As if there was a dearth of excuses to further divide an already compartmentalized planet of ours, the iPad has driven another wedge between Apple loyalists and the rest of the world. The iPad is arguably yet another milestone in the art of hyping products, if not a groundbreaking product. But the hype just might be on the wane. According to a self-styled Apple analyst from Venezuela, pre-orders for the iPad declined drastically over the weekend.

Daniel Tello (aka, Deagol)  has an uncanny knack of making accurate financial predictions when it comes to Apple. Earlier, Deagol and some other members of the Investor Village's AAPL Sanity board had estimated that the number of of pre-orders on Friday – the day Apple began accepting them – was around 120,000, with an initial rate of around 25,000 orders per hour. Now, Deagol's latest estimates show that the rate has slowed down to 1,000 per hour. He expects Apple to receive approximately half a million pre-orders for the iPad in the lead up to its launch on April 3.

"My best guess, although very tentative given the early stage and few data we have so far, would be that they hit the 1 million unit milestone by the second week after it ships," Deagol told Fortune. "But this is a very speculative guesstimate based on just a weekend of pre-orders." All said, Deagol's formula may or may not be right this time.

Image Credit: Deagol

The transparent AMOLED laptop that Samsung had on display at CES is soon going to hit the market with the promise of bragging rights galore. According to PlusPlasticElectronics, a commercial variant of the concept showcased at CES will be available within the next year.

“We have a lab in Korea that is currently working on developing a laptop with partially-transparent screen,” Samsung Electronics America's Reid Sullivan told PlusPlasticElectronics. “Soon, I imagine that all Samsung's audio-visual products will feature this technology. We want to be the first in this market.”

It appears as though transparent AMOLED displays have infatuated Samsung. It also plans to launch a see-through MP3 player christened IceTouch, which according to the report will be available in the early half of 2010. The IceTouch is likely to cost around  $330. The real challenge for the consumer will be to think of a practical use for such gadgets once they cease to be a novelty.

The first part of a typical Apple product launch is out of the way now. During the second leg, skeptics will grudgingly make one final attempt at understanding the device just as fanboys get better at pretending that they know pretty much everything they need to know. Both sides can now also factor in the newfangled prospect of making VoIP calls over the iPad's 3G connection when making their case.

Apple today updated the iPhone developer SDK to accommodate VoIP apps. The move was accompanied by the launch of iCall, the first and only VoIP app for the iPhone and iPod touch. The announcement leaves us with one question, though. Will the iPad support VoIP apps out of the box? There is little reason why it shouldn't.

Apple's ban on VoIP functionality riled many feathers while it lasted. The company's refusal to allow Google Voice to run natively on the iPhone wrecked its relationship with Google, which eventually launched a browser-based HTML 5 app to circumvent the ban. Ironically, VoIP functionality comes to the iPhone barely 24 hours after the launch of the web-based Google Voice app.

If all the talk of HTML 5 has piqued your curiosity, then you may want to give YouTube's new HTML 5 experiment a try. The world's most popular video streaming portal is now offering a HTML5-based alternative to the Adobe Flash player. But the YouTube HTML 5 video player is only compatible with three browsers: Chrome, Safari, and  Internet Explorer with  ChromeFrame. While other browsers may support HTML 5, only the two mentioned above support the H.264 video codec at this moment.

Mozilla and Opera have chosen to support the open Ogg Theora codec instead of the H.264 codec. But before you blithely take the plunge, it is worth reminding yourself that the HTML 5 video player is in an experimental phase and has its limitations. It doesn't support fullscreen viewing and videos with captions, annotations, or ads. Also, the HTML 5 player may not work alongside other Testtube experiments. HTML 5 support in YouTube can be enabled here.

With not many days to go for Nexus One's rumored January 5 release, it is quite natural for the tech rumor mill to be in overdrive. T-Mobile has internally confirmed its involvement in Google's foray into the handset market, says a TmoNews report. However, the carrier was careful not to mention the phone's name. An internal T-Mobile USA support page is said to read: “Google... is scheduled to launch a new Android device in early January.”

The document reportedly goes on to state that T-Mobile will only be managing “billing, coverage, features and rate plans,” with Google and HTC directly handling support. In another relevant development, albeit a more significant and credible one, Google today scheduled a special Android press event for Jan 5 at its global headquarters.

Exactly a week after the much anticipated launch of Windows 7, Canonical rolled out Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). Although it may not have been as keenly awaited as Windows 7, Karmic Koala's launch was special for a particular demographic that romances Linux, and especially its subset that dotes on Ubuntu. But early adopters of the latest Ubuntu release are having a torrid time.

Excited users have been rewarded with a plethora of problems in exchange of their bravura and enthusiasm. Karmic Koala's poor handling of graphics drivers - blank and flickering screens are quite common - and its failure to install the latest 2.6.31 Linux kernel figure prominently on the list of flaws. Also, the latest version of Ubuntu is not too good at spotting hard drives, according to initial reports.

According to a poll on Ubuntuforums.org, more than one-third of about 1,500 people polled so far have encountered some major flaws. Users upgrading to 9.10 are experiencing more issues than those opting for a fresh install.

Image Credit: EeePc.Itrunslinux.com

After the launch of ATI’s Cypress and Juniper parts, ATI’s Mobility Radeon 3870 X2 is now three generations old.

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ASI’s IQ17-D2: Is Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 Still Fast Enough?

The PC industry is keenly awaiting the launch of Windows 7 in the hope that it will deliver it from its woes. Probably, Apple also has its sights firmly fixed on the sandglass counting down to the launch, but for a different reason, of course. Apple need not be fazed by the launch, though, if Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall is to be believed.

According to his analysis of previous Windows releases, a Windows launch has no negative bearing on the sale of Macs. In fact, previous Windows releases have acted as a catalyst for Mac sales.

"We have concluded that no negative correlation exists on Apple's (AAPL) hardware sales when Microsoft launches a new OS. Ironically, we believe new OS launches from MSFT may have even acted as a 'delayed accelerant' to AAPL's computing sales," Marshall wrote in a report.

Image Credit: Cnet

Nokia has announced that its upcoming netbook, the Booklet 3G, will make its U.S. debut in November. AT&T and Best Buy will serve as the Finnish mobile phone giant’s launch partners. The netbook will be available for $299 with a two-year AT&T service contract.

Those not too keen on a two-year contract can buy the untethered version for $599. The choice seems to be between Mt Everest and K2. In an attempt to tap the launch of Windows 7, Best Buy will begin accepting orders for the netbook on October 22nd.

The Intel Atom-powered device features Windows 7 Home Premium, a 10.1” screen, Wi-Fi, inbuilt 3G connectivity, GPS, a 120GB HDD and 1GB RAM.

Image Credit: Nokia

Microsoft had announced last week that Sprint, AT&T and Verizon have all committed themselves to the October 6 launch of Windows Mobile 6.5, now Digitimes’ trusted unnamed sources – the finest in Taiwan - have revealed that Microsoft has secured the backing of many other telecom carriers around the world, including NTT DoCoMO, T-Mobile, Orange, Softbank Mobile, SKT, Telstra and Telus.

According to Benjamin Tan, senior director of Microsoft's GCR Mobile Team Unit in China, there will be more than 30 smartphones running WinMo 6.5 by the end of this year. He told a congregation of reporters in China that the first batch of WinMo 6.5 phones will be supplied by 15 different handset vendors.

Digitimes added that HTC, Acer, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba, and Hewlett-Packard are among the handset vendors backing the new mobile OS.

Image Credit: PhoneMag