Tim Conneally

A new software update for the Nexus One Android phone will finally offer the famous "pinch to zoom" functionality found in other "superphones" such as the Apple iPhone, Palm Pre, and HTC HD2. This news came from Google earlier today.

The famous multitouch gesture has been present on Android phones outside of the US (including the Nexus One) but due to unspecified reasons, the American version of Android has not fully supported it.

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Popular gadget blog Engadget has been forced to turn off comments for an undetermined period because the posters have gotten a bit overzealous with poor-form commentary.

In the post announcing the temporary ban today, Editor-in-Chief Joshua Topolsky said, "What is normally a charged -- but fun -- environment for our users and editors has become mean, ugly, pointless, and frankly threatening in some situations... and that's just not acceptable. Some of you out there in the world of anonymous grandstanding have gotten the impression that you run the place, but that's simply not the case."

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Just short of one year after the Bluetooth 3.0 specification was unveiled, we are just now beginning to see designs that take it into consideration.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) posted a Core spec 3.0 "qualified design listing" yesterday for a new Samsung Mobile phone going by the name GT-S8500, a 3.1" OLED touchscreen device.

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Today, mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson announced a new smartphone called Aspen which is the first officially-announced Windows Mobile 6.5.3 device.

It's certainly not the big "Zune phone" or "Project Pink" announcement that we are expecting from Microsoft's mobile division this month, but it is nonetheless an important step for Windows Mobile.

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Apple today has issued a firmware upgrade for problematic 27" iMacs which are widely reported to be plagued with screen problems such as an erratic flicker or yellow patches in the screen.

An internal document from Apple support last week said that owners of yellowing 27" iMacs may have to arrange for a replacement LCD panel. For flickering, however, users can install the graphics firmware update from December 21, and then today's display firmware update.

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Social networking sites have already been integrated with the decidedly anti-social home videogaming ecosystems. On the PlayStation 3, for example, users can set their machines to automatically post a Facebook status update when they earn an in-game trophy.

People who prefer to play video games in louder, drunker, more public spaces will soon have the option to share their videogame skills on Facebok as well.

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Microsoft made it abundantly clear that it was not talking about Windows Mobile 7 when we discussed the company's plans to create a user-friendly mobile OS that wasn't built on a legacy architecture. Naturally, this raised some questions with us; such as one about the mysterious project Pink from Danger, and the offhand talk of an Nvidia Tegra 2-powered device, and of course, the old "Zune Phone" rumor.

Today, Spanish language blog MuyComputer said that an anonymous source has "confirmed" Microsoft and Nvidia's joint presentation of a Zune Phone.

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Over the weekend, the e-book ecosystem shuddered a bit.

Major publisher Macmillan met with Amazon.com last Thursday to discuss terms of e-book distribution, and the two parties could not establish terms. Macmillan CEO John Sargent took an ad out in Saturday's Publishers Lunch announcing that Amazon had pulled all of the publisher's content, both printed and digital.

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Mission: Assemble a full-HD video camera setup that can fit into a carry-on bag with a total weight under 6 pounds.

Deadline: SXSW Interactive Conference and Festival, March 12.

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Online retailer Amazon.com had quite a year. Yesterday, the company reported a 42% year-over-year increase in fourth quarter net sales, and a 71% increase in net income. For the full year 2009, Amazon's net sales increased 28% to $24.51 billion, and its net income increased 40% to $902 million.

This increase in profits and revenue is attributable to a number of factors, among them were the drop in price for its EC2 and S3 cloud services in October, for the November acquisition of Zappos.com, and of course, the launch of the Kindle 2 in the beginning of 2009.

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Those who say there are no decent Twitter apps for Android simply haven't found the right one. When the Android Market first opened, you could sign in, watch the handful of new apps being uploaded every day, and generally know everything that was available on the platform. There really were only a couple of Twitter clients.

But now that the Market has been revised, and there are more than 25,000 apps by the last unofficial count from Androlib, there are plenty of Android Twitter clients to choose from.

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The iPad.

It's not a Tablet PC, despite the exclusive version of iWork it will be getting, and it's not an E-reader despite the iBooks and Kindle reader software it will also feature. The device is really a jack-of-all-trades device meant to grow Apple's iTunes-based ecosystem, by providing another screen for applications developers to publish on.

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Now we can finally put the rumors to rest. Apple has finally unveiled its new tablet product, called the iPad. Apple CEO Steve Jobs today said the company aimed to make the product better than a laptop at browsing the Web, sharing photos, videos, music, playing games, and reading e-books; but in an all-touch form factor smaller than a notebook, and just larger than an iPhone.

As expected, the device is actually quite a lot like a big iPhone; as such, it can run all of the existing apps in the iTunes app store. The added bonus is that it can run them in their normal mode or in "2x" mode to fit the larger screen. The device has a custom user interface and will launch with its own exclusive software such as e-reader application "iBooks," touch-paint program "Brushes," and a totally re-designed touchscreen version of iWork.

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Just one day before Apple is expected to unveil its magical new product, the tech media is absolutely infested with "news" and speculation about it. CNBC tonight spoke with Terry McGraw, Chairman and CEO of McGraw-Hill, the major textbook publisher and parent company of J.D. Power and Associates, who said that yes, there is a tablet coming tomorrow, and it does run the iPhone OS, more or less confirming earlier rumors.

McGraw's quote in full:

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All the major home video game consoles offer downloadable games and add-ons that can be bought from a Web-based store, directly through the user's console. But of the three major companies, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, only Sony assigns actual dollar values to its downloadable content. Both Microsoft and Nintendo work on points systems where users must first buy a specific amount of credits that are then spent on new content.

A class action lawsuit regarding this point-based method of payment has now been filed against Microsoft in the District court of Pennsylvania. The suit has been filed "on behalf of several million US customers exposed to point fraud, following fraud, breach of contract, negligence, unjust enrichment, and unfair business practices on the part of...Microsoft Corporation."

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