Isaiah's Tech

Reuters has just mentioned and confirmed the Motorola XOOM's pricing for us. Motorola's CEO, Sanjay Jha, has announced that the XOOM will be available for $799 unsubsidized for the 32GB "Honeycomb" powered model with 3G (upgradeable to 4G) while the WiFi-only model will cost $600 which isn't bad. Now, he mentioned the price but there's still no word on the release date. It'll hopefully be before the end of the month.

[Engadget]

Coming from Reuters is word that Nokia has axed the Nokia N9-00 which is the smartphone you see above that was supposed to be running the MeeGo OS. Of course, with the new CEO saying that they're "standing on a burning platform" things might've changed. Apparently, the company is working on the N9-01 aka the "Lankku" which is going to mainly be a touchscreen device. Whatever it is, the firm is hearing that it should get unveiled in the next week or so - possibly this Friday or maybe next week while MWC is going on.

[Engadget]

Coming from Reuters is word on Apple making a smaller iPad. Apparently, this model is "almost half the size of the current model" so it could be something with a 5 to 7-inch display. This tablet should be introduced the same time the new 9.7-inch model would be announced so we can expect it in late January. When Steve Jobs said that 7-inch tablets were "dead on arrival" it might be because his company was planning on making one too, which is what I was assuming right off the bat.

Update: The Samsung Galaxy Tab has a 7-inch display and it's half the size of the current iPad so a 7-inch iPad is definitely a possibility.

[Slash Gear]

Coming from Reuters is something fairly interesting if you're looking to pick up a tablet in the future. Apparently, ZTE is looking to make a push on the US market by unveiling the Light which is an Android-based tablet. The tablet is said to feature a 7-inch display (480 x 800 resolution), WiFi / Bluetooth support, GPS, an FM radio, a camera, GSM / WCDMA connectivity, and Android 2.1. This tablet should be cheap whenever it actually launches; hopefully it's before the end of the year.

[Unwired View]

Reuters has just mentioned something that everyone should be interested in. They've mentioned that HP has announced that new WebOS smartphones will be available in early 2011. Of course, specs are unknown right now but maybe it'll be the WebOS 2.0 packing Roadrunner smartphone that has been rumoured a bit. HP did mention that "phones" will be available in early 2011 so we'll likely be seeing more than one from HP / Palm, which should be interesting.

[Engadget]

According to Reuters, Verizon has just mentioned a bunch of juicy information. Apparently, a year from now - by May of next year - Verizon will launch "up to" five handsets that will be capable of running on their 4G LTE network. This should include manufacturers like Motorola, LG, HTC, and RIM but nothing is confirmed right now.

The other bit of juicy information involves, of course, tablets. Verizon has mentioned that they're working on "tablets" that will be [likely] launched by the end of this year. This will include Motorola, Samsung, and LG and the first batch will be running on the Android OS. The details on these tablets are still unknown at the moment so we'll still have to wait around for that. Engadget is hoping for an Android-based tablet from HTC that'll be running on their LTE network. Let's hope their wish comes true.

[Engadget, Unwired View]

According to Reuters, AMD is looking to make a comeback this year. Their notebook CPUs only hit around 40 models last year and apparently "people familiar with the matter" say that around 109 different laptop models will be getting an AMD CPU this year. We've already seen a couple of Dell, Acer, and HP notebooks with their CPUs inside of them so it's definitely a good start - thanks to their new Phenom processors.

[Engadget]

According to Reuters, LG is going to launch an app store in the next 24 hours. This app store will launch with 1,400 applications and 100 free programs. This Application Store from LG is going to be available in 15 different languages, but sadly, the initial release is only going to be for the Asian market. LG has mentioned that their app store will be available in Europe and South America by the end of the year. However, North America is going to be left out of this app store equation - for now - since the iPhone's app store is just going to swallow them up.

[Electronic Pulp]