News Week of June 6, 2010

iPad User Data Exposed by Security Flaw: AT&T

AT&T said on Wednesday some users of Apple's iPad have had personal information exposed via a network security flaw, two months after the tablet computer was launched and
smashed sales expectations.

The breach, first reported by the website Gawker, led to the exposure only of email addresses, AT&T said in a statement. The wireless operator has exclusive U.S. rights to carry the iPad and the popular iPhone.

The company apologized and said it will inform any customers who had been impacted by the security breach. AT&T said it learned of the problem on Monday and has since corrected the flaw.  (Source: CNBC)

Why Windows 7 'slate' tablets won't happen

Remember all the buzz around Hewlett-Packard's Slate, a Windows 7-based tablet that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer featured in a keynote presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show in January? It was Microsoft's shot across Apple's bow, meant to show Microsoft wasn't ceding the tablet market to the then-unreleased iPad. HP kept the Slate in the blogosphere's eye through occasional posts and carefully vague videos of the device at its Website.

But quietly, the Slate went away, and now the buzz around HP is that it will use Palm's WebOS as the foundation for iPad rivals, once it's completed its buyout of Palm. (On Friday, Digitimes quoted an HP Taiwan exec saying the Slate would use WebOS instead of Windows 7.)  (Source: Galen Gruman, InfoWorld)