On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

FAVI says the E3 LED-Pico projector is geared for gaming, home theatre and business travel use, with WVGA native resolution (854x480) displaying images of up to 110" in size and a 1.59 throw ratio.

It features DLP technology, with 50 lumens of brightness via LED lamp and 1000:1 contrast ratio. Audio comes through either integrated speaker or headphone jack. It plays media on SD/SDHC/MMC cards (up to 32GB) and also has 128MB of internal memory.

The internal battery provides up to 2 hours of playtime (on "eco" mode), extendable by plugging the device into any active USB port.

Ideal as a stocking filler just in time for the holiday season, the package comes complete with remote control, carry case and tripod.

Go FAVI E3 DLP Pocket Projector

Intel confirms mobile business intentions and unites 4 separate business groups (Mobile Communications, Netbook and Tablet, Mobile Wireless and Ultra Mobility) into one unit under the Mobile and Communications Group (MCG) name.

The announcement comes via internal company memo, as reported (and later confirmed) by Fortune.

Heading the MCG is Mike Bell, who worked at Apple (on the iPhone) and Palm before joining Intel in 2010.

The aim of the consolidation is, of course, to push mobile efforts-- the company wants Intel-powered smartphones on the market by H1 2012, and has an alliance with Google (announced las September) to get Android on Intel chips. Sometime.

This is hardly the first time Intel had "serious" mobile plans. Back in 2009, Intel's Ultra Mobility group started a collaboration with Nokia to "shape the next era of mobile computing innovation." Amongst other things, the Intel-Nokia alliance involved the open source stillborn mobile OS, MeeGo.

Two years later, we all know with whom Nokia truly started working.

Will Intel manage to beat the current mobile chip champion ARM this time? It does have the resources and manufacturing capability-- Intel remains the biggest chip maker in the business. But some might say the company is already too late to invest in new low-power chips customers want to put in smartphones and tablets. We'll have to wait to see if the MCG will actually bear fruit.

Go Intel's Emergency Maneuver in Mobile (Fortune)

Global tablet shipments grow by 264.5% Y-o-Y (and 23.9% Q-o-Q) to reach 18.1M units in Q3 2011 according to IDC-- slightly lower than earlier forecasts from the analyst of shipments reaching 19.2M units.

However IDC still predicts "strong demand" for Q4 2011 and the holiday season, increasing  2011 WW shipment forecasts to 63.3M units (up from previous projections of 62.5M) due to new challengers shaking up the tablet battlefield.

Apple still leads the tablet market, even if it loses market share-- Q3 2011 iPad shipments total 11.1M (up from 9.3M in Q2 2011) with 61.5% market share, down from 63.3% in Q2. The analyst predicts the iPad will "have its best-ever quarter in Q4 2011," thanks to a strong tablet-specific app portfolio and growing physical store presence in emerging markets.

HP entered-- and exited-- the tablet market in Q3 2011, managing to grab 5% WW market share with the ill-fated TouchPad. Shipments total 903354 units, making HP 3rd in the global tablet vendor rankings, behind Samsung (who has 5.6% market share). IDC does not believe webOS will continue to appear in the tablet market, even after HP's "contribution" to the open source community.

The analyst says Android lost tablet market share in Q3 (down to 32.4% from 33.2% in Q2), but forecasts the Google OS will "make dramatic share gains" in Q4 and reach 40.3% thanks to the new kids on the block, the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet.

"Amazon and Barnes & Noble are shaking up the media tablet market, and their success helps prove that there is an appetite for media tablets beyond Apple's iPad," IDC says.

According to IDC eReaders also see strong growth in Q3 2011-- shipments total 6.5M units (up from 5.1M in Q2) with 165.9% Y-o-Y growth. IDC says Q4 2011 shipments in Europe will rise to the "highest volume levels" in the holiday season, but the lack of local language content and a still-uncertain eurozone climate will continue hampering growth.

Go IDC WW Quarterly Tablet and eReader Tracker

HP finally answers the question on what will happen to webOS-- the company will neither sell nor discontinue the OS, but will instead "contribute" it to the open source community.

“webOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable,” CEO Meg Whitman says. “By contributing this innovation, HP unleashes the creativity of the open source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices.”

The announcement comes after months of speculation on how HP was going to sell webOS to anyone from Amazon to RIM and even Oracle-- but it appears HP remained empty-handed after trying to find a buyer.

So it did the second-best thing-- going to the charity shop instead of the dumpster.

HP mentions no future hardware plans so the TouchPad will probably remain the last HP-branded webOS device, at least for a while.

webOS has something of a rocky history-- from the $1.2BN Palm purchase in 2010 to HP spending $1.66BN to kill off Palm and webOS after ex-CEO Leo Apotheker announced the now-scrapped Garage Sale plans.

A bit of a sorry finale (one ending with not a bang, but a whimper) for once promising software, unless the open source community manages to make something great with it.

Go HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source