Electronics, Tablet Computer | featured news

Google‘s long-awaited answer to Flipboard, the “social magazine” exclusively on Apple‘s iPad and iPhone, just debuted today. Google Currents offers a similar appearance, except it works on Android devices as well as iPads and iPhones. It’s the latest in a long string of applications, most recently Yahoo‘s Livestand, that seek to turn online content into something resembling print magazines, but without all those dead trees and with 20th century innovations like, say, video.

For two years, Apple has told the world that phones running on Google Android operating system are iPhone rip-offs. Now Apple is about to learn whether a U.S. trade agency thinks its claims have merit.

A U.S. judge rejected Apple's request to ban U.S. sales of some Galaxy smartphones and tablets made by Samsung.

Amazon’s ultra-cheap Kindle Fire has already shipped between 3 and 4 million units and combined with news of excellent Black Friday sales last week, the Fire may already be the number two tablet after the Apple iPad.

The discovery has added to rumours that the iPad 3 will launch in March and feature a fractionally thicker design and a significantly higher resolution display.

After more than a year of missteps by Apple's tablet rivals, at least one viable competitor, Amazon's Kindle Fire, appears to have surfaced for the popular iPad. Amazon.com Inc. on Monday trumpeted the success of its recently launched Kindle Fire tablet, part of a family of Kindle products that include low-priced e-readers. The company said it sold more than four times as many Kindle products on Black Friday last week as the same shopping day in 2010.

Does $199 sound like too much for the BlackBerry Playbook this holiday season? RIM seems to think so, but only for its employees. According to multiple sources, the 16GB 7-inch tablet is now available to RIM employees through a special corporate portal for $99. The 32GB version is $149 and the 64GB model for $199. We have also been told that employees can only order up to eight models.

Oops! Nokia will launch a Windows 8-based tablet in June 2012, according to Paul Amsellen, the company’s general manager in France. He disclosed the tidbit in an interview with Les Echos; The Verge picked up on the news.

If you're wondering if Amazon's Kindle Fire is up to snuff, well, it is. Turn it on and you know what to do, like with an Apple product. So much like an Apple product that Apple should be scared."

When Kindle Fire customers across the country open their boxes next week, they will be able to choose from several thousand of the most popular Android apps and games, including Netflix, Rhapsody, Pandora, Twitter, Comics by comiXology, Facebook, The Weather Channel and popular games from Zynga, EA, Gameloft, PopCap and Rovio. Kindle Fire customers will be able to download these apps and games without having to register multiple times and using Amazon’s simple and secure 1-Click payment technology. Plus, all apps are Amazon-tested on Kindle Fire for the best experience possible, customers can get a great “paid” app for free every day, and once you’ve downloaded an app from the Amazon Appstore, it’s available on Kindle Fire as well as your other Android-based devices.