Samsung postpones Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia VXK7Q4A54KJD

The patent war between Samsung and Apple continues. Today, Samsung plans a countersuit and will delay the Australian release of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 until the end of September.
Samsung’s ongoing legal war with Apple will mean more delays for its devices in Australia. Today, the electronics maker revealed that it plans to delay the Galaxy Tab 10.1′s Australian release until at least Sept. 26, reports ZDNet. In addition, the Samsung will countersue Apple Australia, alleging that the iPad and iPhone violate several, perhaps dozens, of Samsung’s patents. Apple alleges that the Galaxy Tab violates 10 of its patents.

“Our cross claim will include a cross claim of infringement for a number of our patents that have been infringed by their iPad,” said barrister David Catterns to Justice Annabelle Bennett today.
Apple has been aggressively, and successfully, attempting to block the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in regions around the world. Australia and Germany are the big battlefields at this time.

BlackBerry Torch 9810 launched by RIM in India

Canadian Smartphone maker Research In Motion (RIM) successfully announced the launch of BlackBerry Torch 9810. This smartphone stands to be the successor of classic slider BlackBerry Torch 9800. The company gave an official push much late than the device actually entered the market last week.

BlackBerry Torch 9810 popularly known as BlackBerry Torch 2 comes loaded with BlackBerry OS 7. The device brings the combination of touch functionality and QWERTY keypad. The UI houses a list of widgets on the home screen and brings a way to easy navigation. BlackBerry 9810 packed with 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and 4X zoom capabilities. The camera can capture the magical moments in High definition 720p mode at an instant with a zero lag time. The device powered with 1.2 Ghz processor and coupled with 768 MB RAM and 8GB internal memory. This makes the device a instant "pick me" phone. The browser supports the latest HTML 5 pages and allows multi-tasking.

BlackBerry Torch 2 is a 3G enabled device with 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA speeds. The device allows the user to enjoy browsing and watch videos with a smoother graphics. The device comes loaded with apps with free of charge and keeps you engaged for more time. Like the traditional BlackBerry smart phones, this device also comes with powerful document editing features and BlackBerry Messenger.

Google+ Isn't Just A Social Network, It's An "Identity Service" : Eric Schmidt

Google+ is not just the search giant's effort to take on Facebook: it's primarily an "identity service" that Google will use to help build other services.That's according to Google chairman Eric Schmidt, who was explaining why Google+ is requiring users to stick with their real names.
As Fred Wilson points out, Schimdt's statement raises the question of who Google+ is really for you, or Google?

Lots of companies have tried to establish an identity system for the Web. The idea is that if users have a single trusted identity, it could ease their interactions offline and online -- imagine never having to sign in to get your email or make an online purchase, for instance. Microsoft made an effort in the late 1990s with Passport, but its ambitions were thwarted by privacy advocates and the FTC. Facebook's social graph is another effort.

Before Google+, your Google identity was really only used on Google sites. But with Google+ and the +1 button, that identity system can extend across the Web -- if you're signed in to Google+ and you +1 a particular Web site, that information can be tracked. That helps Google provide more personalized services (like search results) for you, but could also help with ad targeting.Schmidt also said that Google believes the Internet will work better if people know that you're a real person rather than a fake person or a dog.

Kindle 3G – Features and Hacks

Many people believe that the Kindle is a simple e-reader which retrieves its books from Amazon.com. However many people are not aware of the unique features that this simple device offers.On top of just being able to download books and magazines, this device can actually browse the internet. No it can’t handle video’s or any extensive web elements, but simple websites with mostly text on them are easily pulled up. Googling is a snap as you browse about on FREE 3G internet, and other sites work great as well.Want to find out when the next movie is playing, or search for a great restaurant? Check on your Kindle! Many people underestimate the 3G capabilities of the Kindle and would be pleasantly surprised to see that it can do most of the functions that smart phones can without having to pay the monthly bills associated with them.

What Kindle Should I purchase?
You will see that there is a slight price gap between the Kindle 3G with ‘special offers’ and one without. These special offers are actually ads that appear when your Kindle is not powered on, and for some people they can be quite annoying. If you want to save money, then purchasing the Kindle 3G with special offers is the way to go especially since there is a hack that can remove those pesky ads (as seen below). If you don’t want to deal with jail breaking your Kindle, then purchase the one without ads and save yourself the headache.

What else can my Kindle do?
If free 3G internet access and unlimited e-books/magazines wasn’t enough, then you can satisfy your greedy appetites by indulging in the Kindle’s other features. For one, this e-reader has an incredibly long battery. It’s advertised to have a battery life of two months, but really the battery lasts for only a few weeks with continuous use, which is still a significant amount of time for any wireless device.Another unique feature is that you can store/play music files.

Google planning to shut down Slide social apps

Apparently the age of “superpoking” social network friends and throwing sheep at them is coming to a close.Google plans to shut down the social applications developed by Slide, a company it acquired a year ago for $182 million. Slide products include SuperPoke and photo management and decorating tools like Slideshow and FunPix.Slide’s applications like Slideshow were very popular on MySpace during its heyday, and found success on other social networking sites, including Facebook, where the sheep-throwing feature of SuperPoke caught on, entertaining and annoying many.

But usage of Slide applications has apparently been declining and disappointing, according to a message Slide posted on its blog on Thursday.“We created products with the goal of providing a fun way for people to connect, communicate and share. While we are incredibly grateful to our users and for all of the wonderful feedback over the years, many of these products are no longer as active or haven’t caught on as we originally hoped,” the post reads.

IBM's 120 petabyte data drive: world's Largest data drive

IBM is currently in the process of building the world's largest data storage drive of 120 petabytes, to put this into perspective that's 120 million gigabytes, an iPhone 4 has 16GB.This mammoth task will be accomplished by putting together around 200,000 seperate disk drives, placed in a conventional horizontal pattern but with more spacing, allowing for more hard drives. 

To deal with all this data they've built an entirely new system which deals with how the information is collected and used. By sharing the information out over different drives the system is able to work on difference sections of the file at the same time, vastly improving speeds. The system is being produced for an unnamed client who apparently wishes to use it for 'simulation purposes'. At 120 petabytes this drive will be able to hold 60 copies of the largest backup yet made of the internet. Yes, that's right, 60 copies of the internet.

HP Elitebook 8×60 series laptop that can replace any desktop

HP’s Elitebook line of business laptops has enjoyed a pretty long history of good reviews from most users, thanks to their superb build quality, powerful specs and great business support (which is separate from the abysmal customer support for their consumer Pavilion line). The Elitebook has become an excellent choice over the other two main competitors, Lenovo’s ThinkPad and Dell’s Precision, especially when the former started to lose points in build quality (even their famous keyboard was affected) and the latter was full of bugs and improperly implemented features (like the fingerprint scanner that needs Dell’s custom software to run and therefore does not conform to most government or corporate specifications). And now, HP has released the next generation of Elitebooks – the 8×60 series, which are a worthy successor to the 8×40’s (not sure why they skipped the 50 number, though).

The new lineup brings a new, from grounds up redesign of the housing – after three generations of about the same design, the new laptops look either repulsive or very attractive. I really liked the classic yet modern lines and finish of the 8530w and 8540w, and the new “retro” look stirs somewhat mixed feelings – the hinge looks nice, but the overall design seems simply ugly. However, it’s really the thickness that gets a lot of people: with the previous models, HP was going for the slim design, while this time they just said “ah, forget it” and made the laptops a full half inch thicker than before – the 17 inch 8760w looks pretty normal, but for a 15 and 14 inch models, the 8560 and 8460 are too thick (and heavy)....