HP's TouchPad going on sale in US on July 1

US computer giant Hewlett-Packard announced on Thursday that its rival to Apple's hot-selling iPad, the HP TouchPad, will go on sale in the United States on July 1.

The touchscreen tablet computer, which is powered by the webOS software platform bought from Palm, will be available in Britain, France, Ireland and Germany a few days later and in Canada in mid-July, HP said in a statement.

The device will go on sale in Australia, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, Singapore and Spain later this year, the Palo Alto, California-based HP said.

HP said the version of the TouchPad which goes on sale in the United States next month will be Wi-Fi only.

Apple offers both Wi-Fi and 3G versions of the iPad. HP said that it will be teaming up with AT&T to introduce a 3G version of the TouchPad later this year.

A TouchPad with 16 gigabytes of internal storage will sell for $499.99 in the United States while a 32GB version will sell for $599.99, HP said.

It said pricing for other countries will be revealed later.

"What makes HP TouchPad a compelling alternative to competing products is webOS," said Jon Rubinstein, senior vice president and general manager of HP's Palm Global Business Unit.

Rubinstein was chief executive of Palm when it was bought by HP last year.

HP, the world's top personal computer maker, acquired Palm and its webOS platform for $1.2-billion in a bid to become a player in the fast-growing market for smartphones and tablet computers.

TouchPad weighs about 1.5 pounds (0.7 kilograms) and has a 9.7-inch (24.6 centimeter) display -- the same weight and screen size as the iPad.

The iPad accounted for 83.9 percent of the total 17.6 million tablets sold in 2010, according to technology research company Gartner, which predicts worldwide tablet sales will soar to 294.3 million in 2015.

Apple eases rules on iPad, iPhone subscriptions

Apple has eased the subscription policies for its hot-selling iPad and iPhone in a move that should help newspaper and magazine publishers make more money from mobile devices.

The change will make it easier for publishers to sell subscriptions for the devices outside Apple's online store.

That's important to publishers because they have to give Apple 30 percent of the revenue from subscribers signed up through the store. Publishers also aren't guaranteed that they would get valuable data about their customers when subscriptions are made through Apple's outlet, known as the apps store.

Apple did not give a reason for making the change. It does allow Apple to avoid legal trouble if regulators decided that the policies represented an attempt to control prices in still-developing market for mobile subscriptions. Apple finds itself in a position of power because the iPhone and the iPad are among the world's top-selling devices. Apple sold more than 25 million iPads since they went on sale 14 months ago.

Apple's concession will likely ease the tensions building among publishers that disliked the idea of relinquishing so much revenue and control to the world's most valuable technology company.

Apple's original rules, announced four months ago, seemed intent on funneling as many subscriptions as possible through its apps store. The policy required publishers to offer a one-click option within the iPad or iPhone application to subscribe at a price that is at least as good as offers made elsewhere.

Now publishers won't have to provide that one-click option. They can also offer discounts elsewhere and still make more money because they won't have to share revenue with Apple. Publishers, however, won't be able to link to offers elsewhere from their apps.

The greater flexibility also ensures that publishers will be able to sell iPad and iPhone access as part of bundled subscriptions that include deliveries of print editions and apps for rival smartphones. It wasn't clear under the old rules whether such bundles would have been considered a discount.

The New York Times, for instance, has been selling subscriptions to read news on the iPhone and the iPad since March. The packages cost $15 to $35 every four weeks and are bundled with website and print subscriptions. The Times had planned on adding a one-click subscription option from the mobile apps by June 30 to comply with Apple's original rules. The Times declined comment Thursday on Apple's revised rules.

Apple has not disclosed how many subscriptions have been sold. The New York Times Co. said in April that it had attracted more than 100,000 digital subscribers; it did not say how many were using iPhone or iPad apps.

Newspaper and magazine publishers are particularly enamored with the iPad and other tablet computers because they believe the format will provide a digital bridge as fewer people read their print editions. For newspapers, the declining print circulation has been accompanied by an even deeper drop in print advertising, which has depleted their revenue during the past five years.

Apple is promoting newspaper and magazine subscriptions in the next update of the software that runs the iPad and iPhone. Due out this fall, the software will feature a digital newsstand that automatically adds the latest editions on the user's subscription list.

RIM starts PlayBook pre-orders in India

Research in Motion (RIM) has started pre-orders for the BlackBerry PlayBook. The company also announced that it will be available before June 22 in India.

The PlayBook was released in the US on April 19 but India was not among the initial launch markets.

The PlayBook has received mixed reviews internationally. Though it is acknowledged as competition to the iPad, it is still crippled in the form of features. It is dependent on the user's BlackBerry smartphone for basic features like Email, Calendar and BlackBerry messenger. It connects to a BlackBerry smartphone using an app called BlackBerry bridge to perform these functions. The PlayBooks will be updated to support these apps natively in the future.

But, it has a couple of other features that Apple's hugely popular tablet does not support. The biggest of them is support for Adobe's Flash which the iPad does not support. Also, PlayBook is the only tablet platform that has a Facebook app. Both the iPad and Google's Honeycomb tablets do not have native Facebook apps.

Hardware wise the PlayBook is quite formidable boasting of a 7-inch display, a dual-core 1GHz processor, and 1 GB of RAM and dual 5-megapixel and 3-megapixel HD cameras.

The PlayBook will be available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions, though RIM has announced plans for 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) variants too. As of now the company has not announced any pricing information but it is starts at $499 in the US. Judging by the pricing of the similarly priced iPad in the US, the PlayBook should launch in India at an under- Rs. 30,000 price-point.

Facebook, Microsoft back AT&T's T-Mobile buy

Facebook, Microsoft, Oracle, Yahoo! and other technology leaders have come out in support of AT&T's proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile saying it could help meet rising demand for wireless broadband.

"Today, consumers are increasingly using smartphones, tablets, laptops and other mobile devices to wirelessly connect to the Internet and to each other," the companies said in a letter to Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski.

"As a result, consumer demand for wireless broadband is dramatically increasing and our wireless networks are struggling to keep pace with the demand," they said in the letter published on the FCC website.

"AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile represents a near term means of addressing the rising consumer demand," they said. "For example, the merged company will be able to leverage a larger network of cell sites allowing greater reuse of spectrum and increasing the wireless broadband capacity of the network."

"The FCC must seriously weigh the benefits of this merger and approve it," the companies said. "Such action will help to meet the near term wireless broadband needs of consumers and ensure that we are globally competitive as the world increasingly embraces wireless broadband connectivity."

The other four signatories to the letter to the FCC in support of the proposed takeover of T-Mobile, the US unit of Germany's Deutsche Telekom, by AT&T were Avaya, Brocade, Qualcomm and Blackberry maker Research In Motion.

Rival Sprint Nextel has come out strongly against the deal, which would give AT&T around 40 percent of the market and make it the top US wireless carrier. Verizon is currently number one, followed by AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile.

"AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile will turn back the clock on wireless competition," Sprint chief executive Daniel Hesse told a Senate hearing last month looking into the deal.

"The wireless industry thrives on competition," Hesse said, and an AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile would mean that "two companies would largely control industry pricing."

Other opponents include the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which filed a petition with the FCC last month asking it to deny AT&T's bid.

"AT&T has blocked numerous innovations that have competed with its business model in the past from fax machines to cell phones," CCIA president and chief executive Ed Black said.

"This brazen merger proposal makes it clear they are once again seeking market power which will allow them to hold back innovation and maximize profits."

RIM buys mobile social game developer

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion announced Tuesday it has purchased Scoreloop, a Germany-based company which makes a toolkit for developers to add social features to mobile games.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"We look forward to working with the team at Scoreloop to provide tools that will further enable our developer community to take gaming to a new level of social integration on the BlackBerry platform," RIM said in a statement.

Scoreloop chief executive Marc Gumpinger said the Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM has the "ambition to build the best platform for mobile games. So we've joined forces to help make this a reality."

Scoreloop provides software developers with toolkits to add social elements to mobile games and ways to generate revenue such as in-application purchases and virtual currency.

Scoreloop, which was founded in 2008 and has its headquarters in Munich, works on multiple platforms including Apple's iOS, Google's Android and Windows Phone 7.

Gumpinger said on the Scoreloop website that the company will "continue our cross platform approach, but you'll see that our BlackBerry solution will be unparalleled."

Apple chooses Twitter over Facebook

Apple took sides while announcing a new operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod - iOS5 will have deep rooted integration of Twitter, as opposed to Facebook. Owners of these devices will be able to share tweets, photos, videos and more from all applications by signing-in only once on the device.

The snub to Facebook may not surprise Apple watchers given they had earlier tried a partnership with Facebook for their iTunes' social site, Ping. Could the Ping failure have contributed to them decamping to Twitter? Perhaps. 

What does Twitter have to offer Apple that Facebook doesn't? Facebook has close to three times the number of users than Twitter does, but has a very strong user connect agenda which could have clashed with Apple's want of control over its own systems. Twitter, on the other hand, is a more subtle way to connect and could be built as an underlying technology easily.

Also, Facebook has an investment from Microsoft which has deep rooted Facebook integration in its Windows Phone 7 devices. Put these factors together and Apple was bound to be looking for alternatives.

From Twitter's perspective it is a total win-win. They get to be on one of the most famous mobile platforms, across devices. Not only will it add to the number of Twitter users, but give its brand a much needed boost too.

Apple Unveils a 'Cloud' Music and Storage Service

In an effort to simplify how millions of people gain access to music, photos and files across multiple devices, Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, took the stage here on Monday at a company event to unveil its new online storage and syncing service.

Mr. Jobs said the new, free service, iCloud, would replace the personal computer as the central hub of people's digital lives -- storing photos, music and documents. Relying on the PC, he said, no longer works now that millions of people have multiple devices, each with photos, documents, songs, phone applications and other files.

"Keeping these devices in sync is driving us crazy," Mr. Jobs said, speaking at the opening day of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. "We have a great solution for this problem. We are going to demote the PC to just be a device. We are going to move the digital hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud."

Mr. Jobs added, "Everything happens automatically and there is nothing new to learn."
At the center of iCloud is a new version of iTunes that will allow users to download on any device any song they have ever purchased. Songs that were not purchased from iTunes can be added for $25 a year, Mr. Jobs said.

The iCloud service also works with documents, apps and photos through a new service, Photo Stream. And it will replace MobileMe, a failed $99-a-year service that allowed people to synchronize their calendar, e-mail and contacts across devices.

At the event, Mr. Jobs and other top Apple officials also showcased new versions of Apple's Macintosh and iOS operating systems, which include scores of new features.

With iCloud, Apple wants to make it easier for the 200 million iTunes users to listen to their entire music collections on PCs, iPads, iPhones and iPods. Until now, people had to manually transfer songs among devices by syncing them with their PCs. Under the new system, Apple will scan people's iTunes libraries and then offer streaming access to any song in those libraries over the Internet. A linchpin of the service is that Apple has reached deals with the major record labels and music publishers to license their recordings. Amazon and Google offer similar services. But because those two companies did not obtain licenses from the labels, users have to upload their own music libraries -- and any new song purchases -- to the Web before they can listen to them from multiple devices. And that process can take hours, if not days, for people with large collections.

By cementing the deals with the music industry, Apple is able to save users that time-consuming step. What's more, Apple, which is already the world's largest distributor of music, is expected to find a ready audience in its millions of iTunes users, virtually guaranteeing that its service will leapfrog the offerings from Amazon and Google.

But music is only one part of Apple's iCloud service. At the presentation at the Moscone Center West, Mr. Jobs laid out a vision in which the cloud would play a far more central role in all aspects of people's digital life, from e-mail to the viewing of photos and video.

Apple typically keeps its new products under tight wraps until they are unveiled. But in an unusual move, the company said last week that it would use Monday's event to update the Macintosh and iOS operating systems and introduce iCloud. Some analysts said Apple's pre-announcement was meant to put to rest fevered speculation that it would introduce a new version of the iPhone. Since Apple first announced the iPhone in 2007, it has introduced a revamped version every year, in June or July. But analysts said the next version of the iPhone is not ready and would not be announced until later this year or sometime next year.

Apple's more aggressive move into so-called "cloud computing" services has been expected for some time. Apple has built a 500,000-square-foot data center in North Carolina that opened earlier this year. Mr. Jobs showed pictures of the data center, which will power iCloud, as evidence that Apple was "serious" about the new services.

Which Apps are threatened by Apple's upgrades?

How do you know if you've created a really great, useful iPhone app? Apple tries to put you out of business.

That may be overstating it, but a number of new features for Apple's operating systems that it announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference have been available through existing apps and services for some time. Some of those apps are quite popular, and have been lucrative for the people who developed them. Here's a quick rundown of some of the services and applications that will be living in a changed world thanks to Apple's new operating systems for Macs and iPhones:

Instapaper: Safari's new Read Later feature allows you to access Web pages that you have saved for later across multiple iOS devices. You know, like Instapaper.

Readability: The new Reader mode in Apple's Safari browser strips down online articles to images and a rolling column of text. Readability basically did the same thing.

Boxcar: This nifty app lets people manage their notifications in a single place, instead of having them pop up on their iPhone's screen willy-nilly. The new Notifications panel in iOS 5.0 centralizes notifications in the same way.

To-do apps like Remember the Milk: Apple's new Reminders feature can alert you to do something you've written down either based on time or location (pass by a grocery store you've marked in the app and you will be reminded to, um, remember the milk).

Camera+, QuickPix: One of the complaints about the iPhone's camera is that it can take a while to get to when you want to take a picture in a hurry. Some apps used their faster start-up time as a selling point. The upgrade to the iPhone's software includes the ability to place a camera button on the lock screen, for quick access. Users can also use a volume button as a shutter release, something Apple denied an app, Camera+, in December 2010.

Photo editing tools: While the popular filters of Hipstamatic and OldCamera do not seem to be in jeopardy, new features in the Photo app include cropping, red-eye reduction and one-touch auto-enhance, which may be enough for some picture takers.

Dropbox and other cloud storage services: iCloud, Apple's free solution for storing documents and photographs in the cloud, may eradicate the need for independent services that let users do the same thing.

GroupMe and other messaging apps: iMessage will let Apple customers send messages to groups of friends -- something that start-ups like GroupMe, Kik, TextPlus, FastSociety, Pinger and their ilk have been doing for months.

Apple clearly values their developers. They are a source of innovation and development. The company was proud to announce during the keynote that it had paid out more than $2.5 billion to developers. But there is another message to developers too: If you are really good at what you do, you will be assimilated.

iPhone and iPad to get 200 new features

Apple's iOS 5 that powers iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch will have more than 200 new features and will come to devices by the end of September.

One of the most awaited features on the iOS was a new way to handle notifications. The new notifications window now employs the same drop down swipe gesture as seen on Android devices.

The Safari browser on the iPhone and iPad gets an overhaul too. It will get much needed tabbed browsing. It will also have better twitter integration and a new reader function.

To counter Blackberry's popular Blackberry messenger (BBM) service, Apple has also announced their own version of mobile messaging between iOS devices. Predictably called iMessage, users of all iOS devices will be able to chat and share files with each other using iMessage. Similar to the Blackberry messenger, they will be able to get delivery and read receipts. Users will be able to transfer contacts, photos and videos. Group messaging is also supported.

In another landmark change, the iOS devices will not need to be connected to the PC for updates and Syncs. Smaller operating system updates, called delta updates will also happen over-the-air (OTA) and will not need a PC. iTunes will also sync with iOS devices over Wi-Fi.

A new keyboard optimized for thumb typing will also be available to iPad users.
 
For frequent camera users, one of the problems with the iPhone was that you needed too many steps to start-up the camera before you could take pictures. Now a camera shortcut is available right on the lock screen of the phone. The users will now be able to go straight into the camera without unlocking the phone and click photos using volume buttons.

Apart from all these features newer multi-touch gestures will be added and a new image-editing app will be added.

Unfortunately for users the iOS 5 update will be available only by the end of September this year. 

What to expect from iCloud and iOS5?

Isn't is frustrating to buy a new iPad and wait for it to sync with your Mac/ PC to ensure that you have all your applications. Wouldn't it be simpler to simply log-in to your account and get all your applications from the cloud while you are driving back from the Apple store? iCloud may do just that.

While the industry (Google and Amazon) is trying to build services for cloud-based music storage and streaming, the iCloud may end up being a lot more. Instead of being a regular music streaming service, it may actually  replace iTunes on computers.  Add to that the ability to stream, buy and store music while on the move, without connecting to the PC/ Mac. Obviously, this is just the buzz -   the final product could be a lot more, lot less or nothing like this at all.

Notifications on iOS
One of the biggest problems with Apple's mobile operating system has been the way it implements notifications. They pop-up as ugly windows. There have been various implementations of better notifications on jail-broken iPhones. One of the developers of these applications has also reportedly been hired by Apple. A better notification system seems inevitable.

App Switching
Another gripe with Apple's current mobile operating system is the way users switch between apps. Currently users can only see icons of applications that are open  and switch between them. On the Mac on the other hand you get a full preview of the open applications using Expose. We could see something similar implemented in the new iOS.

So will the iCloud and iOS 5 deliver ? Log in to our live updates here to find out. 

Apple poised to introduce iCloud

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is taking a break from medical leave on Monday to preside over the opening of the company's annual conference for software developers.

And in a break from Apple's usual practice of shrouding its events in an air of mystery, the California gadget-maker this time revealed ahead of time what it plans to announce at the event in San Francisco.

Sort of.

In a press release, Apple said Jobs and other executives will unveil the next generation of Lion, the software that powers Macintosh computers, and iOS 5, the next version of the mobile operating system for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

And one more thing: iCloud.

Apple described the previously unknown iCloud as its "upcoming cloud services offering" but provided no further details of what awaits at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

"iCloud was almost a throwaway line in the press release," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst for technology research company Gartner. "But that's getting the most scrutiny because we don't know anything about it."

According to multiple reports, iCloud would allow for streaming of music hosted on Apple servers in the Internet "cloud" to various devices from computers to smartphones to touchscreen tablets.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Apple has nearly completed talks with the major music publishers over the new cloud music service after sealing deals with the four major record labels.

The Los Angeles Times said iCloud will initially be offered for free to iTunes users, allowing them to listen to music hosted on Apple servers on a Web browser or an Internet-connected Apple device.

Apple will eventually charge a subscription fee of around $25 a year for the service, the newspaper said.

A Web-hosted music service from Apple would come just weeks after online retail giant Amazon and Internet search titan Google unveiled their own cloud music offerings.

Amazon launched a Cloud Drive and Cloud Player music service in late March that allows subscribers to upload digital music to Amazon servers and play it on a computer or an Android device.

Google's music service introduced in May lets people store their music collections in online libraries for streaming to computers, smartphones and tablets.

Google Music does not sell songs, however, and Amazon's cloud service requires time-consuming uploading of each song to Amazon servers before a user can listen to it.

Gartenberg said he expects an Apple service would "provide consumer value, differentiation from what's come before and a way of taking the market forward."

"What is going to be that extra Apple bit of magic that's going to be infused that will drive consumers to use this?" he asked.

"Apple was not the first company to offer downloads of music," he said. "But they did it the best and therefore conquered the market. They weren't first with MP3 players or smartphones."

Gartenberg also said iCloud may not be restricted to music.

"It could be synchronization for all my files -- it could involve video, my office files," he said. "I think what we're going to see is something more than just another digital locker, another online storage place.

"It will be interesting to see if new business models are introduced," he added. "If we're talking about new ways to purchase, rent, listen to music, and share."

An Apple cloud service could potentially benefit from the huge existing base of iTunes accounts.

"Anything they do that would be commerce-related is going to be fairly low friction if you're already part of the iTunes ecosystem," Gartenberg said.

Gartenberg said it was unlikely that Apple planned to unveil a new iPhone although Jobs, a cancer survivor who went on medical leave in January for an undisclosed illness, is known to love surprises.

"The fact that Apple telegraphed that this is going to about Lion, iOS 5, iCloud seems to me to downplay any expectation of new hardware," Gartenberg said. "This is going to be very software-centric."

Your Customized Magazine

Available on: iOS

Reviewed on: iPad

Price: Free

Introduction:

If you've been hankering for a magazine with content customized to your preferences, get Zite.  Zite is a social feed aggregator and pulls customized content from one's own feeds and popular web based publications. It is very similar to Flipboard, which was named Apple's app of the year but there are many subtle differences.

Usability:

The user interface of Zite is reminiscent of a print publication. The whole design of the magazine is very neatly organized. While starting up, the app asked us to sync our Twitter and Google reader feeds. We were then diverted to a page with a whole host of options for customizing content. For example we could choose feeds exclusively related to technology. We could even further micro manage the feeds by selecting particular brands such as Google, Apple and Microsoft, so as to be able to see stories only related to those brands.

An impressive feature on Zite is that it displays all the content in its own windows. There are some exceptions, such as NYT related feeds, which open in a browser window similar to Flipboard. This gives the app an inherent print publication feel. This particular feature lends the app a very unique flavour but at the same time we believe it's a big copyright law no-no. Zite is already facing some flak from content generators for doing this.

The app also natively plays YouTube video but sometimes struggles with HTML 5 based content.

But the game-changer is Zite's learning feature. If the user likes a particular article, the app adapts and offers similar content. But this is a double edged sword as it may limit your reading.

Similar to other information aggregators, Zite provides the option to post articles the user likes on Twitter, Facebook, Instapaper, and Delicious. It also lets content be emailed to other.

This may sound very picky, but a cool page turning animation, like Flipboard's, would have been nice. Maybe Zite could go a step further in the next version and add an iBooks like animation.

Verdict:

As far as content aggregators go, Zite is right up there with Flipboard and Pulse, but what differentiates it from these apps is its ability to adapt to the reading habits of the user. It also provides greater customization options over the content viewed in comparison to Flipboard and Pulse. The only gripe might be the omission of a cool page turning animation. But perhaps that's asking for too much considering we get all this for free?

Rating - 4.5                                                                                                                        

Usability - 4

Price - 5

Wow factor - 4

Localscope - Find anything, anywhere

Available on: iOS
Reviewed on: iPad
Price: $ 1.99

Introduction:

For those who are looking for an app that will find a pub or eatery in the neighbourhood, here's Localscope. It will search for a barber, a gas station, a hotel, a pub, a cinema hall, a pharmacy and just about everything else but a kitchen sink in your vicinity. It will search Google Maps, Bing, FourSquare, WikiMaps and even Twitter to find the location of your choice.

Usability:

As far as interface goes, Localscope is very simple. There is a vertical scrolling menu, which shows a list of services we can search for, and then there are five tabs, which divide searches from Google Maps, Bing, Twitter, Four Square, and Wikimapia. There is also a search box that can be used for customized searches.

The searches from Google Maps are very accurate and always end up with a decent number of options in a 2Km radius. The Bing and Four Square search results are quite patchy  - when we were searching for a pub we ended up with search results 30km away from our given position.

The Twitter search is an interesting addition as it finds Twitter users who have tweeted about a place in the vicinity.

It even has an inbuilt GPS functionality powered by Google Maps that provides directions to the place that you choose.

Apps like AroundMe provide similar functionality but Localscope, in comparison, provides a more detailed and accurate search experience powered by multiple platforms like Bing and Google.


Verdict:

Its best used as an emergency app when you need to find a place in a hurry. We don't recommend you totally depend on the app, as it does not deliver accurate results all the time - especially when searches are customized.  The app is heavily reliant the various mapping engines it sources and does not have a mapping engine of its own which means customized searches would throw up limited results. In-spite of this, Localscope manages to provide decent options and does not confuse the user.

At the price of $1.99 it is definitely a handy tool to have on your iPhone. The only gripe is that it is not available on any other platform other than the iOS. Though, the developers of the app tell us that other platforms are planned and will be supported soon.



Rating: 3.5

Usability - 4
Price - 3.5
Wow factor - 3.5

iPads replacing note pads as Asian schools go high-tech

Apple's iPad and other tablet computers are replacing traditional note pads in some Asian schools and making the lives of thousands of students a whole lot easier.

Soon pupils could be reading on their tablets about a quaint old communication device called "paper", especially in Asia's advanced economies where many schools are racing towards a paperless classroom.

The slim glass slabs slip easily into a bag and can store thousands of textbooks, making a fat school bag full of heavy books, pens and notepads a thing of the past.

"I like the iPad because it is portable and we do not have to carry so many bags and files around," said 13-year-old Nicole Ong, who now makes notes on her iPad during class at Nanyang Girls' High School in Singapore.

A sample group of more than 120 students and 16 teachers at the school have been given iPads, at a cost of over $100,000. By 2013, every student in the school will have one.

The number of software applications -- or apps -- that can be used for educational purposes on tablet computers is set to explode.

It's a brand new business that even media mogul Rupert Murdoch has identified as an area of huge potential growth.

Murdoch said his News Corp group is to push into the education technology market in a speech to the e-G8 conference of Internet entrepreneurs and European policymakers in Paris last month.

He described education as the "last holdout from the digital revolution" and outlined a vision for personalised learning with lessons delivered by the world's best teachers to thousands of students via the Internet.

"Today's classroom looks almost exactly the same as it did in the Victorian age," Murdoch added.

But many Asian schools are already way ahead of the game.

"No longer is language learning solely based on the teacher commenting on students' works -- classmates can feedback on one another," said Seah Hui Yong, curriculum dean of Nanyang.

Rene Yeo, head of the information technology department at Tampines Secondary School, also in Singapore, teaches science with his iPad. His students learn factorisation by simply moving the numbers around on the screen.

They also read about animal cells and the human brain structure by clicking on the various parts. And tablet computers make the double helix structure of a human DNA practically come to life before a student's eyes.

There are apps to learn English and maths, pupils can do cause and effect analysis on iBrainstorm, prepare for oral exams and speeches with AudioNote and even strum the guitar for a music lesson on GarageBand.

The rise of classroom technology will mirror its rise throughout society, says Sam Han, a US-based expert on the role of technology in education.

Han, instructional technology fellow at the Macaulay Honors College, City University of New York, said he expects some Asian countries to leapfrog the West.

"While the Internet was birthed in the US, Singapore and South Korea (for example) boast far greater broadband Internet access penetration and infrastructure than the US," he said.

Japan's communications ministry has given tablets to more than 3,000 under-12 pupils at 10 elementary schools and even fitted classrooms with interactive electronic blackboards under the so-called "future school" pilot project.

In South Korea, where schools have WiFi zones, the education ministry has been testing 'digital textbooks' in some schools since 2007. In 2012, the ministry says it will decide whether to supply tablets to schools nationwide.

Singapore has a hugely competitive education system known for its high level of science and mathematics instruction. The education ministry provides a grant for schools to buy this kind of equipment, as well as software and services.

Many schools already have WiFi, making it easy for students to connect to the Internet.

But some teachers acknowledged there are students who get distracted by playing games or surfing Facebook and other social media sites like Twitter.

Education psychologist Qiu Lin cautioned against schools getting carried away and promoting the blind use of technological devices, and neglecting the real goals of education.

"The trend of integrating technology into education will definitely increase," said the assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University, which is separate from the high school.

"But after one month when the novelty of iPads wears down, a good curriculum and teaching materials that can increase deep thinking and problem solving in students need to be in place."

Chinese teen sells kidney to buy iPad 2

A teenager in China's Anhui province has sold his right kidney to buy an iPad 2. His mother, who knew nothing of his plans, now hopes to hunt down the criminals who disabled him, a media report said.

Seventeen-year-old Xiao Zheng had been dreaming of a new iPad 2 for a while, but the price was beyond his means.

Zheng found an agent ready to buy his kidney and travelled to Hunan province in central China to undergo surgery in a local hospital. With the 22,000 yuan ($3,900) he was paid, Zheng bought a new iPad 2 and iPhone and then returned home, according to a report on the Dongfang TV channel Thursday.

"Xiao Zheng returned home with a computer and a new Apple phone. We do not have the money for such expensive gadgets. At first, he did not want to tell me where he got that much money from. Later he confessed he had sold his right kidney to buy these things," his mother told the channel.

After she learned the truth, Zheng's mother travelled with her son back to the hospital, only to discover that the operating theater had been rented out for commercial use to a businessman from Fujian province. Several attempts to reach the agents failed, as their phones were switched off.

Zheng's health is deteriorating day by day, and his mother said she hopes she will be able to find the criminals who disabled her son.

Nokia dismisses Microsoft takeover report

Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop on Wednesday dismissed as "baseless" a report that Microsoft had agreed to purchase the Finnish company's mobile business.

"There are absolutely no discussions," Elop said at the D9 technology conference here hosted by All Things Digital. "The rumors are baseless."

The website Boy Genius, or BGR.com, reported on Wednesday that according to industry insider Eldar Murtazin, Microsoft has struck a deal to buy Nokia's mobile phone business for $19 billion.

Nokia hired Elop, a former Microsoft executive, to be its chief executive in September and in February the Finnish company announced that it was abandoning its smartphone platform to adopt Microsoft's mobile operating system.

Elop said the first Nokia smartphone using the Windows Phone 7 software would be released in the fourth quarter of the year.

He briefly took a prototype out of his pocket but quickly put it back without providing so much as a glimpse of the screen.

WHO cell phone report 'inconclusive': Taiwan's HTC

Taiwan's leading smartphone maker HTC Thursday labelled as "inconclusive" a World Health Organization study that said mobile phone users may be at increased risk of brain cancer.

'While the current WHO research results are inconclusive, we continue to actively monitor for new research in this area,' the company said in a statement.

'HTC is committed to providing a quality product and we follow governmental guidelines and regulations pertaining to phone safety.'

The statement came after the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced Tuesday that radio-frequency electromagnetic fields generated by wireless devices are 'possibly carcinogenic to humans.'

First Indian-Made Tablet Goes On Sale Again

India's first home-made tablet is up for grabs again, after being sold out the first time round. Bangalore-based Notion Ink have started taking orders for 'Adam', which they claim was sold out after they started shipping in January 2011. Signing up for a tablet is through a tedious registration process and it does not guarantee you a tablet it as Notion Ink reserves the right of refusal and will decide who to sell Adam to.

First showcased at CES 2010 (Consumer Electronics Show 2010), the tablet has been an object of interest and criticism because of its Eden UI. It was one of the first tablets to feature the Pixel Qi display and was hailed by experts as the thing to watch-out for. But, the company has still not been able to launch its products in quantities that are enough to make a mark.

NVidia's Tegra 250 Dual-Core processor clocking at 1Ghz powers the Adam alongside 1GB of RAM, 10.1 Pixel Qi display with multi-touch support and a resolution of 1024x600, 8 GB of flash memory, a micoSD card slot, a 3.2 megapixel swivel camera and multiple ports including a full sized USB port.

For all the new buyers the company will ship an upgraded version of the 'Eden UI', which has now hit version 1.5. The Adam originally was released with Google's Android 2.2 Froyo operating system but now the company claims that they are working on an Android Gingerbread version, which will eventually be upgraded, to Android 3.0 Honeycomb. 

Acer shows-off 'Windows Mango' device at Computex

Just a week after Microsoft announced the first major update to their Windows Phone operating system, an Acer branded Windows Mango device was released at Computex 2011 in Taipei.

According to reports by Chinese website Tech.sina.com the device will be called the Acer W4 and will boast of a 3.5" capacitive touch screen display with a resolution of 480x800. The 1Ghz QUALCOMM Snapdragon MSN8255 processor will power the device. The device will also have a 5-megapixel camera with auto focus.

More interestingly, the Acer W4 continues to use a single core processor while Android competition is moving towards dual-core processors. The device is also missing a NFC (Near Field Communication) chip, which is quite interesting as Android devices like the Nexus S and the Galaxy S II are quickly adopting NFC.

Apple iWork now available for iPhone and iPod Touch

Apple has announced that the iWork apps, Keynote, Pages and Numbers, are now available for iPhone and iPod touch, as well as iPad.

Created for the Mac and then redesigned for iOS and Apple's Multi-Touch interface, Keynote, Pages and Numbers let you create and share presentations, documents and spreadsheets on the go. iWork apps are available on the App Store for $9.99 each but if you've already downloaded the earlier iteration, you can update it to the current version for free. Keynote, Pages and Numbers will run on the iPad and iPad 2, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, and iPod touch (3rd & 4th generation). Keynote Remote is sold separately via the App Store for 99cents.

Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, says "The incredible Retina display, revolutionary Multi-Touch interface and our powerful software make it easy to create, edit, organize and share all of your documents from iPhone 4 or iPod touch."

Keynote, Pages and Numbers import and export documents from iWork for Mac and Microsoft Office; print wirelessly using AirPrint; and include Apple-designed themes and templates.