HP have clearly just pressed go on their project to do this over. The HP Slate 2 is on its way (late November) and looks pretty good. Although i sense its simple a market test in advance of Windows 8 which they will certainly use as a platform to launch a number of new products – presumably tablets!

The new tablet does look nice and sports a new core Atom 1.5 Ghz CPU designed to deliver 1080P video and run fan-less (perfect). it comes with an mSata 64gb drive and an 8.9″ N-Trig display running at 1024×600. It also has a TPM module so you bit locker your device!

The new slate comes with a Bluetooth keyboard dock and a battery claiming a pretty good 6 hours (although lets not forget HP are not known for their accuracy in this dept. so lets say 4.5 to 5 hours max shall we). In addition it also has a 3MP front and rear facing camera (think skype style). Its a multi touch device and has a nice looking HP stylus too! Current prices suggest $699 US – so i guess circa £500 in the UK.

If the kit is good and connectivity is ok then this could be a winner. Obviously the competition is high with Apples iPad2 being the undisputed king of tablet type tools. But those that held off.. well the fact that this does all it does and is only $199 means this is placed very well indeed to climb the charts.

The Kindle fire is $199 RRP but the experts say the build cost is in the region of $190 so perhaps amazon have a plan. Make money on books, movies, TV shows, music and cloud storage instead.. lets face it, it worked for Microsoft with the xbox 360!

Lets see if this takes off, i think it might just be a winner.. unless Apple respond by slashing prices. But really, is that likely? – Doubt it.

The critical vulnerabilities cam to light over the weekend but weren’t acknowledged by Apple until Wednesday. Which also happened to be the day that the German Government warned of the vulnerabilities, which can be exploited via malicious websites or e-mails without the input of the user.

An Apple spokes woman issued a statement saying that they are aware of the issues and that they have ?already developed a fix and it will be available to customers in an upcoming software update.? but no dates were given for availability.

Only one use of the vulnerabilities have been documented so far on jailbreakme.com, which jailbreaks an idevice simply by visiting the site and flicking the slider. This hack is not malicious, but there?s no reason why this method couldn?t be used for more sinister things. The German Federal Office for Information Security has warned that this could happen any time. ?it has to be expected that hackers will soon use the weak spots for attacks. this allows potential attackers access to the complete system, including administrator rights.?

Jailbreakme.com exploits two distinct iOS flaws to execute the hack. the first is a bug in the software that parses fonts in PDF files, this allows hackers to inject any code they like into the document-viewing app. The second allows them to break out of the built-in security sandbox, the code can then access the root of the device.

So, until a patch is released, user should be wary of following links on sites, chat messages and e-mails. Websense has provided a list of other browsers that require user input in order to open a PDF file. Currently iPhones are set to automatically open PDFs included in e-mails, so you may want to be anti social for a while.

The HTC smart?seems to be paving?the way. Operators too are rising to the challenge with their own branded user experiences. So too are the chipmakers, with a Marvel chipset that would make a Smartphone cost under $99. Orange too are?bringing out an Android phone for under 150 euros.

This Mobile Internet boom wont hit until next year, hopefully offering a range of low , mid and high end devices. The availability of low-cost devices should push web services to the masses.? O2 will be exclusively launching the HTC Smart in the UK, Ireland and Germany. targeting the prepaid users aged between 16 and 22.

The major setbacks at the moment with pushing to the masses are issues of complexity and the fact they are currently costing more than laptops. The forthcoming trend for mass marketing the Smartphone may well open up opportunities for non-traditional Vendors.?With Samsung, HTC, LG, Nokia and even Alcatel battling it out things should get pretty exciting.? And again the boom in use should mean a boom in need for IT support.