SAMSUNG GETS TABLET BAN LIFTED IN AUSTRALIA

A ban that prevented Samsung’s local subsidiaries from marketing and selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Australia was lifted on Friday, marking another victory for Samsung in its ongoing legal battles with Apple. An Australian High Court ruled that Samsung’s 10-inch tablet does not “slavishly rip off” Apple’s iPad, and sales of the slate will resume next week according to The Sydney Morning Herald, in time to catch the tail end of the holiday shopping rush. Read on for more.

The ruling comes following Apple’s appeal after a judge overturned a ban on Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales late last month. This new victory for comes on the heels of another win for Samsung; a U.S. district judge on Monday decided against banning sales of Samsung’s tablet in the United States, saying that such a ban would not prevent Apple from being irreparably harmed.

Apple and Samsung currently have more than 30 pending lawsuits filed against each other around the world.

KINDLE FIRE GETS ROOTED IN ONE DAY

Android Forum contributor "death2all110" has posted instructions on how to root the just launched Kindle Fire by Amazon. The procedure seems relatively straightforward, requiring only a copy of SuperOneClick 2.2, an Android SDK, and a bit of hacktastic know-how. For the full instructions click here.

AMAZON BRINGING 400 MAGAZINES AND NEWSAPERS TO FIRE ALONG WITH "THOUSANDS" OF APPS

Last week Amazon announced they would be bringing Facebook, Hulu and "several thousand" other apps to their upcoming Kindle Fire tablet. Now, they are announcing that more than 400 "full-color" titles will be available on the Kindle Fire Newsstand, including Us Weekly, The New Yorker and Reader's Digest, among others. Users who subscriber before March 1st, meanwhile, will be able to access a full 17 Condé Nast titles for free, as part of a three-month offer.

AMAZON UPS KINDLE FIRE ORDERS FROM MANUFACTURERS AGAIN

Amazon has reportedly increased Kindle Fire orders with its manufacturing partners, for the second time, following stronger than expected demand for its premier tablet. DigiTimes reports that more than 5 million units are now on order in 2011 as pre-orders for the $199 tablet remain strong; the online retailer took nearly 100,000 pre-orders on the first day of pre-sales availability alone. Amazon had already increased its orders last quarter according to the site’s anonymous industry sources, from 3.5 million to 4 million units. The Kindle Fire will launch on November 15th featuring a 7-inch display, a soft-touch case and deep integration with numerous Amazon services, granting users access to streaming music, streaming movies and of course, a huge library of eBooks.

BARNES AND NOBLE LAUNCHES NOOK TABLET

As TGG leaked earlier, Barnes and Noble has officially unveiled the Nook Tablet. The device runs Android 2.3, has a 7-inch LG “Vivid View” display, 16GB of expandable storage, 1GB of RAM and a dual-core 1GHz processor. It also weighs under one pound and supports up to 11.5 hours of reading time on a single charge. Barnes & Noble said the device will have free access to AT&T and Barnes & Noble Wi-Fi hotspots. The Nook Tablet has the “deepest Netflix integration of any tablet” and is capable of playing 1080p HD video. The device will have access to Barnes & Noble’s new “Nook Cloud” service for free storage as well as free customer support.

Just as Amazon did when it released the Kindle Fire, Barnes and Noble has dropped the price of its ereader to $99. The Nook Color hasn't been forgotten and will receive a free software with "over 100 updates."

AMAZON CHANGES KINDLE FIRE ROADMAP

Amazon’s follow up to the Kindle Fire tablet may feature an 8.9-inch touchscreen display rather than the 10-inch panel we have been expecting. According to a new report from DigiTimes, Amazon has introduced a third tablet into its roadmap and it is now scheduled to launch ahead of the 10-inch model, or even in place of the large-form slate. The site’s sources claim Chunghwa Picture Tubes and LG Display, Amazon’s display suppliers, have already begun to prepare for production of the 8.9-inch panels.

LEAK: NOOK TABLET LAUNCHING NOVEMBER 16 FOR $249

Engadget has obtained a number of documents confirming the impending launch of the first bona fide tablet in the Nook line, and lo and behold, the Nook Tablet will end up being a dead-ringer for the Nook Color that already exists. What we're looking at is a 7-inch VividView IPS color touchpanel with a 1024 x 600 screen resolution (that's 169 pixels per inch), a 1.2GHz dual-core OMAP4 processor, 1GB of RAM, dimensions of 8.1- x 5- x 0.48-inches, 16GB of inbuilt storage, a microSD expansion slot, roughly eight hours of battery life with WiFi switched off (that sinks to four hours with videos playing back), 802.11b/g/n WiFi and support for a smorgasbord of file formats including ePUB, PDF, XLS, DOC, PPT, TXT, DOCM, Flash, JPG, MP3, MP4 and AAC.

Engadget also confirmed that it'll ship for $249 here in the States, $50 more than Amazon's Kindle Fire. So, why does B&N think you'll pony up the extra? For one, the Nook Tablet has twice the RAM and twice the storage compared to its closest rival, while also being lighter and having access to over two million books, magazines and newspapers.

GAMESTOP STARTS SELLING ANDROID TABLETS PRE-LOADED WITH 7 GAMES

GameStop recently began carrying several Android Honeycomb tablets pre-loaded with seven free games. It was originally rumored that the game retailer would begin selling its own custom Honeycomb tablet, although it appears that is no longer the case. GameStop currently lists the Acer Iconia, Acer Iconia Tab A500, ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, Motorola XOOM, ViewSonic VPAD7 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in stock with prices starting at $300. The seven free games include Dead Space, Madden NFL, Monster Madness, Sonic CD, Re-Load, Riptide GP and Cordy. GameStop is also bundling a special tablet-friendly own-brand Bluetooth controller with its slates for an additional $39. The devices are currently only available in 200 of GameStop’s stores, although you can also purchase one directly from the company’s website.

MOTOROLA OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCES XOOM 2 AND XOOM 2 MEDIA EDITION

Motorola on Thursday announced its new XOOM 2 and XOOM 2 Media Edition tablets. The XOOM 2 runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb and is equipped with a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, a 10.1-inch display, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a 5-megapixel camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat. Motorola said the display, which has a special “splashguard” for added protection, is brighter and more vibrant than the screen used on the original XOOM. Motorola also pre-loaded the XOOM 2 with several enterprise apps in hopes of attracting the corporate market. The XOOM 2 Media Edition also runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb but is thinner, lighter, has a smaller 8.2-inch display. It also lacks the enterprise focus of the XOOM 2. Motorola said the tablets will be available in various retail outlets throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom in November but did not provide any details on a U.S. launch date.

LEAK: MOTOROLA XOOM 2 IMAGE AND PRICING

A leaked advertisement obtained by Engadget suggests the XOOM 2 will be offered for €399.99 (US $550.75) by Carphone Warehouse in Ireland just time for the holiday shopping season. The XOOM 2 is reportedly equipped with a 10.1-inch display, a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, a camera capable of recording 1080p video and 1GB of RAM. It is also said to be 9-millimeters thick, which is just a hair fatter than the 8.6-millimeter thick Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Motorola has yet to officially announce the XOOM 2, but we wouldn’t be surprised to hear more on it as the holidays get closer.

BEST BUY TO OFFER TOUCHPAD WITH HP COMPUTER PURCHASE

Best Buy announced on Monday that customers who purchase an HP or Compaq laptop, desktop or all-in-one computer can opt to purchase an HP TouchPad tablet for an additional $149. The deal, which gives a small breath of life to a tablet that has already been killed-off by HP, kicks off on November 1st. Interested buyers can also purchase the TouchPad for $599.99, the tablet’s initial launch price, without buying an HP computer. As a quick refresher, the TouchPad offers a 9.7-inch XGA display, 32GB of storage, a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and support for 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and NFC.

HP DIVING INTO WINDOWS 8 TABLET POOL

During the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Thursday, HP CEO Meg Whitman confirmed that her company will launch tablets powered by Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system next year. “One of my observations is that HP tries to do a lot of things,” Whitman explained. “And I am a big believer in doing a small number of things really, really well — set them up, knock them down, set them up, knock them down.” Whitman’s comments are in-line with recent rumors that suggested that Dell and HP would both launch Windows 8 tablets during the third quarter next year.

AMAZON ORDERS MILLIONS MORE KINDLE FIRES TO MEET UNEXPECTED DEMAND

Two weeks ago, more than a quarter million had been added to Amazon shopping carts — and during the company’s Q3 2011 earnings report, CEO Jeff Bezos made it clear that the early sales had exceeded expectations. Bezos announced that Amazon would be ramping up production to produce “millions more” of the Kindle Fire to meet the obviously strong public demand. If reports about Amazon’s initial order — which pegged the first run of the Kindle Fire at 5 million units — were accurate, the company is clearly anticipating moving the tablets at an iPad-like pace.

TABLET SHIPMENTS EXCEED NETBOOKS FOR FIRST TIME; NETBOOK SLIDE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE

Global tablet sales into channels exploded in the second quarter of 2011 to surpass netbooks for the first time in the emerging category’s young history. Market research and intelligence firm ABI Research determined that shipments of media tablets ballooned 112.5% in the second quarter to reach 13.6 million units, up from 6.4 million tablets in the first quarter this year. Netbook shipments declined from 8.4 million units to 7.3 million over the same period, just over half the number of media tablets shipped in the quarter. ”This is a trend that we do not expect will reverse,” said ABI’s group director, mobile devices Jeff Orr in a statement. “As they are different segments, this is not a direct replacement behavior, but a changing of leadership for the most interesting device type.” ABI says Apple’s iPad line was responsible for 68% of tablets shipped globally in the second quarter, and the firm expects 60 million media tablets to ship globally in 2011.

HONEYCOMB TABLETS GET NETFLIX STREAMING

Netflix subscribers can finally stream movies to their Android tablets without worrying about installing third-party .apks files or attempting annoying work-arounds. The company announced on Wednesday that its application now supports tablets running Android 3.x (Honeycomb). In addition, the Netflix app supports users in Canada and Latin America now. Netflix for Honeycomb is free, provided you already subscribe to the company’s “Watch Instantly” streaming service, and it is available in the Android Market now.

LEAKED SALES DATA SHOWS AMAZON HAS SOLD OVER 250,000 FIRES IN FIVE DAYS

According to some leaked internal sales data Amazon has sold over 250,000 Kindle Fires in just five days. When put in comparison with iPad sales per day, the Fire is still lagging behind, 80,000 for the iPad and ~50,000 for the Fire. That's not bad, but when you look at sales for non-iPad tablets the Fire is uh...on fire!

On the e-reader front however things are not as rosy. The Kindle Touch has only sold about 32,000 units in the same five day period as the Fire. There could be a few reasons for this. The Fire could be cannabalizing the Touch's sales and/or the Kobe and Nook Color have already locked up the advanced feature e-reader market.

IS AMAZON SELLING THE KINDLE FIRE AT A LOSS?

A preliminary virtual estimate conducted by the IHS iSuppli Teardown Analysis Service places Kindle Fire’s bill of materials (BOM) cost at $191.65. With the addition of manufacturing expenses, the total cost to produce the Kindle Fire rises to $209.63. Could Amazon be trying to keep the retail price down to move more units and ultimately more merchandise?

IHS goes on to say the real benefit of the Kindle Fire to Amazon will not be in selling hardware or digital content. Rather, the Kindle Fire, and the content demand it stimulates, will serve to promote sales of the kinds of physical goods that comprise the majority of Amazon’s business. Amazon doesn’t make a substantial profit on sales of Kindle hardware and content such as e-books and music. Instead, the Seattle-based online-retail giant generates its profits on sales of shoes, diapers, and every other kind of physical product imaginable. Similar to Walmart and other large brick-and-motor retailers, Amazon’s content business is designed to lure in consumers to buy such everyday goods as well as other money-making items.

RUMOR: INDIA'S $35 TABLET SHIPPING IN OCTOBER

This mysterious $35 tablet has broken our hearts, crushed our fantasies and even made unicorns cry with delay after delay. Today, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal assured us that the much anticipated slate will be released on October 5th -- promising that this time, "[It's] not just a dream." Evidently, the tablet has overcome the manufacturing problems that plagued the project previously and now production is proceeding according to a new plan. That means that five, seven and nine inch slates are said to be shipping to lucky Indian students in early October

VERIZON BEGINS FREE 4G LTE UPGRADE FOR MOTORLA XOOM

Motorola XOOM owners who want to take advantage of the promised 4G LTE upgrade can finally begin to do so beginning Thursday. Once a customer signs up to receive the upgrade, Verizon Wireless will send the shipping instructions along with a box. The option is free and Verizon Wireless said changes to data plans are not required. Verizon also advises that XOOM owners back up their devices before sending them in for the upgrade. The process is expected to take six business days. Verizon Wireless also announced on Wednesday that it will begin to sell the Motorola XOOM with 4G LTE pre-installed for $499.99 starting October 13th.

AMAZON UNVEILS NEW TABLET AND TOUCHSCREEN E-READERS

Amazon this morning launched new touchscreen e-readers as well as the much talked about Kindle Fire tablet. The readers will use infrared touch, which puts an infrared touch screen over e-ink. The screens appear to be roughly the same size as the current crop of Kindle e-readers. The e-readers will come in three flavors, two having touchscreens. The 3G will be $149, the WiFi only will be $99 and the non-touch version will be $79. According to an Amazon rep these prices are for the ad supported versions and the Wifi only and non-touch version without ads will be $149 and $109 respectively.

In addition to the new e-readers, a software update was also announced. Some of the new features include X-ray, which allows users to quickly look up words, get character synopsis and location information directly from the ebook. WhisperSync was also beefed to make it quicker.

Finally, Jeff Bezos unveiled the Kindle Fire. The Fire is Amazon's new 7" IPS touchscreen tablet that runs a customized version of the Android OS. It has a dual core processor, weighs 14.6 ounces and comes with free Amazon cloud storage. The browser for the Fire will be the Amazon Silk which is a new hybrid browser with part residing on the tablet and the other part on the cloud server. The Fire will retail for $199.

No mention was made on the rumored 10" tablet Amazon is expected to unveil sometime in the first quarter of 2012.