A Reuter’s exclusive: Dell Inc. is planning to launch a consumer tablet in late 2012 in what is becoming a very competitive and hotly contested arena with the latest release of Toshiba’s Excite “world’s thinnest tablet” , iPad 3 rumours and other new tablets currently making tech news headlines.

Founded by Michael Dell, the once dominant Texan company, has seen a growth in smartphones and tablets enticing consumers away from the PC. However, the company has learned from the hastiness of its peers who have entered into the market that consumers value the “ecosysystem” of a tablet as much as the hardware. Chief commercial officer, Steve Felice commented at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that “it now plans a bigger push into the consumer arena” after the company tentatively tried out the enterprise-focused, “Streak” tablet when Dell PC sales began to decline in the global market. While rival companies HP and Research in Motion introduced their TouchPad and Playbook respectively to rival that of Apple Inc, and failed to do so, Dell chose to keep a low profile until the timing was right.

Felice continues, “We have been taking our time and you will see us enter this market in a bigger way toward the end of the year. So we are not really deemphasizing it, we are really being very careful how we enter it.”

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Motribe’s official blog reported that as of January 8th, Motribe reached a significant milestone with the registration of their 10 000th tribe owner. A tribe owner is a user who has created their very own mobile tribe using the Motribe platform, on mobile or desktop.

After launching their mobile tribe builder near the end of 2011, Motribe saw a dramatic increase in the number of new tribes created per day. Since that launch they have been actively improving the experience for tribe owners. In 2012 Motribe’s number one focus is to ensure that the Motribe platform continues to be the best in the world for brands, businesses and users to build sites on the mobile web.

In addition, the chart below has been provided to show where the tribe owners are coming from. The chart accounts for the last 30 days and shows the top ten countries that are creating mobile tribes.

Watch the BandwidthBlog interview with Motribe founders Vincent Maher and Nic Haralambous here.

Google was late to the social network game, but now they are going to try their hardest to make up for lost time. Everyone’s favourite search engine has already started including some results that highlighted if one your Google+ contacts has recommended something in your search results. But now they are taking it to the next level with “Your World” which will actually populate your search results with posts and recommendations from your friends (who are on Google+ of course). These posts will naturally carry some priority over standard search results. Users can still instantly switch between “Your World” results and standard search results. Your World will focus in three key features (as stated by Google’s Blog):

1. Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page; 
2. Profiles in Search, both in autocomplete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following; and, 
3. People and Pages, which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community. 

When a writer for the Discovery Channel’s gear and gadget section found himself trying to explain over and over again that he was talking about the Apple iPhone rather than the Apple fruit during a discussion with his family, he found himself inspired and with the help of MBA Online, created this unique infographic.

The infographic below shows how the one we talk, email and chat from measures up against the one that we eat. The infographic includes the comparison between their distribution, composition, weight and history. Interesting stuff!

View the infographic after the jump:

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You might already be accessing your Facebook account more from your phone than your computer, but clearly Mercedes thinks you need Facebook in even more places. At CES, Mercedes Benz is showing off its latest in-vehicle telematics system that will have Facebook access built in.

Obviously driving does not really go with reading your friend’s status updates, but the latest Mercs will instead be integrating into Facebook’s location services. Drivers can search for businesses and friends on the navigation system, which will then search Facebook’s services as well. With Facebook now being built into TVs and other consumer equipment, it was only a matter of time before we would see it land in vehicles. The problem is the implementation.

Safety is of course a concern – but the system does not distract from the existing navigation system. In fact, text entry is impossible once the car is moving. You can however change your status updates with certain preset statements – think “Jim is driving”. Users can also post their destination and route on Facebook – perfect for over sharers. Perhaps more helpful is that the features that enhance the existing navigation system. Instead of only searching for restaurants around you, the few restaurants that your Facebook friends “liked” will be shown first.

It is not only Facebook that is used however – Google and Yelp are included in search results as well. The new Facebook capable telematics system will be available on the latest 2013 SL-class, but also all Mercs that roll out in 2013.

Let us know – do you think it makes sense to have Facebook integration in your car?

Nokia has announced their latest high end flagship phone  at CES 2012- the Lumia 900. Continuing the beautiful minimalist design of the Lumia 800, the Lumia 900 is a new super sized version with some much improved internals. Still sporting a polycarbonate design, it is apparently a lot more resilient than most new smartphones.

The camera is also taking center stage on this model – it features a 8MP sensor behind a Carl Zeiss wide angle lens with a nice f2.2 aperture at 28mm, and a 1 MP front camera. No mention is made if it is a backlit sensor like the iPhone 4S, but at least at that aperture you should expect some better low light camera performance. The camera can also capture 720p video at 30fps. On the inside there is a 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor (single core though) and 512MB RAM with 16GB of storage. The phone will run Windows Phone Mango 7.5, and also ships with an LTE capable radio (at least in the US). The screen size has been increased to 4.3 inches, but still only packs 800 by 480 pixels. Not that it is anything to sneeze at. That big screen might make you worry about battery power, but its broader design means the Lumia 900 can handle a 1840mAH battery which is good for 7 hours talk time or a claimed 300hrs standby.

As part of Nokia’s adoption of Windows Phone 7, they have enhanced a few things in the software stack – Nokia Drive is a fully featured GPS navigation system which is free with the phone. And no, it is not just a subscription. Social networking is also catered for with Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter integration into the contacts.

Nokia has in recent years fallen behind other smartphone manufacturers in terms of operating system innovation and phone design – but the latest Lumia 800 and 900 really makes us think that Nokia still has some life in it yet. Right now the Lumia 900 is US only, but we will keep you posted when it ships internationally.

Yesterday, Toshiba officially unveiled its new .3-inch-thick Excite 10-inch Android tablet at CES 2012 that took place in Las Vegas.

It’s quite a surprise that the company that developed the hefty and too-thick Thrive, 10-inch Android tablet has now presented the world’s thinnest tablet.

At .3 inches and 1.2 lbs. the Excite X10 is thinner and lighter than the iPad 2, weighing in at 1.35 lbs. However, there are rumours that the iPad 3, that is on its way, could rival these dimensions. The tablet also offers a Micro USB port, a Micro HDMIport, an SD card slot and a dock connector.

The device that will either come with  Android 3.2 or Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, runs on a dual-core 1.2GHz processor with 1GB of RAM, along with a 2 megapixel front facing camera and a 5 megapixel rear facing camera. Additional features include a magnesium alloy back, a Corning gorilla-glass face to prevent scratching and a screen with a resolution of 1280×800 that is built with a special direct bonding technology that allows for such a thin profile.

Toshiba’s Excite X10 is expected to go on sale in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2012 for $529.99 (16 GB) and $599.99 (32 GB).

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Clearly the next big battle in the tech world is TV – not in terms of ever growing screen sizes and resolutions, but rather the software and services that power it. With rumours circling about Apple’s apparent entry into the TV market, many manufacturers are taking a wait and see approach. Not Lenovo though – they decided they will build there first TV as well, and it will be powered by Android. Lenovo is planning to release their first TV in China at first, but international markets will get it later. It should be noted that this TV will not ship with Google TV. Instead it will ship with Ice Cream Sandwich, with Lenovo’s own custom skin, and it will pack some serious processing power. Here are some of the specs:

• Snapdragon processor running at  a healthy 1.5 GHz.
• Two screen sizes – 42 and 50 inch. Both LED, Full HD.
• Built in Webcam with 5 megapixel resolution – great for Skype sessions.
• 8GB of built in storage, which is expandable by SD card.
• The remote control will include a touchpad, and it will recognize your voice with a built in microphone.

The TV will still ship with standard HDMI inputs, so you can still connect your set-top boxes. Lenovo must still announce their streaming services that combine with this TV – which makes us think this was rushed to market as an answer to that apparent Apple threat. Which we are not to certain about either… The idea that Apple would move into a highly commoditzed market like TV manufacturing is still difficult to comprehend, but their advantage will lie in the ecosystem that iTunes will provide. But if a Apple Cinema Display costs $1000, we wonder if Apple can crack the TV market where profit margins are lower than ever.