Weekly high-tech hot topics in the blogs: MacBook Air, Facebook privacy breach, WP7 reviews

Hot topics in the tech blogs for the week ending October 22 include the unveiling of new super-slim MacBook Air laptops, Facebook involved in another privacy breach, reviews of Windows Phone 7 devices start to roll in, Apple posts Q4 results, and RIM and Android respond to Apple's claims.

MacBook Air, Mac OS X Lion and iLife '11
During Apple's October 20 press conference the company unveiled the ultra-thin 11 and 13 inch MacBook Air laptops, an updated iLife '11 application suite and previewed the next version of its operating system, Mac OS X Lion.

Facebook privacy breach
The Wall Street Journal got bloggers around the web fired up over claims that "Top-Ranked [Facebook] Applications Transmit Personal IDs." Bloggers were divided over the revelations.  Some asked "Did the Wall Street Journal Overreact to Facebook Privacy 'Breach'?" while others wrote that "Facebook Can't Be Trusted" and that Facebook is no different from other sites as "Public Facebook Information Is Part of Larger Online Data Gray Market."

Windows Phone 7 reviews
Reporters weighed up their thoughts and posted reviews of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 devices. Tech journalists called the handsets and Microsoft's WP7 OS "Novel But Lacking," "bold and fresh," "not as mature as Android or iPhone," "still missing multiple key features" and "potentially the most tectonic shift in mobile since the launch of iPhone and Android."

Apple quarterly financial results
Steve Jobs made a surprise appearance at Apple's earnings call to announce the company had posted a record revenue of $20.34 billion and to talk about rival smartphone and tablet makers. Bloggers half jokingly proposed that Apple could purchase Facebook with its billions of dollars in cash. During the earnings call Jobs also killed off any rumors about Apple developing a 7 inch iPad.

RIM, Google respond to Apple's "Distortion Field"
Research in Motion (RIM) and Google's Andy Rubin responded to Apple CEO Steve Job's comments about 7 inch tablets, Flash, openness and mobile shipments. "For those of us who live outside of Apple's distortion field, we know that 7" tablets will actually be a big portion of the market and we know that Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real web experience," wrote RIM's co-CEO Jim Balsillie.