February 15, 2012, 12:08 PM — It's Wednesday, so you know what that means! That's right--besides the week being half over, it’s that time when I dig through the rumors and insinuations about mobile and wireless happenings and quickly summate them, so you can go on with your fact-based life.
HTC launching its own Spotify-like streaming music service
Source: GigaOM, according to "sources familiar with the plans."
Details: In November 2011, HTC bought a stake in Beat, the maker of high-end (or at least high-price) headphones and other audio equipment, a joint project of hip-hop legend Dr. Dre and Interscope Records chairman Jimmy Iovine.
Likelihood: Rather high, given Iovine's statement to the L.A. Times in November that he was excited to see "Beats audio in just about every phone or tablet," and given the collective desires of Android phone makers to differentiate themselves.
Get excited?: Kind of weird, huh, how HTC, among others, is basically ignoring, or discounting, the likelihood of Google Music taking off? Anyways, if you're the owner of an HTC device, or you particularly like their products, it's notable. But it also seems like a very proprietary, locked-in way of approaching music. So if you’re a digital rights advocacy nerd like myself, maybe not.
BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS revision arriving next week
Source: N4BB.
Details: Along with adding native email, calendar, and contacts applications, the purported "OS 2" will include a new Bridge framework for connecting to your BlackBerry phone.
Likelihood: Probably pretty high, given the existence of CES demos, a specific release date (Feb. 21), and BlackBerry's maker having little reason to hide what they're doing.
Get excited?: If you own a PlayBook, sure, you can look forward to, you know, actually emailing people from your tablet.
iPad 3 launching on March 7 with Retina Display and 4G
Source: Quite a few publications, many with simpatico reports, summarized by the NY Times' Bits Blog
Follow Kevin on Google+
