There is hardly a day that goes by where we don’t have an iPad or iPhone rumor. Here is today’s. Apple’s overseas manufacturing partners will apparently start production of the iPad 2 next month, while they will also be building the fifth-generation iPhone in May.

Take this with the usual grains of salt until we have something more concrete. One thing is for sure, no matter when they start production, it won’t be soon enough for Apple fans.

The other day we told you how close the App Store was to reaching the 10 billion mark and now it has happened. 10 billion individual apps have now been downloaded. The lucky 10 billionth person will get a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. MacPhun is also giving away $5,000 to the same person.

This is a huge milestone for Apple, not to mention a great prize for the lucky winner. I wonder how long it will take for Apple to double this number?

The new verizon iPhone 4 has a slightly different design than the original iPhone 4, which seems to have fixed the iPhone death grip issue, but now the original iPhone 4 bumper case will not fit the Verizon iPhone. And so Apple has released a new universal bumper case to fit both phones.

The main difference on the Verizon iPhone 4 is that the mute switch sits slightly lower than on the original iPhone 4, so the new bumper design makes sure that it will work with both versions of the iPhone 4.

Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs has just announced that the Apple Board has granted him a medical leave of absence. This leaves Tim Cook to be responsible for the day to day running of Apple while Jobs is away. We don’t have any details about what the medical leave relates too specifically, or how long he will be gone for.

The email that was sent out by Steve Jobs to Apple employees is below, and it does say that he will continue to be involved in Apple’s major decisions, which is great news for everyone.

If you are a music lover then you have probably dreamed of what you could do with a $10,000 iTunes gift card. Well, Apple is giving away just that to one lucky person who downloads the 10 billionth app from its App Store. It could be you.

The company is on track to hit that milestone. So far around 9.76 billion apps have been downloaded. The counter is going up up up. Users are limited to 25 downloads a day, automated software will disqualify you, and you have to agree to let your name and image be used for Apple.

Here’s some good news from Apple. Apple has now dropped the price of the last generation iPhone, the iPhone 3GS to $49 with a new two year mobile contract. This goes along with the recent price drop from AT&T on the iPhone 3GS and comes just as we are expecting Verizon Wireless to announce the Verizon iPhone, so this is AT&T’s chance to lock customers into a new two year contract before Verizon starts selling the iPhone.

We aren’t sure if Verizon will be selling a version of the 3GS as well as the iPhone 4, but we suspect that it will just be the iPhone 4 and we won’t see another iPhone available on the network until Apple launches the next iPhone.

Apple may be planning an end to its restocking fees at retail which would help fuel the Verizon iPhone launch. The company would permanently waive the 10 percent penalty for anyone returning a device in the usual two-week grace period, starting January 11. That’s the same day as the special event.

However, 9 to 5 Mac didn’t say if it was a permanent policy or just a one time promo with the Verizon deal, but it wouldn’t be exclusive to the one device. Of course the company has not commented on this as yet. This might help get customers to try an apple product, if they were hesitant before.

Your pets should have the same interests you have right? So, if you are a Mac enthusiast, it makes sense that you would want your fish to love Mac too. Now he/she can. This “Macquarium” is made from an old Power Mac G4 Cube. The cube has been specially modified with bonded plexiglas to make it safe for your fish.

This aquarium measures 8.9″ H × 7.7″ W × 7.7″ D. If you have the $149.00 necessary to get this aquarium, go ahead and geek up your fish, changing it’s computing allegiance from neutral to Apple. Maybe you can put a little Steve Jobs figure in there and play Stevejob Squarepants.

There’s an app for everything, or so it seems. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Apple has a high chance of passing the 500,000 app milestone for the App Store in 2011, based on current data. They have already unofficially passed 325,000 active titles as of December 26, with the App Store seeing about 25,421 apps submitted per month.

That means that if every app were approved, Apple could exceed the half-million point in just seven months or so. Of course what with app rejections, titles voluntarily pulled from the store etc, it might take a bit longer. Whenever it actually hits, it is quite a milestone.

Apple has already tested the waters of social networking via its Ping music-sharing service and now the company has filed for a patent that details a social networking tool for brick-and-mortar shopping. It allows iPhone owners to share comments, opinions and recommendations about any product. The store would allow customers to access a product list from their phone, which can then be shared through the social network, where you can do things like ask friends for approval or rejection of the item, or get feedback.

The patent also lets users create a community discussion, communicate and share easily with friends, without them having to be physically present.

Sales of Apple’s iPad device will certainly grow in 2011 according to a report from DigiTimes. So it will need more screens. LG Display could receive orders for 35 million iPad panels from Apple in 2011, with Samsung and Chimei Innolux (CMI), who are scheduled to join Apple’s iPad supply chain in the first quarter of 2011, each possibly receiving orders for as many as 15 million units.

Apple’s 9.7 inch screen is making it difficult for competitors to match and the iPad’s screen size will likely lower component pricing in a way that only benefits Apple. This forces competitors to design and build 5 and 7 inch screens that don’t benefit from the scale of Apple’s high volume sales.

The CDMA iPhone rumors just won’t go away and now there are reports that Apple is optimistic for a great 2011. The company is apparently planning to ship five to six million CDMA iPhones between January and March, and has increased the production of regular iPhones from thirteen million to fifteen million, bringing the total number of possible shipments to twenty-one million.

Rumor is that the CDMA version won’t be exclusive to Verizon since it could be shipping to the US and also Asia Pacific, with carriers like China Telecom, KDDI Au, and SK Telecom all possible destinations. Foxconn is said to be producing both editions of the iphone, and Pegatron will be helping on the CDMA side.

Apple is a patent filing monster. Let’s face it, they have a patent for everything. The latest patent app to surface from Apple has the name of many of the members of the iPhone team on it and once the app is approved, it will have the Apple name applied to the final patent.

The patent app details a new way that Apple wants to put antennas behind logos on their products. So in the future, your iPhone antenna might be behind the Apple logo. The antennas will be used on notebooks, phones, and other devices. This is one that we will likely see come to pass at some point soon.

We recently saw some leaked pics of new iPad cases for the next-generation Apple iPad, and interestingly they had a large opening at the bottom of the case. Some speculated that it was for larger speakers or a built-in SD card slot.

Now another iPad case has surfaced that shows the rear with a metal mesh for an iPad speaker. This comes after recent reports hinted that the slot is for a speaker instead of an SD card slot.

Take this one with the usual grains of salt, but according to Chinese sources the next iPad will have a 3-mm reduction in bezel width, the same 9.7-inch display size, and will have a flattening of the back allowing it to rest better on a desktop. It all sounds very plausible, right?

There’s also a “wide-range speaker” covered with “metal mesh”. The overall unit is said to measure 239 x 186 mm compared to the current iPad’s 242.8 x 189.7 mm footprint. Word is that the new iPads will begin shipping from factories in January.