Computers, Hp | featured news

The booming popularity of tablets has been a mixed blessing for Asus. The Taiwan-based electronics vendor makes takes a hit each time consumers opt for tablets over the laptops and netbooks it makes. At the same time, Asus is investing in tablets, unveiling four models at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Most of Asus’ tablets won’t launch until later this year, however, when a glut of other tablets from companies ranging from Motorola to Research In Motion to HP will also be on sale.

Hewlett-Packard showed the fruits of its acquisition of Palm on Wednesday. The technology giant demonstrated a new tablet device and two new smartphones, as well as disclosing plans to bring its webOS software to computers and printers.

Remember that disappointing HP tablet with Windows 7 from January everyone thought it was scrapped? Well, it's called the HP Slate and it's out now for a whopping $799. Before you get click-happy on HP's website, though, you might want to have a look at this: put alongside other tablets, the HP Slate could disappoint you, again.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is set to reveal his own rival to the Apple Tablet, according to the New York Times Bits Blog. We first learned about a Microsoft tablet device in September.

The $2.7 billion deal, valued at $7.90 a share, has already been approved by directors of both companies.