RUMOR: HP TOUCHPAD TO LACK DOCUMENT EDITING AT LAUNCH

The WebOS nuts at PreCentral have received an anonymous tip-off that HP's imminent slate won't be able to edit Office docs out of the box. As much as we'd like to dismiss this as a retaliatory rumor put out by BlackBerry, it emits an unfortunate whiff of truth.

While HP has previously made a big deal of the TouchPad's inclusion of the Quickoffice app, it has only said it's "working with Quickoffice" to include document editing, and it has never demoed editing in action. The company has recently been trying to boost its app count, but perhaps it should have put more effort into securing core functionality instead.

A glimmer of hope, though: the same tip-off also suggested that at least some editing capabilities will be introduced "via a downloadable update in Q3 2011".

AT&T SENDS FCC 350+ PAGE REDACTED DOCUMENT TO MAKE CASE FOR T-MOBILE ACQUISITION

AT&T on Thursday filed documents with the United States Federal Communications Commission regarding its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA from Deutshe Telekom. The potential merger has been strongly opposed by many, such as Sprint, and one FCC official has a hard time believing such a deal could ever be approved. AT&T has a lot to lose of course, so you can believe the carrier is ready for a fight. AT&T’s position is that the merger will push the wireless industry forward by bringing high-speed 4G LTE service to over 97% of the U.S. population — revised up from the carrier’s earlier estimate of 95%. AT&T says its data traffic is growing at a remarkable pace and its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile will allow the carrier to utilize new spectrum and accommodate the rising demand for cellular data. AT&T also says the merger will create jobs and spur economic growth in small towns.