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Samsung has come out with an impressive tablet computer to compete with Apple’s iPad. The device measuring 190.09×120.45×11.98 mm is actually thinner than iPad. With 512 MB of onboard RAM and PowerVR SGX540 GPU, it ranks slightly better than the iPad in the inside. 

A a 3 megapixel rear-facing auto focus camera with flash in addition to a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video chat is are something not available in iPad yet. It also features a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a geo-magnetic sensor, and a light sensor. Two versions with the internal storage 16GB and 32GB will be available in market but unlike iPad there is a built-in microSD slot for additional storage. The 4,000 mAh battery holds good for up to 7 hours of video playback.

Looking at the features and specification the Tab is pretty impressive and if there were no Apple’s App store iPad would have a tough time competing with this little device.

Samsung is going to launch a family of similar products at different specification, price points, and sizes in the future. As, many more manufacture are preparing the release their tablets too, tablet enthusiast would have a really interesting time ahead.

With the keyboard and case, shown in the photo below, iPad looks more like a laptop than a tablet computer. The KeyCase iPad Folio with Integrated Bluetooth Keyboard sells for a price of £59.95 in the UK through gearzap.com. With recent approval from FCC, it might also be available in the US soon.

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iPad looks like a laptop with this third-party keyboard

People Magazine iPad edition is now available for free download in the App Store. With the App, one can buy week’s special digital issues for $4 through iTunes.

Current subscribers of the printed edition of People magazine, can access the digital edition for free in their iPad. The digital issue of the magazine includes the full print magazine contents and extra stuffs like celebrity videos, photo galleries, movie trailers, song samples, and breaking news updates.

Earlier, it was reported that the People magazine paparazzi were preventing the release of the iPad edition of the magazine. They were demanding a better pay for their work. It is however not known if their demand was met before the release.

With the release of iPad version of People, other magazines from the publisher like Time, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune are expected to be released in their digital versions soon.

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Asus has readied a 12" touch-screen, Intel Core 2 Duo microprocessor MS Windows 7 based slate will be the first device in the Asus Eee Pad family. The Eee Pad EP121 is targeted to professionals is expected to be released by the end of the year. The big and powerful Eee Pad will retail at around $1000. This tablet comes with a docking station that can transform the tablet into a laptop computer.

For budget conscious mass, a 10" touch-screen with ARM architecture-based microprocessor will cost from $399 to 499 and is expected to be available in January, 2011. This tablet will feature Microsoft’s Windows Embedded Compact 7 operating system.

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Asus tablet – Expensive and impressive; cheaper to follow

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BestBuy, the largest retailer of electronic goods in the US is planning to to release its own tablet, to compete with Apple iPad. The chief technology officer of BestBuy, Robert Stephens, recently posted photos of a prototype tablet in his twitter post.

It is to be noted that, Best Buy is the only major U.S. retailer, besides Apple Stores, authorized to sell iPads in the US.

Does that mean, Apple’s trusted vendor is going to be it’s competitor ?

Stephens posted following comment on his Twitter feed:

I’ve been tweeting photos of tablet for months. So much for the realtime web. No one should be surprised. Who do you think makes Insignia?

NYT has noted that the tablet resembles the much-hyped HP Slate. The Slate has been extensively delayed and is told to be targeted to business users only.

Other hardware makers Asus, Acer, Lenovo, LG, and Toshiba are supposed to come out with their version tablets but, none have announced a definite release dates and prices.

With the announcement of latest Amazon Kindle, the largest online retailer, Amazon, conveys a message that it is pretty much in scene of electronic reading device. In spite of fears that iPad will take-over the e-reading platform, Kindle is selling like a hot cake, thanks to the recent price cuts.

Kindle – 3, the latest dedicated electronic reading device of Amazon, will be released on August 27th, 2010.

It is true that Amazon is afraid of iPad and such devices but it is still strong in terms of ebook inventory and market penetration.The Amazon online store has 10 times more books (630,000 vs 60,000) when compared to iTunes. The latest release is smaller, faster, last longer, and doesn’t cost much when compared to iPad.

Too bad, it doesn’t have the touch screen and color display. But it seems, bookworms think the feature is not in their priority list. At least, not yet!

Here are some of the new Kindle 3 features:

• 21% smaller but, with same 6-inch screen
• 15% lighter than previous model
• Electronic-ink screen has 50% better contrast
• 20% fast while turning pages, with improved fonts
• 2X Battery life – up to one month (wireless off)
• 2X storage 3,500 books
• Built in Wi-Fi
• Newly designed buttons and button layout
• Improved PDF reader
• Text-to-speech

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By the end of this week, Apple iPads will also be sold in 9 more countries in addition to the 10 countries where iPads are currently sold.

The new addition to the ‘iPad available’ countries are Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore. According to a press release dated July 19, Apple will start selling iPads in those countries on Friday, July 29.

Adding the 9 countries to the countries iPad is currently available (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US), residents of 19 countries will be able to purchase iPads next week. iPad during its release (January 27) was only available in the US. Apple started selling iPads in 9 more countries on May 28.

Residents of remaining hundreds of countries might also get hold of the iPad as the company says, the iPad will be made available in "many more" countries later this year.

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If you think you can read on book readers like Kindle, iPad, Sony Reader or such dedicated devices, don’t expect for the growth in productivity, if you believe in recent reports.

Nielsen Norman Group, in a 24-hours study found that reading ink and paper books is nearly 10% faster than electronic-book-readers like Kindle and iPad.

They have found higher level of user satisfaction – iPad leading, Kindle follows and physical book is placed while scoring the satisfaction.

I, personally, don’t think the study means much because:

• The result is based on less than 32 users. It is a very very small sample to start with.
• The reading tablets are the new trends and would require some practice and adaptation before one can get the full speed on reading.
• The difference in speed is very marginal. iPad measured 6.2% slower reading speed where as Kindle measured 10.7% slower speed. It doesn’t mention the margin of error and other factors. Difference in iPad and Kindle speed isn’t explained properly. So, one can’t conclude anything from these numbers.

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In a latest statement, Apple Inc has said it has sold 3 million iPads since the tablet computer was released less than three months ago. The pace of sales suggests of the that demand for the device is unbeatable.

Apple had previously said that it sold 1 million iPads in the first month of its U.S. launch on April 3, and had sold 2 million iPads by May 31.

Apple, in a statement releases on Tuesday, said the iPad sales crossed a 3 million mark on June 21.
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3 million iPads sold

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Apple’s iPad tablet and Windows-powered personal computers are fundamentally same. The only difference according to Ballmer is that the iPad can’t do much of computing when compared to PCs.

In an interview with Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg, Ballmer said that iPad is only “a different form factor PC.” Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, however has labeled the device "magical."

In the D: All Things Digital conference this week, Ballmer said, "The real question is, what’s a PC? Nothing that people do on a PC today is going to get less relevant tomorrow. There are usage cases. Whether those are done today on PCs–or alternate devices. (And the latter) are going to grow in popularity. There’s no question about that. Particularly entertainment-oriented scenarios. (But) there will exist a general-purpose device that does everything you want because I don’t think the whole world is going to be able to afford five devices per person."

I thought iPad was a general-purpose book reader to compete with Kindle. Now, what would a general-purpose device from Microsoft look like? We might get the answer by next year.

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