Redmond once again starts its photocopiers, while Motorola insists it’s breaking the mold for tablets, and Google TV goes back to the drawing table. The remainders for Monday, December 20, 2010 are freshly picked and hand-delivered to you—no middleman.
Somebody went back in time and killed Steve Jobs! (Mobypicture)
Peter Sagal, noted host of NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me! snapped a shot of Microsoft’s new retail store, which bears a surprising resemblance to another popular chain of stores. No, not The Gap.
Motorola’s ‘Tablet Evolution’ video teases some Honeycomb at CES (Engadget)
Motorola’s trying to build buzz for its forthcoming Android-based tablet, code-named Honeycomb. In this PR trailer, the company derides Samsung’s Galaxy Tab as Android-based, but too phonelike, and the iPad as “a giant iPhone.” For some strange reason, though, Motorola left off the tagline: “From the company that brought you the ROKR…”
Best Buy bundling free Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T MiFis with iPads, contract required (9 to 5 Mac)
If you don’t want to fork over an extra $130 upfront for an iPad with AT&T or Verizon 3G, then get yourself to Best Buy, where you can apparently buy one of Apple’s tablets along with a free mobile hotspot for Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint—as long as you sign up for a two-year contract. Because there probably won’t be any advances in mobile broadband in the next two years, right?
Google TV faces delays amid poor reviews (New York Times)
Google hasn’t managed to take over the living room quite yet. According to the Times, the search giant has asked its TV partners to delay introducing their Google TV units, because the reviews of the intial devices were not up to snuff. Forrester analyst James McQuivey puts it most deliciously:
You can give me the recipe for the absolute best chocolate chip cookies in the world, but until I put the ingredients together and bake them at exactly the right temperature for the right time, they’re not cookies, and that’s where Google TV is.
Hm. Perhaps there’s another reason behind the devices’ delay…