Apple have finally confirmed some suspicions people had on the Australian pricing of the soon-to-be released iPad 2, it seems to be slightly cheaper than the original launch last year which is a good thing.

The iPad 2 is set to go on sale this Friday (but strangely at 5pm...) regardless of timezone or city. A breakdown of pricing is below.

It occurs to me that with all of the tablets and post-pc devices landing on shelves in the next few months, tech accessory manufacturers are going to make a killing helping us protect all of our wonderful new gadgets. No wonder Apple made such a big deal out of its iPad 2 case.

ENKI, a delightfully creative tech accessorizer out of Detroit has released a solution to the colorful rantings of yesterday's iPad 2 Smart Cover Fail.

"We've released the Genius Case™ as one of our most innovative products. We feature cases for Apple iPhone, iPad, Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab," said Richard Jones, VP of Business and Product Development. "Our team recognized the need for an iPad 2 case that would work seamlessly with the Apple Smart Cover. We came up with the Genius Case™ and it's a great solution for the new iPad."

Everyone wants to take down the iPad 2, or at least make it remember them. Samsung's new Galaxy Tabs might at least make a dent with its pricing and size variety. Apple offers two options: extra small or extra large (iPod/iPhone or iPad), but in a year that has been all about the portables, Apple hasn't expanded much beyond the original iPad.

As of this summer, Samsung will offer a 7", 8.9", and 10.1" model of the Galaxy Tab, giving the consumer lighter, thinner, and more diverse selection when it comes to choosing a "post-pc" device (are we allowed to use that term to describe things that don't start with "i"?). With a resolution of 1280x800 (iPad 2 only has 1024x768), and a model that's $50 cheaper than most of the competition ($469 for the 8.9" 16g), this summer could see the iPad 2 take some hits.

Samsung Unveils GALAXY Tab 10.1 and GALAXY Tab 8.9,

Ohai, rest of the world- did you want an iPad 2? You're in luck! It ships this Friday to the following countries:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

And if you live east of the Urals, sometime in April you can expect the post-PC device to be available in Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and "additional countries" in the coming months. Unsurprisingly, iPad 2 shipments will see delays in Japan, undoubtedly due to the recent disasters.

Research In Motion (RIM), Canadian company responsible for all things BlackBerry, announced its "plans" to make the new BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet available at a slew of retailers in the US and Canada. The PlayBook will be available in three unsurprising models: 16gb, 32gb, 64gb starting at $499 (for all of you keeping track, that's the same price as the iPad 2).

Though a rep at GDC '11 told me he'd lose his job if he told anyone when it was coming out, we now know thanks to Best Buy that it will be shipping April 19th.

Here's a video of some hands-on PlayBook action from GDC '11:

The much hailed, aesthetically pleasing Smart Cover for the iPad 2 doesn't seem to be working as Apple would have you believe. Sascha Pallenberg of Netbook News was very displeased to find that the cover kept his iPad 2 neither clean nor protected after having purchased one at the recent SXSW Interactive event. He had been originally very enamored with the idea and with Apples' pervasive marketing campaign advertising the beauty and simplicity of the cover:

Apple announced the case with almost as much fanfare as it's vessel as the iPad 2 launch, and many have noted that it seemed like the event was tailored more to the various apps and accessories that the iPad 2 was bringing with it, including the HDMI-out cable, the new versions of iMovie and Garageband, and of course the array of Smart Covers specifically designed for the iPad 2.

Apple's website is suspiciously vague on the subject of protection, touting the case's magnetic features as well as its folding capabilities. Netbook News's Sascha Pallenberg was very, very blunt in his analysis of the case, saying

After years of discussion and appeal, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has finally approved the ".xxx" domain suffix for adult entertainment sites. Though it won't be for some time until the 281st domain suffix becomes applicable, the approval has generated quite the controversy nevertheless.

After browsing close to 100 articles on the subject and standing on the sidelines of the numerous anonymous comment wars of tech blogs, the only thing I could glean, for certain, is that the real beneficiary of the dot-XXX suffix would be the company that originally proposed it: ICM Registry. The Florida-based company initiated the process back in 2005, only to be inundated by protests and threats from religious groups and the Bush Administration, who even threatened to enact legislation to override ICANN if it ever approved the TLD suffix. The Obama administration doesn't seem to care, and I'm not entirely surprised.

Red Light Districts exist, whether by name or by principle, in almost ever major city. If you live in a metropolitan area, you're generally aware of those neighborhoods that contain Sex Shops, Adult Bookstores, Exotic Dancing (and in some cases, more lascivious services). Imagine if someone came to your city and built a warehouse that spanned twenty or so square blocks and named it, I don't know, something like The "ALL PORN IN THE HISTORY OF EXISTENCE IS LOCATED HERE, IN THIS WAREHOUSE. SERIOUSLY, ANY PORN YOU WOULD WANT OR COULD FIND OR HAVE EVEN DREAMED OF ONCE WHILE YOU WERE AT WORK OR IN TRAFFIC IS PROBABLY HERE WAITING FOR YOU TO DISCOVER IT" Building. And they wrote that on the top of the building, which you can conveniently see from space.

This is something I've complained about for years but it seems the big players are only just realising this. It won't stop though as I'm sure AMD are bending over backwards trying to get contracts for next-generation console GPU/APU - yet, wonder why PC gaming is suffering... on with the story! AMD's worldwide developer relations manager, Richard Huddy blames Microsoft and more precisely, DirectX for the lack of great looking games on PC.

It's funny, we often have at least ten times as much horsepower as an Xbox 360 or a PS3 in a high-end graphics card, yet it's very clear that the games don't look ten times as good. To a significant extent, that's because, one way or another, for good reasons and bad - mostly good, DirectX is getting in the way.

Huddy sounds like he's pissed off and rightly so. There is so much more horsepower in a single mid-range GPU when compared to current-gen consoles yet the graphics we receive on PC is barely any better. Should this mean we should pay less for our games? PC's get higher resolutions, AA/AF options, but at the end of the day we're simply not seeing the leaps and bounds we used to in the 90s when the PC was the lead innovation for gaming.

Gateway are rolling out some new AMD Vision equipped notebooks shortly which deliver 'enhanced performance capabilities for mobile computing'. The cream of the crop is the Gateway NV51B05u which sports an AMD E-series processor E-350 with Vision Technology and AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics, both of which allow a user to have a perfect 1080p HD experience and to play casual games - all for just $469.99.

The Gateway NV Series feature a decent ingredients list, full-sized keyboard, 15.6-inch HD widescreen with UltrabrightT LED-backlit display, three USB ports and a HDMI port.

Senior product manager for Gateway notebooks, Eric Ackerson said:

The news is grim for fellow Heavy Rain fans with developer Quantic Dream not interested in making a sequel to its multi-BAFTA winning PlayStation 3 crime saga. Quantic Dream studio boss David Cage confirmed the news at the BAFTA ceremony in London last night where the game picked up multiple awards.

Heavy Rain won awards for technical innovation, story and music - Cage also revealed that Quantic Dreams next game while "still very dark" will explore new territory. He goes on to say:

"We created the genre," he insisted, referring to Heavy Rain's brand of interactive storytelling.