All Things Digital is reporting that NPR along with The Wall Street Journal are just a few of the big-name media outlets preparing Flash-free versions of their respective sites specifically for Apple's new iPad.

While National Public Radio is scrambling to have their iPad application available for the iPad release date, they are also putting the finishing touches on their app alternative solution for users to listen to their programming directly from the iPad on April 3rd.

"Use the iPad’s browser to visit NPR.org, which will detect that it’s being viewed with Apple’s device and serve up a custom-built site. This means no trace of Adobe’s (ADBE) Flash, which is used to power graphics and media on the site."

The Wall Street Journal will also have their Flash-free, iPad specific, front page in a few short weeks. However, the deeper you click into their site you will find that Flash does still exist. That's certainly understandable given how large the site is and how deeply Flash content, especially video and advertising, has been integrated. Detecting iPad Safari's unique user agent string might be easy enough (that's how so many sites detect and deliver iPhone optimized web sites already), but setting up complete mirrors absent Flash is by no means a simple task and may not be a viable solution for those sites out there that depend on Flash to display most of their content. (Though hopefully it will cause sites that use Flash for no reason -- we're looking at you restaurants! -- to rethink the decision and switch to more basic, searchable, and friendly standards based technologies).

As the battle between Adobe and Apple over Flash continues to heat up, it's interesting to see where the chips are falling. Is not having Flash on the iPad or iPhone still a concern to you? Let us (and them) know how you feel in the comments!

American Public Radio's Marketplace was gracious enough to have me on yesterday to discuss the new 24 telco Wholesale Application Community with Stacey Vanek Smith.

Can a coalition agree on standards and deploy them fast enough to keep up with Apple's App Store juggernaut, or is this just a play to get trendy, hot apps on low end feature phones?

Listen in, and then let me know what you think...

We're pretty sure you were turning your eyes to TiPb today for the haps on the iPhone 3G S launch, but you weren't alone in seeking out the sage wisdom found here. Our very own Rene Ritchie had a brief spot on NPR's Marketplace, a daily half-hour radio show devoted to all things financial. Rene's take:

iPhoneblog editor Rene Ritchie says people might scale back on downloading music, kill their landline, even cut back on their cable. But they will not do without their smartphones.

Rene Ritchie: I think they're becoming increasingly a necessity. Now your instant messages, everything can be popping up at you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Ritchie says now that smart phones have made it possible, we're all expected to be on call around the clock. Employers want to be able to reach their employees at will. Clients expect immediate attention. Friends feel snubbed if you don't text them back, right now.

You darn tootin, Mr. Ritchie. Jump to 8:15 in the show to hear the story, or hit up 9:30 to hear the dulcet tones of your favorite iPhone blogger.