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At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), MSI Computer Corp. is showing two new tablets; one running an Android operating system and the other running Windows.

The two new generation WindPad tablets feature a stylish design and useful functions such as G-Sensor gravity detection, which apparently protects the internal hardware in case the unit is dropped. An ALS light sensor adjusts screen brightness based on surrounding light sources.

The MSI WindPad 100A tablet measures 10.1-inches, is half an inch thick at its thinnest point and weighs 1.6 pounds. It runs Android OS, powered by an ARM processor. It's features include a digital compass, GPS locator, Wi-Fi and optional 3G.

The WindPas 100A also includes USB and HDMI ports for expanding and connecting to other devices. The battery can run for right to ten hours on a single charge.

The MSI WindPad 100W tablet is much like the 100A but runs Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium. It is equipped with an Intel Menlow Z530 processor and a 32GB SSD for storage.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple's iPhone handset is finally going to be available on the Verizon Wireless network.

The report cites people close to the companies, stating that Verizon Wireless will make the announcement of the new partnership on Tuesday in New York. The move will now give U.S. consumers a choice of network when buying an iPhone.

The Verizon phone will be similar to the iPhone 4 but run on the carrier's CDMA technology, WSJ's sources are saying.

AT&T has had exclusive rights to sell iPhones in the U.S. since the first device was introduced back in 2007. Since then, the handset has fueled much of AT&T's subscriber growth.

Smartphones running the Android operating system are offered by all major carriers in the United States, and sales of smartphones running Android outpaced iPhone sales in the second quarter, 2010.

Dell has shown new Alienware-branded products at the Consumer Electronics Show.

The Alienware brand is Dell's premium high-performance PC gaming brand, and now Dell is complimenting the line-up with the new M17x laptop line and new Aurora desktop systems.

The MI7x is Alienware's first 3D-capable gaming laptop when the optional 120Hz w/3D Bundle WideFHD WLED LCD display and NVIDIA graphics card are included. M17x laptops come with the latest mobile Intel processors including the Intel Core i7 940XM Extreme Edition. It's dimensions are listed as (W)16.1" (D)12.6" (H)2.1". As with other Dell products, you build the system yourself online to what you want (here), with prices starting at $1,499.

"Serious PC gamers and enthusiasts who want an immersive, 3D and high-definition sound experience have found their universe," said Sam Burd, Vice President of Dell's Consumer, Small, and Medium Business group.

Dell is showing off its new XPS 17 laptop touting impressive HD and 3D capabilities, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

The new XPS brand edition features a 17-inch high-definition 3D display, which requires NVIDIA NVision 3D glasses (sadly, sold separately) for the 3D effect.

The new 3D capable XPS 17 joins Dell's recently introduced line of XPS laptops featuring booming JBL sound, an integrated subwoofer and crystal clear high-definition screens and, of course, HD video streaming with Skype for the ultimate in HD camming.

The laptop is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor and comes equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M graphics card.

In addition to its 3D screen, the XPS 17 also features NVIDIA 3DTV Play software allowing users to connect their XPS laptop to a compatible 3D HDTV, for playback of Blu-ray 3D titles or popular PC games available in stereoscopic 3D.

China's Global Times newspaper is reporting today that over 50,000 stolen iTunes accounts are currently being sold via taobao.com, a Chinese online store.

Some of the accounts are selling for as cheap as 1 yuan (about $0.15 USD) with others going for as high as 200 yuan ($30.15 USD).

An investigative journalist for the paper says he was able to quickly purchase an account for 33 yuan, given an iTunes username and password, and inevitably the user's credit card and billing address.

Says the report:

Potential buyers are promised access to music and movies through iTunes amounting to seven times more than the amount paid. The only restriction is that all downloads should be made within 24 hours of the transaction being completed at [the site].

Dell has shown off its new Streak 7 tablet that utilizes T-Mobile's 4G mobile network, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

It features the Android 2.2 operating system and is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra dual-core processor. Streak 7 touts a 7-inch multi-touch screen with Corning Gorilla Glass and full Adobe Flash Player 10.1 support. It has built-in Wi-Fi capabilities and Bluetooth.

Armed with front and rear-facing cameras, it is ideal for online communication either through Wi-Fi or over a 3G or 4G network. The high-resolution rear-facing camera combines with seamless social networking integration to make it easy to capture and share multimedia content.

Samsung and Verizon had noted this week that the popular Galaxy Tab tablet will be upgraded to support 4G in its next iteration.

The upcoming model will also include a faster 1.2GHz processor, and a 5MP standard camera.

Currently, the tablet has a 1GHz processor and a 3MP camera.

Added Marni Walden, vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless (via TCM):

The 4G LTE-enabled Galaxy Tab takes full advantage of Android 2.2 to deliver a blazingly fast experience for customers. The 4G LTE-Samsung Galaxy Tab pairs Samsung's advanced technology with the power of Verizon Wireless 4G LTE, so that customers can leap into the future of the mobile multimedia experience.

RapidShare AG has again won in court in a case brought by Atari over the distribution of Atari content through the RapidShare service.

RapidShare originally had lost a case in a lower Düsseldorf court. The court had sided with Atari originally, finding that the file hosting service needed to take responsibility for the content shared illegally by third-party users on its websites.

Yesterday, a higher court overturned the lower court's ruling. "The ruling demonstrates once again that RapidShare is operating a fully legal range and has taken measures against the misuse of its service which go beyond the level that is legally required. We are confident that copyright holders will gradually come to accept this conclusion," RapidShare's lawyer and spokesman, Daniel Raimer, said.

RapidShare also won a case in the United States, with a court declining to rule that the company is liable for the copyright infringement of its users.

Intel has insisted that the "Insider" feature of new Sandy Bridge chips is not intended to be used as Digital Rights Management (DRM).

Instead, the microchip superpower insists that the Insider features are only intended to entice Hollywood studios to make streaming high definition content available on PCs. The technology, consisting of specialized authentication and encryption features and present in second generation Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, establishes a secure connection between streaming services and PCs.

At CES, a demonstration showed the CinemaNow movie streaming site identifying a PC with a Sandy Bridge processor, and then initiating s 1080p stream of Inception.

"Insider gives PCs the level of trust that the studio needs to make their content available. In the past they were very leery of streaming content. It's not a DRM technology at all," said Josh Newman, graphics marketing director at Intel.

The Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group plans to start streaming movies in high-definition to PCs with the new processors. Kevin Tsujihara, president of the group, said on Wednesday that the studio would be making 300 new HD titles available for streaming and may consider streaming some titles in 3D.

Homebrew-loving PS3 owners will be happy to hear the news that George Hotz has "jailbroken" firmware 3.55 on the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console.

He updated his geohot.com website with a single line of text saying just "I made a video". A click on the video link takes you to YouTube to a video he uploaded himself titled, "Jailbroken PS3 3.55 with Homebrew".

In the video he boots a console running stock 3.55 firmware with no modifications to LV2 (with a warning not to patch LV2 or you will brick your console) and notes that there is no USB dongle plugged into the system. He says he ran an lv2diag earlier that added Install PGK (package) files and added a modified NAS Plugin to the flash to ensure the PKG's signature is not checked.

He then installs a PKG that he made earlier and proceeds to boot up "Geohot does homebrew", a simple "Supp daug, it's geohot" message. No files are available to download just yet to do this yourself but most sources are expecting something soon.

EMI has been sued this week by Bagdasarian Prods, the owner of the 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' franchise, over royalties related to a boxset of Chipmunks music.

Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. says EMI has not paid "appropriate royalties" on the 24 song boxset.

Bagdasarian, Sr. created the franchise in 1958 by speeding up his own recorded voice to a high pitch and releasing a number of chart-topping hits, like the Grammy-nominated "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)."

In the suit, Jr. is demanding monetary damages for breach of contract and copyright infringement, looking for a potential $3.6 million ($150,000 per track).

Last year, Jr. sued 20th Century Fox, looking to take half of all the profits for the animated "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Squeakquel." That film made over $400 million, globally. The suit is still pending.

Microsoft has pledged support for System on a Chip (SoC) architectures, including ARM-based systems from partners NVIDIA Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. in the next version of Windows at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Intel Corporation and AMD have continued development of low-power SoC designs that will fully support the Windows platform, including support for native x86 applications. SoC architectures consolidate the major components of a computing device onto a single package of silicon, making it possible to produce smaller, thinner devices while reducing the amount of power required for the device.

At CES, Microsoft demonstrated the next version of Windows running on SoC platforms developed by Intel (x86 architecture) and on ARM architecture platforms developed by NVIDIA, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm. Microsoft Office running natively on ARM was also shown as a demonstration of the potential of Windows platform capabilities on ARM architecture.

"With today's announcement, we're showing the flexibility and resiliency of Windows through the power of software and a commitment to world-class engineering. We continue to evolve Windows to deliver the functionality customers demand across the widest variety of hardware platforms and form factors," said Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft.

Kingston used the Internet Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to announce that its 8GB 2133MHz HyperX memory kits have achieved Intel XMP certification for the P67 Sandy Bridge platform.

The HyperX T1 8GB memory kits are the first to be validated for the platform. The kits were subjected to extensive testing using the Asus P8P67 PRO and Gigabyte GA-P67-UD4 motherboards in Kingston labs. Following success, Kingston submitted the memory to Intel. Intel posted the XMP certification results here.

"The new 8GB HyperX memory kits were designed to push the memory boundaries of the new P67 motherboards in both speed and capacity," said Mark Tekunoff, senior technology manager, Kingston.

"Our 2133MHz T1 modules featuring the signature tall heatspreaders passed the rigorous testing requirements both in-house and at Intel to achieve XMP certification. This is the perfect kit for enthusiasts who want to maximize performance from the new Sandy Bridge platform."

Acer has unveiled the new Aspire AS8950G-9839, a powerful entertainment center laptop, at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Acer claims that the Aspire AS8950 Series delivers an unparalleled high-definition personal theater experience, and it has the specifications to back up such a claim. Powered by the Intel i7-2630QM processor with next generation ATI graphics, it also features a Blu-ray drive and new Dolby audio technology.

"The new Acer Aspire AS8950G is the ultimate portable entertainment center," said Preeta Anil, Acer product marketing. "The new 2nd generation Intel Core i7 processor delivers approximately a 20 percent overall performance gain, while its graphics subsystem delivers performance comparable to an entry level discrete graphics card. This allows the Acer Aspire 8950 to process video and play Blu-ray better than ever."

Key specifications of the Acer Aspire AS89850G are...

• CPU: Second generation Intel i7-2630QM processor with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 and Intel Hyper-Threading Technology
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7
• Memory: 8GB DDR3, upgradeable to 16GB
• Storage (Max): 750GB Hard Disk Drive, 1.5GB Max through dual-hard drive support
• Screen: CineCrystal 18.4-inch edge-to-edge glass LED back-lit display
• Resolution: Full HD (1080p)
• Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon 6850 graphics processor with 2GB of dedicated video memory
• Audio/Speakers: Dolby Home Theater v4 / Acer CineSurround sound system with 5 built-in speakers + subwoofer
• Wireless: 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED
• Communication: 1.3 megapixel HD webcam, digital microphone
• Other: eSATA, HDMI port, Firewire

LogiTech is showing an adapter at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that enables laptop users to easily send audio to their existing speaker systems wirelessly.

The adapter is being made for Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) enabled laptops, which are becoming more commonplace. Several netbooks are also coming to the market that feature Intel WiDi technology. The Logitech Wireless Speaker Adapter uses WiDi wireless connectivity to stream audio from your Intel WiDi-enabled laptop to your favorite speakers.

Simply plug the Logitech adapter into your speakers using the included standard analog RCA or 3.5 mm jacks, launch the Intel WiDi software on your laptop, push "Connect" on your laptop and adapter, and your Intel WiDi-enabled laptop will automatically pair with your speakers.

"Intel's WiDi technology is quickly proliferating in the marketplace," said Mark Schneider, vice president and general manager Logitech's audio business unit. "Now thanks to Intel WiDi and the Logitech Wireless Adapter for Intel WiDi-enabled laptops, it's easy to turn up the volume while you're listening to Pandora or watching a YouTube video. And you can do it with the speaker system you already own."