That's right, the Nexus 10 tablet has been officially outed through pictures posted on Google+. And it was no slip-up either. Google exec Vic Gundotra is on vacation somewhere incredibly gorgeous (who knows, maybe Google paid for the vacation so he could do this "stunt") and has taken photos with a Nexus 10 and posted them on his Google+.

Of course, these pictures then went out to his 3.3 million followers. We're only 3 days away from when the Nexus 10 is supposed to be unveiled. Now, that in and of itself isn't that big of a deal, or at least it wouldn't be until you learn some of the specifications of the new device. Most important is the screen resolution, 2560 x 1600.

This is notable because it is higher than both the iPad 3 and iPad 4's Retina displays, an impressive feat. And, with the pictures that have been posted, we can also comment on the shooter, which is clearly a good camera specimen. It took some incredible shots of what I imagine to be an incredible vacation.

With the ever-increasing pervasiveness of technology, it was only time until someone figured out that airplane boarding passes could be read by smartphones and the data displayed to the user. Unfortunately, it was discovered that these boarding passes lacked any sort of simple security, such as encryption.

Users who use the PreCheck system can decode their barcodes and find out whether or not they would be randomly checked before they ever left home. The US PreCheck system allows frequent flyers and people willing to pay $100 to sometimes skip some parts of security, though it is random whether or not you will be checked.

This "randomness" is decided ahead of time and encoded in the barcode. A quick scan with a smartphone, or a quick look with your eyes, divulges whether or not you've been randomly selected. "The disclosure of this information means that bad guys are not going to be kept on their toes anymore," Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union, said.

Here's a study I'm sure Microsoft will be extremely happy to see. It seems like people do believe that Microsoft has gotten better over the years at making Windows a safer operating system, something that people previously despised Microsoft for. Avast AntiVirus ran a survey of over 350,000 computer users who installed or re-licensed their software and found some really interesting results.

In the study, Avast found that Microsoft did a great job of promoting the new operating system as 56 percent of respondents new that Windows 8 would soon be released. Of the respondents, 65 percent were using Windows 7, 22 percent XP, and 8 percent on Vista. Curiously, 3 percent didn't know which they were using.

18 percent of respondents said that Windows has "definitely gotten safer over the years." 46 percent thought that it probably had and 30 percent weren't sure. 4 percent said probably not and 2 percent said definitely not. A combined 46 percent said either probably or definitely yes that Windows 8 would be safer than previous versions.

I have to admit, I absolutely love SwiftKey. It's one of the first apps I install on any new Android-based device I use, personally or for reviews. The developer behind the application has just announced something new, SwiftKey Flow.

SwiftKey Flow infuzes the power of SwiftKey's predictive algorithms, and puts a new spin on continuous input, offering real-time prediction as you begin to "flow" a word on the keys. Sounds amazing, eh? Check out the video above!

There are already apps like this out, such as Swype, but SwiftKey's prediction engine is very, very powerful. From the start of your finger touching the screen, SwiftKey Flow begins offering you predictions based on the movement of your finger - as soon as you let go of the screen, SwiftKey Flow will enter your word onto the screen. The application has been "engineered to simultaneously support both typing by 'tapping' on the keys (SwiftKey as you currently know and love it) and gliding across the keyboard".

ASUS Australia invited Aussie journalists to see and *touch* the new range of Windows 8 notebooks & tablets.

Vivian Hung, Regional head of ASUS Australia described the notion of "design thinking" for the new family of devices. Hung introduced the new VivoTab family, which was the "first ASUS Windows 8 tablet" before introducing Anson Zhang, the product manager for tablets in Australia.

Zhang provided some numbers from Telsyte Research about the forecast of tablets in Australia, "11 million Australians will have tablets by the year 2016" he informed the crowd shortly after asking how many people had tablets (about 90% of the attendees raised their hands). In other words, about one in every two people in Australia will have a tablet in 2-3 years; this isn't really surprising due to the influx of affordable tablet devices coming out.

TSMC have something to be happy about right now, posting a record third quarter profit. The company posted a net profit of 49.3 billion New Taiwan dollars ($1.69 billion), which is a 62% jump year-over-year, and beating over 24 analysts' expectations.

TSMC-powered smartphones and tablet demand continue to expand, even in an economy which isn't doing so well. TSMC's flagship 28nm technology has given them an advantage over the competition, and the company has said that is directly responsible for doubling chip shipments in Q3. TSMC have said that chips built on the 28nm process accounted for 13% of total wafer revenue.

Morris Chang, TMSC Chairman, says that the future will be a little dull, expecting revenue to fall in the final three months of 2012. Chipmakers like Intel are scaling their productions back in the fourth quarter, citing reduced demand. Even with Q4 not looking so good, TSMC are optimistic about 2013 and the future, where Chang believes that TSMC will continue to outgrow the semiconductor industry in the coming years, as they has positioned themselves well in the smart device markets.

Here we are again, three months later and we have Apple's Q4 financial results to share with you. Not long after the Cupertino-based company unveiled their new iPad mini, fourth-generation iPad and refreshed Macs, their Q4 financial results are surprising in more ways than one.

Apple posted a revenue of $35.97 billion with a net income of $8.2 billion, up from $28.27 billion and $6.62 billion this time last year. Apple's earnings fell short of analysts' expectations of $8.75 per share, reaching just $8.67 per share. Apple reportedly lowered their forecast for the first quarter of fiscal 2013 from diluted earnings per share of $15.49 on revenue of $55 billion to $11.75 on revenue of $52 billion.

Analysts are pegging this on continuing supply problems, but I have a different idea. During the quarter, Apple sold just 26.9 million iPhones, 14 million iPads, 5.3 million iPods and 4.9 million Macs. iPhone shipments beat analysts' expectations by over 500,000 units, but fell short of analysts' expectations on iPad shipments by around 1 million units.

Our friends over at Corsair have just taken the cover off of their latest computer gaming accessory. Under the cover, we found two new gaming mouse mats designed to "deliver durable, gaming grade surfaces and a best-in-class gaming experience." Dubbed the Vengeance MM200 and Vengeance MM400, these will be the first two models to launch.

"Just as performance sports cars needs premium-quality tires in order to maximize performance on the road, a high-quality gaming mouse mat is essential to maximize the performance of gaming mice like the Vengeance laser gaming mice", said Ruben Mookerjee, Vice President and General Manager of the Components Business Unit at Corsair. "Corsair gaming mouse mats are engineered from the ground-up to deliver the consistent performance that gamers demand, so they can focus on winning."

The MM200 is a "glide-optimized" textile surface that includes fray-resistant edges and a non-slip rubber base. This model will be available in four different sizes, ranging from small to extra large formats. They even have a wide format version so as to accommodate different playing styles.

More and more companies are releasing apps for Windows 8. Amazon has just joined the party with the release of their Kindle app for Windows 8. The app will allow users to read their collection of Kindle eBooks on both Windows 8 and Windows RT. Of course, the app comes with all the features you've come to expect from Amazon and Kindle.

This means the app supports Amazon's Whispersync technology, which "automatically syncs your furthest page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across all your devices that have the Kindle app installed and across any Kindle device." It even comes with the ability to pin your favorite Kindle books to the home screen.

This is great! No longer will I have to wait those extra few seconds to start reading Fifty Shades of Grey. Joking aside, this is a nice feature of the app, and a Kindle app should be well received and welcomed on the new Windows 8 and Windows RT platform. After all, there will be many more potential customers for Amazon with all of these new Windows 8 tablets shipping.

Accidental clicks are a big problem for advertisers as they have to pay for a click that yields them nothing. It's a problem that people have been dealing with since the introduction of mobile advertising. The general thought is the smaller the screen, the more likely you are to accidentally click that tantalizing banner ad.

But is that the only factor? Probably not. How often are you surfing Facebook while driving? You might accidentally click on an ad then, not due to the small screen, but due to you being distracted with driving. GoldSpot is a mobile ad network that has taken a look into the problem of accidental clicks and they have a bit of insight to offer.

They figure that roughly four in 10 clicks on conventional banner ads are accidental. For rich media ads, the number drops to 13 percent, probably due to them being more noticeable as an ad. GoldSpot also believes accidental clicks are more likely to happen in the morning or evening, as you can see in the chart above.