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Earlier last year the HP Slate looked set to take on the tablet heavyweight champ, the Apple iPad, but was unfortunately killed off within a few months of its announcement. Now HP is teasing us with a look at the HP TouchPad – we hope this one actually hits the shops!

The HP TouchPad will be a webOS-based device, making it the first of its kind of the market. It has a 9.7 inch (diagonal) flush capacitive multitouch display, with a vibrant 18-bit colour, 1024×768 pixel resolution and weighs just 740g.

The HP TouchPad supports Adobe Flash Player 10.1 beta in the browser and gives users access to thousands of webOS applications. It has a virtual keyboard, but if touch screen typing is not your bag you can purchase a wireless keyboard separately.

The HP TouchPad looks set to be a real contender for the iPad, possibly even more so than the previously talked-about HP Slate.

The best part about the HP TouchPad being webOS-based is that it means you can pause a game, open an email notification, open your Facebook, check your calendar and then go straight back to the game again without actually having to close the application first! It’s literally like working on a PC but in the palm of your hands.

It comes with a front-facing 1.3 megapixel webcam which is perfect for using Skype or for video conferencing and comes with HP’s famous Beats audio. HP has also incorporated its state-of-the-art Touchstone technology to help HP devices work together.

For example, you can share a URL from your new HP Pre³ smartphone to your HP TouchPad simply by tapping them together – similar to the iPhone’s “bump” feature.

As of yet, HP has given no release date or even a price, but we are hoping to see these details come out after this year’s Mobile World Congress (14^th – 17^th February2011). We will keep you posted on all new information.

Following on from the popularity of the genuine “Like” button that the social network installed, hackers have decided install an application pitched as the “Dislike application.

Once a user grants access to said application, the hacker pumps out spam through their Facebook account, which snowballs as the user’s friends get invited to join the application. You have been warned.

Image by: www.larrabetzutik.org

Facebook has agreed to launch a new application which will act as a panic button on users’ profile pages. The decision has come after much debate on how child safety online should be tackled.

The application is aimed at children and teenagers who want to report abuse to the CEOP, and is said to give them the feeling that they are in control online.

The popular social networking site was originally against the idea after CEOP, a government law enforcement agency that tracks down online sex offenders, called for it to be implemented in November 2009.

More people began to call for such a device after the rape and murder of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall. Her killer was a 33-year-old convicted sex offender, who she met on Facebook – he posed as a teenage boy.

Bebo was the first social networking site top adopt the button, followed by MySpace and now finally Facebook.

Jim Gamble, CEOP’s chief executive, said in a statement to the BBC:

“Our dialogue with Facebook about adopting the ClickCeop button is well documented – today however is a good day for child protection.

“By adding this application, Facebook users will have direct access to all the services that sit behind our ClickCeop button which should provide reassurance to every parent with teenagers on the site.”

The CEOP has also decided to set up a Facebook page reporting on a variety of topics that are of interest to teens, and then link these subjects to safety online.

It has been revealed that 1.5 million people follow Dell on Twitter and more than 3.5 million people have communicated with the company via Twitter and Facebook.

Dell’s Internet, spokesman Richard Binhammer said: “Wherever our customers are is where we want to be. The more places where we’re available to them, the better it is.”

Image by: JoshSemans

1. The Anti-vuvuzela trumpet software scam

Anyone who has been watching the World Cup will know just how annoying the constant hooting of the vuvuzela is. Well, Scammer have decide to cash in on people’s frustration, and invent a fake anti-vuvuzela trumpet software, with supposed “active noise cancellation” technology.

Do not be fooled, this is a scam and will leave you with an empty wallet and vuvuzela’s still ringing in your ears.

2.  Facebook “click-jacking” scam

Beware of the phoney “like” button my fair Facebook users! If you see that your mate is suddenly advertising Andrex toilet tissue, then you know they have been hit by the scam.

This click-jacking occurs when a user clicks on a link to a webpage which, when clicked through leads the victim to a third-party site, and accesses their news feed without them knowing!

The link to this page then appears on the home pages of the users friends, luring in other potential victims.

3. Eclipse novella features more nasties than bargained for…

The popular Twilight Saga is being targeted by scammer looking to manipulate young and incautious fans.

The Eclipse novella The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is available to read for free at BreeTanner.com, but hackers have been luring fans who are desperate for a copy, into downloading malicious viruses and malware.

The 192-page short story is available in a read-only format at breetanner.com, and fans have been warned not to click any download that claim to lead to downloads.

4. It’s another shot at the World Cup!

Scammers are well known for targeting current events and the Wolrd Cup has been hit hard this year.

Spam has done the rounds targeting American supporters with competition offers based on World Cup quizzes and phishing email with subject lines:

“Know your football? Make your World Cup predictions. Completely free. Predict correct and win a huge cash prize.”

5. Facebook friend-deleting bug

Yes the hackers have taken another swipe at Facebook with a code that uses publicly available data from Facebook to delete every friendship connection a user has!

You have been warned…

Image credit: Bruno Biagioni Neto

A student in the US reported the flaw, a code that uses publicly available data from Facebook to delete every friendship connection a user has.

Facebook official have stated that the flaw has been mended, but it seems that the bug can still be manipulated to control the site’s “like” feature and advert endorsement content.

Image by: M i x y

There have been two recent attacks featuring a ‘sexy video’ which lures the user into clicking on a fake FLV Player upgrade message which then downloads adware onto the PC.

Security firms have now called for Facebook to set up a warning system for its users to notify them of any threats that may occur when clicking on links.

Image by: www.larrabetzutik. Org

The makers of the popular free antivirus software, said that from midnight to 9am on Saturday 15 May they blocked more than 300,000 rogue applications.

It used a picture of a girl in a bikini to entice viewers to click on the image, which would download adware onto their computer, called hotbar and lead to hundreds of pop-up ads.

“Interestingly, they launched it on a Saturday. I guess they figure we don’t watch on the weekend,” said Roger Thompson, AVG’s Chief Research Officer, “but malcode researchers are all cut from the same cloth as Inspector Gadget… we’re always on duty.”

“This latest issue really underscores how powerful, while at the same time vulnerable, social networking applications are. This attack was actually stunning in terms of scale,” said.

“Facebook is very responsive to threats when we identify them, and removing these applications as soon as they find them, but they’re still able to generate huge traffic, just because of the viral nature of social networks. It is staggering how many threats were propagated before they were stopped.”

Some of the most notorious malware has made use of natural disasters like the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti to entice people to defraud people looking to make donations, but many still use the classic offers of a free popular product (like the iPad) or pictures of a pretty girl.

Make sure you have up to date anti-virus software to protect from malware.

Image Credit: Franco Bouly

Everything seemed to kick off with the rumours of Apple’s tablet, now released as the iPad; so much anticipation, speculation and excitement. Many PC manufacturers have brought out competitors to the device, such as HP’s Slate but are they all they cracked up to be?

The initial attraction

The idea of a button-less, sleek, hand-held device that can hold your entire digital world, sound very appealing I admit. You can watch videos on them, browse the web, read magazines and newspapers, organise your images and play games.

They are fun for all the family, but that is just it, they are for fun. One look at the iPad and you’ll want one; but it seems that these devices are more for show than real computing.

Tablet vs. laptop

What does a tablet do that a notebook or netbook can’t? Ok for one it may be a tad smaller and lighter but is it a practical portable computing device?

Writing anything other than an email, Facebook update or Tweet isn’t as easy on an iPad, as Rafe Needleman points out in his Cnet blog Real-world iPad annoyances: A timeline:

“It has no arrow keys and obviously no mouse, which makes quick edits go slow. Selecting text by pointing and dragging over it works and looks cool but is just not efficient. It’s an annoying roadblock. (The external keyboard accessory has arrow keys, but I’d rather carry my MacBook with me than schlep that thing around.)”

Ninety nine per cent of people use their computers to type up a document of some sort and it’s in those areas that the iPad specifically seems to fail. Now compare that with a HP Mini 1000; you can buy it for around the same price as the iPad and the keyboard is one of the stand out features.

It has a 10.2-inch display, compared with the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen, although it does weigh only 0.7kg compared to the HP’s 1.02kg.

If it is style you seek, you may see the iPad as a more fashionable option, but HP does some beautiful netbooks in an array of colours and patterns, including the new butterfly design by Vivienne Tam.

The winner?

What it boils down to is personal preference, but there is one PC that is the perfect compromise. The Lenovo U1 laptop with removable slate device gives you the best of both worlds.

When docked, it runs Windows 7 on the dock’s low-power Intel processor and has a 128Gb SSD, but once detached it uses an ARM CPU and runs on Linux. The resistive 11.6-screen supports multitouch, and the switch over is said to take place in under 3 seconds.

Life is all about compromise and the Lenovo U1 Hybrid is the ultimate PC/Slate/tablet/laptop.

Image credits:  FHKE nDevilTV