Following weeks of speculation, HP has officially announced that the TouchPad tablet will launch on July 1st in the U.S.

The tablet will hit the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Canada within a week of the US launch.

HP is selling the 16GB model for $500 and the 32GB version for $600.

"What makes HP TouchPad a compelling alternative to competing products is webOS," added HP's Jon Rubinstein (via IW). "The platform's unmatched features and flexibility will continue to differentiate HP products from the rest of the market for both personal and professional use. This is only the beginning of what HP's scale can do with webOS."

TouchPads will have a 9.7-inch display with 1024x768 resolution, WebOS run a dual-core 1.2Ghz Snapdragon processor, Beats Audio technology, stereo speakers, a 1.3MP front-side camera, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR.

HP's tablet will weigh 1.6 pounds and feature a gyro, accelerometer, and compass and full Flash support, just like Android.

Additionally, the tablet's virtual keypad will have a full number row, come with QuickOffice installed, Google Docs support, Dropbox, Box.net, VPN and wireless printing support.

Permalink | Comments

---

According to a number of reports, an investor group has now become the front-runner in the bid for struggling social network MySpace.

News Corp, the current owner of the service, is looking to sell a majority stake by the end of the fiscal year, June 30th.

The group would take over full operational control and take an 80 percent ownership stake, leaving News Corp with the rest.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick added that he had been approached to join the investor group but has not made a decision.

Outside of the investor group, the small social networks Tagged and myYearbook have also expressed interest.

News Corp. threw away $580 million in 2005 to purchase MySpace and has swiftly seen traffic, revenues and profits plummet.

From 2010 to 2011 alone, MySpace traffic fell 48 percent to 35 million unique U.S. visitors. The company had an operating loss of $165 million last year.

Permalink | Comments

---

AT&T has announced today that it will begin offering free Wi-Fi access in NYC parks, in a partnership with the city.

The Wi-Fi will now be available in 20 parks across the city, including popular areas like Central Park and Battery Park.

CEO Randall Stephenson and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg jointly announced the service earlier today.

The networks are free and the project will last for 5 years.

Permalink | Comments

---

Citing a huge drop in sales from Nokia, Texas Instruments was forced to cut its revenue and earnings forecasts last night.

Outside of the mobile phone business, however, TI said all other sectors of their business were performing up to expectations.

TI warned that revenue from its wireless baseband chips were hurt thanks to Nokia, its biggest client, which continues to struggle and has fallen so far that it has become the source of takeover speculation.

The numbers will prove to be a temporary blip, regardless, as TI has already said it will phase out its baseband business by the end of next year.

While baseband was still a significant amount of overall revenue (6 percent), it was a steep fall from the 12 percent it represented last quarter.

Permalink | Comments

---

Nintendo's Katsuya Eguchi has confirmed today that games for Nintendo's upcoming Wii U console will be on single-layer 25GB Blu-ray Discs.

The PlayStation 3 also uses Blu-ray discs, mainly single layer, but some games have been put on dual-layer 50GB discs.

When asked, Eguchi denied to comment on the expected 8GB of internal flash memory in the Wii U, but did confirm that external USB drives would be supported.

At E3, Nintendo did not show off the console itself, but instead displayed the incredible new controller, which features a touchscreen and streaming capabilities.

The large controller has a 6.2-inch touchscreen and can work as a standalone gaming device, as well. There are two circle pads, a regular d-pad, shoulder buttons, rumble, a camera/speaker/mic and gyroscope/accelerometer sensors.

The Wii U controller offers gamers a chance to use the second screen for many activities, including catching/pitching the ball in Wii Sports, or even playing hide-and-seek with other controllers.

If you ever have to leave your HDTV, the controller can be used to continue the game, seamlessly, from a different room on the tablet screen.

Because of the seamless streaming, gamers can transfer the video they are watching on the tablet to the HDTV and enjoy on the larger screen. A full Web browser is included.

The controller also has games, like chess, checkers and few others showed off by Nintendo.

Because the controller comes with a stylus and editing program, it can be used as a graphics tablet for artists.

Finally, because of the camera, the tablet can be used to video chat with others.

Some of the technical specs of the new console include 1080p output, Six-channel PCM linear audio, internal memory with SD card/external HDD expansion. The Wii U is compatible with all Wii games, peripherals.

Permalink | Comments

---