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

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.

RIM announced today its latest BlackBerry 9000, also known as the BlackBerry Bold. Due to its black color enclosed in a chrome border, it’s hard not to notice the similarity between it and the iPhone.

The BlackBerry Bold is not putting up a fight without being well-prepared. It has 3.5G HSDPA support, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, 480×320 resolution screen (twice the resolution of the most recent BlackBerry Curve), physical QWERTY keyboard, trackball located under the screen, full-featured desktop-style web browser, 2MP camera with video recording capabilities, built-in camera flash, and 5x digital zoom. Definitely a worthy competitor to the iphone.

Unfortunately for RIM, the BlackBerry Bold has yet to have an official launch date. The iPhone will be upgraded with new features very soon, and we don’t know how shiny the Bold would look by then.

Apple has signed deals with four major telecommunication companies in four countries to help the company surpass its iPhone sales goal of 10 million units by the end of 2008.

Singapore’s SingTel, India’s Bharti Airtel, Phillipines’ Globe Telecom, and Australia’s Optus, will begin carrying the iPhone “later this year.” A specific date has yet to be announced.

And it is safe to assume that the model would be a new 3G-enabled one, since 3G is the industry standard for this part of the world.

Good news for you patient ones still waiting for its official launch. Bad news for my soon-to-be-unexclusive iPhone.

In response to Apple announcing the iPhone being launched in Canada, the SmashOurStuff team assassinated an iPhone on the main stage (just prior to the 420 countdown) at the Toronto Freedom Festival/Global Marijuana March.

The fans were so hyped that somebody actually threw their iPod onto the stage to be destroyed as well!

The Glo Pillow is an alarm pillow that wakes you up gently with a gradually intensifying light. No more screaming alarm clocks! The LED light gradually increases in intensity for 40 minutes, simulating a real sunrise.

And when you lift your head off the pillow, it displays the current time in easy-to-read dot matrix fonts.

The pillow is still in prototype stage.

To stay loyal to the Apple gods means you have to live with the non-removable batteries on your iPods and iPhones. Bringing the USB cable along with you everywhere is good if you expect to have computer access to get some charge from its USB port, but not too helpful if you are out, let’s say, on a safari. In that case, the RichardSolo Smart Backup Battery is an indispensable accessory.

Features

• Made for iPod licensed 30-pin connector
• Compatible with iPod touch and all other iPod devices except for the iPod shuffle
• Gives you up to double the battery time
• Small and lightweight for pocket, purse or briefcase
• High-quality aluminum case virtually scratch-proof
• Snaps on to iPod instantly — no bulky cable
• Begins to charge your Apple device immediately
• Battery pack includes both AC adapter [110-240V] wall charger and USB retractable charging cable
• USB retractable cable connects Smart Backup Battery directly to computer’s USB port or AC wall adapter for convenient charging
• Charge the Smart Backup Battery and iPod together [the iPod will charge first and then the backup battery — the next morning both are completely charged]
• Lithium-ion technology does not develop “memory” so you can charge often
• Smart, automatic on/off charging technology protects the battery from overcharging
• Advanced circuitry keeps battery cool to touch
• Blue, green, red LEDs indicate charging status
• 90-day warranty from RichardSolo.com

Test Results

From a fully charged RichardSolo battery, it took about 1hr 18min to finish transferring all its power to the iPhone. Not too shabby in my opinion, as its compact size allows you to plug it in and put your gadget aside. And the charge brought the iPhone from about 5% of battery life to about 60%. Not as much as advertised, but useful enough.

Conclusion

So now, I have more battery life on my iPhone than before, allowing me to watch more YouTube videos and surf the internet for longer hours. I find it particularly useful for watching videos, as we tend to forget about the battery life as our eyeballs get glued to the videos, and you may run into the problem of a flat iPhone/iPod unintentionally. With the battery, you get an emergency reservoir of power to tap into.

For sale online at US$49.95.