Tablet Computer | featured news

I was pretty excited when the Surface Pro arrived about ten days ago, so I could test it ahead of its release on February 9th.  Finally, a tablet that’s also a laptop that also runs a mature operating system (Windows 8) and lets me use all the PC software I know and love. This is the machine I’ve been waiting for.

At CES 2013, ASUS consumed the entire 62nd floor of Trump Tower. Each suite housed unreleased hardware from the company's broad range of displays, motherboards, accessories, gaming peripherals, tablets, and PCs. The jewel of the collection was the dual OS Transformer All-in-One Desktop, a PC and tablet hybrid running both Windows 8 and Android Jellybean.

Dismayed that family members are spread out over the house, each with a separate PC or tablet? Lenovo has something it believes will get them back together: a PC the size of a coffee table that works like a gigantic tablet and lets four people use it at once. Lenovo Group Ltd., one of the world's largest PC makers, is calling the IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC the first "interpersonal computer" — as opposed to a "personal computer."

Revenue at Barnes & Noble stores fell 10.9% during the holidays, as sales of Nook devices slipped, a sign that the retailer is falling behind in the tablet battle with Amazon, Apple and Google.

... Yes, the words are the same, whether perceived on paper or on a small, illuminated screen. But the experience is not. One can read “One Hundred Years of Solitude” on a Kindle or an iPad, but one cannot see, hear, feel and smell the story in the same way. I’m unlikely to race to the sofa, there to nuzzle an electronic gizmo, with the same anticipation as with a book. Or to the hammock with the same relish I would with a new magazine. Somehow, napping with a gadget blinking notice of its dwindling power doesn’t hold the same appeal as falling asleep in the hammock with your paperback opened to where you dozed off.

Here's the scenario: You were the lucky recipient of a new Apple iPad this holiday season, and you're slightly overwhelmed by the 275,000 app choices (not including the thousands of universal apps that are compatible with iPhone, iPod, and iPad) in the iTunes Store.

A company based in the Congo says it is the first to launch a smartphone and tablet fully designed and engineered in Africa.

...It’s an echo of the so-called browser wars of the 1990s, when Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator fought for dominance on the personal computer. This time, though, the struggle is shaping up to be over which company will control the mobile world — with browsers on smartphones and tablets. Entrenched businesses are at stake. Google’s browser-based business apps, for instance, threaten Microsoft’s desktop software, and mobile Web apps threaten Apple’s App Store.

App developers have turned cellphones and tablets into powerful tools, spawning a multibillion-dollar industry but making huge sacrifices in the process.

Nintendo's Wii U hits stores this weekend, testing the videogame giant's strategy of pushing pricey hardware in a videogame market increasingly geared toward mobile gadgets.