Vendors collaborate to expand Netflix services, features

Netflix, Sony and Dolby are joining forces to give PlayStation 3 fans who subscribe to Netflix expanded video services featuring surround sound and streaming TV. Netflix is also revamping its interface to provide improved search, browsing and startup times.

Rim unveils a tablet: the BlackBerry Playbook

Looks like all those rumors about BlackBerry maker Research in Motion coming out with its own tablet were true — well, everything except for the name.

Instead of the "BlackPad" (ugh), RIM is calling its 7-inch, camera-packing tablet the BlackBerry PlayBook. CEO Mike Lazaridis showed off the long-rumored device during the keynote of RIM’s BlackBerry developer conference in San Francisco on Monday. 

Can RIM take on Apple in the tablet space?
Research in Motion will eschew BlackBerry's operating system in its new tablet computer the company is expected to introduce next week, according to published reports that say the device will run on software from RIM's purchase of QNX Software Systems. Eventually, RIM is expected to convert its BlackBerry phones to the QNX platform. The 7-inch tablet's broadband connection will run on cell networks only through BlackBerry smartphones, according to the reports. Read more...

The importance of being a dedicated e-reader
As tablet PCs and other so-called "smartbooks" proliferate, the market for dedicated e-readers such as Sony's Reader and Amazon's Kindle could be on the wane. But, as this author opines, devices that solely function as electronic readers are important -- perhaps even healthy -- because they allow people to "go off the grid sometimes. If only to get away from work." Read more...