Beautiful isn’t it? The new Blackberry PlayBook is RIM’s foray into the growing tablet market. And on paper, it looks like it might give Apple a run for their money.

It runs on a new BlackBerry Tablet OS for an optimized tablet experience like how iPad does it. Nothing like Android’s sloppy implementation. It comes packed with a Cortex A9-based, dual-core 1GHz CPU and 1GB of RAM. It’s no wonder why RIM claims that the PlayBook is the “fastest tablet ever.”

Outside that raw horsepower is a 7-inch, 1024 x 600, capacitive multitouch display, a 3-megapixel front-facing camera, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, a HDMI port, as well as a microUSB jack.

The OS rounds up all that hardware with familiar finger gesture support, multitasking, and ability to handle Flash content and Adobe AIR apps via Flash 10.1.

Feature list:

• 7-inch LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
• BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• 1 GB RAM
• Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD video recording
• Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
• Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
• HDMI video output
• Wi-Fi – 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
• Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
• Measures 5.1″x7.6″x0.4″ (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)
• Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)
• RIM intends to also offer 3G and 4G models in the future.

Check out the Blackberry official website for more pictures.

Check out the 9 minutes live video demo of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab below. Time will tell whether it will really shake things up for Apple in the tablet market. But so far, it’s looking great!

The Kindle app for Android is now updated with new features to make it on par with its iPhone counterpart. Features include:

• Add, edit or delete notes and highlights
• Search inside the book for words or phrases
• Search using voice
• Choose to lock the screen orientation in either landscape or portrait
• Look up words on Wikipedia and Dictionary.com

Get Kindle for Amazon

Dreaming of making your very own Avatar 3D movie? Here’s an elegant solution for you: Panasonic’s fully-integrated Full HD 3D camcorder. Conventional 3D camcorder rigs are built from two off-the-shelf broadcast camcorders, while Panasonic’s solution has two lenses built into it, making it an extremely simple setup. But only if you got $21,000 to spare.

Here’s a sample video if you got a pair of 3D glasses lying around. Or if you have the skills, you can even choose the cross-eyed method on the dropdown list.

The camcorder will be available in fall 2010, made to order.

Here’s yet another new music file format with an attempt to dethrone the king of music file format, MP3. It is developed by BACH Technology, and they named it, MusicDNA.

The new music file format offers the ability to push additional content to music owners, such as lyrics, news updates, videos, and images. And it is entirely backwards-compatible with existing MP3 players, and offers the same sound quality. After all, it has the support of the creator of the original MP3 file format.

But due to its nature, the music player will need to “dial home” to music labels, bands or retailers to receive new updates, and likely to keep a record of the music you listen to. Not many consumers are going to be too fond of that.

BACH has already secured partners across the industry and is in talks with major record labels. We will see how this pans out.

Maxwell Parsons, 41, was the central figure in a gang who used a rather interesting device to hack into ATMs: MP3 player.

Parsons and his gang members would use a MP3 player to record the noise, which is actually data, transmitted from free-standing ATMs. This is done by unplugging the phone line running from the machine and into a two-way adapter. The MP3 player was then plugged between the ATM and the phone socket to record the noise, which resembles the kind emitted by fax machines. The data was then deciphered into readable numbers using computer software.

The phone line running from the machine to an ordinary BT white socket was unplugged and a two-way adaptor inserted. The MP3 player was then placed between the ATM machine’s output cable and the phone socket.

The gang went on to clone credit cards with the stolen data, making £200,000 worth of purchases, and with £14,000 traced to Parsons.

Who would’ve thought a MP3 player is good for more than just music.

Parsons was jailed for 32 months after pleading guilty at Minshull Street Crown Court to deception and unlawful interception of a public telecommunications transmission.

Joining PS3 and Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii console will finally gain Netflix’s streaming video service as well. It is available free of charge to Netflix subscribers with unlimited plans, starting at a low $8.99 per month.

But you will need a free software disc from Netflix in order to get the streaming working, unlike the Xbox 360 which requires no extra disc, although it does require a Xbox Live gold membership instead, which costs $50 a year.

Worth taking note though is that the Nintendo Wii can’t dish out anything more than 480p video resolution, so it might not be the best thing to watch movies on.

You can register at Netflix for notifications if this interests.

According to Steam’s recent hardware survey, gamers are ditching their trusty Windows XP and flocking to the new kid, Windows 7.

The statistics show a total increase of 2.47% for Windows 7, which includes both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions, while Windows XP is seeing a sharp decrease of 3.2%. Which means, 23% of Steam gamers are Windows 7 users!

Looks like Microsoft finally got things right, after the disaster that is Vista.

Another item of interest is the 64-bit OS adoption rate. Be it the odd Windows Server 2003 or even Windows XP, every single version of 64-bit Wiindows is seeing an increase in adoption.

A very interesting and useful development in search technology has recently surfaced in the form of reverse phone lookups. This service functions in a way similar to a search engine in that it looks for information matching what you entered in the search field, but unlike these search engines, reverse number lookups only search specialized databases that contain one type of data: phone numbers. Whether you need to make sure that number that called you belongs to a local business, or check up on an unknown and unsolicited cell phone number, these new online search services make it easy and convenient to track down the name of the person associated with a specific phone number.

Reverse phone number searches work by browsing a diverse set of directories for entries that match the number you entered in the search field. Every reverse phone lookup will automatically search national public databases, or phone books; additionally, some searches have access to private directories containing cell phone and unlisted land line numbers. Most people like to start with a general phone number search in order to verify the origin of a call. Most reverse phone number lookup services, in fact, guarantee to retrieve the name of the phone number owner or provide you with a full refund.

There are many reasons that you might need to use these kinds of services, and luckily, there are many different reputable companies that offer them. Another advantage to the large number of reverse phone number searches available on the internet is that each may browse slightly different directories, or do so in a different way. A lot of people also like to check the results they get from one service against those offered by another, to get a sense of the accuracy of phone number searches in general.

Moreover, anyone who takes the time to check search service results will soon learn that overall, the information you can get about an unknown number is really quite reliable. While it takes some time, even up to a few months to register a change in a published land line number, results from private directories are even more up to date, as phone companies edit their private directories every time a change occurs.

The announcement of the Canon EOS 50D isn’t surprising for those who have been watching the rumors. Looking for a good reason to upgrade? Here are the new goodies:

Canon 50D vs Canon 40D

• 15-megapixel vs 10.1-megapixel
• DIGIC 4 vs DIGIC III
• ISO 100-12800 vs ISO 100-3200
• Noise reduction: Four levels vs On/Off
• Auto lighting optimizer: Four levels vs On/Off
• New AF microadjustment feature: Finetune all lenses or up to 20 lenses for perfect focus accuracy.
• 3.0″, 920k pixel, TFT LCD vs 3.0″, 230k pixel, TFT LCD
• Live view AF mode: Quick mode (Phase detect), Live view mode (Contrast detect), Face detect (Contrast detect) vs Phase detect only
• New Peripheral illumination correction feature
• 6.3 fps (Up to 60 JPEG Large/Fine or 90 JPEG Large/Fine (UDMA) vs 6.5 fps (Up to 75 JPEG Large/Fine)
• New DIGIC 4 user interface
• Weight: 730g (No battery), 822g (With battery) vs 740g (No battery), 836g (With battery)

Except for the much higher resolution, I wouldn’t say the 50D is a necessary upgrade for 40D users. Canon claimed that its sensor performs much better than 40D in high ISO, but I believe 40D’s performance is quite sufficient for the average users. Anything better, you should be looking at the Canon 5D for the full-frame noise advantage.

No price details at the moment.

At the same time, Canon announced the new Canon EF-S 18-200mm 1:3.5-5.6 IS, a direct competition to the popular Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX. It offers automatic panning detection and four stops of stabilization. It does not feature USM, so focus mechanism will not be as advanced.

Looks like Canon is heeding the call of their users who have been envying Nikon for their convenient one-lens solution. This lens would be perfect for travel, although its optical quality would probably be nothing near the Canon ‘L’ lenses.

Suggested retail price is US$699.