Top Stories for Week of January 4 – 8, 2009

Aha! So there is an Apple tablet! There is a Google superphone! Woo hoo! All secrets are revealed as as 2010 begins. Well, a couple. “The Tablet project is real,” says Daring Fireball, and the long-rumored Apple device won’t be just for reading magazines in the bathroom. “I say they’re swinging big–redefining the experience of personal computing.” The WSJ reported on Monday that Apple people who know stuff told some other nameless people that the Tablet will be unveiled this month and shipped in March with a 10 to 11-inch touch screen. That report, Mac Observer says, “brings together several recurring themes in tablet leaks, speculation, and rumors, including…the price tag of $1,000. This is one of the first reports we’ve seen that said the purchase price might include a WiFi subscription.” Hmm. The Bits blog has called 2010 the Year of the Tablet–its scoop is a senior Apple exec who, asked about a Tablet, replied: “I can’t really say anything, but, let’s just say Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet.” So when does this party start? FT.com’s Techblog says Apple “has rented a stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco” and “is expected to use the venue to make a major product announcement on Tuesday, January 26th.” Alright, sounds like the leak is complete. Well done, everybody.

Not to be outdone (or at least not until January 26th) Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer used his keynote speech at this week’s CES gadget-fest to show a prototypeof the HP Slate, a tablet computer. Says Engadget:
“The prototype device is said to be coming later this year, and it’s
running Windows–Ballmer showed it running the PC Kindle app. It’s also
multitouch, and can do some gaming–they showed it playing Frogger.”
Ballmer also went through other Microsoft stuff including a
gesture-driven Xbox interface and TV-connected computer (again?) and he
talked about 2009 MS successes including Bing, Windows 7 and Zune HD.
“It’s been a good year for Microsoft,” admits Gadget Lab. Meanwhile, around CES there were other e-reader prototypes lurking, including a bendable one from Skiff and a full-color one from Liquavista. “It’s clear eReaders won’t be black-and-white for very long,” says Lost Remote.

Oh yeah, something else for Apple: there’s a call for you on the GOOGLE PHONE. Yep Google’s “iPhone killer” is real. Gizmodo
relates all the specs: a 3.7-inch, 480×800 AMOLED screen, a 5.5
megapixel cemera, with an LED flash, shoots MPEG-4 video with one-click
YouTube upload… wireless N Wi-Fi, GPS, light and proximity sensors,
and an accelerometer onboard, bladablah. Asks Consumerist: “The real question is: What does this do that last week’s hot Google phone–you remember, that Droid thing–couldn’t do? And why the heck should I buy a phone from a search engine company? ” Technologizer explains: ” It’s evolutionary, not revolutionary. It’s a little bit better than Verizon’s Droid, which was a little bit better than HTC’s Hero, which was a little bit better than the MyTouch. “

Business Insider says Google’s biggest breakthrough isn’t the phone’s specs “it’s that Google–not your local phone store–is going to be the place you buy the phone from….How
this helps Google is that it gets to market and sell phones to you in a
marketplace without competitors–no iPhones, BlackBerries, or Palm Pres
here.” (Yeah, who knows where to buy those things.) Oh, by the way the
phone is called the Nexus One. What? Google still has a way to go as a
consumer goods company. Who came up with the appalling Nexus One name? That’s something only a Google engineer could love.” Billshrink runs its usual, useful cost-of-ownership comparison for Nexus One and other smartphones, adding: “This is the first time that any phone has been available for purchase unlocked, and available for purchase at a discounted rate with a TMobile contract.”

Yes, it’s a wondrous new digi-world we live in. LIVEdigitally says we’re poised to enter a fabulous Fourth Age of gadgets, after decades of Walkmans and GameBoys and iPods. Now here come “gadgets that utterly change the way we think of technology and mobility.” All of which has not prevented one ambitious designer from creating “the most useless machine ever.” You’ll just have to click through to Instructables to watch it in action. Useless, yes, says the site: “And yet everyone wants one!!!?”

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