"Rumors and potential tablet applications have been quietly circulating for a while now that Nokia will ship a tablet based on its MeeGo OS. Although those rumors haven't been solidly confirmed, photos of what could be a recent prototype (which may or may not have made an appearance in TRON Legacy) emerged over the weekend."

Alienware is currently "trying to gauge the level of interest consumers like you have in buying a new computer that features a Linux-based operating system" through a short (~3 min) survey. The more manufacturers that embrace Linux, the more popular it becomes and the better hardware support we all get, so why not help out?

I just want to put up a little notice to inform you all about the lack of updates on the main page. The problem is that I've been hit by the flu and have been down and out since last Thursday, unable to do the news. The rest of the team has been occupied as well, so that explains that. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, and since I've pretty much almost recovered, normal posting schedule will resume either tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest. Thanks for understanding. Also, read more for the most beautiful piece of art ever created in the history of the universe. And I mean it.

"The Ubuntu developers met last week in Dallas to make final design decisions about the popular Linux distribution's features and decided to use LibreOffice for its office suite."

In order to celebrate the release of Pardus 2011, here's a review of it by LinuxUser, which quickly shows the small touches and attention to details which make this Turkish distribution so special and explains what's new in this release.

"Scientists from Oxford University have made a significant step towards an ultrafast quantum computer by successfully generating 10 billion bits of quantum entanglement in silicon for the first time -- entanglement is the key ingredient that promises to make quantum computers far more powerful than conventional computing devices."

Richard Hillesley has written about the fate of various Sun open source projects since that firm's acquisition by Oracle. He noticeably quotes Oracle CEO Larry Ellison as having said "If an open source product gets good enough, we'll simply take it."

After the infamous announcement by one of Motorola's YouTube channel moderators that those wanting custom ROMs should "buy elsewhere", it seems that Motorola's PR department has taken control back: "We apologize for the feedback we provided regarding our bootloader policy. The response does not reflect the views of Motorola. We are working closely with our partners to offer a bootloader solution that will enable developers to use our devices as a development platform while still protecting our users' interests. More detailed information will follow as we get closer to availability."

"We've seen IBM and ARM team up before, but this week both companies announced a new joint initiative to develop 14nm chip processing technology. That's significantly smaller than the 20nm SoC technology ARM hopes to create in partnership with TSMC, and makes the company's previous work with IBM on 32nm semiconductors look like a cake walk."

"In 2010, exploited Java vulnerabilities outpaced the exploit of Adobe Reader and Acrobat," Landesman, senior security researcher at Cisco, said. "Java was 3.5 times more frequently exploited than were malicious PDFs. That really spells out the need for paying attention to what's making the headlines but also paying attention to the types of things that aren't making the headlines."

"Microsoft quietly announced this week that it has released betas of three updated security testing tools , targeting security professionals and ISVs in an attempt to encourage development of less vulnerable software."

The major U.S. wireless carriers now all have services that, while not 4G under the strictest definition, provide broadband-level speeds without wires. So why not cut the cord entirely and have one broadband connection wherever you go? Here's a look at where 4G coverage is available, what real-world connectivity is like, and how much it will cost you.

"Tim Cook, the acting CEO for Apple, confirmed yesterday that the company will be spending nearly four billion dollars over the next 24 months in what it calls long term component contracts - and we believe that Apple might be on the verge of bringing back Project Aquarius."

"Opera has officially announced its much-loved web browser will be appearing on Sony TVs and Blu-ray players . There's no specific details, but it given its low-key presence at CES a few weeks ago (Sony Insider grabbed a video of it in action on the show floor -- embedded after the break -- unfortunately hampered by slow connection speeds) it will spread at least across the company's 22 new connected HDTVs."