NYC

Bloomberg Businessweek  just published an amazingly thorough piece on Nokia, pre- and post-Elopcalypse. We've long wondered how MeeGo, an OS that Stephen Elop himself said "inspires both confidence and excitement" in October 2010, could be cast aside so quickly in favor of Windows Phone, an OS still struggling to find traction in the heated smartphone market. Well, now we know.  Bloomberg recounts a January 3rd meeting between Nokia's Chief Development Officer Kai Oistämö and Nokia's freshman CEO. After Kai expressed his concern with MeeGo's ability to effectively respond to Apple's iOS and Android operating systems, the two decided to interview two dozen "influential employees" about MeeGo, ranging from execs to engineers. Here's how Bloomberg recounts the events that followed: Before the first interview, Elop drew out what he knew about the plans for MeeGo on a whiteboard, with a different color marker for the products being developed, the...

Acer's David Lee just hijacked Intel's netbooks and tablets Computex keynote to unveil a brand new 10-inch tablet: the Iconia M500. It's the first in the company's new M Series and runs MeeGo atop an Atom (Moorestown) processor. Its appearance and dimensions are strikingly similar to the company's Android tablet, the A500, and that similarity extends to the resolution of the screen as well: 1280 x 800. The MeeGo interface is a custom Acer skin offering what was described as a "snackable UI." The point seems to be to offer instant access to the things you care about, and the brief demo we saw featured a set of live widgets organized around an "Acer circle." Mr. Lee, an Assistant Vice President with the company, tells us Acer's new 10-incher will be on sale at (not  by , sadly) the end of this year. Update:  We've just added a gallery of hands-on shots below and you'll find video of the M500 after the break. Acer Iconia M500 hands-o...

Okay, so maybe it's not  that  hard to find another Earthling with a C7, but let's be honest -- finding someone with a Nexus S is entirely more likely. For now, however, it seems as if Angry Birds Magic will be reserved for the aforementioned Nokia handset, and while we already heard of its NFC-enabled tricks, seeing it in action is another thing entirely. Our pals over at  Netbook News  were able to snag a quick demonstration at the MeeGo Conference, and it seemed to work exactly as advertised: tap two phones together, and five new levels are gained. Do it with another C7, and you'll score another batch of never-before-seen trials and tribulations. Have a look for yourself above, won't you? Netbook News

Paul Otellini already told us that we'd see new Android tablets running Intel silicon at Computex. Now DigiTimes  is quoting loose-lipped upstream component makers who claim that Acer is set to launch its 10-inch Android 3.0 tablet built upon Intel's Oak Trail platform in July. Mind you that's the  retail  date, making the May 31st kickoff of Computex the perfect event to demonstrate the unARMed Android tablet for the first time in public. Of course, Acer was early with its Android-based netbook back in 2009 so it's no surprise to see the company with another Google first in 2011. And really, without a suitableMicrosoft tablet OS available until 2012, you can bet that Intel's going to be pushing the Honeycomb port to x86 hard over the coming months with rigs from Lenovo and ASUS also tipped by  DigiTimes . Oh, and for whatever it's worth, the Taiwanese rumor rag also says that Acer is "evaluating" an Oak Trail with M...

We're still waiting for a peek at some new hardware, but today's MeeGo Conference in San Francisco has now produced an announcement of another sort. Four companies -- including Red Flag Software, Linpus, 4tiitoo AG, and China Standard Software Company -- have announced that they're each planning to incorporate MeeGo 1.2 into their new MeeGo-based operating systems. All four will be geared towards tablets and feature a "MeeGo-based user interface," while the ones from Red Flag and Linpus will also apparently support netbooks. Head on past the break for Red Flag's press release, and look for its OS to make an appearance at Computex in just over a week's time. Intel

Well what do we have here? We were loitering around the Intel booth here at the MeeGo Conference in San Francisco when we spotted this lonely little device resting unsupervised in the back, so we decided to give it a whirl and snap some pictures. It turns out it's a circa 10-inch tablet made by i-Buddie and built on Intel's recent Oak Trail architecture. Of course it's running MeeGo, but sadly we were unable to connect to the Internet -- something to do with missing WiFi drivers, according to the Intel rep who eventually caught up with us to snatch the tablet from our eager paws. We missed the opportunity to make a video, but take a look at our hands-on gallery below. i-Buddie Oak Trail tablet at Meego Conference 2011

Well, here's something of a surprise. Not only has  Netbook News  managed to get its hands on a reference tablet based on Intel's brand new Atom Z670 processor at IDF Beijing, but one running a new version ofMeeGo with a spiffed-up UI. As you can see above and in the video after the break, it looks to be a marked improvement over the tablet interface that was just shown off at Mobile World Congress in February, with it offering both a more refined appearance and what appears to be a more intuitive navigation system. Like what you see? Then you'll likely be seeing even more of it shortly -- there's a "MeeGo Day" planned for April 14th. Netbook News