Tablet

Chatter about an iPad mini just won't settle. Another analyst just added fuel to this hot-air balloon with a note to clients. But revisiting Steve Jobs' take on going smaller might just deflate some of this speculation. This week, Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu wrote that a 7- or 8-inch screen with resolution that's comparable to the first- and second-generation iPads is feasible, according to Barron's . "From a competitive standpoint, we believe an iPad mini with a lower price point would be the competition's worst nightmare," Wu wrote.

It looks as if fall could be a very busy season for Microsoft. The software maker appears poised to release Office for iPad and Android tablets and an Outlook Web app for iOS this fall, according to reports.  Although officially Microsoft has no comment, reports have surfaced that the full suite of Office apps will have a November release, according to website BGR. And the app is said to look almost identical to the leaked images from a few months ago, according to BGR's source.

Google, looking to boost use of its Android operating system, plans to sell its own tablet computers later this year, a news report says. The search giant, which has normally stuck to producing software when it comes to the smartphone and tablet markets, will make a stronger push by selling tablets itself, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The move comes as tablets powered by Android have failed to put a dent on the market dominated by Apple's iPad. Google will sell the tablets through an online store that the tech company has yet to announce.

In a world that's gone mobile, Facebook Inc. has a lot of catching up to do. Facebook pocketed a cool $3.1 billion last year from ads viewed from laptop and desktop computer screens, but it hasn't figured out a way to make big money on the 500 million people - more than half its users - who log in with smartphones and tablets. An iPad application for Facebook wasn't released until last fall. And Facebook didn't offer advertising for mobile devices until two months ago, when it began showing mobile users "sponsored stories" ads in their news feeds.

Samsung has shipped 5 million units of its Galaxy Note hybrid device, the South Korean electronics giant said. The Note was announced last year by the company and hit AT&T stores last month with the intention of trailblazing a new market, as the device is larger than most smartphones but not quite as big as typical tablets. The device, which comes with a stylus called the "S Pen," comes with an 8 megapixel rear camera, can shoot in 1080p and has a 5.3-inch touchscreen with 1280x800 pixel resolution.

Barnes & Noble Inc.'s prospects against rivals Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. in the fast-growing digital reader business just got a big lift thanks to a $605-million investment from Microsoft Corp. For the nation's No. 1 bookstore chain, the infusion will help its Nook business better compete against the top-selling Kindle e-reader and iPad tablet computer and relieves some of the pressure on Barnes & Noble to turn a profit on the Nook. It's also a good deal for Microsoft, which is spending barely 1% of its $60-billion cash reserve to gain a bigger presence in the e-reader and tablet markets ahead of the widely anticipated launch of its Windows 8 operating software later this year.

The Pantech Element isn't the best Android tablet on the market and it doesn't promise to be. But the Element is the only tablet I know of that can be dropped into a sink full of water or held under a faucet for a few minutes and come out unaffected -- two things I've done myself. For that reason, the Element is a tablet that appeals to my gadget-loving heart, though it didn't entirely win me over. While it may not be the most common of problems, nearly all of us know someone who has lost a cellphone, MP3 player or other gadget to water damage -- a pool, a toilet or a washing machine is often the culprit.

Like all industries, the herbal weight-loss business moves in cycles. Less than a decade ago, the stimulant herb ephedra was one of the stars of the scene. It sped up metabolism and weight loss, but it also raised the heart rate and, in some cases, caused strokes and heart attacks. The Food and Drug Administration banned ephedra supplements in 2004, setting off an industrywide scramble to find another herb that could take its place. For now, the winner seems to be green tea. Its reputation as a healthful, revitalizing beverage goes back thousands of years, and it has recently started showing up in a wide range of weight-loss supplements.

In its latest tablet ratings , Consumer Reports acknowledges that higher temperatures in the new iPad, which tops the list, aren't anything to be alarmed about. "Responding to consumer comments on the new device, and to coverage from other reviewers, we also carried out further tests that confirmed the new iPad is warmer in its hottest spots than the iPad 2 ," CR wrote. "But we didn't find those temperatures to be cause for concern. " Among the features highlighted in the CR rankings, the new iPad's Retina display set a "new benchmark in excellence" due to its superior clarity of detail and color accuracy.

Apple's iPad has, so far, defined and dominated the tablet market. And despite the rise of rival tablets eating into Apple's market share , the iPad will remain the top tablet of choice for most businesses, according to a new survey. The research firm ChangeWave spoke with 1,604 businesses last month and 22% said they were planning on purchasing tablets for their employees sometime in the next three months. Of the companies ChangeWave spoke with, 84% said the tablet they would buy would be an iPad, up seven percentage points from a survey the company took in November.

Continuing its uncanny ability to surf from one blockbuster hit to another, Activision Blizzard Inc. posted first-quarter revenue and profit that exceeded Wall Street's expectations, thanks in large part to the success of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, a popular children's game with a suite of collectible physical toys. Still, the Santa Monica games giant's net income for the quarter that ended March 31 dropped 23.7% to $384 million, or 33 cents a share, from $503 million, or 42 cents a share a year earlier.

Barnes & Noble Inc.'s prospects against rivals Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. in the fast-growing digital reader business just got a big lift thanks to a $605-million investment from Microsoft Corp. For the nation's No. 1 bookstore chain, the infusion will help its Nook business better compete against the top-selling Kindle e-reader and iPad tablet computer and relieves some of the pressure on Barnes & Noble to turn a profit on the Nook. It's also a good deal for Microsoft, which is spending barely 1% of its $60-billion cash reserve to gain a bigger presence in the e-reader and tablet markets ahead of the widely anticipated launch of its Windows 8 operating software later this year.

The Kindle Fire appears to be burning up its competition — on the Android side, anyway. Amazon.com Inc.'s tablet computer is catching on in a big way in the U.S., accounting by end of February for 54.4% of tablets that run Google Inc.'s Android system software. That represented a near doubling of the Fire's Android market share since December, when it was at 29.4%, according to new data from ComScore Inc. The Fire first went on sale in November. In a way, the Kindle Fire is gobbling up the small fish in the pond — far outpacing Samsung's Galaxy Tab (15.4% of Android)

If you hold your breath every time you hand over your tablet to your toddler or other tiny techie, we looked at a couple of cases you might consider. The M-Edge SuperShell case gives your iPad a big cushy foam hug. You may recall at CES in January, they were literally throwing around an iPad in their case. (Check out the video .) First off, kids that age want to touch, hold, teethe on and torture just about everything in sight -- and a few things that aren't. That's especially true when the object in question is something you use and that comes to life with pictures and sound.

Finally, iPad users can get LinkedIn. And the app for this tablet, released Thursday, really is more than a reformatted iPhone app. The app was designed with the functionality of the iPad and users' tablet tapping mostly in the morning and evening in mind, according to a blog post from LinkedIn. The layout is a bit reminiscent of Flipboard, with a design that integrates the multitouch navigation of the iPad. "This 'Coffee & Couch' behavior is so pronounced that we designed our new app to make every professional feel like they have their own personal assistant," it reads.

Personal computers at home and in the office will soon be displaced by the tablet as the primary computing device, according to a new report from Forrester Research. Tablet sales are expected to grow sharply from 56 million in 2011 to 375 million in 2016, according to the report. Given that most users keep their tablets for three years, there will probably be 760 million tablets in use globally by 2016, said Frank Gillette, principal analyst on Forrester's business technology futures team.

Some may wonder whether there's room for Microsoft to carve a niche for itself with a behemoth like Apple's iPad dominating the tablet market.  According to a  Bloomberg report , Microsoft is said to be preparing Windows 8, a touch-friendly operating system, for a fall launch. Although the iPad is a dominant critical and commercial success by most accounts, there's a sizable gap between it and the nearest comparable Android tablet, presenting...

Literature has always relied on technology. We wouldn't have the Dead Sea Scrolls had the ancients failed to invent papyrus, just as we wouldn't have "The Da Vinci Code" if Gutenberg hadn't come out with movable type. Technology has also abetted literature by enabling the wealth and leisure that fueled the rise of the popular press -- and allowed for such luxuries as a class of professional writers and a large campus establishment devoted to the literary arts. It is important to bear in mind that technology is not the sworn enemy of literature as Apple prepares (according to frantic rumor)

A paradigm shift may be coming to the digital lifestyle. Instead of the PC being the center of the personal computing universe, consumers will be opting for tablets as their primary computing device and relying on cloud storage to access their content across their devices, according to a new report. "This burgeoning market is set to disrupt the personal computing device and OS markets," says the  report from Forrester Research on the future of computing. Instead of serving as a supplement to a desktop or laptop computer, the report said, these burgeoning cloud services will play such an integral role in the connected future that consumers will first choose a service, then the compatible device as the focus shifts from device to personal content storage services.

Chatter about an iPad mini just won't settle. Another analyst just added fuel to this hot-air balloon with a note to clients. But revisiting Steve Jobs' take on going smaller might just deflate some of this speculation. This week, Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu wrote that a 7- or 8-inch screen with resolution that's comparable to the first- and second-generation iPads is feasible, according to Barron's . "From a competitive standpoint, we believe an iPad mini with a lower price point would be the competition's worst nightmare," Wu wrote.