IT'S TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28TH, 2010 I'M JEFF BAKALAR , AND IT'S TIME TO GET LOADED.
RESEARCH IN MOTION ANNOUNCED ITS MUCH ANTICIPATED TABLET DEVICE YESTERDAY, AND IT IS NOT CALLED THE BLACK-PAD. INSTEAD THE COMPANY IS CALLING IT THE PLAY-BOOK. RIM SAYS THAT IT'S THE FIRST PROFESSIONAL TABLET. IT HAS A 7-INCH TOUCH SCREEN, TWO HD FRONT AND BACK FACING CAMERAS, A 1 GHZ DUAL CORE CPU, 1 GB OF RAM, WI-FI AND A HTML5 BROWSER WITH FLASH-SUPPORT. THE NEW DEVICE DOESN'T RUN BLACKBERRY OS 6, BUT A NEW TABLET OS BASED ON Q-N-X, A COMPANY RIM PURCHASED LAST YEAR.
MICROSOFT IS SAYING IT WILL ABANDON THE WINDOWS SPACES PLATFORM FOR WINDOWS LIVE IN FAVOR OF THE MORE POPULAR WORDPRESS BLOGGING INTERFACE. THIS MOVE MIRRORS WHAT THE COMPANY DID WITH ITS VIDEO SHARING SITE SOAPBOX, OPENING UP THE OPTION TO POST TO YOUTUBE OR FACEBOOK AS WELL.
WITH APPLE RELAXING ITS APP STORE RULES, APPS THAT USE GOOGLE'S VOICE SERVICE ARE STARTING TO APPEAR IN THE APP STORE. BUT THE BIG ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM IS WHETHER GOOGLE ITSELF WILL RELEASE AN OFFICIAL APP. ACCORDING TO TECH-CRUNCH, IT IS. THE TECH BLOG IS REPORTING THAT GOOGLE'S VOICE APP HAS ALREADY BEEN APPROVED, AND THAT THE COMPANY IS WORKING ON UPDATES TO SUPPORT I-OS 4 AND MULTITASKING.
THE U.S. GOVERNMENT HAS ASKED CONGRESS FOR PERMISSION TO WIRETAP ANY COMMUNICATION SERVICE, INCLUDING EVERYTHING FROM ENCRYPTED BLACK-BERRY MESSAGES TO SKYPE CALLS, TO FACEBOOK MESSAGES. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SAYS THAT NEW ENCRYPTED COMMUNICATIONS EFFECTIVELY PREVENT THE GOVERNMENT FROM WIRETAPPING, SO YOU CAN ADD THE U.S. GOVERNMENT TO THE EVER-GROWING LISTS OF COUNTRIES THAT ARE PUSHING FOR INCREASED ACCESS TO PRIVATE COMMUNICATIONS.
AND FINALLY, LOGITECH IS ABOUT TO RELEASE A NEW GAMING HEADSET THAT CAN WIRELESSLY RECEIVE AUDIO FROM THREE SEPARATE GAME CONSOLES. THE F540 WILL RETAIL FOR $150 AND LET XBOX 360 AND PLAYSTATION 3 USERS ALSO CHAT AS WELL. THE F540 WON'T SUPPORT SURROUND SOUND, BUT CAN CHARGE OVER USB FOR UP TO 10 HOURS OF PLAYTIME. LOOK FOR THE F450 IN STORES AND A CNET REVIEW NEXT MONTH.
THOSE ARE YOUR HEADLINES FOR TODAY I'M JEFF BAKALAR FOR CNET.COM, AND YOU'VE JUST BEEN LOADED.
