<IT WORLD>
Asus, Nvidia add tablet oomph
By Martin J Young

HUA HIN, Thailand - Asus and Nvidia this week announced the world's first quad-core tablet, with the two companies teaming up to create the 10-inch Eee Pad Transformer Prime. The device will be powered by Nvidia's Tegra 3 ARM processor running at 1.3GHz, and will have 1 gigabyte of memory and a 12 core Geforce graphics processor, making it the most powerful tablet on the market.

Google's Android will run on the tablet, which comes with an 8 megapixel camera, 32 or 64 gigabytes of storage, and an optional mobile dock and keyboard. Battery life is expected to be around 12 hours, and the unit will retail at US$500 for the 32Gb version and $600 for the 64.

The Transformer Prime enters a crowded market place dominated

 
by Apple's iPad 2 and Samsung's Galaxy, the difference being that these are two-core devices; power users may start looking towards Asus now.

As the Western world's holiday season approaches, more gadgets will hit the shelves and competition will intensify. Barnes and Noble is the latest to enter the e-reader market, with the Nook tablet.

The device will go head-to-head with Amazon's Kindle Fire and may even give the iPad 2 a run for its money as it costs around half the price at $250.

The 7-inch touch screen device comes with a 1GHz processor, 1Gb of memory, 16Gb of storage capacity, and 11.5 hours of e-reading battery life. Barnes and Noble is embroiled in a legal dispute with Microsoft, which claims patent infringement on its Android-based operating system.

Social
Google has started to accept businesses on its social network, Google +. Senior vice president Vic Gundotra stated "So far Google+ has focused on connecting people with other people, but we want to make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about - from local businesses to global brands - so today we're rolling out Google+ Pages worldwide."

In the early stages of the project, Google removed pages put up by businesses as it did not have the policies in place to manage them. This week it was ready and the platform took another swipe at rival Facebook, which rolled out a guide for business users in July.

Businesses can now use Google+ Pages to share information about themselves, respond directly to customers by using the Hangouts video conferencing functions, or ask questions seeking feedback. Industry analysts predict that Google+ could grow to over 60 million users by the end of the fourth quarter.

Industry
Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL said this week they will join forces to sell online advertising. They aim to close the gap with Google, which dominates the market. The non-exclusive partnership will give each company the right to sell excess advertising space on each other's web properties. Separate sales teams will be employed, as each company vows to retain its independence.

The tech triumvirate face a tough task; since Google's acquisition of Double Click in 2008 for $3.2 billion the company has dominated the display advertising market and today its text ads can be seen on an overwhelming number of websites.

Facebook is also snapping up more of the market with its own advertising platforms, which are viewed by its burgeroning membership of over 800 million

Adobe Systems made a major about-face this week in announcing it would no longer be working on Flash for mobile devices.

Following Apple's highly publicized refusal to allow Flash on its devices, Adobe said it would be increasing development for HTML5 technologies that Apple, Google and Microsoft all support.
The announcement came a day after Adobe warned of weaker revenues and moved to cut 750 jobs. It will now focus its Flash development on gaming and video services.

Gaming
Activision's super-hyped shoot-em-up franchise Call Of Duty blasted into the stores this week with Modern Warfare 3, which could well make more than $1 billion in revenue and break records for the best-selling entertainment title to date. Analysts and investors expect a five-day revenue of $750 million from the eighth version of the game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops sold 5.6 million copies on its first day last year and generated $650 million in worldwide sales in five days, according to Activision. The annual franchise usually outsells everything else around it but it has some stiff competition this year, including Electronic Arts' Battlefield 3, another first-person shooter.

Modern Warfare 3 is available on Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo Wii, PC, and Nintendo DS, and retails at $60. Activision stock rose 1.3% to $13.74 when the game was released on Tuesday. It has gained 10% this year.

Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.

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