Gadgetory

June is just the perfect time for backyard barbecues lemonade and tablet warfare I'm Bridget Carey and this is your cnet update if you want a tablet that can compete against the iPad you gotta build it yourself that's the philosophy of Microsoft which just showed off its first tablet called surface and next week Google is going to have its own tablet to the word is that Google has worked with asus to build its own tablet and we were expecting to see more on that next week at its IO Developers Conference folks we're in a new age of tablet wars where the system makers have to get their hands in the mix to create a meaningful device clearly Microsoft was not happy with the tablets coming from its partners no surprise there so here comes the surface it's got solid hardware from what we can tell it comes with a kickstand and the biggest take away a cover that also serves as a keyboard it comes in two flavors a lite version that will likely be priced somewhere around five hundred dollars and a pro version that could be powerful enough to be a laptop replacement of course that all depends on a few factors like how much we love that keyboard we don't know price we don't know when it'll go on sale but you do know that Microsoft hopes to avoid the same mistakes of failed laptops like the HP touchpad and the blackberry playbook it's all about the apps and how the surface will play along with our other gadgets microsoft said nothing about how your life will be better nothing about how it could be tied in with an Xbox nothing about phones but you see that's what's next there's an event for Windows Phone developers that begins Wednesday and will get a look at the next generation of Windows phones in other news the mobile card readers square is adding customer reward punch cards to its apps merchants can use the app to encourage customers to return and collect points without happy to carry around an actual card that keeps track of all that for you Airbnb is getting more popular more than 10 million people have booked overnight stays with the rental by owner service the site helps travelers find places to stay in people's homes and currently has two hundred thousand room listings Facebook will soon be customizing the ads you be based on your location this is according to a report from Bloomberg the GPS in your phone will help Facebook send customized ads about places that are nearby the Spotify app is becoming more like Pandora and has added a free streaming radio feature in the update for Apple devices users in the United States can create limitless streaming radio stations or save their tracks they hear on the radio to their Spotify playlists this feature was added to the desktop version last month that your tech news update for today for more on the stories in today's show visit cnet com / update from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey