Rumors abound this week that Amazon is going to trial a physical retail store in its home base of Seattle, WA. The online retail giant will reportedly stock the shelves with its successful Kindle lineup.  This, of course, includes the Kindle Fire tablet, which has emerged as a viable alternative to the Apple iPad. If the rumors are true, Amazon is likely responding to the success Apple has realized over the years with its dynamic retail stores, which allow potential customers to experience the latest Apple products before purchasing them. Read More

For the first time in its history, the National Football League has authorized the Super Bowl to be streamed “live” over the internet. Anyone with a connected TV, a laptop, or tablet will be able to “tune in” to the game over their internet connection. Individuals will even be able to pause and rewind the game, so people who don’t yet have a personal video recorder will get a chance to see what that’s all about. Read More

Everyone knows tablets are hot, but it is surprising to see that tablets were far and away the most-mentioned topic in media coverage from CES. In a presentation called “Trends to Watch from the 2012 CES,” Shawn Dubravac of the CEA showed data from Simply Measured: with the exception of ultrabooks, tablet mentions were almost 3 times any of the other key CES trends (6,126 for tablets vs. 4,060 for ultrabooks and 2,261 for OLED). And Apple didn’t even participate in the event! Read More