If The Wall Street Journal's sources are right, Google is going to rival Apple and Amazon even further-- with plans to directly sell Google-branded tablets via online store.

According to "people familiar with the matter," Google will be selling Asus and Samsung Android tablets later this year, with Motorola-built Google-branded devices to follow.

“Google believes the current model for selling tablets is broken,” the WSJ says. Will direct sales (and putting retailers aside) fix it? The company already tried selling the HTC-built Nexus One exclusively online back in 2010... managing to sell only around 100000 phones, according to Android team lead Andy Rubin.

Meanwhile both Apple and Amazon have no troubles with online hardware sales (especially Amazon, whose successful Kindle Fire is only available online).

Rumours have also been going on for a while on Google entering the hardware arena-- with Motorola-made Google-branded tablets and a wireless music streaming system.

Go Google Heightens Rivalry with iPad (WSJ.com, subscription required)

Go Google to Launch Own-Brand Tablet?

Once the enterprise smartphone of choice, the Blackberry has pretty much lost the market to the iPhone... but will RIM manage to get customers back with phones able to automatically improve sound during audio calls? 

A newly granted patent reveals a system using sensors around the earpiece to detect how close the user's ear is to the handset, and whether it is "sealed" tight to the phone or not. The system also detects ambient noise, subtly adjusting volume levels while making sure the user doesn't detect a volume changes. 

More interestingly the sensors also learn user habits-- "Upon receipt of user input indicative of a high degree of ear seal, a sample of the sensor(s) may be taken and stored for using during future estimation of the degree of seal," the RIM patent says. 

Will RIM manage to improve sales through better sound though? After all, it appears nowadays customers use smartphones for everything except, well, actually making phone calls. We will get to know once RIM actually starts making devices carrying the technology...

Go RIM Blackberry Patent

As the 3rd iPad hits the market (3M already sold WW since March 16, Apple gloats), Dell chief commercial officer Steve Felice insists the tablet market is still "wide open" for non-iOS devices.

Speaking to Reuters, Felice says Dell plans to launch Windows 8 tablets sometime around H2 2012-- with a particular focus on office workers looking for an enterprise-class device.

"We have a roadmap for tablets that we haven't announced yet. You'll see some announcements.. for the back half of the year," Felice continues.

Dell had already stabbed at the tablet market with the unsuccessful Android-powered Streak. According to Felice the company still hasn't dismissed the Google OS, and may start making Android tablets again.

Dell is not the only company thinking about Windows 8 tablets-- Lenovo and HP also have tablet plans, while rumours insist Nokia is working an ARM-powered Windows 8 device.

Go Dell Sees Room to Challenge Apple in Tablets (Reuters)

Nokia already makes Windows smartphones-- but will it really start making tablets? DigiTimes insists so, saying Nokia will enter the tablet race with a 10-inch Windows 8 offering sometime in Q4 2012 "at the earliest."

The Nokia tablet will apparently carry a dual-core Qualcomm SoC... in which case, judging from the Qualcomm SoC roadmap, it could be the Snapdragon S4.

Digitimes also says Taiwanese ODM Compal will take on production duties, with the first batch of shipments to total 200000 units.

With Windows 8 being quite tablet-centric, will Microsoft manage to bring a 3rd side to a tablet market currently split between low-cost Androids and iPads? If Nokia manages to combine the industrial design of the Lumia 800/900 smartphones with Windows 8 , it might manage to find itself with a winner in its hands.

Go Nokia Likely to Launch Windows 8 Tablet in Q4 2012 (DigiTimes)