Folks are waiting for the first Android tablet to hit retail (not the oversized / undersized Dell Streak, mind you, but an iPad-sized one). It won't be an HTC tablet, we now know.

On Friday, Eric Lin, Global PR and online community manager for HTC, said this about HTC and tablets:

"We are always looking at it, but, right now, the whole idea is that in order to be successful with a tablet, you need to have something compelling. And not just a compelling form factor. [...]

You’ve seen how, at Computex, there were 80 different Android tablets. So if we just release an Android tablet, then we’re one of 81 [...] Whereas, if we have a compelling feature, a really compelling use, anything like that, then it’ll help us to stand out."

Apple seems to have already defined the tablet PC market, but in order to pull (drag?) folks away from the iPad, you do need a compelling product.

That appears to be happening in terms of Android vs. the iPhone, and HTC is key among the OEMs developing great Android phones. Based on this announcement, we can assume HTC will have something great up its sleeve in terms of a tablet, as well.

Folks have been concerned that the upcoming (Thursday!) Motorola Droid X would be in the same situation as the earlier Motorola Milestone, in terms of having a similarly locked bootloader. In fact, it appears that the answer is an unfortunate yes.

There have been reports that people who have pre-release devices and needed ROM updates were stymied by Motorola. Rather than installing the updates themselves, they had to return the devices to Motorola for flashing. While unclear why, it seemed to point to this "feature."

According to Droid developer Stephen Bird, the X indeed has a signed + encrypted bootloader. While he's not sure yet, he's pretty sure it will be the same as on the Milestone.

He did say that the Droid X will be rooted, so that those apps which require root access will still be usable. However, custom ROMs will be out of the picture. Folks have been trying to crack the Milestone's bootloader to enable custom ROMs for months, unsuccessfully.

Of course, most people will just open the box and use the device. For those who really want custom ROMs, however, this is a disappointment. Readers, the device is still a beast. Will this change your mind about buying it?

Fring has just released a device-agnostic version of its iPhone application which allows Android -> iPhone video calls (PCs, too). Unfortunately, its become so popular that they had to block Skype access.

Fring said it themselves on their forums.

Hello everyone.

This is absolutely amazing. Since the release of our latest iPhone version yesterday we have seen a huge jump in fring video calling.

So, to free up some room for more fring-to-fring video calling, we are temporarily reducing support to Skype. Be patient, we'll have some more updates soon.

Interesting that the traffic would be so huge since those iPhone 4 users would have their own app; FaceTime. Of course, that's only good on wi-fi; Fring supports 3G.

Watch a video call between an iPhone and Android below:

We reported earlier that AT&T confirmed a July 18th date for the Captivate, its Samsung Galaxy S variant. It was rumored that T-Mobile was moving up the launch of its own Galaxy S variant, the Vibrant from July 21 to July 15, and that has now been confirmed, also.

While unclear if the reason for the Vibrant's bump by six days is the Captivate, it is wouldn't surprise us if that were the case. Both Sprint (Epic 4G, with slide-out keyboard) and Verizon (Fascinate) will also carry Galaxy S variants, but obviously since the Galaxy S is a GSM device the U.S. GSM carriers were going to get it first.

All of these Galaxy S variants will have a 4-inch Super AMOLED, a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird CPU, Bluetooth 3.0, and Android 2.1. The Vibrant and Captivate will both go for $199 (with a 2-year contract), and the Fascinate and EPIC 4G will likely be close in price, though the 4G's slide-out keyboard might raise the price some.

However, neither the Vibrant nor Captivate will have LED flash, and the Captivate will not (as seems to be the case with all AT&T Android devices) allow sideloading (non-Android Market apps). On the plus side, both of those will have 16GB of internal storage, while the Fascinate will only have 2GB and the Epic 4G 1GB.

Looking for an open parking spot? There's an Android app for that. No, there's no iPhone app, only an Android one; sorry, for once Android has a leg up on the iPhone.

Indeed, it's called Open Spot, and it could prove really useful to folks in parking spot limited locales. It's a Google Labs app, which means it's experimental, so keep that in mind.

Users of the app let folks know when they are leaving a spot. Google marks the open spots on the map with red pins for newly opened spots, orange pin for spots that have been open for more than five minutes and yellow pins after ten minutes. After 20 minutes, the spot is removed from the map. Those living in San Francisco might think 20 minutes is a little generous, and Google acknowledges it on their Open Spot FAQ page.

For those who are competitive, or just like a pat on the back for their good deed, you can earn “karma points” for broadcasting your open spots. Your karma points are displayed in the app (as shown above).

The app only went live Friday, and Google already has taken into account the fact that some folks might have a perverse sense of humor and mark spots open that are not. The Open Spot team has already named them: griefers.

We’re watching for behavior that looks like a griefer spoofing parking spots. We have a couple of mechanisms available to make sure someone can’t leave a bunch of fake parking spots. If we see this happening we will take steps to fix it.

As with anything like this, to be truly useful, it needs to have a lot of users. So grab the app and start pointing out your "open spot."

What's the bad thing about Apple's new iPhone 4 video chat feature, FaceTime? Well, aside from the fact that it can only be used via wi-fi, it also needs to be done iPhone 4 to iPhone 4. Both of those restrictions are not an issue with the new version of Fring for the iPhone.

The new version of Fring will allow device-agnostic video chats, which means now Fring users can video chat with any Skype or Fring user, regardless of device, and even to PCs. Additionally, it works over 3G, though certainly not as well (OK, with lags and jitters).

At any rate, given the new version of Fring, we can now have video chats between Android and iPhone users, arguing about which device platform is best.

Apple's FaceTime is an openn standard, Apple says, though it remains to be seen if any others will adopt it. It's also a fact that while the impression that many have gotten is that Apple invented video chats via cell phones, that's not the case.

It's a long and storied tradition: not just Apple products catching fire in one way or another, but of portable devices in general. Now we have the first iPhone 4 incident, with the new iDevice igniting while hooked up to a PC with a USB cable.

For one it doesn't seem to be a battery issue. From the image acquired by BGR (above) it's clear that the device isn't going to be repaired. It also appears the owner was using the official Apple USB cable that shipped with the device. The customer took the device into an AT&T store in hopes of replacement.

According to BGR's AT&T source, an Apple Store indicated that it appears there was a defective iPhone 4 USB port involved. The source added that the customer's hand was slightly burned.

Interestingly, a commenter at the BGR post said he plugged in his iPhone 4, and a few minutes later saw his first ever “excess temperature” warning, and the iPhone entered safe mode as well.

Later, when he plugged it in to charge overnight, he saw it heat up significantly. It's unclear if this is a pattern yet, but it's something to think about.

Steve Jobs famously said that "Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone." This Ann Arbor, Michigan woman didn't buy an Android phone for porn, but got it anyway, and preloaded to boot.

The reason that Rhonda Lee ended up with porn on her phone is that the HTC EVO 4G she bought wan't new. She bought it from a third-party (read: not corporate) Sprint store, and they said it was new, but that was obviously not the case.

There were five video clips on the phone, some as long as 12 minutes. Worse, Lee ended up discovering the clips when she was showing the device, which has been sold out for a great deal of its "lifespan," to co-workers.

Lee tried to return it to the third party store, but employees first denied that the phone had been used. Later, they 'fessed up and said it had been returned by another customer. Meanwhile, Lee is still looking for an apology from Sprint (realistically, it's unclear why as this is obviously not a corporate store), the Sprint corporate offices told her she could get a replacement phone at one of their stores.

This isn't the first such case we've heard of, about some electronic device being passed off as new, and coming loaded with some sort of dross from the prior owner (not necessarily porn, by the way). Not only is this a cautionary tale for buyers, it's one for people who might sell or donate their used electronics: make sure you wipe them of any data before you do so.

Of course, this isn't the type of porn Steve Jobs was referring to. The Apple CEO was speaking about complaints about the draconian App Store approval policies, which he said prevent porn and other such content from reaching the iPhone or other iDevice.

However, that totally ignores the fact that just as with the HTC EVO 4G, an enterprising person can easily load porn movies on it. Let's also not forget that the iPhone can readily surf to porn sites, if necessary. Heck, the porn industry will even support HTML5 soon, which is ideal for the iPad or iPhone since they don't support Adobe's flash, and never will.