If you're thinking about buying an iPad for the holidays you just might want to consider the following rumor - but remember it is a rumor:

The next version of Apple's groundbreaking iPad tablet PC will include a forward-facing camera, FaceTime support, a USB port and be available to consumers and enterprises perhaps as soon as the first quarter of next year, according to a report by the Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes.

The speculation comes just over a week after Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) unveiled iOS 4.2, an update to its mobile operating system that included a number of key features and improvements for the iPad.

Not surprisingly, the DigiTimes report sent Apple Nation into a frenzy, with rumors and additional speculation spreading like wildfire across numerous Mac-centric blogs, forums and websites.

Head over to EnterpriseMobileToday for more details.

Pepsi and Coca Cola are two of the largest brand advertisers in the world so it is only natural that they are both diving into mobile:

PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have both introduced new mobile marketing programmes, each using location-based services to engage consumers.

For its part, PepsiCo has partnered with Foursquare to offer members rewards premised on habits beyond "checking in" at a set time or place.

If participants earn a "Gym Rat" badge, achieved by regularly exercising at sports centres, they could receive a bottle of SoBe Lifewater.

Should users work out early in the mornings, they are likely to be provided with items more suitable for breakfast, such as Quaker Oats and Tropicana.

...

Elsewhere, Coca-Cola has allied with SCVNGR, which specialises in delivering mobile "challenges", running a campaign primarily targeting teenagers.

It will "seed" ten shopping centres operated by Simon Malls on 26 November, Black Friday, asking customers to undertake challenges, like visiting certain stores or taking photos.

American Express gift cards and branded Coke merchandise are just some prizes up for grabs as part of this effort.

Online and print ads are to be supplemented with signs in malls, carrying taglines including "This mall has secrets. Unlock them."

Read more at warc.

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Mobile Marketer reports from NY's ad:tech conference:

A PepsiCo executive at ad: tech said that a campaign spanning on-site, digital out-of-home, online, social and mobile effectively reintroduced the SoBe brand to influential consumers at South-by-Southwest.

To promote the new look and feel of its reskinned line of its elixirs and teas, SoBe invited SXSW attendees to stop by the Lizard Lounge during the Interactive conference. In-between daily happy hours, visitors were invited to virtually reskin themselves with help from SoBe's "Reskin Yourself" station, which let them superimpose digital tattoos onto their photos and share the images via their social networks.

“The goal was to completely restage the SoBe brand, move from glass bottles to a plastic package and bring it to 2010 and get it out of the 1996 era it had been stuck in,” said Rami Jabaji, associate brand manager of SoBe at PepsiCo, Purchase, NY.

Learn more about the campaign at Mobile Marketer.