Google Android for Tablets - Honeycomb 3.0

A preview release of Google's new operating system for tablets was released a few weeks back. I'm just hearing about it on some of the podcasts I listen to. lol. So I searched around a bit and this article seems to be the best article on the subject.

Android Central: What's new in Android 3.0 Honeycomb

Pictures are included so you can get an idea of what the new OS will look like. The first tablet running the OS will be the Motorola Xoom, which is rumored to be released February 24. Which is interesting, given that the "preview" release came out 2 weeks ago. Apparently Motorola was the only company to have access to the new OS up until the "preview". Odd for an open source operating system. The price is supposed to be $800. Which seems a bit high for a Wifi only device.

Expect a lot of tablet releases this year. But at the pricing I'm seeing ($700 or $800), expect the iPad to keep its lead for the foreseeable future.

Securing Your Facebook Connection

Dave Taylor has this post explaining how to secure your Facebook connection. If you connect to Facebook from a free Wifi hotspot, its easy for someone to hack into your account if you don't use an encrypted connection. Dave's blog explains how to turn on encryption for your account. Definitely a good idea for any Facebook user.

Murdoch Launches the Daily

While packing up to fly home this morning, I saw the launch for the new "The Daily" online newspaper from News Corp. At launch, TheDaily will only be available for the iPad. Other platforms may be made available at a future date.

The cost. $0.99 a week pay as you go, or $39.95 for sign up for an entire year. This looks like a pretty good pricing system to me. Much cheaper than any print newspaper and a lot cheaper than say the Wall Street Journal ($150 a year for online).

The sections seems to be News, Lifestyle and Entertainment, Sports, and Technology (Games and Apps). Interesting that I didn't see a business section. The would be something I would like.

The actual content looked really rich. Very large and vibrate photos. 360 degree photos. video and audio. In additional there seemed to be all the social media hooks in there. They plan to produce 100 pages of content a day. 7 days a week. The sports section looked killer. Plus you can pick which teams you want to follow.

I think I may give it a try.