Steve Jobs unveils iPad

After months of speculation, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has finally unveiled the iPad; a multimedia PC tablet, states Mercury News.

The iPad has a 9.7-inch display and comes in three models: 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of flash memory storage. It's equipped with WiFi and Bluetooth wireless technology, and will offer an optional 3G wireless connection.

The tablet is also an electronic book reader following the roll-out of Apple's online shop called iBooks.

Ericsson is retrenching almost 600 employees from its chip manufacturing plant as the losses sustained by the company including its mobile phone division amounted to EUR1.4 billion (R14.8 billion), says IT Pro Portal.

ST-Ericsson, a joint venture between ST-NXP Wireless and Ericsson, registered a loss of EUR539 million (R5.7 billion) for 2009, despite the fact that the company became the market leader by supplying 6.5 million chipsets to China.

On the other hand, Sony Ericsson has reported a damp quarter riddled with losses. The company posted a fourth quarter loss of EUR190 million (R2 billion) which was the result of the economic recession and was helped by the fall in its smartphone sales as the company struggled to compete against the likes of Apple and Research In Motion.

Citrix Systems predicts that virtual desktops, mobile-Internet convergence, green IT, and cloud computing will be among the top 10 technology trends in 2010, reports Inside Ireland.

Citrix's general manager, Niall Gilmore, says by the end of 2010, 1.2 billion people will carry handsets capable of mobile commerce providing an environment for the convergence of mobility and the Web.

Gilmore notes: "Next year and beyond, there will be a surge in demand for applications accessible on a variety of devices, from desktop PCs to laptops, netbooks, iPhones, Blackberrys and Android-based smartphones. The whole concept of mobility will become infinitely more viable as small devices become much more connected through application and desktop virtualisation."