In the roughly four months since its debut the iPad has sold in excess of 3 million units and has defined an entire category of devices. Apple’s monstrous success has every competitor scrambling to play catch up. So far Apple has had the tablet category all to themselves, but for how much longer?

Though Apple was the first company to hit a home run in the tablet category that doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone in the market for a tablet will jump on board with the iPad. Forrester has released a research report that shows that while 27 million Americans will be in the market for a tablet in the next year, they are not necessarily looking at the iPad. Only 3.8% of these future buyers said they were going to buy an iPad. Meaning there is a huge target market for Apple’s competitors to hit.

So who is throwing their hat in the ring? Just about everyone. The Technologizer did a great article on what they have dubbed “iPadversaries” and listed 32 potential competitor devices. Some devices from relatively unknown companies and some from the big names like Google, HTC, HP, Dell, Windows and Blackberry.

Despite, all of this activity and this potential flurry of tablet devices hitting the market, I don’t imagine Apple is too concerned. Apple is not a company known to rest on their laurels. Despite the iPad being a huge seller we all know that Steve Jobs and company are hard at work behind the scenes on improving the iPad. This means that competitors not only have to bring a tablet device to the market that is better than the iPad is now, they have to have a device that’s better than the iPad 2 is going to be. And that won’t be easy.

So which of these devices are you most looking forward to? Are you putting off buying an iPad so you can wait and test out the competition first?

“If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination.” – from Roger Ebert’s review of Transformers 2

Do you use your iPad at work? Michael Bay does. Here’s a pic of him on the set of Transformers 3 using his iPad to explain a scene to Patrick Dempsey.

Or at least that’s what we assume he’s doing. For all we know he could just be showing him his high score on Angry Birds.

While a lot of magazines have made their way to the iPad either through individual apps or through Zinio, a new magazine has debuted and it has set the bar and surprisingly, it’s People.

The People Magazine iPad app is now available in the iTunes App store and individual issues are priced at a reasonable $3.99 per issue. But here is where People has broken new ground; if you are currently a subscriber to the People print edition than your iPad subscription is free! And that, my friends, is how all iPad magazines should be. Take note, publishers!

“What is this compulsion to have people over at your house and serve them food and talk to them?” – Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm

This is the best news I’ve heard in a long time! HBO Co-president Eric Kessler has announced that HBO will soon be launching HBO Go, a streaming TV and movie service to bring the channel to portable devices including the iPad. And, even better, the service will be available at no additional cost to subscribers.

Since HBO has a deal for online rights to movies from Universal, Fox and Warner Bros this will make a library of movies available on demand. HBO also produces some of the best shows on television in past few years, shows like True Blood, The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage.

There has been talk of a rivalry between Netflix and HBO and this will only add fuel to fire. Netflix right now has exclusive online rights for movies from Paramount, Lions Gate Entertainment and MGM as well as all Starz movies and programming like Spartacus: Blood and Sand and Party Down.

This is mostly good news for iPad owners as more and more programming comes to the device and more companies compete to bring media to iPads and other devices. The down side is most of these services will mean an additional monthly subscription fee and those fees are starting to add up.

So kudos for HBO coming to the iPad at no additional fee!

You might have found that since buying your iPad you’ve eschewed buying actual books for eBooks. eBooks are great for portability and certainly save a lot of trees, but there’s just one problem with eBooks. How are your friends supposed to know how smart and well read you are if you don’t have books all over your house? Well TwelveSouth has the perfect solution for you.

Now with the BookBook case you’ll look like the bibliophile that you really are with your iPad in this beautiful case handcrafted to look like classic literature. This is one of the classier cases available for your iPad and serves the added function of disguising your iPad rather than calling attention to it. In other words your iPad could be sitting out in plain view at the library or at a coffee shop and no one would even realize it was an iPad. The case does prop up for hands free viewing, but does not fold to an angle for typing which seems to be the only missing feature in what would otherwise be a fantastic case.

Tomorrow only (Sunday August 22nd) Rafter HD for iPad and Rafter for the iPhone will be available for FREE download!

Rafter is a very simple, yet very challenging game employing physics and timing to move through progressive levels.  Right now it has a 3 1/2 star rating on iTunes. Make sure to take advantage of this free download!

Finally! Adobe released Photoshop Express for iPad which lets you quickly edit and share photos right from your iPad. The reviews were very mixed after the debut of the app, but it seems like they are already addressing issues with updates. And, hey, it’s free!

Other than you of course.

Well the app store has you covered. You’ve probably used the Genius feature to help you find new music in the past. And now Apple has come up with a great way to help you spend even more money on iPad apps, they’ve added a Genius tab to the iPad App Store. Once you activate the genius, Apple will come up with a list of recommendations based off of your current apps.

So what do you think, does the genius know you even better than you know yourself?

But probably not like you would imagine it.

It’s straight from the Hugh’s mouth so it’s likely true. Since we know that Steve Jobs intends to keep the iPad free from porn, Playboy will have to do without the bunnies. So for all of you that read Playboy “for the articles” you should be very excited.

Jailbreaking; you know you’ve thought about it. And if you’ve ever hung out with someone raving about their jailbroken iPad/iPhone you’ve probably been tempted to set your iPad free. According to the Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, “jailbreaking” is now added to the list of actions that do not violate copyright protections, so Apple can’t void a warranty based on a user jailbreaking their iPhone to add and use non-Apple apps. So, assuming this includes iPad’s too, then there’s one less reason not to jailbreak .We’ve talked about the benefits here before and they are hard to ignore; multitasking, tethering, syncing with your computer over wi-fi, etc. So you’ve decided to do it . . . now what?

For step by step instructions PC World has a great article on exactly how to jailbreak your iPad with Spirit. We suggest before you do any updates of any kind you always start with a back up.

Also, Naked iPad has an article on how to Jailbreak with Jailbreak Me.

Once you’re jailbroken now you get to go shopping for the best kind of apps. The apps that Apple doesn’t want you to have! Here are the five we suggest you start with:

MyWi: Turns your device into a WiFi hotspot which is even better than tethering. It allows you to connect multiple devices and share your iPad 3G’s internet connection. $9.99

Backgrounder: Run programs in the background! Multitasking is on its way but it’s not here yet. Backgrounder lets you listen to Internet Radio and surf the web, read email, or use your calendar simultaneously.  Awesome app! Free

WiFi Sync: Syncs your iPad wirelessly over your WiFi connection. It’s ridiculous that Apple doesn’t have this yet, but with a jailbroken iPad you can have it. Something Apple should have implemented a long time ago. Originally rejected by the App Store, Its a new app but works great so far and it runs $10.

FullForce: Opens your iPhone apps at full resolution rather than the pixel doubling. Free.

5. Cydelete: Lets you delete Jailbreak apps just like regular apps with the small x in the top left corner of the app. Free.

And here’s the best part. you can do all of the above and if for any reason you don’t like it you can always restore your iPad back. Simply plug you iPad back into iTunes and hit restore and your iPad will be back to it’s old Apple self.

So what’s the verdict? Gonna try jailbreaking?