Hasta La Gadget!

For anyone who likes to make sure the person on the other end of an instant message knows their true feelings by using emoticons, you’ll be happy to know that a prototype of a special emoticon keypad was shown at CES earlier this month. Displayed at the Lavatelli booth, the keypad has a 4×4 grid of bubble buttons that make it easy for you to hit the right emoticon. No more accidentally typing the wrong letters or symbols to create a nonsensical emoticon.

The keypad looks more like a Boggle game, and this device will surely end up on gadget gag Web sites, rather than serious retailers. You must know someone in your life that overuses emoticons. Send that person a hint by buying him or her the emoticon keypad when it’s eventually released. We’ll keep you posted on the date. 😀

[Via Geek.com]

Yowtch. The Motorola Xoom was largely considered the big tablet his of this year’s CES, thanks in no small part to the fact that it was really the only one running Android 3.0 Honeycomb–the first version of the mobile OS designed specifically with tablets in mind.

So, how much will you have to pay for this eagerly awaited device? One would imagine the company would undercut the price point of the tablet’s chief competition–Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab. Nope. If these leaks are to be believed, the tablet is going to carry a rather lofty unsubsidized price tag of $799.99.

The news comes from a “tipster” over at Android Central, complete with a sheet featuring the minimum advertised price of the Xoom and other devices, all subsidized and a heck of a lot cheaper than Motorola’s upcoming tablet.

It certainly feels like the iPad 2 is coming in the next few weeks? In the wake of CES’s massive tablet lovefest, we’ve seen a parade of iPad rumors, all seemingly pointing to the fact that Apple would be unveiling something soon. And besides, Apple’s fairly regular release schedule pointed to a late January event (the first iPad was announced on January 27th of last year).

Here’s another interesting little potential hint. In the second beta of iOS 4.2, a thumbnail seems to actually give away the release date of the new tablet. In the past version, the iOS, the old calendar icon had a big “27” on it–the day in January that the last iPad was released. The new icon, meanwhile, spots a big “9.”

Could Apple be releasing the new iPad on the 9th of February? Seems like a long shot, sure, but in the world of Apple rumors, everything is fair game.

Is Apple loosening its strong anti-adult content stance? Playboy founder Hugh Hefner announced via Twitter today that his magazine’s content–all of it–will be hitting Apple’s popular tablet.

“Big news!” the robe-clad magazine magnate tweeted. “Playboy–both old & new–will be available on iPad beginning in March.” The content, Hefner confirmed in a follow up response, will be “uncensored,” including the “whole magazine from the first issue to the latest.”

Apple–particularly CEO Steve Jobs–has barred all adult content from its App Store. Last April, Jobs famously told the press, “You know, there’s a porn store for Android. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That’s a place we don’t want to go–so we’re not going to go there.”

No word on Apple’s end whether the company will be “going there” with Playboy.