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LG Electronics has unveiled plans to release an Android tablet early next year, becoming the next company to try to get in to the quickly growing tablet market.

The company, which is also the world's third largest mobile phone vendor, says the tablet will be 8.9-inches and run on the upcoming Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

In addition to the market leader iPad, Dell, Samsung and Toshiba have already launched tablets and HP, RIM and others have promised devices for next year.

Earlier this year, LG abandoned plans to launch an Android 2.2 tablet claiming the OS was not suitable for tablets.

There was little other details revealed about the upcoming tablet.

Bianca Wofford of San Diego has sued Apple today claiming the company violated the Consumer Legal Remedies Act while also using false and deceptive advertising.

The suit also claims that Apple used unfair business practices.

Wofford, an iPhone 3GS owner, claims that since she upgraded her device to iOS 4, her smartphone has experienced slow keyboard response times, lag, and fast battery drain.

She is certainly not the only one to have the same experience. iPhone 3G owners, especially, have complained of the same symptoms since updating their devices to iOS 4 in June.

In the suit, Wofford claims that iOS 4 has made her 3GS practically unusable, and Apple has left her no options but to upgrade to the iPhone 4 or jailbreak her device so she can downgrade back to iOS 3. The latter option is legal, but will void her warranty.

Wofford is looking for class action status and asking for $5000 USD for everyone whose phone is now unusable after the update.

Cnet has posted the full suit:
iOS 4 Lawsuit

Skyfire, the new browser application which promises Flash playback on iOS device has been pulled from the iOS App Store, showing as "sold out" as the company looks to increase its server capacity.

Says one developer with the company: "Please bear with us as we bring our capacity in line with the incredible demand -- stay tuned."

There is no timetable for the browser's return to the App Store.

Skyfire gets around Apple's ban on Flash by taking Flash video, rendering and translating it to HTML5 and then redisplaying it, showing users a thumbnail they can click to play the video. This in turn lead to the capacity problems.

"The user experience was performing well for the first few hours, but as the surge continued, the peak load on our servers and bandwidth caused the video experience to degrade," said the developer (via IW).

Skyfire for iOS sells for $3 in the App Store.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset must be kicking herself today.

Thomas-Rasset, the American woman who has been fighting the RIAA in court for the last four years over 24 unauthorized songs she downloaded and shared online, has lost again in court, with a jury finding her liable for $1.5 million in copyright infringement damages.

That equals out to $62,500 per song she shared.

The RIAA was ecstatic with the decision (via Cnet): "We are again thankful to the jury for its service in this matter and that they recognized the severity of the defendant's misconduct. Now with three jury decisions behind us along with a clear affirmation of Ms. Thomas-Rasset's willful liability, it is our hope that she finally accepts responsibility for her actions."

In 2007, Thomas-Rasset was found liable for $1.92 million in damages, but a retrial saw the fine dropped to $220,000.

Earlier this year, however, a Federal judge found the fine to be "shocking" and reduced it to just $54,000. The RIAA told Thomas-Rasset that they would accept $25,000, if she would agree to ask the judge to remove the decision from the record. She did not accept the terms of the deal.

The Toshiba Folio 100 tablet is now available in Europe, however only the Wi-Fi model is currently available with 3G versions hitting in February.

Toshiba's first Android tablet will run 2.2 Froyo and have a large 10-inch with 1024x600 resolution.

Additionally, the tablet has support for Flash 10.1, 16GB of internal memory, a front-side 1.3MP camera, HDMI out and an SD slot for added memory.

The Folio runs on a Nvidia Tegra 250 chip, making it one of the few mobile devices to use Nvidia's powerful line of processors.

Toshiba has placed their own Toshiba Market Place on the tablet, as access to the Android Market is still not supported. The Toshiba Market has 2000 apps available.

The Folio 100 is selling in Europe for £329 now.

Google has said today that it has converted 80 percent of all YouTube videos into the open-source WebM video format, while at the same time working with manufacturers to add more hardware support for the codec.

WebM is H.264's largest rival in the video format world.

Product Manager John Luther noted that Google has been diligent in developments over the past months, but there is still a long road ahead for WebM.

For now, WebM is not widely supported, but it will be in Firefox 4, Opera 10.5+ and Chrome 6.

You can view the videos via Safari or Internet Explorer using third-party additions.

Google added that the first hardware chips with native WebM support will hit in the Q1 2011.

Microsoft has confirmed that it is purchasing Canesta, a small 3D chip making company that specializes in gesture-recognition tech.

Canesta is best known for chips that, when coupled with digital cameras, give many devices a 3D effect, and a sense of depth perception (as pictured).

The Redmond giant did not disclose how much it paid for the chip maker.

Notably, the 3D tech used in the newly-launched Kinect motion control system was created by Canesta's rival PrimeSense.

"I'm excited to be way out in front and want to push the pedal on that," added CEO Steve Ballmer, when he was asked about company plans to advance gesture technology outside of just Kinect.

Analysts speculate Microsoft will use the Canesta tech to begin equipping PCs, HDTVs and Windows Phone 7 devices with gesture-recognition tech.

TUAW has posted a picture today that has lead to speculation that Verizon will announce the much-anticipated launch of the CDMA iPhone on November 9th.

Verizon has been adding service staff in the last month, with TUAW speculating that the carrier has doubled its service staff "assigned to handle number porting requests."

There would be little reason for Verizon to add so much staff if not expecting a lot of users to port from other carriers.

The picture shows a training notice sent out to customer service staff describing an upcoming "iconic device" that will go on pre-order starting November 9th.

TUAW does note that the Motorola Droid Pro has been given the same "Iconic Device" tag, so the validity of the rumor is still up in the air.

Could make for an interesting Tuesday.

Prime Minister of Great Britain, David Cameron, is set to announce big plans for establishing East London as one of the world's great technology centers.

Looking to spur the creation of private sector jobs to make up for public sector losses due to state spending cuts, British Prime Minister David Cameron has identified the tech industries as a safe bet for government backing and investment in the UK.

Later today, he is expected to announce that the likes of Facebook and Google are set to invest in the East London Tech City plan. He wants the area, which include Olympic Park, to give Silicon Valley a run for its money over the coming years.

"Right now, Silicon Valley is the leading place in the world for hi-tech growth and innovation," Cameron will say in a speech to businesses and entrepreneurs. "But there's no reason why it has to be so predominant. Our ambition is to bring together the creativity and energy of Shoreditch and the incredible possibilities of the Olympic Park to help make east London one of the world's great technology centres."

He will report that the response from international technology firms and venture capitalists to the plan has been overwhelming, and announce several firms that have agreed to invest in the area, including Intel, Cisco and BT.

Following the discovery of viable bomb materials hidden in parcels destined for Chicago, YouTube has decided to remove videos featuring an American-born radical cleric.

Anwar al-Awlaki reportedly appeared in over 700 videos available on the YouTube, the world's largest video hub, which amounted to a total of 3.5 million views. He was recently charged in absentia in Yemen with incitement to kill foreigners after the discovery of U.S.-bound explosives.

Following the developments, YouTube repeatedly received calls from British and American officials requesting that the cleric's videos, which often contained calls for a holy war, be removed from the service. In September 2008, YouTube already changed its policies, banning the upload of videos "that incite others to commit violent acts, videos on activities such as how to make bombs and footage of sniper attacks."

However, YouTube's system depends on users actually reporting videos that do not adhere to the upload guidelines. US Congressman Anthony Weiner, a Democrat from New York, who has dubbed al-Awlaki as the "bin Laden of the Internet," wrote to YouTube requesting that the site move to rid itself of the cleric's message.

Viewsonic has unveiled their new 3DV5 pocket-camcorder this week, giving consumers a chance to record film in 3D without the need for glasses.

The device has a 2.4 inch autosterescopic screen, similar to the one used in the upcoming Nintendo 3DS handheld. The 3DV5 also has an HDMI output for users who want to playback the recordings on 3D HDTVs.

Outside of its 3D aspects, the camcorder is not all that special, costing £150 and bringing just 10MB of internal memory. You will need to purchase an SD card to use the device.

The 3DV5 will record in 720p HD.

Says the company: "Everyone has watched 3D movies at the cinema, and lots of people are considering purchasing a 3D compatible display, whether a TV, monitor or projector. However, there is a lack of available 3D content, and people want to create 3D content that they will be able to watch for years to come."

Dell has announced a deal to buy a cloud-computing company after it recently lost a bidding war with Hewlett-Packard for cloud firm 3Par.

Dell has been eager to buy into cloud computing, which allows users to access files, services, software and all kinds of other content remotely using the Internet. All around the world, businesses are turning to the cloud for solutions to cut costs on servers and local software licenses, and all the big tech companies want a piece of the action.

Dell, the world's third largest computer maker, said that Boomi would help businesses reap the full benefits of cloud computing. "Twenty-six years ago we helped accelerate the move to client-server computing," said Steve Felice, president of Dell's consumer and small and medium-sized businesses division.

"Today we'll help drive a similar transformation with customers turning to the cloud to drive costs down and innovation up."

UK communications regulator Ofcom has threatened two telecom firms over bogus bills they had demanded customers pay up.

TalkTalk and Tiscali were threatened with fines by the regulator after they had billed customers for services that were canceled previously. Over 1,000 consumers contacted Ofcom complaining that they received agressive demands from the two providers for the payment of bills they didn't owe to them.

TalkTalk bought Tiscali last year and has blamed a new billing system that was introduced since for the billing errors. Tiscali customers on seven different billing systems are slowly being integrated with TalkTalk's own customer database.

Ofcom has warned that many thousands more customers may have been billed wrongfully. TalkTalk said this problem should not arise again after it fixed problems with the billing system that will now stop it from producing spurious bills for customers who have left the services.

"TalkTalk Group has co-operated fully with Ofcom's investigation and we apologise for the inconvenience caused to this limited group of former customers," the company said.

Wal-Mart and Vudu have announced this week that all buyers of physical copies of the new release Toy Story 3 from Wal-Mart will receive a free digital copy from Vudu.

The only catch is you will need to purchase the Special Edition 3-Disc Set on either DVD or Blu-ray. Single-disc sets are not included in the promotion.

Buyers can play their Vudu digital copy anywhere with an Internet connection, including via Blu-ray players, the Boxee Box and other set-tops.

The new offer seems to be following a trend started by Amazon last year with the launch of Disc+ which gives users a free digital copy of over 10,000 titles when they are purchased through Amazon.

Wal-Mart acquired Vudu last year.

The SkyFire browser has been accepted into the iOS App Store today, finally giving million of users a chance to watch Flash videos on their devices.

Skyfire 2.0 will go on sale in the App Store tomorrow morning with a price tag of $2.99.

Lack of Flash has been one of the largest drawbacks of owning an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, especially since over 75 percent of online videos are encoded with the standard.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has made it abundantly clear, however, that native Flash will not be supported on Apple devices, ever, as they kill battery life and generally perform poorly on mobiles.

Skyfire gets around this ban by taking Flash video, renders and translates it to HTML5 and redisplays it, showing users a thumbnail they can click to play the video.

"We will attack those pesky blue Flash error messages," added CEO Jeffrey Glueck.

It is important to note, also, that over 50 percent of videos online are also encoded with HTML5.