Stories by Ian Paul

The reviews are in and the Samsung Galaxy Tab one-panel slate is a hit, mostly. Reviewers don't appear to be bothered by the Galaxy Tab's diminutive size compared to the iPad, no matter what Apple CEO Steve Jobs says. And most see the Galaxy Tab as a credible competitor to the iPad. Will the Galaxy Tab win over your heart? Will Samsung sell one million Galaxy Tabs before the end of the year, or will the electronics maker be forced to come out with a 10-inch Galaxy Tab in the near future?

Critics are already debating whether Windows Phone 7 is a flop, but the phone's true measure of success will be in how long it takes to sell one million units. It all started after reports that Microsoft's new handset platform sold just 40,000 units Monday, the first day of Phone 7 sales in the United States. The financial blog The Street reported the sales numbers after speaking with an anonymous market research source "who tracks phone sales."

A new Web browser, Rockmelt debuts in limited beta Monday and aims to help you keep tabs on your Facebook friends, your favorite sites, and make your Web searches faster. Backed by Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, Rockmelt was first reported on by The New York Times in August 2009. At the time, Rockmelt was supposedly going to be a next-generation Web browser designed to take advantage of new Web applications and services.

Google recently launched a beta version of Instant, the company's search solution that displays results as you type, for Android and Apple iOS 4 mobile devices. For now, the beta test is available only to users in the U.S. and you can access it only through your handset's browser instead of Google's mobile apps. To try it out, just go to Google.com from your mobile device and then click the "Turn on" link for Google Instant located below the search box.

Steve Jobs, be damned!

Facebook is stepping up its mobile game with the launch of location-based services that both ease the pain of the mobile log-in process and allow your neighborhood store to shoot you coupons directly to your phone as you walk by.

Google says it will release a Google-branded Chrome OS smartbook in November to be followed a month later by Chrome OS netbooks from Hewlett-Packard and Acer.

The Android army may soon claim Research In Motion's BlackBerry as its first victim in the smartphone war.

Do you need to create your own search engine that provides results about a specific topic, also known as vertical search? A new company called Blekko aims to help you do just that by drilling down into Web content using what the company calls "slashtags" -- subject-specific search terms that you put at the end of your searches preceded by a slash "/".

Google is readying a revamped version of its mobile operating system Android that will show up on a Samsung phone November 8, according to Internet reports. The phone, dubbed unofficially Nexus Two (after Google's landmark Nexus One phone launched in January) is speculated to be the first device to feature Android OS 2.3 (Gingerbread), according to the Website Android and Me.

Apple's 11-inch MacBook Air may create a conundrum for prospective Mac owners: should they buy a petite Apple laptop or an iPad? When Apple launched the Air, it said it was a hybrid device combining the best aspects of the MacBook with the iPad. Just like Apple's tablet device, the Air has flash storage and no optical or hard drive. But like previous versions of the Air, the new computer runs OS X and has a laptop form factor.

The prospects of ever seeing a white iPhone 4 on store shelves are getting dimmer by the minute as new rumors suggest Apple has ditched plans for the snowy handset. One new theory is that Apple is just going to string along white iPhone 4 fans until it's time for iPhone 5 and then drop the Wonder Bread version altogether. Adding to the iPhone snowstorm is the suggestion that Apple recently pulled the white iPhone 4 option from its online retail store. It's hard to know for sure whether the Albinophone has gone the way of the dodo, but here's what the Web is saying.

Apple is delaying availability of its white iPhone until Spring 2011, nearly 6 months after it promised consumers they would be able to purchase the mythical device.

The Sony Walkman cassette player took one step closer to the grave on Monday when Sony announced it would stop selling the portable music player in Japan. The company stopped manufacturing the cassette playing Walkman for the Japanese market in April, and says it is selling through the end of its Japanese stock now. Cassette lovers in the U.S., however, have nothing to fear.

Apple Mac fans were both thrilled and terrified to hear that Apple would be launching an online application store for the Mac by mid-January. Just as with the iTunes App Store for iOS devices, developers will submit their applications to Apple for approval before they will be sold online through the new Mac App Store. Users will download apps just like they do for the iPhone, and the Mac App Store will deliver application updates as they become available.