Our sister blog Gadgetell points out that it’s been just over a year since we first saw Steve Jobs come on stage with his clipboard-sized wonder tablet the iPad and show us for the first time just what it was capable of and how much it cost. Since then, the device has proceeded to redefine what we thought of as a tablet—certainly there had been tablets before, but none of them exactly set the world on fire. The iPad, on the other hand, did set the world on fire, opening up new possibilities for reading not only e-books, but...

On our sister blog Gadgetell, Shawn Ingram posts a CES hands-on report with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, the seven-inch device that is BlackBerry’s attempt to compete with the iPad. A photo gallery accompanies the article, including shots of children’s book applications. Ingram is impressed with the device so far, even if its control scheme seems a little awkward. The awkwardness could be, at least in part, a function of the way the device was locked down on its stand, however. The seven-inch size makes it harder to spot individual pixels, and may be more convenient than the iPad while...

Liliputing reports a Digitimes rumor of a possible Android tablet from HTC planned to come out during the first quarter of 2011. HTC is one of the more popular smartphone makers, and has the expertise necessary to come out with a tablet. (They’ve previously released tablets, such as the HTC Shift pictured at left, that ran on Windows.) However, any information that could make such a tablet stand out from the raft of competitors seems to be lacking. (Though Liliputing did get wind of a rumored dual-screen device design from HTC earlier this year.) And speaking of dual-screened...

On our sister blog Gadgetell, J.G. Mason posts an editorial calling the iPad a “trap” for the computer industry. Mason quotes an All Things D piece stating that the iPad is having a disruptive effect on low-end notebook computer sales as people delay or cancel notebook purchases to buy an iPad instead. Mason further calls the industry’s faddish focus on tablets to compete with the iPad another such disruption. Mason thinks that over time, the iPad (and presumably tablets in general) will develop out of its more limited present capabilities to become a larger, faster, and more capable...

Our sister blog Gadgetell reported yesterday on some new Sony Reader devices Engadget turned up in a slideshow presentation. The 5” Pocket Edition and 6” Touch Edition will reportedly introduce new clear touchscreen technology (no more glare like on the Sony PRS-700 Reader I reviewed!), 2 gigabytes of internal storage, a faster page turn, and increased battery life offering “up to 10,000 page turns on a single charge”. There is no information on price (though Sony famously said it was going to compete on quality instead of trying to match the roller-coaster drops in other readers’ prices),...

We reported in May on rumors of a possible Blackberry tablet device flying around. Lately, those rumors seem to have solidified. Our sister blog Gadgetell reports that Research In Motion, makers of the Blackberry, has acquired the domain name “blackpad.com” from the previous owner, who had owned it since 2002. CNet ties together some other reports, including a post from Bloomberg in which anonymous sources claim the device is going to be Blackberry’s crack at killing the iPad, having similar specs and pricing to the wifi-only version, and will launch by November. The tablet...

On our sister blog Gadgetell, Sue Walsh wonders when e-readers will hit $99, (inspired by a PC World article also so wondering). But more importantly, she also has some angry words for the publishers who fomented the agency price model, which raised prices from Kindle’s originally-promised $9.99 per e-book to $12.99 or more. That leads me to wonder, what good are falling e-reader prices when the publishers are determined to jack up the price of ebooks? I will never understand why they hate ebooks so much. Everyone I know who has an e-reader says they...

Our sister blog Gadgetell reports that Books-a-Million and Sony are beating yesterday’s $109 Kindle refurb with a $99 refurbished Sony Reader 505-LC. Of course, as Gadgetell writer Robert Nelson notes, paying $10 more to get Amazon’s brand value and always-on 3G is not a bad deal at all....

TechCrunch reports that the 3G iPad will be shipping as of May 7th. This is the model that costs $130 more than the equivalent wifi-only version and includes the no-contract-required ability to buy 3G access from AT&T on a monthly basis. That will certainly be good for downloading e-book when wifi is not available. Meanwhile, our sister site Gadgetell reports that Sprint has come up with a clever way to make a “4G iPad”—an iPad case with a built-in pocket for Sprint’s “Overdrive” mobile wifi access point. Like the MiFi I’ve discussed as a way to “retrofit 3G”...

A few days ago, BoingBoing noticed something quite interesting in the iBooks store. In looking up the classic book Moby Dick, or, The Whale by Herman Melville, they noticed the description said that one of the true stories that inspired the book was “the killing of an albino s***m [sic] whale" known as Mocha Dick”. Since I don’t have access to iBooks yet, I can’t look it up for myself and see if that bowdlerization is still intact. But regardless of whether it is or not…why on earth would they censor “sperm,” which is not commonly regarded as...