Today in Tech: iPad 3 this fall, the Facebook phone

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  HP took the lid off its next-gen mobile strategy yesterday and unveiled the 9.7-inch Touchpad, a 1.6-pound tablet with a 1.2 GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor running off webOS — the same operating system Palm’s most recent products used — 1,024 x 768 resolution display like the iPad, Beats audio along with Adobe Flash 10.1 and HTML5 support. The company also announced two webOS smartphones, the 3.6-inch Pre 3 and  2.6-inch Veer. The Pre 3 sports a sliding QWERTY keyboard and 1.4 GHz Qualcomm processor, while the Veer will have a 5-megapixel camera and 8GB of built-in memory. A synergistic “Touchstone” feature lets the devices share info like  by tapping them together. Fortune senior writer Michael Copeland spent some quality time with the Touchpad yesterday and walked away impressed, pointing to the polished OS and user interface. (eWeek and Fortune)

• The iPad 3 — yes, 3 — may arrive sooner than you think. Though the iPad remains the subject of much speculation, sources tell TechCrunch the third-generation Apple tablet could launch as soon as September, and not just because Daring Fireball’s John Gruber recently guessed as much. Whereas the iPad 2 may be what the iPhone 3GS was to the iPhone 3G (ie. a small hardware bump), the iPad 3 could be the real game changer this year. “I’m certain that Apple sees the potential and the high stake,” wrote Gruber. “They’re not going to leave any gas in the tank pushing the iPad hardware specs forward as fast as they can.” (TechCrunch and Daring Fireball)
• The tablet news just keeps coming. Not one to be completely outdone, the 16 GB version of the BlackBerry PlayBook will hit Office Depot and Staples for  a competitively-priced $499 come late March or early April. (Crackberry)
• Is Twitter worth between $8 billion and $10 billion? That’s what some people are saying despite the fact that the social network raked in just $45 million in sales last year but lost money that it spent on hiring and data centers. This year, analysts expect Twitter will make between $100 million and $110 million in revenues. And with Andreesen Horowitz’s recent $80 million investment, the future, at least for now, looks bright. (Wall Street Journal and AllThingsD)
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  Video of the first Facebook-optimized smartphone from INQ surfaced. It’s running off Android, resembles the white iPhone 4 a bit, but displays the Facebook News Feed prominently. Check it out for yourself. (TechCrunch)
• That rumored Nokia-Microsoft partnership may be discussed during Nokia’s event tomorrow in London where CEO Stephen Elop will discuss the struggling mobile company’s new strategy. (Bloomberg Businessweek)
• Remember when Guitar Hero was all the rage? Well, not only is that era over, but so is the franchise itself. Game publisher Activision plans to close its music game division and stop development of the series to refocus its efforts online. (Rolling Stone)
• Taiwanese animated media outlet NMA News crafted has outdone itself and crafted what may be the most over-the-top CGI reenactment yet. The latest topic: AOL’s Huffington Post purchase. (NMA News)

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