TOP TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Amazon may release two tablet devices by the end of 2011, according to a report based on an anonymous tipster.

The first device, code-named “Coyote,” will reportedly run on Nvidia’s Tegra 2 processor, like many of the current generation of Android tablets being released this year, according to The Boy Genius Report.

The second tablet, according to the source, will be a different animal entirely.

It’s a sickness, I know, but when I see a piece of gimmicky junk on sale I immediately start searching out its weaknesses, the dumb design defects that will disappoint buyers. So you can imagine my joy when I found out about Talking Recordable Envelopes.

These envelopes have a small widget inside onto which you record a ten-second message.

Google’s Android mobile platform is a force to be reckoned with. In the three years since the operating system first landed on a phone, Google booted top phone manufacturers RIM, Apple and Nokia from their resting places as market leaders. Two of every five phones sold in 2011 will be Android devices, according to estimates by IDC research.

Among other things, Android’s explosive growth is due to its enthusiastic community of developers.

I loved that little OCD cleaner bot MO in WALL-E. I also love dogs. But somehow, combining the two just ends up…weird.

I’m talking about the “Puppy Robotic Vacuum Cleaner,” whose name is actually a bit misleading. Puppy Robotic is composed of several parts: A “mother dog” base — complete with “docking tits” (seriously!) — and four mini-Roomba style “puppy” cleaners with “docking mouths” (how else would they suckle power from their mother unit?).

Contrary to last week’s reports, the white iPhone is not actually thicker than the black iPhone.

So said Apple VP Phil Schiller in a private Twitter message sent to a reader of 9to5 Mac.

“It is not thicker, don’t believe all the junk that you read,” said the purported Schiller tweet.

Consumer Reports backs up Schiller’s assertion, having placed both models in a set of accurate digital calipers. Both models are 0.37 inches thick, according to CR’s lab tests.

The near mythical white iPhone 4 has finally launched, just ten months after it was first announced. The white version of the iPhone was supposed to go on sale at the same time as the black one, way back in June 2010.

Speculation on the cause of the delay has of course been in direct proportion to Apple’s silence on the subject. Reasons have included light spilling into the camera thanks to the light surface, to problems with paint, to home buttons that didn’t match the rest of the case.

Emergencies and natural disasters are when we need reliable communication most — and that’s often the very time that cell towers get swamped and fail us.

In order to prepare for such situations, AT&T has released the Remote Mobility Zone, a kind of impromptu cell tower in a small package that can be quickly deployed after disaster strikes (or when connecting to regular towers just isn’t happening). They can be set up in any area AT&T normally offers coverage, when the service is disrupted for whatever reason.

It looks like Apple is finally getting on top of runaway iPad 2 sales. Head to any online Apple Store today and you’ll be presented with a 1-2 week wait. This is down from the 3-4 weeks that buyers have had to kill since the launch of the iPad 2.

In fact, up until now, the only reliable way to get an iPad 2 in a reasonable amount of time was to head to an actual Apple Store first thing in the morning and join the queue.

Ever since Google’s tablet-optimized version of its Android OS debuted on the Xoom in February, manufacturers have been scrambling to bring their tablets to market. Next up on the list is Acer’s offering, the Iconia Tab A500.

If you haven’t used Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) before — and unless you own a Xoom, odds are you probably haven’t — it takes a bit of getting used to. Eliminating the four buttons that anchored so many Android phone faces means retraining yourself to handle a new interface.

You remember how — back when people still bought MP3 players — almost everybody had an iPod? I say “almost”, as there were some holdouts who opted for non-Apple players. But they weren’t buying Sony or Samsung in any numbers. They were buying the cheap-o players that cost pocket money.

And so I think it will go with tablets other than the iPad.