Computers, Tablet Computer | featured news

Intel unveiled a new category of laptops that it says will include the best features of tablets as the world's top chipmaker struggles to find its footing in the exploding market for mobile gadgets. Netbook pioneer Asustek showed its first new PC in Intel's "Ultrabook" class, the UX series, on Monday at the Computex computer show in Taipei. Intel said models made by other manufacturers would go on sale by Christmas and cost under $1,000.

The obsession with tablet computing will be on full display Tuesday as Computex, the world's second-largest computer show, begins its annual five-day run in Taipei. The prominence of tablets underscores a dramatic shift under way in the personal computer industry — and keenly felt in Taiwan, which is home to some of the world's biggest PC manufacturers — as many consumers opt to buy a tablet rather than a new PC.

Bidding to differentiate itself in the increasingly competitive tablet-computer market, Samsung Electronics plans this year to launch an Android-based tablet running on fourth-generation network technology.

A tablet-optimized, Windows OS could be ready to see the light of day as early as next week, according to recent market chatter and media reports. The new operating system follows a smart move in January to ditch the older, problematic Wintel legacy and focus on new versions of Windows for the System on a Chip (SoC) architecture, many times more suitable for tablet devices, according to Sandeep Aggarwal at Caris. Trade The News goes so far as to report that these new products are being optimized to work on NVIDIA chips.

Mike Cleron, a Google software engineer for the Android operating system, made an ambitious pronouncement onstage at the company's annual conference last week.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion recalled about 1,000 of its PlayBook tablets that were shipped with faulty operating systems, which may have prevented users from performing the device's initial setup.

Apparently, the iPad isn't the only tablet in town capable of selling out. While the Asus Eee Pad Transformer might not have the big-name appeal of its Apple rival, the $399 16GB Honeycomb tablet managed to sell out online at Best Buy's website in its first day on sale.

Sony is planning a tablet computer with a touch panel similar to Apple’s iPad for later this year that the Japanese manufacturer promises will make the best of its gadgetry and entertainment strengths.

Research In Motion's PlayBook went on sale in the United States and Canada on Tuesday in a launch the company hopes will win customers away from Apple's dominant iPad tablet computer.

If you've got a new iPad 2, or you're getting one today, you'll be needing some apps to put on it. Here are some suggestions.