Rumor: iPad 2 to feature a thinner case and new "wide-range speaker"

So Apple is going to release a new version of the ipad next year, and as with any hotly-anticipated new product, it seems like new rumors about the device pop up at least once a week.  The latest bit of speculation comes from Japanese blogMac Otakara, who claims that the iPad 2 will feature a bezel that's 3mm thinner, a flat back, the very same 9.7-inch screen size, an overall slightly smaller size (239 x 186 mm compared to the current iPad's 242.8 x 189.7 mm size), and, finally, a new "wide-range speaker," which is what you see in the render up above.  Like we've heard from previous rumors, Mac Otakara believes that the iPad 2 will begin shipping from factories in January, which would line up with an april launch.

We all expect that Apple is going to tweak the iPad at least a little bit for the next version, and a lot of today's rumor seems like a pretty safe bet since it's not really too "out there."  The case will likely be a little thinner, I doubt we'll see a new iPad display size, and while I never would've really thought about Apple including a new kind of speaker, it certainly wouldn't surprise me.  That new speaker would fit nicely in the cutouts that we saw in recently leaked classes, so don't be surprised if the iPad 2 pumps out some better audio in April next year.  Do you have any other iPad 2 predictions that others may have missed?

Honeycomb rumored to land in March as Android 3.0

With a wave of new Android tablets coming shortly, you'd expect Google to release the tablet-friendly Honeycomb some time early next year.  There's already been one rumor stating that Google will release Android 2.4/3.0 in Feburary of next year, bu an unsourced rumor from Digitimes claims that we'll be waiting just a bit longer.  After running through the tablet plans for companies like Asustek and MSI, the blog says that Google will release "Android 3.0 in March."

Motorola seems poised to unevil their Honeycomb-powered tablet, possibly named Xoom, in less then two weeks at CES, so you have to imagine that Google wouldn't wait much longer than than to launch the new version of the Android OS.  If I had to choose a rumor to side with, I'd probably go with the February launch, simply because I don't think that the big G is going to wait two months to push out Android 2.4/3.0, whichever it turns out to be.  Care to throw out your guess as to when Honeycomb will see the light of day?

The best Samsung Galaxy Tab apps

Deck out your new tablet with the best Samsung Galaxy Tablet apps, from large format newspapers to addictive games and smart utilities.

Since Samsung and Google seem to have trouble explaining what a tablet optimized app is is, much less showing you the best, we’ve taken the guesswork out of the mystery by rounding up our favorites. Sure, most of these choices are admittedly quite frivolous, but if you find yourself with a shiny new Android tablet, here are the apps to show it off with.

Galaxy Choice (tGrape)

Supposedly, Galaxy Choice organizes all of galaxy tab optimized apps. It doesn’t. Many of the 400 or so free apps listed are regular old non-optimized Android apps, including ones the Tab will never use, such as phone-call-recording apps. But Choice is actually a better-organized app store than Google Marketplace. The app operates in landscape mode, with a scrollable list of apps always present in the left third of the screen, and the description of a highlighted app in the remaining two-thirds on the right. Text is crisper and cleaner than in the Marketplace, you get more and better screen shots, 50 top “What’s Hot” apps, categories, Search by any keyword, and you can even browse by “Apps 4 U” after filling out a short profile with your age and topic likes. Since it’s a new app, there aren’t many app review comments, so it’ll be hit-or-miss for a while.

Fun Towers (Blatter.com)

We actually hate this app, largely because some of us have an addictive personalities and this solitaire game is ridiculously addictive. Like Galaxy Choice, you play in landscape mode. There are three interconnected, four-line playing card pyramids, or towers (bottom row has four cards, second row has three cards, etc.), with only the bottom row of cards face-up. The remaining 23 cards are exposed one at a time. You tap an exposed card on the pyramids if it is within one pip of the exposed deck card (i.e. if the exposed deck card is a Jack, tap a Q or a 10 on the pyramid) to move it to the exposed deck pile. The more cards your move from the pyramids to the exposed deck pile, the more pyramid cards are exposed. You win a round when you eliminate all the pyramid cards, and you get a new set of pyramids on the next level. The whole thing is timed, so you have to move fast and not miss that new seven that pop-ups when the exposed deck card is a six. You can move an ace on a king, and vice versa. Even if you lose, you want to start all over. And over. And over. We haven’t eaten or slept in days. Sell the car, sell the kids, we’re never coming back. Must. Tap. Cards.

Police Radio Lite (MoMojo)

Just what it says – it’s a police and fire scanner on the Tab. How cool is that? The lite version includes just the LAPD, the NYFD and the Washington, D.C., police, fire and EMS departments. For just a $1.49 upgrade, you get what seems to be every police, fire and emergency department in the country, and departments in cities in 10 countries outside the U.S. (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the U.K., and Germany). You can even keep listening after you close the app – while you’re shooting up on Fun Towers, for instance. You have to go to the menu to end the sometimes static-filled but compelling stream. Perfect for ambulance chasers everywhere.

The New York Times (The New York Times Company)

Still the best source for top-notch, old-fashioned, objective journalism, even on the Tab. While the “optimized” app is simply a larger version of the regular Android app it is larger and easier to read without changing the font size, and the text is large enough to tap without accidentally hitting an adjacent item – all of which is the whole point of optimization.

SparkChess HD Lite (Media Division SRL)

We’re bad chess players (poker is more our game) so we won’t claim to be a great expert on virtual chess games. But even to a novice like us, this chess app was easy to figure out and play – tap a piece and the eligible squares it can be moved to light up in green. You get a three-quarter view of the board as if you’re sitting over the white side, which sort of obscures the front row of pawns when you start, and we still haven’t figured out how to castle (even though the programmed opponent has no trouble doing so). There are two levels of difficulty in this free version: Cody (easy) and Claire (a little harder). We actually beat Cody – accidently. We meant to tap on our queen and hit our Bishop instead, which produced a checkmate move we didn’t even see. Sort of like hitting a two-outer on the river in the game we do know something about. You need the full version to get better opponents, but oddly the “Get the Full Version” button takes you to Windows and Mac versions($8.99) Web page. We haven’t been able to find the full Tab version.

Releasing the Chromium OS open source project

In July we announced that we were working on Google Chrome OS, an open source operating system for people who spend most of their time on the web.

Today we are open-sourcing the project as Chromium OS. We are doing this early, a year before Google Chrome OS will be ready for users, because we are eager to engage with partners, the open source community and developers. As with the Google Chrome browser, development will be done in the open from this point on. This means the code is free, accessible to anyone and open for contributions. The Chromium OS project includes our current code base, user interface experiments and some initial designs for ongoing development. This is the initial sketch and we will color it in over the course of the next year.

We want to take this opportunity to explain why we're excited about the project and how it is a fundamentally different model of computing.

First, it's all about the web. All apps are web apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs.

Second, because all apps live within the browser, there are significant benefits to security. Unlike traditional operating systems, Chrome OS doesn't trust the applications you run. Each app is contained within a security sandbox making it harder for malware and viruses to infect your computer. Furthermore, Chrome OS barely trusts itself. Every time you restart your computer the operating system verifies the integrity of its code. If your system has been compromised, it is designed to fix itself with a reboot. While no computer can be made completely secure, we're going to make life much harder (and less profitable) for the bad guys.

Most of all, we are obsessed with speed. We are taking out every unnecessary process, optimizing many operations and running everything possible in parallel. This means you can go from turning on the computer to surfing the web in a few seconds. Our obsession with speed goes all the way down to the metal. We are specifying reference hardware components to create the fastest experience for Google Chrome OS.

There is still a lot of work to do, and we're excited to work with the open source community. We have benefited hugely from projects like GNU, the Linux Kernel, Moblin, Ubuntu, WebKit and many more. We will be contributing our code upstream and engaging closely with these and other open source efforts.