New York Times R&D Lab: Retail and the “magic mirror” from Nieman Journalism Lab on Vimeo.

You weren’t thinking tablets and smart phones would stay cool forever, were you? They’ll go the way of the Apple Newton and the Commodore soon enough, and the New York Times will be prepared, reports Neiman Labs. The ol’ Gray Lady is preparing for the next great revolution: bathroom mirrors.

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Those subscribing to the iPad version of Playboy really will be reading it for the articles: The magazine has announced that it will forgo the naked women photos to conform to Apple’s stance against all apps deemed (pdf) obscene and pornographic.

The Telegraph reports that a “tasteful headshot” will greet iPad readers in place of the full glory of a playmate of the month, for example. Covering up (or cropping out) the skin will keep Playboy from that ever-growing list of app rejects, which formerly included one from a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist.

Another app that escaped the banned list is My Virtual Girlfriend, which we found on the blog Neatorama. The game allows players to advance twenty “relationship levels” and apparently has a heart meter that you fill by engaging in activities like virtual hand-holding and virtual kissing. You can also thrill your virtual material girl by buying her shoes–she sounds like a real catch.

Though the Virtual Girlfriend disclaimer warns that the company is not responsible for any resulting marriages, we fear for anyone to whom that applies.

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Image: My Virtual Girlfriend

What pairs well with chocolate? A pricey tablet computer, of course.

Stefan Magdalinski debated what to get for his sweetheart for her June birthday. Eventually, he decided on a candy Apple: He ordered his wife a chocolate-covered iPad.

As told on Magdalinski’s blog and reported by Mashable, what makes this feat more impressive is that he orchestrated the gift’s shipment from the U.K. to South Africa, calling two friends at a British chocolatier with an unusual question:

“Could you freeze an iPad in chocolate carbonite, and have it survive?”

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It was Friday evening, Gawker writer Ryan Tate’s wife was out of town, and he was whiling away the lonely hours by watching 30 Rock when an iPad commercial popped up that touted the new Apple gadget as nothing less than a revolution. Tate got annoyed, fired off an email, and soon found himself in an email fight with Steve Jobs himself.

Apple’s CEO is known to personally answer some of the emails that flood into the sjobs@apple.com address, and it seems that Tate’s pointed message goaded the exec into action. Tate, who has long taken issue with Apple’s tight rules on how apps can be written and what content is permissible, argued that the iPad couldn’t be considered revolutionary because “revolutions are about freedom.”

Several hours later, Jobs fired back with his version of what the iPad offers: “Yep, freedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash your battery. Freedom from porn. Yep, freedom.” And it was on.

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Over the last few days, questions surrounding the iPad have normally been along the lines of: When will I get my paws on one? What apps should I get? What if I break it? But the question over at the blender company Blendtec has been more straightforward as everyone wondered, “Will it blend?”

Over the last few years, the company has been producing videos that showcase the industrial strength of their commercial blenders. In this video, they set out to find if Apple’s tablet can be blended into an iPad smoothie by chucking it into the “Total Blender” and turning in on. Needless to say, we gripped the edges of our table and wept a little (ok, a lot) as the brand-new iPad was smashed to smithereens.

Past “Will it Blend” videos have shown objects like glow sticks or an iPhone being demolished by the roaring blender. Blendec’s website proudly states:

The Total Blender two jar package includes both the standard 2-quart BPA-free jar, as well as the new BPA-free 3-quart jar featuring a precision tuned 4” blade and a patented fifth side. This larger five sided jar / 4″ blade combination creates a more powerful blending vortex, allowing you to power through tougher blending tasks with ease in less time.

Are you ready? Then watch what happens here.

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Image: Apple

Well, I shouldn’t say “arrived”—I went and got it. There are a ton of them at the UPS depot on Washington Street (“MSONY,” in UPS lingo), just waiting to be distributed to panting fanboys and -girls on the official unveiling day, this Saturday, April 3. It took some fast talking, energetic digging, and skillful use of bribes, but I finally managed to escape the UPS facility with Discover’s very own iPad. (Note that many legal theorists would probably not consider this “theft,” as we did actually pre-order an iPad. We just borrowed it for a few days before it would eventually go on to becoming ours on Saturday anyway.)

Back to the device itself. We at the Discover office have been playing with the thing non-stop since we “acquired” it last night—even while it charges—and we can say that everything people have said about the iPad is true (well, all the good things): It’s the best way to browse the Web, it feels like you are touching the future, and it has very few buttons. But the actual shipped version of the iPad turns out to be far superior to those crude, clunky things that testers used fleetingly and even the ones Apple showed in its own videos. Out of the many improvements, these have so far proven to be the most impressive:

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Here’s a message from the Department of the Obvious–overuse of the new iPad could lead to bad posture.

If we were handed Apple’s latest sleek and shiny gadget offering, we’d find it hard not to gaze lovingly at it for extended periods of time. And given that the tablet is Wi-Fi and (in some models) 3G compatible, it will be all the harder to resist spend hours jabbing at the shiny glass screen, typing out emails or playing online games.

Now, scientists have declared that prolonged usage of the iPad could lead to bad posture, and that those hunched shoulders could cause neck and upper back problems.

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