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Hot off wire: Samsung launches tablet; Verizon offers smart phones for prepaid service; Dubai calls BlackBerry a spy device; AOL, Google sign deal

Samsung's new tablet. (AP)

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A roundup of the latest high-tech news “Hot off the Wire” from The Associated Press and Local Tech Wire:

• Samsung launches table to counter iPad

BERLIN — Samsung Electronics Co. on Thursday unveiled a new tablet PC named Galaxy Tab as the latest device meant to rival Apple Inc.’s popular iPad.

The device offers users “a new galaxy of possibilities” with features such as mobile video conferencing and a video chat function, Samsung Europe telecom executive Thomas Richter said at Berlin’s IFA consumer electronics fair.

The thin tablet device weighs 13.4 ounces (380 grams) and has a 7-inch (18-centimeter) touch screen, making it about three times that of an Apple iPhone, but roughly a third smaller than an iPad.

Richter said it comes with Google Inc.’s Android 2.2 operating system, which can run HTML5 and Adobe’s Flash Player — unlike the iPad.

The device supports Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G cell phone networks, making it a combination of smart phone and laptop. It “turns out to be a perfect speakerphone on the desk, or a mobile phone on the move via Bluetooth headset,” Samsung said.

The tablet PC also comes with two cameras, one 3-megabyte digital camera with a flash on the back of the device, and a second camera on the front for video conferences — a feature the iPad lacks, but other competitors such as Dell’s Streak tablet PC also offers.

• Verizon to sell smart phones for prepaid service

NEW YORK — Verizon Wireless on Thursday announced it's opening up access to smart phones for customers who prepay for service, such as people with poor credit and those who don't want to be tied down by long-term contracts.

Prepaid service has long been the domain of low-end phones, but such companies as Sprint Nextel Corp. and Leap Wireless International Inc. have recently introduced smart phones for their Boost, Virgin Mobile and Cricket brands.

Verizon Wireless, the country's largest cellular carrier, said that it started to sell smart phones for prepaid service in its stores on Thursday and will start selling them online on Sept. 28.

The phones will be more expensive than those offered to customers on regular "postpaid" plans, usually associated with two-year contracts. For example, Verizon charges a prepaying customer $215 for a BlackBerry Curve 8530. It's available for $20 with a two-year contract. A Motorola Droid X, which has a big touch screen, costs $395 for prepaid service and $200 with a contract.

• Dubai police chief calls BlackBerry a spy tool

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Worries about spying by the U.S. and Israel spurred plans to sharply limit BlackBerry services in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai's police chief said in comments that suggest a tough line in talks with the smart phone maker.

The UAE says it will block BlackBerry e-mail, messaging and Web services Oct. 11 unless authorities can gain access to the encrypted data traffic — a demand by other countries warning of possible bans including India.

The proposed UAE action threatens BlackBerry service for an estimated 500,000 local subscribers and could tarnish the country's reputation as the Gulf's business and tourism hub with potentially millions of visitors left without key BlackBerry services.

Dubai's police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, said that fears of espionage and information sharing by foe Israel — as well as UAE allies United States and Britain — helped prompt the possible limits on the popular BlackBerry.

Tamim told a conference on information technology that the proposed BlackBerry curbs are also "meant to control false rumors and defamation of public figures due to the absence of surveillance," according to a story posted Friday on the website of the UAE newspaper Al-Khaleej.

• AOL signs 5-year deal with Google

NEW YORK — Google Inc. will continue to provide the search results on AOL Inc.'s websites under a new, five-year deal the companies signed this week.

The agreement largely extends an arrangement that has been in place between the two companies since 2005. But the new contract, announced Thursday, also expands their cooperation onto AOL sites for cell phones and other mobile gadgets. And it will put AOL video content on Google's YouTube site for the first time.

In its search agreement, AOL shares revenue with Google from the text ads that appear alongside search results.

AOL, which is based in New York, is led by former Google executive Tim Armstrong, who is in the midst of a major overhaul at the Web company. It split from Time Warner Inc. last year and has been trying to grow its online ad business as its dial-up Internet service continues to lose customers to faster broadband connections.

That effort is not proving easy. Last month AOL reported a roughly $1 billion loss for the second quarter, with revenue down by more than a quarter compared with the year before.

Armstrong has remained upbeat, attributing the declines to a necessary paring of assets

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