It looks like all those Windows 7-based 'Slate 500' listings buried on HP's website weren't an oversight, after all, and the company may still proceed with plans to release the anticipated tablet.

"We are in customer evaluations now and will make a determination soon on the next steps," HP spokeswoman Marlene Somsak told InfoWorld.

When HP picked up Palm and, by association, the 's webOS platform, most analysts believed it was the end of the road for a Windows 7 tablet. But it's now looking more likely than ever that both units will co-exist in the market place.

"We hadn't anticipated the Palm acquisition when we first shared our plans for that product," Somsak explained.

Less certain is exactly where HP plans to market the Slate 500. John Spooner, an analyst with Technology Business Research, says that "based on the hardware specifications, it could go either way," referring to whether HP would sell the Slate to home consumers or enterprises.

PowerColor today announced its LCS HD 5870 V2, an upgraded version of the original LCS HD 5870 that now "features unprecedented factory overclocked settings."

Calling it "unprecedented" might be stretching things a tad, but not by much. With the GPU factory overclocked to 950MHz, the LCS HD 5870 V2 matches Gigabyte's GV-R587SO Edition card, the only other HD 5870 GPU we spotted on Newegg clocked higher than 900MHz. More surprising, however, is PowerColor's decision not to goose the memory, which comes clocked at 4,800MHz, or 200MHz slower than the original LCS.

Like the previous version, only water cooling gurus need apply. The LCS HD 5870 V2 comes equipped with high-flow 3/8-inch and 1/2-inch fittings with captured o-rings to help prevent leakage.

"We got very positive feedback from the first version of the LCS HD 5870," said Ted Chen, CEO of TUL Corporation. "Now we released an upgraded version with factory overclocked settings and offer a cool working environment. We're sure that it will exceed expectations from gamers."

As with most of PowerColor's HD 5870 line, this newest release will come bundled with a Dirt 2 coupon, though the company didn't say when this will hit retail or for how much.

It's not as if the Motorola Droid X is the first smartphone to roll through Verizon, but apparently it's enough of an upgrade over previous devices to warrant a significant increase in data usage.

"On Droid X, we're seeing something like 5x the data usage of any other device," said Jennifer Byrne, a business development executive director at Verizon.

What makes this even more remarkable is that the Droid X has only officially been on the market for a week. This also could be the final in the coffin for Verizon's unlimited data plan, which earlier in the year Verizon CTO Dick Lynch hinted might be coming to an end.

"The problem we have today with flat-based usage is that you are trying to encourage customers to be efficient in use and applications but you are getting some people who are bandwidth hogs using gigabytes a month and they are paying something like megabytes a month," Lynch said. "That isn't long-term sustainable. Why should customers using an average amount of bandwidth be subsidizing bandwidth hogs?"

More recently, reports began to surface that Verizon plans to move to a tiered pricing plan similar to AT&T's starting on July 29, though it's unclear how closely Verizon's will stack up.

Businesses big and small may come to regret not making a bigger effort to keep IT workers happy during the tough economic times that have rocked the tech sector the past 12 -24 months. As the economic outlook starts to improve, IT workers may end up seeking greener pastures elsewhere.

Or so says a new survey conducted by Harris Interactive. Harris pinged 4,367 tech workers in the second quarter of 2010, with 241 of them directly involved in IT operations. Out of those surveyed, 61 percent of IT workers making between $50,000 and $75,000 a year said they are "likely" to look for a new job within the next year. And of those making over $75,000 annually, 36 percent said they are "likely" to jump ship.

"In some areas, salaries were cut or certainly salary increases were suspended," said Sean Ebner, a regional vice president at Technisource.

At the same time, just 27 percent of IT workers making between $35,000 and $50,000 said that they expect more jobs will open up in the next 12 months.