Gadgets, Tablet Computer | featured news

MacBook Airs and baby bottles don’t mix. I was reminded of this in May when my MacBook Air, the slimmest and sleekest of Apple’s laptop products, had a meeting with my son’s baby bottle. A few drops of milk on the keyboard left me searching for a replacement laptop. Eager to try something new, I landed on the then hard-to-find Android-based Asus Transformer, also known as the Asus Eee Pad.

Tablet computers are selling fast — but it’s starting to look like the stripped-down computers won’t eat the rest of the PC industry alive anytime soon. Worldwide shipments of so-called media tablets into sales channels fell 28% in the first quarter of 2011 to 7.2 million units during the first quarter, according to tech tracker IDC.

Here's the latest: The company reportedly is working on a new iPad, due out later this year, that will have a higher-resolution screen. Dubbed the "iPad HD" by a blog called This Is My Next, which is run by former editors from the respected tech site Engadget, the new iPad is said to be a "pro" device that could be used for high-end video editing and photography.

Game company Nintendo denied reports that it was preparing apps for Android and iOS devices, telling Bloomberg that it was not changing its policy to develop software only for its own gaming devices. Pokemon, an independent Nintendo affiliate, is developing software for Apple and Google and this summer will release a game for those companies related to its popular series.

Yes, we all know that the iPad is an extremely successful product. It has invented, created, a new niche, a new product line, in computing. We can see the effects of the shipments on the bottom line of Apple: and the reflection in Apple’s share price.

Safely and properly e-cycling your old, unused consoles, smartphones, tablets, and laptops is easier than you think, and you can actually save money.

Research in Motion announced last week that cost cutting efforts will include layoffs following a sluggish start to the year and continued new product delays. Shares sold off sharply as investors bailed on lowered guidance and delayed new Blackberry launch.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is available in stores across the country today, and it seems the company has offered the best Android tablet on the market. The hardware on the tablet is great; it’s sleek and light with a great screen and is easily the best Android tablet I’ve played with so far. But what I — and non-Apple manufacturers, apparently — keep running up against is the iPad question. With the number of applications designed for tablets on Android, there’s just no comparison.

A number of Android smartphone makers who have turned their hand to Android tablets to try cash in on the tablet PC category dominated by the iPad are said to giving up. Instead, their focus has switched back from tablets to the development of larger, high-end smartphones with 4- to 5-inch displays. According to Digitimes, only Samsung has made any significant inroads into the segment, claiming a 10% share.

Like the old Timex commercials — “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking” — torture tests featuring electronic tablets like the iPad are appearing on YouTube.