Rumors about the iPad 3 suggest that Apple has plans to bring out an awesome tablet to stay at the top of the market this year as well. But that does not mean that the task is going to be easy. It appears like Samsung has been secretly designing not one, but two different tablets (maybe even more) and the new slates will likely be unveiled at the upcoming Mobile World Congress later this month.

Two unknown devices, with model numbers GT-P3100 and GT-P5100, from the South Korean manufacturer have got Wi-Fi certifications issued by the WiFi Alliance.

Although these devices are being listed as smartphones, the GT-P prefix suggests that we might be looking at new additions into the company’s tablet line-up. Models beginning with GT-P7 have been part of their Android tablet range. Yes, the prefixes differ slightly, but Samsung might be trying to throw us off the trail here.

We doubt whether one of these devices is the earlier rumored monster tablet from the company which is said to be equipped with a quad-core Exynos processor and a 2560 x 1600 display that measures in at 11.6″. And the other one might end up as their answer to affordable slates like the Kindle Fire.

Whatever these are, we believe that MWC will witness at least one Samsung tablet introduced. We will let you know when any new info arrives prior to that. So stay tuned.

For those of you who are wondering about that “Nintendo Network” logo which appeared on a dummy box for Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, it’s certainly a reality and it has now become official. The Nintendo Network is the new name for the company’s online service on the 3DS and it will also be available on the Wii U after it arrives late this year.

The new service will be different from their existing Nintendo Wi-Fi connection services. According to company head honcho Satoru Iwata, the network will offer “competitions and communication among users, as well as the sales of digital content“. They are planning to offer retail games for sale via digital download and add-on content will be available as well.

Iwata revealed that the 3DS already has the infrastructure built into it. “This concept was built into the design of the Nintendo 3DS, and we already have the necessary infrastructure“, he said, “We will prepare the same infrastructure for the Wii U. However, we have not decided the concrete timing of when we will start it“.

As for the Wii U, the service will enable multiple personal user accounts per system, which will finally end their policy of tying software purchases to a single system.

It’s certainly a good thing that Nintendo is finally thinking seriously about the internet. What do you think?

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As we reported earlier, the new update was supposed to bring “enhanced GPS speed”. It was said to allow the device to obtain satellite information via Wi-Fi, which would enable the GPS radio to lock-on quicker. But that is not happening at the moment and complaints have started to pile up.

Before the update it was thought that the Prime’s metal back plate was the reason for the device’s poor GPS performance. But that seems less likely now since the satellite information is being provided via a data connection. And also many users are reporting that the GPS no longer works after ICS was installed, but was working prior to the update.

Although some users are saying that the GPS is working fine, for many others it is completely borked. And where is Asus when all this is happening?

The company earlier stated that the tablet “is not a professional GPS device” and they have already removed details of a GPS radio from the device’s product page. That’s definitely not a good way to keep their customers with them, let alone attracting new ones.  Asus UK is offering refunds or extended warranties to ease customer tension, but that’s not really a good fix either.

We are well aware that high end smartphones are now capable of producing very good snapshots and decent videos.  This time, Polaroid’s SC1630 camera is blurring the line.  It runs Google Android phone OS . Hence, it’s a camera that can make phone calls. In this respect, Polaroid prefers to call this device a “phone camera” (stress on “camera”), and not your regular “camera phone”.

Let’s see what is known about the “camera” part first. It’s a 16 Mpix shooter for stills that is also capable of shooting HD videos. The lens has an optical 3x zoom (6.5–18.5 mm which translates into 36–108 mm when compared to full-frame format). It also has 5x digital zoom, but as usual, we don’t go there.

The camera face of the device looks like your ordinary digital shooter, with a regular flash strip. Zoom level can be chosen by convenient “hardware” slider, and the shutter also has a dedicated “hardware” button. Camera view can be adjusted with the help of 3.2 inch multi-touch widescreen display. There are 18 shooting modes to choose from, plus face and smile detection for portrait mode. Transferring photos to Polaroid printers can be made via WiFi, or Bluetooth, or saved on camera with up to 32 GB microSD card.  All in all, it’s your regular 16 Mpix shooter.

The Android face of the Polaroid SC1630 leaves many things to be desired though. First of all, there’s this delay of no less than 5 sec between stand-by and readiness to shoot that precludes many on-the-go and paparazzi-style shots. Demoed on-board is a customized Android version (must be built around Android 2.3 Gingerbread, or even Froyo.) Polaroid hopes to put Ice Cream Sandwich on the camera at the point when the SC1630 will be released at $299.

The “phone” part of the camera has also a 3G radio but apparently no carrier commitment just yet. At CES 2012, this “phone camera” has got a lukewarm reception at best, but who knows, maybe you will like the idea much better? Here’s a clip from our friends at Phandroid that may help you decide:

When talking about boosting the performance of Verizon Wireless 4G/LTE service, we mentioned the Verizon JetPack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi 4510L as a good supplement to the Sleek 4G signal booster .  Here, at CES 2012, Verizon Wireless and ZTE  have now announced the Verizon Jetpack  EuFi890 model. Developed by ZTE, the Jetpack is a 4G /LTE Mobile Hotspot allowing 4G/ LTE – customers to get download speeds of 5 to 12 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps in 4G/LTE Mobile Broadband coverage areas.  The global ready device will work in 205 different countries, and 125 more with 3G too.

Other key features:

• Support for up to 10 Wi-Fi-enabled devices
• OLED display with interactive keypad
• Backward-compatible with the Verizon Wireless 3G network
• Data usage alerts via text message displayed on the Jetpack
• Wireless Connectivity: 802.11 b/g/n
• Supports Windows®, Macintosh® and Linux operating systems
• Security: WEP/WPA/WPA2 and VPN pass-through support
• Dimensions: 3.49″ x 3.49″ x .70″
• Weight: 4.7 oz

Looking like a 3.49-inch rounded compact plastic square with an OLED display, this particular Jetpack has 3 buttons that let you manage connections, settings and display data usage alerts.  Pricing for the device is not released yet. $269 is the price for Verizon’s Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi 4510L if that’s any indication to you.

With help from Crestron’s AMS-AIP home automation equipment and an intermediary proxy server, Apple iPhone 4S Siri can take over the highly intelligent voice control of lighting, temperature, home theater equipment and more; commanding your home’s WiFi thermostat by voice.

It’s not the first time Siri is used beyond the borders of usual tasks of iPhone 4S, and you can be sure, it won’t be the last one. I can see many new WiFi controlled devices may get a sticker “Siri Compatible” very soon. Talking to your thermostat in the middle of the cold winter night wouldn’t sound weird any more. Especially when listening to these silky soft and tender Siri lady answers and reports.

Tamaggo Inc., a consumer technology company based in Montreal, Canada, has previewed what will be the first consumer picture-taking device with fully integrated, built-in panomorph technology that lets users capture 360° high-resolution, navigable images with just one click.

What this egg-shaped gizmo can do to your 360° world is create stunning panoramas much better morphed than, say, your ordinary StreetView imaging. You need to go to Tamaggo to experience it.

Tamagoo is also not your ordinary rotating Web cam on Googlemobile. Its specs are quite spectacular, too:

Tamaggo Founder and President Jean-Claude Artonne, calls the products of Tamaggo action as Tamaggraphs and tells “that the Tamaggo can freeze the action taking place within the entire 360°-imaging environment, unlike a standard stitching solution that needs multiple snapshots taken over a few seconds, such as required by Microsoft Photosynth and other stitching applications.”

Artonne, also the author of many imaging patents, noted that Tamaggraphs can be taken from distances between 0 (zero) and infinity, no focus required. He also noted that the Tamaggo captures images in four automatic orientations: Sky 360°, Ground 360°, horizontal panoramic and vertical panoramic.

The Tamaggo 360-imager is a 2012 CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards honoree in the digital imaging category.

For availability and pricing pop on over to Tamaggo.

Withings is best known for their “adult” WiFi-connected scale which enables you to track your weight and fitness level through an easy-to-use app that works with the PC or their favorite iOS mobile device. Now they introduce a scale that is designed for infants and toddlers.

That is, the Baby Scale has an upper limit of 55 lbs, accurate to 0.02 lbs, works on 3 AAA batteries and collects its precious weight measurements into a Whitings weight-watching app.

Cédric Hutchings, Withings co-founder had this to say about the new product:

“We are very excited to announce our Smart Baby Scale and offer parents an amazing new way to take care of their newborn or young child. The success of our WiFi Body Scale has proven the benefits of connected weight tracking on adults and we were eager to also bring these benefits to babies and children.”

Withing’s Baby Scale is priced as a $179 WiFi-connected device, which is actually $20 more than its “adult” version.

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While dependence on WiFi when improving speed and accuracy of a GPS lock might be questionable, and we at MobileMag will be glad to have reports from our commenters on how this new firmware update worked for them, the ASUS responsiveness to customer complaints is very laudable. BGR adds to this that ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime gets Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on  January 12th.

There is also good news for the community of developers of alternative, custom, modded ROMs for Transformer Prime. An official ASUS statement announced that their bootloader is locked “due to content providers” requirement for DRM client devices, which is understandable.  Asus went on to further announce that they plan to release an unlock too for the development community.  The only drawback to this, is according to Asus you may not be able to rent videos via Google, and the warranty would become void from Asus;

Regarding the bootloader, the reason we chose to lock it is due to content providers’ requirement for DRM client devices to be as secure as possible. ASUS supports Google DRM in order to provide users with a high quality video rental experience. Also, based on our experience, users who choose to root their devices risk breaking the system completely. However, we know there is demand in the modding community to have an unlocked bootloader. Therefore, ASUS is developing an unlock tool for that community. Please do note that if you choose to unlock your device, the ASUS warranty will be void, and Google video rental will also be unavailable because the device will be no longer protected by security mechanism.

If only someone could talk Barnes & Noble into a similar respect for their modders’ community, unlockable Nook Tablets might be selling so much better.

Although there are many different stylus designs out there to choose from for the Apple iPad, we encourage you to check this one out. The jaja is the first ever pressure sensitive stylus for the iPad and it appears to be pretty impressive.

As you might agree, all the current iPad stylus designs are nothing much more than sticks and there aren’t any compelling reasons to use one instead of your finger. That is where the jaja comes in.

The jaja stylus comes with a new system developed by Silicon Spark called the “ii” system. This new system allows jaja to communicate the pressure that a user applies on the display. And you won’t need wires, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

The two customisable buttons on the stylus will allow you to select menus, and you will be able to change brushes, colors, fonts or tools and all that can be done without moving far from the drawing space.

For communicating with the iPad, the jaja uses high frequency sounds that are above human hearing but can be detected by the iPad microphone. The makers are promising 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, and the stylus has a transparent tip and a USB plug for quick recharging.

The jaja will retail for $69.95 once it gets funding from Kickstarter, and at present is available in black. Check out the video and head here to know more about it.