Is Apple’s new device the start of a paradigm-shifting revolution? Or just a casual-user’s toy? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the tablet that everybody’s talking about.

PROS:
The iPad does a lot of individual things really, really well.

eBooks. While it remains to be seen what kind of eye strain its standard screen might cause when it comes to ereading, compared to the e-ink used on most traditional ereaders, there’s no arguing that the iPad is the coolest ereader there is. If reading ebooks was all the iPad did, the quality it does it with might be enough …read more

Pricing starts at $499, and it’ll be on the market in 60 days. That’s the word from Apple’s big keynote event today, where the long-awaited iPad was unveiled at last.
Calling it a “magical and revolutionary product,” Steve Jobs himself was on hand to show off the device, which he said was “better at key tasks” than the iPhone or a standard laptop.

Somehow, Apple managed to make fulfilling the most reasonable and predictable predictions feel exciting and revolutionary. It’s at once simplicity incarnate, and completely revolutionary. Everything UI wise is scaled down, made ultra-simple yet still attractive.
Let’s take a look at …read more

We are now less than 24 hours away from Apple potentially changing the way we use computers forever. The last time a product was hyped this heavily, with so many rumors swirling through the media, was… well, it was probably Apple’s last revolutionary product, the iPhone.
Now, if the hyperbole is to be believed, Steve Jobs is about to do it again. Everybody on the planet has weighed in on the coming of the Apple Tablet, so why shouldn’t I? I’ve followed every rumor, every guess, and every “insider report” with avid interest, so here I present my thoroughly unscientific, non-expert, …read more

Amazon has taken the wraps off of a new development kit (KDK – “Kindle Development Kit”) for active content on the Kindle. Translation: apps and games are coming to the world’s most popular ebook reader.

A beta is expected to begin for use of the KDK in February, when select software designers will be allowed to try their hand at creating interactive content for the Kindle. Amazon envisions this as an opportunity for developers to deliver something more than reading material. Handmark is already working on an interactive Zagat Guide, for example, and Sonic Boom is creating word games and crossword …read more

The talk about 3-D television making it to your living room has been making it into more mainstream discussion lately. My original thoughts were that there was no way the majority of consumers would be interested in sitting in their living rooms wearing glasses to enjoy watching television in 3-D.

I experienced something this weekend that has changed my perspective a little bit on the potential success of 3-D television in your living room. I watched “Avatar” in IMAX 3-D and it was perhaps the most immersive 3-D experience I’ve ever enjoyed. The powerful part of the experience was that it …read more

I love reporting on weird and unusual gadgets, because reality is always stranger than fiction. Take this one, for example. I mean, how exactly does one get funding to manufacture, market, and sell a sound system designed to pump music from your MP3 player into your pregnant belly. Is there really a market big enough to justify this?

Nuvo seems to think so. That’s the company behind the Ritmo Advanced Sound System, which is designed for use by pregnant mothers. (The sound system can also be detached and used like an iPod for general music playing purposes.) The idea is that …read more

The Consumer Electronics Show, that annual Las Vegas mecca for all things technological, is underway as we speak. Aside from the usual — ever-thinner HDTVs, new laptops, and gadget oddities galore — here are the biggest trends expected to come out of the expo.

Tablet Computers
2010 has already been dubbed “the year of the tablet” by many pundits, and CES should provide ample evidence of this, with variations of tablet PCs, ebook readers, and even some combinations of the two. Already announced are:

The Skiff Reader: an impressive new ereader device that has an enormous black & white display screen (bigger than …read more

I don’t know about you, but I get sick of watching all those pretentious people with Bluetooth headsets in their ears that they wear ALL DAY LONG, whether talking on their phone or not. You know half of them are just pretending!
Here’s a solution that not only loses the pretension but actually improves your coolness factor.

The HDBT-990 Wristband Communicator (a name that sounds like a toy from Star Trek), from Helium Digital, is a Bluetooth extension for your cell phone that wraps around your arm like a watch. Instead of ringing, the Wristband Communicator notifies you of incoming calls by …read more

Tonight my sister-in-law suggested an idea that I’d probably never really thought about before until this evening. Although I’m not sure about the widespread use I can see the benefits for some users.

My sister-in-law’s idea is that she would like a smaller, non-hi-tech device that shared the same number as her larger smartphone. Yep, she’s looking for a device that’s JUST a phone. She doesn’t need it to do anything other than ring when someone calls her cellphone number.
Sometimes she doesn’t want to be bothered or have the distraction of everything that’s available on the smart phone. The other use …read more

CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, takes place next week in Las Vegas, and already the hype machine is starting to build with manufacturers big and small sending out notices of their new novelty products that will be on display. One such doo-dad is this tiny electronic dictionary.

To operate the DIXAU DX3, from Korean gadget maker Unichal, you place it on top of the word you want translated (from the book or magazine of your choice), and click. That’s it. Once you click, the DX3’s tiny scanner pops up and takes an image of the word. Built-in software then reads the …read more