TOP TECHNOLOGY NEWS

A fake leather-bound book-shaped case for a laptop computer is pretty dumb, but then the MacBook Air isn’t really like any other laptop computer. Instead of winding up with a huge behemoth of a case desperately trying to squeeze a computer inside, like a portly gentleman trying to hide his belly with a tent-like shirt, you can slide the tiny MacBook Air anywhere you like. And one place we like is inside the new Pad & Quill Cartella case.

Updated: We changed the speed data to reflect carrier-reported speeds for all four carriers, on January 26, 2010 at 1 p.m. Eastern.

In 2011, wireless carriers are banking on you going 4G with your next smartphone purchase.

Verizon says it will release 10 different 4G-enabled handsets in the next year. AT&T says it will double that number, with 15 of its own offerings being Android OS-based devices. And T-Mobile, which offers a handful of 4G phones, claims its network is “America’s largest 4G network.”

But with all the wireless industry jargon being thrown around in marketing campaigns these days, it’s still unclear just what each carrier means when it touts its network as “4G.”

Let’s take a look behind the fog of marketing jargon that U.S.

If leaked Verizon screenshots are to be believed, then Motorola’s Xoom will arrive stillborn, dead before it even launches. Pictures showing the MAP, or Minimum Advertised Price, of the upcoming Motorola Android tablet list it at $799. The equivalent 32GB 3G iPad is $729.

The problems are manifold. First, the price of the iPad is widely perceived to be $500, and any other tablet will be compared in the regular consumer’s eyes to that price point, despite it being unfair.

Those looking forward to the new multi-touch gestures in the forthcoming iOS 4.3 for the iPad are in for a disappointment. In the release notes of the latest version, iOS 4.3 beta 2, Apple has made clear that the four and five-finger gestures that appeared in the first beta are merely for testing purposes. They won’t make it into the final version.

This beta release contains a preview of new multitasking gestures for iPad.

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This is the cutest thing you’ll see today. The Fuzzy Wuzzy is a felt camera case that looks just like a little camera. The big blanket-stitches make it even more endearing, and if you don’t have a camera small enough to fit in (it works great with compacts like the Canon S95), you can always use it to carry a phone, or even photo accessories.

The Fuzzy Wuzzy looks like a little plush Leica, and closes with a Velcro fastening to save scratches.

I have been skeptical of iPad and iPhone styluses in the past, but the Alupen, a chunky, pencil-shaped, rubber-tipped pen arrived in the mail today, and it has changed my mind.

The whole point of the iOS user interface is that you can control it with a fat finger. A stylus is necessary on a Windows tablet, as you need to hit targets designed for a pixel-sharp mouse pointer, but on the iPad, it’s superfluous. As Steve Jobs has said, “if you need a stylus, you’ve already failed.”

But it turns out that the iPad is also great for painting, drawing and writing, and the fingers are hopeless for these tasks (unless you are daubing paint in kindergarten).

Who carries a pocket knife anymore? If you travel by plane with any regularity, then probably not you. Victorinox, the makers of one of the world most famous pocket knives, knows this and has decided to put something a little more TSA-friendly into the skin of its legendary Swiss Army Knife.

It’s not a pen-drive: It’s an SDD. The world’s smallest, according to Victorinox, despite managing to pack in up to 512GB storage.

LAS VEGAS — Just as TV manufacturers have been hawking 3-D TVs with barely any 3-D content to watch, carriers are heavily promoting 4G devices for networks that have spotty coverage at best.

After years of hyping up its fourth-generation cellular network, Verizon on Thursday announced 10 4G devices that will be rolling out this year. AT&T also said this week that it plans to release 20 4G devices by end of 2011.

LAS VEGAS — LG Electronics on Wednesday introduced its new Smart TV platform bringing apps, games and web-streamed movies to its latest televisions.

The platform will enable LG televisions to expand their capabilities with apps served through LG’s app store, which contains apps from major content providers such as Hulu, Netflix and Vudu. Third-party developers from all over the world also have the opportunity to develop apps for Smart TV, according to LG.

The Smart TV interface is controlled with LG’s “Magic Motion” remote control, which includes a gyroscope that can detect shakes and rotations for navigating the menu and playing games.

Is it possible to build a better Post-It note? One look at Jun Inokuma and Yuri Naruse’s house-shaped block of sticky-notes says yes.

The house shape is no coincidence – Inokuma and Naruse are architects – but it is also something of a by=product of the shape of the stickers themselves. Imagine slicing a house-shaped loaf of bread.