Could part of the reason for the decline in reading be a declining attention span brought on by overstimulation with information? Some recent editorials and articles suggest it might be a possibility. Ars Technica’s Nate Anderson chronicles an exchange between New Yorker writer George Packer and New York Times “Bits” blogger Nick Bilton. Packer is concerned that the constant bombardment of information from e-mail, webpages, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, et al are eroding the attention span and leaving people unable to concentrate. He writes: Twitter is crack for media addicts. It scares me, not because I’m morally superior to it, but because...

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For those of you following the iPad release, Gizmodo just published a roundup of tablets (they call them slates) with specs and a comparison chart. Included are the iPad, HP Slate, JooJoo Aotion Ink Adam, Dell Mini 5, Archos 7 Android, Lenovo U1 and Archos 9. From the website: A quick word about "slates" vs. "tablets": These are tablets, and it's a word we prefer. The sad fact is, it's overused. There's no way to say "tablet" without including every godawful stylus-based convertible laptop built since 2002. (Thank you, Bill Gates!) And even the new touchscreen tablets come in...

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