This is the first issue of the Weekly Tech News Roundup I promised to deliver every week. The Weekly Tech News Roundup is a summary of news stories that were published this past week and that I think would be interesting to our readers. I hope that you enjoy the format and if you have any suggestions or questions please post them below.
Weeks of speculation surrounding the impending release of an Apple tablet computer have been somewhat confirmed. It appears that Apple will be making an announcement for the iSlate on January 27th. The rumors indicate that the table will be running the iPhone OS, will have access to the Apple App store, and will run for about $800-$1,000.
Among news on the Apple front, Turbo Tax announced the SnapTax app which allows iPhone users to take a picture of their tax return and file it automatically, of course this is limited to 1040EZ’s and 1040A’s. Sounds like this may be a winner this upcoming tax season. Would you file your taxes with your iPhone?
Some creative hackers were able to get the Magic Mouse and the laser keyboard working on the iPhone. AT&T says that it has completed HSPA 7.2 updates, but it will not be available in all markets, only in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami.
On the PC front, Microsoft announced the release of the HP Slate similar to the supposed iSlate from Apple at the Consumer and Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Detailed how-to’s describing how to access the Windows 7 God Mode were released and Best Buy computer optimization is a waste of money.
Speaking of CES, for those of you that don’t know CES is where all of the technology companies get to showcase their latest technology to thousands of visitors every year. The event started January 7th and ends tomorrow the 10th.
Okay so back to Microsoft, this week they announced pricing for Office 2010, yes forget Office 2007, there’s a new version that’s been cooking for some time now. Expect a lot of new features and changes along with Office Online.
At the same event Google also announced the release of the first "superphone", the Nexus One. The phone sports a 3.7" AMOLED touchscreen display, Android 2.1 (Google’s open source mobile operating system), 1GHz processor, 5MP camera, and a slew of other features. The phone is the first ever to be sold by Google and marks the step towards the future of how phones are purchased in the US.
While we are on Google and how they are revolutionizing industries, you are not going to believe where Google has set their sights – energy. Google through it’s Google Energy subsidiary is seeking approval from FERC to be able to buy and sell power, kinda what utilities do. They claim that it will be to ensure that they can have access to renewable energy for their power needs, but who knows, they also claimed they were not going to sell a mobile phone.
It looks like Google might be able to bring Spotify to the US. Spotify is like iTunes but as a subscription service…so you pay a set fee per month and you are able to listen to music online and offline for the same price. This would really challenge Apple’s dominance over the digital distribution of music on the net.
On other news, if you wish to extinguish all of your links to the social networks online like MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter, the Web 2.0 Social Suicide Machine will save you the 9hrs and 35 minutes it takes to do it manually. They claim they can help you get rid of your online profiles in about 52 minutes. You may be wondering where Facebook is in all of this, it appears that Facebook is blocking the popular service from deleting all of your information….for now.
Just when you thought that .99 cents for 10 favor points on the iPhone’s popular Mafia Wars game was expensive, someone spends $330,000 on the virtual Crystal Palace Space Station orbiting Planet Calypso.
