Gadgets, Tablet Computer | featured news

Unleash the tablet PCs! Asustek is planning on launching a whole pack of tablets. As Joe Stalin once said, sometimes quantity has a quality all its own. Research In Motion’s Playbook tablet is coming early next year. Samsung will start selling the Galaxy Tab in November. Now Asustek Computer President Jerry Shen says he plans to launch five — FIVE! — tablets next year. Take that Steve Jobs.

Sprint said it plans to sell Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablet for $400, or a third less than Verizon Wireless, though Sprint will require a two-year service contract.

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.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab, one of the first tablets to rival Apple's iPad, will hit Verizon Wireless stores Nov. 11 and cost $599.99.

AT&T (T) said today it will sell the Apple (AAPL) iPad directly to business customers.

Verizon Wireless will begin selling Apple's iPad at its 2,000 retail stores nationwide on Oct. 28, the companies announced Thursday.

New numbers show Apple moving 4.5 million iPads per quarter, making it the fastest selling gadget ever.

The retail giant will offer all six models of the iPad and will roll out the tablet devices to over 2,300 stores by mid-November.

A new Microsoft SEC filing published late Thursday revealed that the company punished its CEO Steve Ballmer for his inability to turn around the company's struggling mobile efforts so far. The proxy statement notes that his total compensation of $1.35 million, including a $670,000 base salary and a matching bonus, was lower than in 2008 due to the "unsuccessful launch of the Kin" and "a loss of market share" for Windows Mobile. The Compensation Committee singled out the absence of a real Windows tablet rival through a need to "take advantage of new form factors."

Dell will launch its seven-inch tablet in the next few weeks, the company's Greater China president said.