Since the launch of iPad earlier this year, all other tech companies started unveiling their own tablets, sporting several features - and admittedly, some of them not found on iPad. As a result, tablets are now proliferating the tech industry. There are now several tablets to choose from and you are not anymore limited to the Apple iPad, although it remains to be the most stylish among all other tablets, in my honest opinion; however, it is also the most pricey, which is a downside, considering that there are other tablets you can choose from at this point.

Anyway, if you are scouting for a new tablet to give as your gift to someone or to yourself, especially that the holiday season is just around the corner, here are other tablets in the market that you may want to consider looking at, aside from Apple iPad:

1. Archos 5 Internet Tablet

2. Creative Zii0

3. Deal Streak

4. Disgo Tablet

5. Elonex eTouch Tablet

6. Samsung Galaxy Tab

7. Rockchip Tablet

8. Toshiba Folio 100

9. Blackberry Playbook

This list was taken from an article written by Rob Clymo featured in MSN. Click this link to see the article and for a brief info on each of the tablet: Top Tablets Available Now

Google Shows Off Chrome OS Tablet Ideas

By Stephen Shankland (from CNET)

Who could resist the months of hype that paved the way for Apple's iPad debut last week? Apparently not Google, which has shown its interest in tablet computing with its browser-based Chrome OS.

On Monday, Glen Murphy, a user interface designer for Google's Chrome browser and the Chrome operating system based on it, pointed to image and video concepts of a Chrome OS-based tablet that went live two days before the iPad launch. Apparently nobody noticed initially, because only now did Murphy tweet, "Apparently our tablet mocks have been unearthed."

The site also shows the array of devices Google envisions for Chrome OS.

"While its primary focus is Netbooks, Chrome OS could eventually scale to a wide variety of devices. Each would have vastly different input methods, available screen space, and processing power," according to the Chromium form factors site. Chromium is the name of the open-source developer project that underlies the branded Chrome product.

It's possible that Chrome OS could be an easier sell on tablets than on Netbooks, the class of device on which Google said it plans to launch Chrome OS. Netbooks often are used as general-purpose PCs, so the browser-based philosophy of Chrome OS is a more jarring transition.

Today's tablets, in contrast, tend to focus more on a collection of specialized uses such as reading books, surfing the Net, and chores that only require light typing. With that approach, Chrome OS' break from the PC world could be less jarring. The tablet market isn't as big as the Netbook market, though.

The ideas are only mock-ups, but Google has established itself as a real if not dominant force in the computing industry. Its Android mobile-phone operating system is increasingly influential, and its Chrome browser continues to steadily grow in usage.

The tablet mock-ups show a variety of Chrome OS tablet ideas, including a virtual keyboard taking up the bottom half of the screen or detached and floating as a separate window. Also included are a slideshow mode, an application launcher, sidebar-mounted browser tabs, and a pop-up contextual menu.

The video mock-up shows a much larger tablet, with hands resizing and moving windows through the multitouch interface, scrolling through text, and typing a search query.

It's all very rough at this stage, but none of it is too remote from a multitouch-enabled version of the Chrome OS. Google plans to debut Chrome OS in Netbooks later this year, and development of the open-source operating system is well under way.

In a statement, Google didn't share any specifics about its plans: "Google Chrome OS is still in development, and we are constantly experimenting with various user interfaces to determine what designs would produce the best user experience. As we've said all along, the UI is still under development and will continue to evolve as we determine which designs work best for our users."

Computing companies have been trying to make tablets for years, with little success. Apple hopes its design will change that with its iPad selling from $499 to $829. It's more of an iPhone with a large screen than a MacBook with no keyboard.

Google is taking a different approach with Chrome OS. Instead of programs running straight on the computer's hardware and its underlying Linux operating system, Chrome OS applications run directly in the browser.

What's similar to the iPad, though, is that both have somewhat of an applications head start compared with a computing platform that's starting from scratch: the iPad can run existing iPhone apps, and Chrome OS can run existing Web applications such as Google Docs.

One thing that's changed since early tablet years is the arrival of e-book readers as a real phenomenon. Amazon's Kindle is the most notable example, but there are others, and Apple touted book reading with the iPad. Google, it should be noted, has a conduit to millions of books via its Google Books service.

Given that Apple chose to use a variation of its iPhone OS for the iPad, it's interesting but not terribly surprising that Google chose to use Chrome OS rather than its phone operating system, Android. In the big picture, Google clearly hopes the browser will be the foundation for applications, letting them run more easily on a multitude of devices.

Android uses a variation of Oracle's Java technology as a program foundation. Perhaps ironically, Java was launched with the motto for programmers of "write once, run anywhere," and it is that vision Google is trying to realize with Web applications

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Image from: Wired

Hitler's Reaction to Apple iPad

Few days ago (January 27 to be exact), Apple officially announced its new product - the iPad. By now, we would have already seen a lot of videos and read a lot of information about it especially that a lot of rumours have been going around before January 27 as to what the new product truly is.

I am sure we all have our own opinions about the iPad. But what about Hitler's reaction to it? Here's a funny take on how Hitler would have reacted to the new Apple iPad (enjoy watching this comically subtitled video):

Apple Unveils its Tablet

Several rumors have been going around these past weeks about the new product that Apple is going to bring to the market this year. It is a tablet for sure but nobody knew how it would look like and what its specs and features would be. Some said that it would look like a big iPhone, while some said that it would look like a Macbook with just the screen on. Others speculated that it would be called the iSlate, iTablet... or whatever they could think of.

Finally, Apple unveiled its new product this January 27... and it is called the iPad. Honestly, I would have preferred the name iSlate.

Watch this video for more information about the iPad:

How is this product going to fare in the market? I guess we'll find out in the near future.