A Chrome OS-based tablet made by HTC will be offered through Google's new best friend Verizon starting on Nov. 26, according to a new report (or rumor, as the case may be).

Citing an unnamed source, AOL's Download Squad blog says that the new tablet will run on an NVidia Tegra 2 chip, and will feature a 1280x720 screen, 2GB of RAM, at least a 32 GB SSD, and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G connectivity. There's a lot missing among that handful of details, however. For one, why will the tablet run on Chrome OS and not the Android platform? And if it's running on a cloud-based OS, do you really need 32 GB of memory?

Apple on Wednesday released a fix to a security vulnerability in its iPhone OS that allowed for viewing of malicious PDF files.

The fix, available as an update on iTunes, patches a hole in the Safari mobile browser in iOS 4.0.1 and earlier versions for the iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as  iOS 3.2.1 and earlier for the iPad. The software update is for the iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4 models, and second and third generation iPod Touch.

After months of dangling the details but withholding price and release date, Dell finally confirmed that AT&T will begin selling its Android-based Streak smartphone/tablet in stores on Friday for $299.99 with a two-year contract.

The pricing, with shoots up to $550 without an AT&T commitment, places the Streak squarely in the middle ground between its two schizophrenic identities. With its 5-inch screen, it's about $100 more than comparably equipped smartphones, but is considerably less expensive than Apple's popular iPad, which ranges from $500 to $830 depending on configuration.

There is no market for a $650 e-reader.

That was the inevitable conclusion reached by chip-maker Plastic Logic, which announced this week that its Que e-reader will never see the light of day.

Amazon.com has cut prices and added features to its best-selling product, the Kindle, to defend it against the threat from Apple's popular iPad and a forthcoming slew of Android-based tablets and maintain its hold on the still-growing market for e-readers.

The two new Kindle models are thinner, lighter and faster than their predecessors. The high-end version, which works on mobile 3G networks and Wi-Fi, maintains the $189 price tag. The new Wi-Fi-only model costs $139. It was only last month that Amazon dropped the price of the older 3G-compatible  model from $259 to $189.

Remember last year's uproar about overheating -- and even exploding -- iPhones? This summer the offending Apple device is the iPad, as three Oakland natives have filed a lawsuit claiming that their tablets overheat too easily in the summer sun.

According to the complaint, which was filed on behalf of Jacob Baltazar, Claudia Keller and John Browning on Friday, the iPad fails to "live up to the reasonable consumer's expectations" because it "overheats so quickly under common weather conditions that it does not function for prolonged use outdoors, or in many other warm conditions."