Week in Review: Virgin WiFi? More tablets? Larry Ellison is Iron Man?

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The past week has been fairly quiet due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. That's the one commemorating the event where the first starving English settlers in America gratefully accepted food aid from the Native Americans. The settlers' descendants and successors paid back the natives' kindness by stealing their land and almost wiping out their culture. Don't worry though, Hollywood has made some tedious movies to apologise for it all.

In any case, there's still been enough happening in the world of technology to draw our thoughts away from turkey and the bracingly cold weather.

What took you so long?

Virgin is reportedly thinking about launching a national Wi-Fi network to rival BT Openzone.

If Virgin does launch its own Wi-Fi network, it will be yet another round in the longstanding rivalry between Branson's company and BT.

We're surprised Branson and his crew haven't done this earlier. It'll at least provide another alternative for laptop and smartphone addicts.

More tablets than you can shake an iPad at

The latest company to launch its own range of tablets is Taiwanese laptop giant Acer. The company has announced not only an Android tablet, but an intriguing dual-screen laptop/tablet hybrid running Windows 7. The bottom screen can be used as a touch-sensitive keyboard or as a secondary screen.

Even though most of the iPad-wannabees announced in recent months have yet to go on sale, we're already suffering from tablet fatigue. That sound you're hearing is the bandwagon creaking under the weight of desperation and copycat products.

Larry Ellison laughs all the way to the bank

Oracle has won its copyright infringement case against rival software giant SAP. Although SAP looks likely to appeal, the judgement states that the German company has to pay Oracle a whopping $1.3 billion in damages.

Although Larry Ellison probably already has more money than most African countries, we certainly hope he'll put it to good use and not waste it on building a suit of armour and becoming a costumed vigilante. If Ellison's cameo in this year's risible Iron Man 2 isn't enough to convince you of his superheroic intentions, perhaps his uncanny resemblance to Robert Downey Junior will.

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