Top tech headlines: Facebook Phone, Google Search app for iPad, Kinect for Windows

Hot topics in the tech blogs for the week ending November 25 include a Facebook Phone called Buffy, Google’s redesigned Search for iPad app, the announcement of Kinect for Windows, AT&T and T-Mobile deal collapse, Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

Rumors of a HTC-made Facebook Phone
An All Things D report suggested that Facebook is working on an Android-based smartphone, dubbed "Buffy," that will put the social network at the forefront of users’ mobile experiences. The device is said to be manufactured by HTC and will “run on a modified version of Android that Facebook has tweaked heavily to deeply integrate its services, as well as to support HTML5 as a platform for applications, according to sources familiar with the project."
http://allthingsd.com/20111121/the-facebook-phone-its-finally-real-and-its-name-is-buffy/

Google Search app for iPad
Google unveiled the new Search app for iPad. The app has been significantly redesigned and offers faster, more interactive search results thanks to Google Instant and a new slide-in plane that pre-loads web pages and enables users to go back and forth between web pages and results to find the right information. The app is also more visual and features a new image carousel. Additional features include a visual search history, Instant Previews, a magnifying tool that helps you highlight the most relevant section of the page, a +1 button and a new Apps menu.
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-google-search-app-for-ipad.html

Microsoft working on Kinect for Windows
Microsoft has announced it is building a Kinect motion sensor for Windows PC. The popular motion-tracking Kinect hardware will be optimized for “PC-centric scenarios” sometime in 2012. Kinect for Windows will be able to focus on objects that are as close as 50 centimeters to the hardware “without losing accuracy or precision” and will feature a “Near Mode” that enables “a whole new class of ‘close up’ applications, beyond the living room scenarios for Kinect for Xbox 360.” http://www.kinectforwindows.org/

AT&T-T-Mobile deal collapse
US telecommunications group AT&T Inc.’s proposed multi-billion dollar deal to acquire the Deutsche Telekom mobile communications subsidiary, T-Mobile, may be off the cards after the pending applications to America’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) were withdrawn. Despite suggestions that the deal will collapse the companies insist that "AT&T Inc and Deutsche Telekom AG are continuing to pursue the sale of Deutsche Telekom's U.S. wireless assets to AT&T.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/24/us-deutschetelekom-idUSTRE7AN0F120111124

Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals

Customers and blogs in the US have been gearing up for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales with articles about how to nab the best online deals and reports about heavily (or not so heavily) discounted technology products. Microsoft announced would offer its Kinect sensor for $99.99, a Windows phone for free and discounts on its hardware and software for Black Friday. Apple’s Black Friday deals included around $100 off its laptop and desktop range, up to $60 off its iPad 2 line and discounts on accessories and software.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/holiday/shopping_event?aid=www-HomePage-BlackFriday-Teaser



Resource Yahoo News