. 9 is available on iTunes as played a month ago by the Bruckner Orchester Linz. it debuted Tuesday, and as of Thursday was no. 15 on the iTunes top 100  albums chart.

At Carnegie, Glass’ 50-minute work was scheduled as a 75thbirthday for the composer and programmed opposite Arvo Part’s “Lamentate,” a requiem for the living.

ABC7 has obtained video of convicted killer Brittany Norwood lying to police about what happened inside Lululemon the day she killed Jayna Murray at the upscale yoga shop in Bethesda.

Surveillance video, released Monday, also shows what Apple employees did and didn’t do when they heard the struggles next door.

"Do you know how many times they hit me, no how many times did they hit you? I don’t know, I just don’t remember. I just started doing what they said."

The video shows Norwood talking to police one week to the day after she brutally killed her co-worker Murray. it is her third interview with detectives James Drewery and Dmitri Ruvin and she continues to claim Murray was murdered by two men who burst into the store.

“he cut my stomach and my chest first and I was trying to fight him,” Norowood says in the video. “And he hit me in the head.”

The case unravels

“She was very believable at times when appropriate she cried and her hands were shaking,” says Ruvin. “She was very believable.”

See raw footage of the interview.

But by that Friday, Ruvin knew Norwood was lying. as one detective says, they were just trying to give her more rope.

“Of course obviously everyone denies at first,” Ruvin says. “But we were hoping she would confess.”

But it would be one detail she "remembered" a week after the incident that would be a pivotal turn in the investigation.

"Prior to him sexually assaulting me and zip tying me, they made me move her car, I know where her car is."

This, investigators say, is where her web of lies began to unravel.

For the first time, video from the Apple store next to Lululemon is also being made public.

During the murder trial, it provoked a public outcry because it shows Apple store employees listening to the brutal assault on Murray and even her dying pleas for help. those employees did not call police. one thought it was just woman’s drama.

State’s attorney John McCarthy points out they broke no laws.

“In fairness, could they have known what was going on on the other side of the wall,” McCarthy says. “In fairness no.”

We’ve seen countless tributes to Steve Jobs since he passed away on October 5, but the latest is really incredible. It’s a Facebook timeline that documents Steve’s entire life since the day he was born, and it’s truly jaw-dropping. I can’t imagine the effort that must have gone into this. The timeline features literally hundreds Related StoriesThe Gentleman’s iPod Nano Is this Elegant iPocketWatchNike+ just Got a Lot More Intelligent Thanks to Nike+ Basketball And Nike+ TrainingiPhones & iPads: a big Challenge to IT, but Vital to BusinessGevey Announces GSM Carrier Unlock For The iPhone 4S, no Jailbreak RequiredTomahawk Is iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube + More In one amazing Next-Gen Music Player

View original post here: 

Steve Jobs’s Life Is Documented In An incredible Facebook Timeline [Update]

At its new West Coast flagship store that opened Saturday on the Promenade, Converse is asking customers to make its products their own.

The tagline “make something” is emblazoned on the storefront’s windows at 1437 Third Street (not from where crews are excavating and shifting dirt for what is to be the new Apple store) advertising a “customization station” where shoppers can screen print shoes, apparel and accessories.

The Massachusetts-based Nike subsidiary known for its signature shoes the Chuck Taylor and Jack Purcell, is trying to drive home a local connection. It’s the brand’s third inline location in the United States.

The Promenade store is selling a new line of men’s and women’s apparel and accessories that highlight designs from the local art community. And, before it opened, a big poster featuring black and white photographs of hip young adults wearing Converse shoes—including Tony Royster Jr, the touring drummer for Jay-Z—shrouded the storefront.

Converse Santa Monica store is open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

The iPad 3 rumor mill has shifted away from pure speculation toward acceptance that the next generation Apple tablet truly is imminent. NextWorth.com, a site that deals in buying and selling used electronics equipment, suggests that now is the prime time to trade or sell your iPad 2.

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I recently theorized that Apple could adopt a similar strategy with its tablets, as it has with the iPhone. although the iPhone 4S is the current flagship smartphone, Apple is still producing the iPhone 4 as a more economical option, and the iPhone 3GS is available from AT&T for free with a two-year contract.

This chart from NextWorth.com illustrates the steep decline of the value of the original iPad.whether or not that turns out to be true, one thing is virtually guaranteed: when the iPad 3 is announced the value of the iPad 2 will drop, and when the iPad 3 is actually available, the worth of that iPad 2 will plummet precipitously.

According to NextWorth.com, the value of the original iPad experienced a steep decline following the announcement and availability of the iPad 2. Based on the historical data, we are already inside of the window where the perceived value of the iPad 2 could drop significantly.

With the iPad 3 unveiling rumored to be March 7 or some time close to the first week of March, every day you continue to hold on to the iPad 2 is a bit of a gamble. as soon as Apple sends invitations to tech media for the event, or confirms even the slightest details, the iPad 2 will lose value.

If Apple does in fact follow a similar strategy to its iPhone line and continue to offer the iPad 2 as a discounted model of the iPad line, that will make the value your used iPad 2 even less. If someone can get a brand new 16GB Wi-Fi iPad 2 from Apple for $400 or less, they’re much less likely to pay as much for your used one.

The strategy of selling off previous models to make room for the newest one has served me well when it comes to the iPhone. with five lines on my Family plan, there is almost always at least one line eligible for upgrade. I get the hot new model of the iPhone, then turn around and sell my old one on Craigslist or some other classifieds site for as much or more than the new one cost me.

The iPhone is a slightly different situation, though, because of the wireless carrier subsidy. The iPad costs what it costs, but the iPhone is generally $200 with a two-year contract. However, buying it outright can cost $500 or more. Inevitably, there is someone who broke or lost an iPhone that’s still under contract, and they’re more than willing to pay $200 or more for a used replacement.

I won’t be selling my iPad 2, though. it will simply be re-allocated within my home. Perhaps it will go to my kids as the gaming iPad, or maybe we’ll assign it to the kitchen as our digital cookbook. it will continue to serve our family in some way.

But, if you have an iPad 2 that you’re planning to sell so you can get the funds to purchase an iPad 3, there is no time like the present.