tablets

If you like the Mac-style white look for your computer hardware, you're going to appreciate Toshiba's initial entry in the Windows Vista laptop category. The Portege R400 is a beautifully crafted convertible tablet laptop, one that is every bit as expensive as it looks.

The R400 has plenty of high-end features, such as built-in EV-DO support and a small LED readout on the front edge that shows the time, battery level, and wireless signal strength. It can also alert you to new e-mail messages when the lid is closed.

The Portege R400 has a 12.1-inch screen and … Read more

HP is one of the first vendors to announce a laptop specifically built to run Windows Vista. The HP Pavilion tx1000us is what we call a convertible tablet PC, a standard-looking laptop whose screen swivels 180 degrees and folds down over the keyboard. It has a 12.1-inch screen and falls into the thin-and-light category of laptops.

The tx1000us takes advantage of several of the new tablet features in Windows Vista, including Pen Flicks (quick shortcuts you activate with a swipe of the stylus) and enhanced support for touch-sensitive screens--the kind that work with any pointing device or even your … Read more

Fujitsu may be experimenting with Frankenstein prototypes, but it remains fully grounded in reality where ultra-portable notebooks are concerned. To wit: Fareastgizmos points out that Fujitsu has introduced a new tablet PC that's less than 1 inch thick and weighs 3.5 pounds, complete with Intel's Duo Core processor, 1GB of memory, 80GB hard drive and a choice of 10.4- or 12.1-inch screens. It doesn't fold away into your pocket, but with those dimensions you made not need it to--proving that contortionism isn't necessarily for everyone.

Expectations for the Tablet PC have fallen a bit in recent years, after the breathless predictions of the Tablet PC revolution from a few years ago. Only about 1 million tablets will be sold this year, out of more than 200 million overall PC sales.

Still, PC companies continue to offer doodlers and creative types a way to digitally capture their scribblings. Lenovo's got a new ThinkPad Tablet PC, the X60, that comes with a new display technology that is supposed to be easier to see under the glare from the sun.

The 12-inch screen also comes with what … Read more

The anticipation is already building for January's MacWorld Expo, when Apple watchers are predicting the introduction of both a new, even smaller iPod Shuffle and an Intel-ready iBook.

American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu has heard the new Shuffle will be smaller than a stick of gum and could come in multiple colors, including black. The price points would be $99 and $129 with storage capacities similar to current models.

"We believe this could help offset seasonal weakness in the March quarter similar to last year when iPod Shuffle was introduced," he wrote in a report dated … Read more