Acer just unveiled the Acer Iconia W3, the industry’s first full-featured 8.1-inch tablet running Windows 8, bringing entertainment and full PC capabilities into a single hand. To sweeten the deal, Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 is pre-installed at no additional expense. The Iconia W3 design is compact enough to use comfortably in one hand while having a screen large enough for entertainment and desktop applications. The slim and sleek device weighs only 1.10 pounds and measures only 0.45 inches thin, making it easy to take anywhere. “With the Iconia W3, Acer is giving those who create, read, work and play in the Windows...

I'm back from a week-long camping trip (and remember, by "camping," I mean hanging out in nature in a small travel trailer—with AC), and I decided I'd see if my new Nook HD could cut it as the sole tablet device. All right, the iPad did come along with me because I was in the middle of editing my latest novel and I'm used to Pages, but other than that, I used the Nook for everything. How did it do? Pretty well, actually. It remains my favorite e-reading device, and I did a lot of reading. I made a big dent...

Ever since Google released the Nexus 7, it has been a challenge for other companies to release low-priced tablets with similar specs. One of the latest competitors to enter the fray is Hisense. Perhaps best known for televisions, Hisense just released a couple Android tablets available exclusively at Walmart. The Sero 7 Pro and the Sero 7 LT cost $149 and $99 respectively. The Sero 7 Pro has specs that are on par with the Nexus 7, but it even manages to offer features Google’s tablet doesn’t have. Here is a rundown of the Sero 7 Pro’s specs: • Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean • 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 processor • 1GB...

The best thing about portable digital devices like smartphones and tablets is how they provide such information right at our fingertips. While they excel in cities and urban areas, they don’t always perform the best in extreme outdoor situations. Designed with the outdoor enthusiast in mind, the creator of Earl has engineered a tablet that’s meant to work where normal smartphones and tablets won’t. A laminated solar panel provides up to 20 hours of uptime. The 3000mAh battery charges in five hours in direct sunlight using high efficiency 18 percent mono crystalline solar cells. Style meets efficiency with intuitive design, fusing Android 4.1...

Wired magazine will be celebrating its 20th anniversary throughout the remainder of 2013, and as something of a celebration, the editorial team has put together Wired @20, an e-book consisting of what the editors consider to be "20 of the most important and mind-blowing stories from the [Wired] archives." Interestingly (and wisely, I'd say), the stories include "all-new epilogues that bring the articles up to date." So even if you've been reading Wired cover-to-cover from day one, you'll probably still find something of interest here. The anthology includes Evan Ratliff's absolutely masterful feature on how to vanish in the digital age, for instance. It also...

All right! Barnes & Noble has finally listened to its customer base, and the tech bloggers. They recently announced that they'll be rolling out a software update that adds the Google Play Store to the Nook HD and HD+ tablets. This is excellent news. The Nook HD tablets have consistently received great hardware reviews, but the Nook App Store lags so far behind other app stores that there's no point in drawing comparisons. Good hardware plus crappy app selection does not equal a winning combination. I confess to being surprised by the news. While it's what I've been writing about for a...

Barnes & Noble Integrating Google Play into Nook Tablets (GigaOM) LeapFrog's Latest Offering, the LeapReader Pen for Kids (Good e-Reader) Granta to Close its New York City Office (GalleyCat) When Bookstore Distribution Collapses (Digital Book World) Kindle Daily Deals: In the Shadows of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner (and 3 others)      ...

Who said high-end 10-inch Android tablets are not attractive anymore just because they’re much pricier than 7-inchers like the Nexus 7 or Amazon’s Kindle Fires? Well, a lot of people, but Sony’s Xperia Tablet Z is bound to make you rethink that. With a splendid design resembling the Xperia Z phone, a stunning Full HD screen, outstanding hardware, up-to-date software, plus water and dust protection, it’s pretty difficult to ignore Sony’s latest 10-incher. True, the thing is not exactly the most budget-conscious around, but it’s probably worth every penny of the $500 Sony is asking for it in the U.S. Available for...

Spotted my first Kobo Aura HD this weekend! My local Indigo had added the new 30-percent larger 6.8 inch reader to its in-store display, and I got to play with one for a few minutes. And my first impression? It was fine. That's it. That's all I can really say about it. It's bigger and it weighs a little more, but other than that, it was virtually identical to my Kobo Glo. It has the same font controls, the same general interface, the same glow light for reading in the dark. All of those were great features on my Glo, and they...

Pocketbook Announces Two New Readers (Good e-Reader) The Battle of the Book Pubbing Platforms (Indie Reader) Writing on an Android Tablet (Galleycat) eBook Publisher Power Rankings: Hachette is #1 (DBW) Kindle Daily Deals: More than 60 books!...

It's hard to believe it's already/only been three years since Apple introduced its category defining iPad. On the one hand, it seems like only yesterday. On the other hand, for those of us with tablet computers of one stripe or another, it's hard to imagine life before our new constant companions—in the same way those of us who came up before the Internet can barely remember the days before Pine. There was a great piece on Ars Technica about two weeks ago in which its editors reflected on the device, their initial impressions and its impact on their lives since. I recall my own...

We love the Nexus 7 tab. Google’s valiant iPad competitor nicely packs inside everything we enjoy about the company’s Android OS, their services and the streamlined symbiosis among them. Oh, and it being a full ‘Benjamin’ cheaper than Apple’s must-have tab makes the 7-inch Nexus even more desirable. First unleashed in July, it makes sense for an updated version to be quickly approaching, no? Well, we’re happy, as a report published today from Reuters leads us to believe exactly that. Google will allegedly be discontinuing its first batch of Nexus 7 devices alongside the roll out of its next-gen model. Ridding the floor plans of NVIDIA’s...