tablets

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins is not a fan of tablets.

Heins questioned the need for the mobile devices in an interview with Bloomberg on Monday.

"In five years I don't think there'll be a reason to have a tablet anymore," he said to Bloomberg.

Those are bold words for BlackBerry, which, of course, has had a checkered history with its sole attempt at a tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook. The PlayBook, which was a massive flop when it debuted without core BlackBerry e-mail and messaging apps, is now considered more of a bargain-bin item.

Still, there are … Read more

Verizon Wireless is getting into the cloud business in a big way.

In the coming weeks, Verizon said Tuesday, it will deliver cloud-based storage for smartphones and tablets. The company's customers will receive 500MB of storage at no charge, but can get up to 125GB of storage. Verizon is offering four storage plans to customers:

"The secure storage app gives customers a place to back up and access their information," Verizon public relations manager David Samberg said Tuesday in a … Read more

Samsung may introduce a Nexus 11 tablet later in the year, according to tech site SamMobile.

Details surfacing this past weekend indicate that Samsung could introduce no fewer than four more tablets in 2013, one of them a Nexus device.

The so-called Nexus 11 will reportedly feature an 11-inch Super PLS TFT display, an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and microSD expansion. This high-end unit will be the first tablet to feature Samsung's octa-core processor, alleges the blog. It is unclear at this point which version of Android will run the operation.

Given the recent whispers that … Read more

Sony's Xperia Tablet Z is now available for preorder through Sony's Web site. The tablet is expected to ship on May 24 and prices for the 16GB and 32GB models are $499 and $599, respectively.

The 10.1-inch Xperia Tablet Z's physical dimensions make it one of the thinnest and lightest tablets on the market and, according to Sony, its waterproof and dustproof build makes it highly durable.

Not to be outshone by its good looks, the Xperia Tablet Z ships with the Android 4.1.2 operating system, houses a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor and … Read more

Smartphones with touch screens? Great! Tablets with touch screens? Duh. But PCs with touch screens? Meh.

Recently I purchased a Lenovo IdeaPad U310 ultrabook, my first-ever touch-screen-equipped computer. I didn't necessarily want the feature, but figured I might as well give Windows 8 the benefit of the doubt. It was, after all, designed to be touched -- which explains why using it with a mere mouse and keyboard is such a dreadful experience. Plus, it was priced only about 50 bucks higher than its non-touch-screen sibling.

Having worked with the system for a couple weeks now, I'm ready … Read more

We've all seen them: smartphones with shattered screens, the unfortunate victims of sudden outbursts of gravity. Your heart sinks a bit, watching your friends, loved ones, even total strangers slide their fingers over that sad, spidered glass, thinking, "There but for the grace of..."

Knowing full well the costs and hassles of replacing a busted screen, I pressed a BodyGuardz ScreenGuardz Pure onto my daughter's hand-me-down iPhone 4. At 13, well, she's been known to drop stuff.

And just the other day, she did. I'd been planning to write about the ScreenGuardz Pure already, just hopefully without any drop-test data. So much for that.… Read more

Today, Samsung revealed the Galaxy Tab 3, a 7-inch tablet, a slim mobile device that may be able to directly compete with the smaller tablet ranges offered by rivals Apple, Amazon, and Google.

The South Korean electronics maker's latest tablet offering sports a 1024x600 pixel screen -- although perhaps underwhelming at today's standards -- but is able to support full 1080p HD playback. The Galaxy Tab 3 is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, and is available with either 8GB or 16GB of storage and 1GB of RAM.

The development of new chips that deliver zippier performance, smoother gaming, faster Web surfing, and longer-lasting battery life will soon make their way into new Android tablets. While the chips themselves -- and the high-end tablets that will house them -- have yet to be released, we have it on good authority that they'll deliver on their promise.

Gaming is an increasingly popular way tablet owners are spending time with their devices, and chip makers are paying attention. The gaming experience on Android tablets has improved in just the last year, and it's bound to only get faster, … Read more

Editors' note: We recently learned that our test model of the Asus FonePad includes firmware that's not yet optimized for the U.S. market. We've since removed the rating and plan to do a full review of the device when it is fully optimized for the U.S. In the meantime, enjoy our hands-on preview of the FonePad.

As its name alludes, the FonePad is one of those tablet/smartphone -- or phablet -- doohickeys. Like the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, it features a large screen and you can make calls on it. However, with a 7-inch screen … Read more