Apple announces March 12 launch date for iPad tablet.

This past Friday, Apple announced April 3 as the launch date for its much talked about iPad tablet.
At first, Apple will be selling a version that access the Internet through Wi-Fi while another version capable of faster Internet connection through 3G networks, will go on sale later that same month. Talking about networks, AT&T is the selected carrier to support the iPad in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reports.
Apple said that it will begin taking orders for the iPad starting March 12 and the device will be sold through its Web site with AT&T saying it will not sell the device at its stores.
The Wi-Fi version of the device will retail for about $500 while the 3G one will go for about $800 and the device will be available in others countries in late April according to the Wall Street Journal.

For more, see WSJ.com

New services offer books rental by mail.

What Netflix has done with online movies rental sent through the mail, is now being applied to books.
Quoting the Wall Street Journal, new services from companies like Paperspine.com offer the option of renting classics or new releases for a monthly fee starting at $14.95 for up to three books at a time shipped free to and from you with no late fees.
Paperspine is said to have stocked more than 200, 000 fiction and non fiction titles searchable by genre or categories like "bestsellers" or "at the movies." etc.
With their membership, users have over 400,000 unused titles that they can buy at discounts of up to 50%. That option is also available to non members for a $19.95 a year fee.
Another rental service is Bookswim.com which focuses more on newly released best-selling paperbacks and hardcovers. With their monthly starter plan of $19.98, users, can rent three books at a time shipped free both ways and without late fees.
Bookswim.com is not for casual readers only; students can use it to rent books by the semester and have them delivered through third parties like Chegg.com.
For digital book versions, Booksfree.com rents paperbacks and audiobooks in CD or MP3 formats, with plans starting at $10.99 a month. Audible.com, owned by Amazon.com, has more than 60,000 audiobooks, podcasts and audible magazines, which can be downloaded to most digital players or streamed to a computer.

Google Wave, a new multi conversations service.

Last Thursday, Google announced a new service called Google-Wave designed to be a central place where services like email, instant-messaging and documents sharing can be all accessed by one person working alone or a group working collaboratively.

According to the Wall Street Journal," the service, will allow users to start a conversation, called a "wave," and to invite their contacts to join it. Any member of the wave can put photos, notes or other content into the group, which updates in near-real time...Participants can scroll through the wave and see what content has been added to it."

The service which is to be open-source, is in its early developments stages and is slated to be released to the general public later this year.

For more, see mashable.com