After weeks of speculation, Amazon has finally unveiled its new Kindle Fire, a 7-inch tablet that will help sell its e-books and streaming movies and, according to experts, be the toughest rival yet to Apple’s iPad and iPad2 tablets. The main reason: its US$199 price tag. …

Apparently, 40 minutes is too late by several hours.

I was far too late to score a new HP Touchpad (either the 16GB or 32GB version), because both were sold out at COMEX 2011 within minutes of the opening of the computer show, which runs from 1st to 4th September at the Suntec Convention Centre.

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Bought a new iPod/iPhone/iPad and looking forward to buying music for your new device? Local users have always been out of luck in that respect, as despite being the market leader for years, Apple has failed to bring its music download service to Singapore.

Now, a new software update to Research in Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will certainly be discord to Apple’s ears. The former has stuck a partnership with online music store 7digital to bring more than 9 million high quality MP3 tracks for Singapore residents to purchase.

The new Music Store app will allow users to search for songs, albums, and artists, as well as receive recommendations through a music discovery feature. Not sure whether a particular artist suits your tastes? The music store lets you preview tracks before plunking down the cash.

The cost of full albums on this new music store will range from S$8 to S$12, although users can also download just one or a few tracks if they don’t want the whole album.

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The tablet space in Singapore will get a little more crowded with a rather unique offering from HP next month, when the long-awaited TouchPad hits the shelves here.

The basic 16GB Wi-Fi-only version will ship here on August 12. It will go for S$699, which HP must be confident is close enough to the S$668 that Apple’s iPad 2 and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 are going for. …