The International Data Corporation (IDC) released preliminary data yesterday from its Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet Tracker. The study shows that total worldwide tablet shipments for the second quarter of 2012 are estimated at 25 million units, which is up from 18.7 last quarter. That’s a quarter-over-quarter increase of 33.6 percent, says the data analysis company, reflecting the total year-over-year growth rate of 66.2 percent of retail tablets in the US.

Guess which tablet is the largest part of those numbers?

According to an internal email revealed during the Samsung vs. Apple trial currently in progress, Eddy Cue, Apple’s SVP of Internet Software and services was in favor of the idea of a 7-inch iPad back in 2011.

In an email to Scott Forstall, Tim Cook, and Phil Schiller, Cue remarked: “I believe there will be a 7-inch market and we should do one.”

Twelve South is really good at making attractive, beautifully packaged and well marketed accessories for Apple lovers.

Often, their accessories seem born from a small idea — what if your MacBook could look like a book, or what if you could attach your iPad to an arm connected to your Mac — but through excellence in execution, these small ideas quickly become indispensible.

The BackPack, first released in late 2009, is such an indispensible small idea: a little shelf to for your iMac or Apple Display. It doesn’t sound like much, but if you’ve ever struggled with a way to manage the external drives or devices connected to your desktop, that little aluminum shelf quickly became such an integral element to your Mac that it’s as if Apple had built one into every Mac.

Now here comes the BackPack 2, and it’s better than the original in every way.

Apple kicked off 2012 with its education event in New York. At that event, the company announced its electronic textbooks for iPad initiative, iBooks Author, and the revamped iTunes U. According the Apples latest financial data, the education initiative has paid off with both iPads and Macs being purchased by schools in record numbers.

A 21st century vision of education , however, is about more than getting the iPads and MacBooks into the classroom. It also requires technology goals, professional development for teachers, high-speed access to up-to-date content, education-centric portals for students and teachers, back-end systems, and education apps or software.

Real Racing has been a staple of the App Store’s gaming catalog for years. As a game that pushes the boundaries of what iOS devices can do with console-like graphics, the developers behind Real Racing are always improving with new iterations. Real Racing 2 was one of the first games to take full advantage of the iPhone 4S’s faster processor and the iPad 2’s ability to stream 1080p video over AirPlay.

Now the folks at Firemonkeys (a combination of IronMonkey and Firemint’s gaming studios) have announced that Real Racing 3 is coming this year. A specific date has not been confirmed, but the game will feature real racecourses from around the world and 22 cars will be in each race.

The day has finally come, folks. Legendary designer Surenix has brought the benchmark iPhone jailbreak theme called “ayeco”n to the iPad. We showed you a sneak peek of ayecon for iPad last week, and the Winterboard theme is now available for everyone to get in Cydia. It look gorgeous.

Popular and useful note-taking and synchronization app Evernote has just updated its Mac app to version 3.30. The new version adds new keyboard commands, a new premium user account, new user controls and LinkedIn support, which is also now available in the web-cased Evernote client. In addition, Evernote sports a handy slideshow option for notes that involve pictures. This will look really nice using Evernote’s new Retina display support.

The Tweetbot for Mac Alpha just got its coolest update yet. A version released today brings multiple columns for different timelines that can float freely or attach to each other and form a Twitter command center of awesomeness. The update packs other features too, like a menu bar interface, geotagged tweets, and Notification Center integration with multiple Twitter accounts at once.

As the NFL pre-season kicks off, the league has begun reminding fans about the various online programming and mobile apps that it offers. While we still have a month before the season starts, August is the time to check in with how your favorite teams are shaping up for the new season. It’s also the time to begin researching your fantasy football draft options – if you haven’t already.

For the preseason and fantasy prep time, the NFL is offering a  mobile apps – many of which will be familiar to fans with iPhones and iPads. We’ll be taking a look at the various official and third-party fantasy tools for Mac and iOS users as the pre-season rolls on, but here’s a quick look at the official options from the NFL.

Not long go, we reported to you that the FPS Dead Trigger had given up the fight and gone free on Android, due to an “unbelievably high” piracy rate. Today, it appears that Madfinger Games, the developers behind Dead Trigger have given in and made the game free on iOS as well.