Weekly high-tech hot topics in the blogs: Apple TV, Ping, Samsung Galaxy Tablet

Hot topics in the tech blogs for the week ending September 3 include Apple's annual music and media press event, the launch of iTunes Ping, the unveiling of a new Apple TV, Samsung's Galaxy tablet, and Google's Priority Inbox for Gmail.

Apple press event
Apple's high-profile Fall press event was this week's most written about topic. Leading up to the September 1 event journalists were eager to predict the company's big news. Blog posts speculated about new iPod designs, the arrival of longer preview song lengths and video streaming in iTunes, and a totally new Apple TV.

Apple iTunes Ping
It took bloggers a few hours to get past the unveiling of Apple's shiny new iPods and onto discussing one announcement from Apple's press event that may have a longer lasting impact on the tech community - iTunes Ping. Ping is a new music-centric social network built into iTunes. After digesting the news, bloggers started asking questions about why Facebook and Ping were not playing nicely, discussing why "Apple's new social network doesn't really want to know much about you" and relaying users' mixed first impressions of the service.

Apple TV
Steve Jobs' famous "one more thing" put Apple's newly designed set top box, Apple TV, in the spotlight on September 1. The announcement of the much smaller (and cheaper) Apple TV had bloggers asking "Did Apple Just Take Control of My Home Theater?" Headlines focused on the $99 price tag and the addition of $4.99 first-run movies, 99 cent HDTV rentals and the addition of Netflix streaming.

Samsung Galaxy Tablet
"Samsung's Galaxy Tab Runs Froyo, Has Flash and Measures 7-Inches" read headlines about what "was possibly the worst-kept secret in tablet-land." Most avid technology readers would have already come across leaked images of Samsung's much talked about tablet, the Galaxy Tab but the official announcement still managed to get bloggers' attention. First impressions were generally positive with bloggers admitting, "A Quick Look at Samsung's Galaxy Tab Shows It's a Lot Better Than I Expected."

Google Priority Inbox
Google announced a new Gmail feature called Priority Inbox on August 30. Priority Inbox helps people stay on top of overflowing inboxes by automatically re-organizing and categorising incoming emails according to their priority. Bloggers called it "An Impressive New Feature Makes Gmail's Inbox Smarter" and a "Super-Handy New Google Feature [that] Helps You See Important Emails."