How so? Well for one thing it won’t be running a poorly modified phone or desktop OS like some of its more rushed rivals (you know who you are) and will instead be powered by Blackberry Tablet OS, which was developed by QNX, a bolt-on acquisition to the Research in Motion team. RIM were keen to mention the multimedia and gaming power this platform provided – amazing when you consider the no-nonsense attitude that drives their phone platform, although they were also keen to describe the PlayBook as “the first professional tablet.”

Fulltime iPad haters will find a lot to like. It handles Flash 10.1 so it will be interesting to see how its performance holds up for gaming and multimedia. Developers will also be able to create apps using Adobe Air.

At 7 inches it is smaller that the iPad, albeit with a pixel dense 1024 x 600 capacitive multitouch display. “Every device I own must have a camera! Does it have a camera?” you cry. Yes, yes it does – two in fact with a front facing 3 megapixel camera and a 5 mega pixel rear one, including video conferencing.

Other conspicuous iPad absentees such as multi-tasking, 1080p support or a built-in HDMI out are all present and correct in the PlayBook, courtesy of the Cortex A9 dual core 1GHz CPU, backed up with 1GB of RAM.

The PlayBook has a symbiotic relationship with its phone-based cousins so smooth synching of data is promised and apparently you can tether your phone’s data connection to the Playbook.

The only thing the PlayBook seems to lack is a firm launch date and any inkling of a price. I’ve played with most of the tablets on offer and I’m writing this on an iPad, but the Playbook (along with the Samsung Galaxy Tab) seems like a definite contender in the tablet wars.

[Source: Blackberry PlayBook: Don’t call it a BlackPad. Do call it an iPad contender.]

Some new user features include a 5x digital zoom, Bluetooth keyboard support, Home screen wallpapers, SMS/MMS search, playlist creation and too many others to count (well, about 95 others, I suppose).

I almost daren’t begin mentioning the developer APIs, but geotagging and calendar, photo library and camera access stick out as having potential, along with a hardware acceleration feature for math functions.

However, Steve Jobs and his boys did go into detail on the the following seven “tentpoles” of iPhone OS 4.0:

Multitasking

All the information about this feature alone could take up an entire article, so we’ll keep it brief. Multitasking is coming, and you’ll do it by tapping the Home button twice. This will bring up a dock like the one on the Home screen, but it shows all open apps.

Apple is releasing a load of multitasking-related APIs to developers that will allow them to keep battery usage to a minimum. For example, a radio app only needs to play audio in the background rather than run the full app. A game can simply freeze instantly, store itself in the background where it won’t use any CPU cycles, and then you can pick up where it left off.

There’s more tinkering that can be done with notifications, and location services can run in the background too.

Folders

Apparently in by popular demand, you can now have folders for apps. Just drop apps on top of one another on the home page and they’ll form a folder. It’ll even name itself based on the type of app in there, or you can rename. The icon changes to mini images of the apps in the folder. This is a simple concept, but it’s got that software shine Apple does so well.

Improved Mail

The unified inbox is here, with fast inbox switching to help it out. There’s also support for more than one Exchange account and viewing messages in a threaded view. Perhaps most interesting is the ability to open attachments with third party apps – the lack of this is one of my biggest gripes with the iPad currently.

iBooks

It’s iBooks for the iPhone. Not an awful lot to see here, but there is wireless syncing between this and the iBooks app for iPad (so no buying books twice, I guess).

Game Center

Well, what have we here? Xbox Live for iPhone? Yes, indeed. Lots of games already have their own system for online gaming, but it looks like Apple’s stepping in to unify them. Achievements, leaderboards, automatic matchmaking and invitations to play games via push notifications are all coming. Maybe Apple’s serious about this gaming thing after all (I’d still like some buttons though…)

Enterprise

iPhone OS 4.0 offers better data protection and encryption possibilities, multiple Exchange accounts, Exchange server 2010 support, wireless app distribution for private apps, mobile device management, and SSL VPN support.

iAds

The desktop ad environment is based on search, but that obviously isn’t appropriate for app-based phones. Apple is offering a way to serve rich ad content without users having to leave an app. Video and interactivity are all possible, and no special SDK required – it all just runs in HTML. Ads aren’t very interesting, but if it can keep developers making good, free apps then it’s a major bonus.

I have to say, I’m massively impressed with this update. It’s pretty extensive, and, yes, has its share of boring and overhyped bits, but some of the features seem perfectly calculated to keep ahead of the curve.

It’s interesting that the iPad version is due so much later, as some of these updates seem obviously geared towards bringing the iPad feature list closer to desktop functionality in some areas. Strange that the iPhone should get them first, but then it is the big brother, so maybe it’s a chance for an extended test.

Steve Jobs was asked about unsigned apps in the Q&A afterwards. His response that there’s an ‘porn store’ on Android that anyone (including kids, in his example) can use, and that that wasn’t a place Apple wanted to go probably won’t help the recent views of the company as becoming slightly puritanical. However, if his point is that Apple’s profile means they’ll get blamed for anything unsavoury/offensive seen on the fruit-branded phone, then he’s probably right. It’s just not a business view that jibes well with a lot of customers.

The bad news about the update? Not all of these features will come to the iPhone 3G , including multitasking (original flavour iPhone users seem to be completely left in the cold). 3GS owners will get pretty much the full OS 4.0 experience, but Jobs says the 3G hardware is just incapable of performing some functions, including multitasking.

Apple also beat its chest in the usual way, with slides claiming 50 million iPhones sold to date, and a cool 450,000 iPads sold over the last five days in the US. The rest of the world can still look forward a ‘late April’ release, although that’s getting close, so some specifics wouldn’t go astray.

[Source: iPhone OS 4.0 finally brings multitasking and six friends]

Very kindly, we’ve sifted through the chaff and have found you five pieces of tasty, tasty wheat. Oh, now, stop your thanks. We not heroes, but it’s nice of you to call us that anyway.

• Asus RT-N56U router

It’s always great if you can look at a new piece of technology and think “Yeah, I can imagine that on the starship Enterprise”. So the fact that Asus’ super-thin router actually looks like something the Enterprise’s crew would find on some abandoned ultra-advanced alien vessel makes it doubly cool.

It does nice things like USB hard drive and printer sharing and 3G USB dongle support and blah blah – who cares? Loads of routers do all that. But just look at it! I’m no stranger to gadget lust, but this is my first time with a router. Be gentle, sweet RT-N56U…

• Mio Moov V780

I’m not too sure about these mid-size tablet PMP things. 7“ is a little ‘in the middle’ to be obviously useful. A fair bit larger than the usual phone/touchscreen media player, but lacking the space you get at the magic 10” mark. That said, Mio have packed this little device with a slick 3D interface, maps and navigation, 720p HD video output, a digital TV receiver, WiFi, 3G mobile broadband and even a WiMax option. Interestingly, among its (copious) accessories is a carry case that adds a keyboard in case you’ve got some serious emailing to do.

• 3D all-in-one desktops

3D’s coming. Whether you like it or not, it’s looming over the horizon. In fact, it’s particularly daunting and dramatic because it’s in 3D.

The next difficulty we’ll face when buying a new computer, then, is whether we get a 3D monitor or not. Asus and MSI both see the obvious solution to this dilemma, by incorporating 3D tech into some of their forthcoming all-in-ones. The prototypes shown off at CeBIT seem to be powered by Nvidia’s proprietary 3D Vision tech. Hopefully, future development of ATI’s 3D drivers and some clarity on Blu-ray 3D standards will come to take us out of Nvidia’s iron grip.

• Motorola HS1001 Android landline phone

This one’s pretty simple. This is a home, wireless DECT phone, with a big ol’ screen and it runs Android, so you can play media and surf the web on it. Now, an awful lot of people will have a laptop and/or iPod touch and things they can use in the house for this anyway, so why would you want all that in your non-mobile phone? Well, there’s no major reason, but look at it this way: Next time you’re getting new home phone, why wouldn’t you get this? It can play media and surf the web!

• Archos 7 Home Tablet

Okay, I said I’m not sure about 7“ tablets, but as I’ve included two, maybe I should shut up. Actually, what I’m rooting for here is the concept rather than the application. Archos make really nice PMPs. Android makes for a snappy, comprehensive touchscreen experience with apps available. The price is said to be as low as $200.

This is year is going to be all about tablets. There are hundreds predicted to come out this year. They’ll need specialist touchscreen software. Apple wants every family to have an iPad, but it really isn’t for everyone. Maybe all the rest can be tempted by a $200 Google-backed experience from a great hardware maker.

[Source: Round-up: The best of CeBIT 2010]

This time it’s Engadget who’ve gained some information from a “trusted source”, and it bodes well for Courier becoming an actual physical product, as opposed to some abstract videos on the internet.

First up is the news that Courier’s guts will be based around Nvidia’s Tegra 2 platform, which will give it plenty of grunt with a suitably customised OS. There was speculation that Microsoft’s tablet might use Intel’s Atom processor and be based on Windows 7, but Mary Branscombe of Techradar noted back in the autumn that is was “more likely that a real Courier would use processors designed for smartphones and MIDs, like Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon”. This was a pretty good guess, as before Tegra 2 was announced in January, Snapdragon was the most powerful ARM processor around.

Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet first suggested that Courier would be based on Windows 7, so it’s hard to say if Foley’s source was just mistaken or if – as Matt Buchanan at Gizmodo suggests – there was actually a switch to CE from 7. In any case, it makes sense to use CE, as it already runs on ARM chips and serves well as the basis for both the Zune HD software and Windows Phone 7 Series.

The main thing about the Courier concepts we’re seeing is the pen-based input. The iPad’s focus has always been to get your grubby mitts all over it. Courier seems a little more measured in its approach. You use your fingers to move about between applications, but the stylus is the key interface. It can be used to write, draw or even cut out parts of web pages and photos. If the iPad is a media consumer’s device, this is a jotter’s dream. When I was at college and uni, I wrote notes over every bit of paper that made the mistake of straying onto my desk. Being able to keep all those notes in a computer, where they’re even searchable, would have been pretty hard to resist.

Going by Engadget’s stated five inches by seven inches when closed, and less than an inch thick, Courier would appear to be more or less the same size as Nintendo’s DSi XL, but with more screen space.

Of course, this is all still just wishful thinking. We’ve got a nice UI concept (that still seems like it’ll need some work before it can work in reality – the videos are slick and controlled, but there’s a lot of information missing that you’d want in real world use), some possible hardware, and even a rough size, but no definite release or even confirmation of its existence from Microsoft.

Engadget says Courier will be out later this year, but Gizmodo has apparently heard that we won’t see it in 2010. The problem we face then, is one of practicality. Microsoft’s concept looks amazing, but that just talk when you’ll be able to go into a shop and buy an iPad in a month or two. There’s no denying that the productivity possibilities offered by Courier blow the iPad out of the water in places, but look at this video:

Even before it’s released, iPad app makers are making up huge ground on Courier’s features. If Microsoft wait too long, this stunning concept is in danger of becoming ordinary.

[Source: Microsoft Courier ‘digital journal’ rumour round-up]

The Samsung Zipel marks the first time I have ever been excited about refrigeration technology. It has standard fridge stuff, energy efficient cooling of your food and drinks etc. However what made my eyes pop was the inclusion of a 7” touch screen and wireless connectivity. You may ask, “Who needs a wireless touch screen in a fridge?” And the correct reply is of course, “No one”. It is however, undeniably cool. You can surf the net, receive news alerts & weather reports, see upcoming dates on your Google calendar and make basic notes. It can even read memory cards to create a photo slideshow. Coolest of all it can provide nutritional information on a range of foods. However it cannot play DOOM. Yet.

I then headed over to the Hoover section to play with the futuristic cleaning robot the Navibot, which like its surgical cousin MediBot, is adept at eating hundreds and thousands. A more advanced take on the Rhoomba, with some pretty advanced AI, the Navibot takes 30fps video, which works in conjunction with its path-finding algorithm to map out rooms. It also has a memory, which allows it to return to its base if it runs out of power, charge and then head back to where it left off and generally puts my carpet cleaning skills to shame.

Camera wise, there were a smattering of average looking point and shoots, the WB500 being the most eye-catching, with 24mm Ultra Wide, Optical 10x Zoom Schneider Lens and High Definition Video recording. However the star of the camera corner was clearly the NX10, a curious looking intermediary between the worlds of the point and shoot and the DSLR. Designed without a mirror box or pentaprism, the NX10 is tiny in comparison to most DSLRs and extremely light weight, despite being a fully functioning DSLR. Like most modern DSLRs, the  NX10 records high definition, video although only in 720p.

The largest crowds were huddled around Samsung’s array of 3DTV and Blu Ray home cinema combos. Needless to stay this looked absolutely stunning. The glasses were small and unobtrusive, the images crisp and the 7.1 surround sound booming. The demo videos – marine life, BMX bandits at a skate park and male and female models at some sort of pool party all benefited from the added dimension. Another cool feature was the ability to read standard 2D films and reinterpret depth of field – essential adding 3D to most movies. However what interested me the most was not the 3D but the introduction of “apps” to TV. Conceptualizing TV as a platform, in a similar fashion to the Android Marketplace store or the Apple App store, the coming generation of TVs will have built in wireless connectivity, allowing access to services such as the BBC iPlayer, or Lovefilm and possibly even video conferencing utilizing services such as Skype.

[Source: Turn on Tomorrow: Samsung product launch]

They may well have borrowed the ”I” but this is one of the only similarities between the iTablet and iPad. Apple and many other companies have recently decided that there is a need for device that falls somewhere between a laptop and a mobile phone.

X2’s iTablet aims to be that device – it boasts a 10.2” XGA screen, similar to the iPad, but where the iTablet this differs from Apple’s is the sort of OS you can run on it. This tablet can run a plethora of operating systems including Window 7, Windows Tablet or open source Linux. Users will be able to use all their windows applications that they use on the main computer – this is a major advantage over Apple’s iPad – which will rely on the restrictive App store.

The storage capacity is a beefy 250gb, which will give users a significant amount of space to for their HD films, music and applications. With up to three USB 2.0 ports, a 1.3 mega-pixel camera and a HDMI output – you will be able to play HD video directly from the device on to a HD TV – which is lacking from Apples iPad.

Similarly to the iPad, the iTablet will come fully equipped with Bluetooth, 3g and 802.11 wireless networking. One of the crowning glories of the iTablet will be the full Adobe flash compatibility – which Apple is still refusing to use for their phones and the iPad.

We’re excited by the possibilities of the iTablet, mainly because of the OS support, it’s going to allow users to have complete software freedom – something Apple can’t and won’t offer.

With significant differences between the iTablet and the iPad – it’s no longer a one horse race and X2 have created a compelling alternative to Apple’s glorified iPhone.  With the first shipments starting in April the iTablet will have a significant head start on the iPad and this will give X2 an opportunity to take some of the market share before Apple release the iPad.

For additional Information please visit www.x2mc.co.uk

[Source: Further details released about X2′s iTablet]

The 3D technology at work here uses Active Shutter glasses, rather than the polarisation techniques used for James Cameron’s Avatar and other 3D films at the cinema. The reason for this is that polarised glasses only allow you to see the image at sub-high definition quality, due to the fact that the glasses are filtering half of the image to each eye at a given time.

Systems using Active Shutter glasses are a little more complicated, but allow 3D viewing in full 1080p HD. A screen with a high refresh rate (at least double the 24-frames-per-second 2D films are shown in) displays each frame from the film twice – once from the left eye’s perspective and once from the right eye’s. The Active Shutter glasses literally close off the lens over the right eye when the image appropriate to the left eye is shown, and then vice versa. That little sequence is repeated thousands of time a minute, which means that there can be a visible flickering using this technique.

Fortunately, Samsung has planned to conquer the flicker by offering high refresh rates of 240Hz and an extremely low pixel response time of 4ms (though not as low as Plasma TVs are capable of).

One big reason why Samsung producing 3D panels is good news is that Samsung has been known to supply panels to other TV manufacturers. Previously, Samsung has been known to work with Sony sharing panel technology in their HDTVs, and has also provided the guts for Dell monitors. Two of the other biggest suppliers are Sharp and LG, so when these three all get 3D production in full swing we’ll see all sorts of 3D-ready TVs to go with the advent of 3D Blu-rays.

Samsung quotes research from DisplaySearch that 3D TV sales will pass the million-mark during 2010, and will be selling nearly 10 million units per year by 2012. That’s not unreasonable if we assume that most TVs produced then will have 3D abilities as standard, but as with high definition, the choice of content could take some time to catch up.

[Source: Samsung first to mass-produce 3D panels]

Apple products are the celebrities of the tech world and now the iPad has been unveiled, attention has turned to the prospect of the iPhone 4GS – if that is indeed, what it will be called.  A stunning image of a silver slimline model has been circulated on the web, its design seemingly borne of Apple’s love of simplicity and the minimalistic – yet Apple continues to practice their failsafe PR method of saying absolutely nothing.

According to fellow tech sites (including Phones Review, PC World and Know Your Mobile) the 4Gs will have a better processor and longer battery life with a removable battery.  The handset will come with a 5 megapixel camera and a front-facing camera undoubtedly enabling video calling and Skype very possible.

Other sites have claimed the new iPhone will have an OLED screen and touch-sensitive casing meaning that those fancy swiping actions you make on the screen could probably be made on the back of the handset too.  The phone will also come equipped with dual core processing allowing the use of more than one app at a time – one of the major downfalls of the 3Gs, and a massive 64GB memory.  There are even rumours we’ll have our pick of colours.

Some of this speculation seems to have come from iPhone 3Gs owners who upon discovering the imperfections of their handsets, have created idealised improvements in the new model.  I guess we’ll have to wait until June to find out…

[Source: The iPhone 4: Rumour round up]

In bragging a hefty 3-inch touch screen, increasing its 4-line keyboard to a 5-line one, boosting its camera by O.7 MP to 2.0 MP, and including a 3G data capability on Sprint’s network, the Rumor Touch can justifiably be considered as being infinitely superior to its predecessor, the LG Rumor.  And so it should be considering all the preliminary hype about this latest touch screen phone, which is not available on the market for another four months!

Although the LG Rumor Touch’s preeminence does not stop at its giant touch screen and full QWERTY keyboard. Additional features include a Hello user interface, enabling favorite contacts to be quickly attainable from the home page, a microSD memory card slot with 32GB card capability, Instant Messaging and SMS threaded text messaging, easy image upload of MySpace, YouTube, and Photobucket, and, most importantly, a quick demo video from an LG employee for those struggling to get their head around the phone’s complexity of features.

But what I find pleasantly pleasing about this phone is that unlike many of the camera phones flooding the market at present, the LG Rumor Touch has a battery life of up to 7 hours of continuous talk time. So many times have I been cut of “mid-sentence” or faced with a black screen, cruelly stopped from capturing my baby take his first steps on camera, that the fact that this camera phone has a longer battery life than many of its rivals is enough to make me go out and buy it.

Also for the many Facebook fanatics amongst us, a Facebook app is conveniently accessible from the main menu.

Although the cost of the LG Rumor Touch has yet to be announced, at least by the time the phone arrives on the shelves so should have the warmer weather, and our fingers should be less frozen and more capable at dealing with intricacy involved with a touch screen phone.

[Source: Sssh… lets whisper about the LG Rumor Touch]

Currently leading the field is Samsung. The manufacturer was the first to introduce the technology in 2007 with the launch of the world’s first 3D capable plasma television, and over the past two years has been investing heavily in 3D image processing. Now, entertainment enthusiasts can enjoy the fruits of this labour in the BD-C6900, one of five new Blu-ray players launched by the manufacturer in Las Vegas last week and winner of the 2010 CES Best of Innovations Award.

With Blu-ray players now starting to become old hat, 3D Blu-ray is the next big thing in home entertainment and Samsung’s new player will be the first to feature built-in 3D playback. The player is compatible with Samsung’s new 3D HDTVs and upcoming 3D Blu-ray disks, but as you’d expect from a top of the range model it’s also a big step up from current 2D players and promises unrivalled picture quality and faster loading times. It even looks the part and alongside its sleek and stylish design it’s even got a transparent cover that allows you to see the disk spin as it plays. Like the manufacturer’s new TVs the player also shows off the latest incarnation of the Internet@TV platform which provides viewers with a gateway to a multitude of entertainment ranging from Video, Music, Social Networking, News and Games.

It’s the first out of the blocks as far as 3D Blu-ray goes and the finer details and price are still to be announced but the BD-C900 certainly offers a tantalizing glimpse into the future of home entertainment.

[Source: Samsung first out of blocks with 3D Blu-ray]