Hot to Mention – January 6, 2011

A 4G version of of RIM’s PlayBook tablet will be offered by Sprint as soon as this summer, while WiFi-only PlayBook users will be able to tether the device to their BlackBerrys. These announcements came out of the Consumer Electronics Show this week, where RIM revealed more—but not all—about its 7″ entry into the tablet market.

Skype is widening its sights on the burgeoning video-calling market. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Thursday, the Internet phone service announced the acquisition of Qik, whose expertise in mobile video-streaming and storage is expected to polish areas where Skype was lacking.

The amount of junk e-mail being sent across the globe has seen a dramatic fall in recent months. The volume of spam has dropped steadily since August, but the Christmas period saw a precipitous decline. One security firm detected around 200 billion spam messages being sent each day in August, but just 50 billion in December. While the reasons for the decline are not fully understood, spam watchers warn the lull may not last. Around the Christmas holidays, three of the largest spam producers curtailed their activity, Paul Wood, a senior analyst at Symantec Hosted Services told BBC News.

“But it’s hard to say why,” he added.

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