Acer America, the number two notebook provider, today announced that the Acer Iconia W700 tablet PC, a high-performance mobile PC in a tablet PC form factor, will be available for the U.S. market. Acer's first Windows 8-based tablet PC for the U.S., the Iconia W700 features a versatile, portable design that delivers a first-rate touch and typing experience for productivity-focused PC users.

The Acer Iconia W700 tablet PC with Windows 8 delivers excellent performance using responsive and fast Intel Core i3 and Core i5 (Ivy Bridge) processors, enabling the system to take on spreadsheets, presentations, and more with ease. The powerful processors allow customers to use the Iconia W700 as their main PC for all of their everyday computing tasks, such as content creation, running multiple apps, and sharing multimedia.

Razer is once again taking to Facebook to gauge consumer interest on an upcoming (and undecided) product. The company is willing to go forward with "Project Fiona," a tablet designed for handheld gaming, if 10,000 users like and share the pitch on Facebook. "Earlier this year, we announced a concept design - Project Fiona: The World's First Tablet Designed for PC Gamers. We've been working on it since then and have narrowed down a couple of key concepts/designs. We would like to reach out to the community to see the level of interest before we actually launch it. If you'd like to see Razer make the product that won "Best of CES" People's Voice Award, then now's your chance to let your voice be heard," said Razer's Min-Liang Tan. Earlier this year, Razer gauged public interest in a similar manner before beginning to work on a left hand-oriented variant of its Naga MMO mouse.

HP today introduced the HP ElitePad 900, a tablet that balances a beautiful design with enterprise-grade features, functionality and support.

Designed for business and government, it features HP ElitePad Smart Jackets, which add connectivity options and an additional ultra-slim battery for longer runtime, along with specific add-ons that customize the tablet for specialized uses.

The HP ElitePad is an ultrathin, lightweight tablet designed for Windows 8 that delivers features to keep IT managers happy and touts a design that employees will crave. It offers the full serviceability, enhanced security and manageability found in HP Elite PCs, and military-grade durability for drops, vibration, dust, temperature extremes and high altitude.

Intel Corporation and its OEM partners today unveiled the first wave of new tablets and tablet convertible designs based on Intel Core vPro, Intel Core and Intel Atom processors, including the new Atom processor Z2760 (formerly codenamed "Clover Trail").

The new Intel Atom processor-based devices provide consumers and business users with a wide choice of innovative, sleek and stylish designs with long battery life and class-leading performance. Additionally, they will be able to experience Windows 8 while continuing to run all the programs they know and love.

Dell today unveiled new additions to its state-of-the-art portfolio of business-class computers enabling companies to give employees devices they want to use while maintaining the IT security and manageability necessary for enterprise-class deployments. The three new devices include the Latitude 10-inch touch-enabled tablet, the Latitude 6430u Ultrabook that brings leading design to the boardroom, and a touch-enabled OptiPlex 9010 All-in-One desktop helping people interact with technology in more intuitive ways.

"Never before has the intersection between great design and data security and manageability been as important as employees increasingly ask for support for gorgeous products while IT needs to maintain corporate controls. Dell is providing the answer with these new Latitude and OptiPlex products designed to inspire workers and meet the needs of IT," said Sam Burd, global vice president, Personal Computing Product Group. "Dell's approach is rooted in our heritage of deep familiarity with the needs of IT professionals combined with our new, world-class set of commercial products that meet user demands."Images courtesy of SlashGear.

Panasonic, an industry leader in rugged, reliable mobile computers since 1996, today announced upgrades to the Panasonic Toughbook 19, its best-selling rugged convertible tablet PC. The updated Toughbook 19 now comes with an Intel Core i5-3320M vPro processor (up to 3.3 GHz) with Intel Turbo Boost Technology. Other enhancements include expanded storage, a more responsive touchpad and an innovative ambient light sensor, allowing automatic backlight shut-off to improve battery life.

With these and other upgrades, the reliable Toughbook 19 continues to be the ideal investment for a broad spectrum of demanding work environments, including the military's front lines, in police and emergency services vehicles, and in the field for use by service workers and utility and maintenance technicians.

Like its compatriot Sony, Toshiba has taken advantage of IFA 2012 to showcase a Windows 8 hybrid machine that can be used as a tablet or as an ultrabook, depending on its owner's needs. Known as the Satellite U925t, Toshiba's 'best of both worlds' mobile solution is just 0.78 inches thick, it weighs 3.2 pounds (~ 1.45 kg), and features a 12.5-inch sliding touchscreen (protected by Gorilla Glass), a backlit keyboard, an Intel Core i5 (Ivy Bridge) processor, a 128 GB SSD, a rear-facing 3-megapixel camera, and a HD webcam.

The U925t also has two USB 3.0 ports, a HDMI output, support for Intel's Wireless Display technology, NFC, and comes pre-loaded with a few branded apps like Desktop Assist, Toshiba Central, App Place, News Place and Book Place. Toshiba's creation is expected to become available on October 26th (Windows 8's launch day) priced just north of $1,000.

ARCHOS, an award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, is proud to announce their first gaming tablet. This new type of tablet, the GamePad, combines gaming controls with Android for a full tablet and gaming experience in one. Gamers will not only have access to all their favorite games, they will also have access to email, Internet, apps and more through one device.

The GamePad features a 7-inch, capacitive screen, physical control buttons and analog sticks. This Google certified tablet has full access to Google Play for the tens of thousands of games available, runs a dual-core processor @ 1.5 GHz combined with a Mali 400mp quad-core GPU. In addition, the GamePad includes automatic game recognition and mapping tools - patented technology to ensure control compatibility with every advanced Android game.

Genius today releases its EasyPen M406WE. This wireless graphics-design tablet with a 4" x 6" working area is bundled with Corel Painter Essentials 4 making it easy to create, paint and edit photos on both Windows and Mac.

When using the EasyPen M406WE, users can create and paint on the couch, on the floor, or across the room thanks to this Genius tablet's 2.4 GHz wireless connectivity. If the included three AAA rechargeable batteries run out of power when in use, users can simply plug in the micro USB cable for a quick recharge.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has now begun volume production of an ultra-fast embedded memory for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices in 16-, 32- and 64-gigabyte (GB) densities.

The new Samsung eMMC (embedded multimedia card) Pro Class 1500 delivers the industry's fastest speeds for an embedded memory device, reading data sequentially at up to 140 megabytes per second (MB/s) and writing it at up to 50 MB/s. For random reading and writing, it can process up to 3500/1500 IOPS (inputs and outputs per second), four times the speed of previous eMMC solutions.

Genius today releases its EasyPen M610XA. This graphics-design tablet with a 6" x 10" working area is bundled with Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 and Corel Painter Essentials 4 making it easy to quickly and professionally edit photos and create digital artwork.

The EasyPen M610XA connects to notebooks and computers through one USB port and is extremely accurate with 4000 LPI and a report rate per second (RPS) of 200. The included cordless stylus is pressure sensitive with 1024 pressure levels, making brush strokes thicker or thinner depending on how hard the stylus is pressed and mimics traditional painting. This high-performance stylus also doubles as a mouse. A left-click is achieved by simply pushing down on the stylus. A right-click button and a scroll button near the tip of the stylus lets it easily double as a mouse.

SanDisk Corporation, a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced the world's fastest mobile memory card. The SanDisk Extreme Pro microSDHC UHS-I card is ideal for smartphone and tablet users who want to boost their device's storage capacity while enjoying the fastest mobile experience.

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced its roadmap of new computing devices designed for Microsoft Windows 8. Toshiba's new mobile solutions showcase the advanced functionality and capabilities Toshiba plans to bring to market while enhancing the experience of the new operating system.

"These inspiring new PC and tablet designs will allow consumers and business users to interact with Windows in amazing new ways," said Carl Pinto, vice president of marketing, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. "These products reflect Toshiba's long history of engineering breakthrough computing hardware in thin and light form factors and our close relationships with Microsoft and our silicon partners to bring them to market."

Intel Corporation Senior Vice President Tom Kilroy officially introduced the next wave of Ultrabook systems during a keynote address at Computex Taipei 2012. Making a bold statement around the importance of touch technology, Kilroy also announced that Intel has signed agreements with several leading touch panel manufacturers to ensure adequate capacity to meet the expected demand for touch-enabled Ultrabook experiences over the next several years.

He also highlighted the company's efforts to deliver user-centric experiences across a range of mobile devices from the Ultrabook to smartphones and tablets, pointing to momentum across all three.

Acer presents two of its newest Windows 8 tablets at Computex Taipei. The ICONIA W510 evolves the computing experience with three different modes of touchscreen operation, while the ICONIA W700 is the best-performing Windows 8 tablet with the added versatility of a cradle. Both designed to set new standards in ergonomics and user-friendliness.

The most unique part of the W510 tablet is the tri-mode, allowing users to touch, type and view. Aside from the conventional tablet mode, it can be used in productivity mode. A detachable keyboard dock can be connected to the tablet for optimal typing as well as extending the battery life up to 18 hours. Rotating the tablet 295 degrees allows it to be used in presentation mode, which is excellent for watching a video, browsing a webpage or viewing a PowerPoint presentation.

As revealed by a leaked slide, Dell's Windows 8 plans include the launch of a 10-inch tablet running Microsoft's upcoming operating system. Interestingly-enough, although Windows 8 will be ARM-friendly the tablet Dell has in the works, named Latitude 10, is going to be powered by an x86 processor, more specifically, a dual-core Intel Atom (Clover Trail).

The Latitude 10 will feature a 10.1-inch (1366 x 768) capacitive touchscreen, integrated graphics, 2 GB of LPDDR2 memory, up to a 128 GB SSD, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 2MP front camera, stereo speakers, WiFi, Bluetooth and optional broadband, and a removable 2-cell or 4-cell battery enabling up to 8/12 hours of operation.

The tablet is rumored to become available around October/November.

Thecus is proud to present the first tablet in its lineup, ThecusPAD. With an innovative design, hardware and software, users are offered a powerful tablet that not only can browse the web, access media files and access GPS functions but can also install modules that allows Thecus NAS users to manage their NAS conveniently from their ThecusPAD.

Some key features of the stunning ThecusPAD includes a 7" HD display, which is great for watching HD videos and viewing high resolution photos. To add, capacitive touch screen adds a great feel when using the ThecusPAD. Stereo speakers illuminate a clear and crisp sound while playing music from ThecusPAD. Equipped with a micro-HDMI port and Thecus Utility, streaming seamless data from your NAS to your TV does not even require an adapter anymore.

Apple's next big move will be to provide wireless service directly to its iPad and iPhone customers, according to veteran wireless industry strategist Whitey Bluestein.

Bluestein told an international gathering of wireless operators, resellers and suppliers that Apple has all of the critical elements - the world's leading brand, distribution through 363 Apple Stores, digital content (music, video and apps)-which will allow it to exploit its 250 million iTunes accounts with credit cards on file.

He also noted that Apple has a patent-pending network architecture to enter the wireless industry as a service provider. Apple filed a patent application in October 2006, shortly before the first iPhone announcement, with a diagram on how it would offer wireless service directly to customers using networks of several mobile operators. The patent application was extended in fall 2011. Bluestein said that the patent confirms that Apple has thought through how it would offer service directly to customers.

With a new line of Atom processors optimized for low-power devices, and Microsoft's touch-optimized Windows 8 operating system, the Wintel (Windows+Intel) alliance aims to reduce the stranglehold that Apple iPad has over the tablet market, all the way down to 50 percent. The duo also aim for this to happen as relatively early as by mid-2013. What makes this an ambitious claim by Wintel alliance, is that while iPad currently holds over 70 percent of the tablet market, it's not that Wintel tablets hold the remaining 30 percent. A bulk of iPad alternatives are tablets running Google's Android operating system, and ARM processors. It would be interesting to see the outcome of this Mexican-standoff in the making (between Windows+Intel, Android+ARM, and Apple iPad), at the end of 2013.

Intel Corporation today introduced an Intel studybook, a tablet that is part of the Intel Learning Series family and features unique classroom-ready features and capabilities including an ultra rugged design and specialized educational software. Purpose-built for 1:1 e-learning, a studybook's innovative features include front and rear cameras, microphone, light sensor support project-based inquiry and mobile learning environments. It comes with a capacitive multi-touch LCD screen and is based on an Intel Atom processor Z650.

The rugged tablet reference design is constructed from a single piece of plastic and includes shock-absorbers around the screen. It is designed to withstand accidental drops from a standard student desk and is also water- and dust-resistant. Young students, often owners of slippery fingers can learn and have fun in and out of the classroom with reduced stress for parents and teachers concerned about damage.

The universe of smart connected devices, including PCs, media tablets, and smartphones, saw shipments of more than 916 million units and revenues surpassing $489 billion dollars in 2011, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC). These numbers reflect the combined total from IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, Mobile Phone Tracker, and Media Tablet Tracker.

"Whether it's consumers looking for a phone that can tap into several robust 'app' ecosystems, businesses looking at deploying tablet devices into their environments, or educational institutions working to update their school's computer labs, smart, connected, compute-capable devices are playing an increasingly important role in nearly every individual's life," said Bob O'Donnell, vice president, Clients and Displays at IDC.

Wintel (slang for Windows+Intel architecture) tablets, which launch along with Microsoft's latest Windows 8 operating system, which grab a greater market-share than WoA (Windows on ARM) tablets by the end of 2012, DigiTimes research predicts. This, despite the fact that the x86 and ARM versions of the operating system will be released simultaneously. PC majors such as HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, ASUStek and Toshiba, have all pledged 1-3 models of Wintel tablets by the end of 2012. Although still an emerging market-segment, tablets will see a clash between x86 and ARM architectures, as they are wooing for the same exact class of devices for the first time in computing history. Intel has made a lot of progress in miniaturizing the Atom processor, while led by the likes of Qualcomm and NVIDIA, ARM processors are getting stronger.

Earlier this week, we learned about Nokia working on a Windows 8-driven tablet. Concept art of this tablet (probably designed by well-informed fans), suggests that the tablet, Nokia "Lumia Coffee Tab", is essentially a stretched-out Lumia 800, which is its flagship Windows-driven smartphone that's extensively marketed with the monies it received from Microsoft to go Windows. The tablet features a 10.1-inch screen, and is designed to be competitive with Apple's iPad.

Interestingly, Nokia will have to use Windows 8 ARM, since the tablet reportedly uses a Qualcomm-made processor, and it is reported that Windows 8 ARM could arrive much later than Windows 8 x86. Could this mean Microsoft handing out Nokia exclusive early-access to Windows 8 ARM? Microsoft is evidently desperate to give its mobile versions of Windows a single potent launch-pad manufacturer, and as one of the most competent mobile phone makers, Nokia is the chosen one. Microsoft looks aware that the post-PC future of computing is very real, and approaching fast.

Finnish phone maker and Microsoft BFF Nokia is said to be planning the release of a tablet by the end of the year. Nokia's tablet would run Windows 8 and is supposed to have a 10-inch touchscreen and a Qualcomm dual-core processor (Snapdragon S4 most likely).

Rumored to arrive in Q4, the mobile device is claimed to be made Compal Electronics who'd deliver 200,000 units in the first production wave. Pricing info is not available at this point.

Today novero announced the introduction of Solana, a lightweight, 10-inch laptop/tablet hybrid with a flip-rotating design at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Designed to deliver the best combination of everyday business computing and mobile entertainment, Solana offers optimal flexibility and state-of-the-art features in one unique device.

Whether converting between laptop and tablet mode with just one flip of the screen, or switching between the two operating systems Genuine Windows 7 (Windows 8 ready) and Android within seconds, or staying seamlessly connected through high-speed 3.5G (HSPA+), WiFi or Bluetooth, Solana is the premium lifestyle mobile device built to work, watch, listen, play and connect in multiple ways. Its capacitive sensing multi-touch panel, built-in video camera, stereo loudspeakers and six row full QWERTY keyboard all support the requirements of today's mobile life.