Laptop Casing- The Pelican 1075 Hardback Case

For those who are looking for some extra protection for the iPad, tablet PC, netbook, or other smaller laptop, then you might want to check out the Pelican 1075 HardBack Cases.

The 1075 model is dustproof, watertight, as well as crushproof. It has been tested for impact and submersion to three feet, and it has an easy-open latch as well as a built-in automatic purge valve to keep water and dust out while balancing air pressure.

It also has a molded liner which is designed to add impact shock protection and not scratch the tablet. There is enough room underneath your device in the 1075 for some accessories like an adapter, cables, or earbuds.

In short, you can afford to put your small PC into a case for “your office on the go”. It even comes with a strap so you can sling it around your shoulder. You don’t have to worry about banging against wall or door with your gear in this box.

I found a lot of models of the Pelican 1075 with foam or computer liner, and the i1075 comes with an iPad Insert. The price is about $59.95 on Amazon, and you might want to look at some similar Hardback cases on the Pelican site like the 1085 and the 1095.

iPod Gadget - iDock Behringer iNuke Boom

The name Behringer might give you a clue, being an award-winning innovator of affordable professional audio and music equipment. In order to celebrate the launch of 50 new consumer audio products, Behringer’s iNuke Boom is proud to be the loudest iPad, iPod and iPhone dock that anyone and everyone would have ever come across at CES next year in Las Vegas – which incidentally, is only a month away.

As with anything and everything in life, there is a price to pay, and this particular one will actually make your banker cry to the tune of $29,999.99. I guess it also makes perfect sense, considering you would need to pay such a behemoth of a price tag for monster sound, not to mention the fact that this puppy is really, really huge, as it measures 8 feet wide and 4 feet in height, tipping the scales at more than 700 pounds (try tipping that over!), pumping out more than 10,000 Watts of power.

There will be a quartet of distinct product lines that will be marketed under the EUROSOUND name, where the Home line delivers a professional, live concert sound from the stage into the comfort of your home, EUROSOUND Live products will have their work cut out for them to amplify your sound, EUROSOUND Portable products deliver a mobile audio experience that is anytime, anywhere, and last but not least, the Creation line lets you show the world that you need not be a professional musician in order to churn out great music. Value for money would be the commitment here, although I am not sure who would drop such an amount of serious coin for the iNuke Boom.

SteelSeries Shift Gaming Keyboard

 These keyboards fold up when not in use, and are easily switch able.

The Shift also has a few ports. There are two gold plated microphone-in and audio-out ports, as well as two USB 2.0 ports. By the way, you have to plug in the Shift to your laptop or desktop into the headphone and microphone ports, and you need to plug in two USB plugs to get the two USB ports on the keyboard to work.

Another feature is the easy to record macros. You know those moves in MMO games that require several buttons to accomplish? Imagine being able to do that move with one button. Now imagine having seven more buttons for your macros.

By the way, the Shift also has some easy-to-access media keys on the side. Other features include adjustable rubberized feet for 3 different height settings as well as Fine-Tuned Heat Spots.

You should be able to get the Shift from the SteelSeries site for about $99.99. The shiftable keyboards will cost about $24.99.

iPad 2 -Features, Build in Apps & Comment

It's All About Technology

Ipad is like an extra hand of you. With 8.8 mm thin and 601 of grams of weight it is very innovative. Surfing the web, watching movies, checking email and reading ebooks is just a click away. With it's Two powerful cores in one A5 chip, iPad can do twice the work at once. Multitasking is smooth, apps load quickly and anything you touch responds instantly. And with up to nine times the graphics performance of the first-generation iPad, everything on iPad 2 is even more fluid and realistic, from gameplay to scrolling through your photo library. Even with such a thin, light design, iPad has an incredible 10-hour battery life. That’s enough juice for one flight across the ocean, or one movie-watching all-nighter or a week’s commute across town. Because iPad hardware and software are made for each other, the power-efficient A5 chip works with the iOS software to keep the battery life from fading away.

 You’ll see two cameras on iPad — one on the front and one on the back. They may be tiny, but they’re a big deal. They’re designed for FaceTime video calling, and they work together so you can talk to your favourite people and see them smile and laugh back at you.³ The front camera puts you and your friend face to face. Switch to the back camera during your video call to share where you are, who you’re with or what’s going on around you. When you’re not using FaceTime, let the back camera roll if you see something movie-worthy. It’s HD, so whatever you shoot is a mini masterpiece. And you can take whacky snapshots in Photo Booth. It’s the most fun a face can have.

 For more features : http://www.apple.com/asia/ipad/features/

Review :

To say Apple's  iPad 2 is an easy tablet to review is somewhat of an understatement. The device, a follow up to last year's wildly successful (and currently market-defining) iPad, is nearly identical when it comes to software, and though improved, closely related on the hardware side as well. With a 9.7-inch, 1024 x 768 display, the general size and shape of the device has remained the same, and though inside there's a new dual core A5 CPU, more memory, and a pair of new cameras, most of the iPad 2's changes are cosmetic. Still, the previous tablet soared far above most of its competitors when it came to the quality of both the hardware (if not its raw specs) and its software selection -- something Apple still stands head and shoulders over its adversaries on. So this new model, a thinner, sleeker, faster variant of the original may not be breaking lots of new ground, but it's already at the front of the pack. But is the iPad 2 worth an upgrade for those that took the plunge on the first generation? More importantly, does the device have what it takes to bring new owners into the fold? 

Hardware

The iPad 2 is all about the hardware. From an industrial design standpoint, the iPad 2 just seriously raised the bar on sleek, sexy computer hardware. If you're an owner of the original model, you know it was no slouch in the design department, but its latest iteration takes it to a whole other place. The first thing you'll probably notice about the iPad 2 is that it's thin -- unbelievably thin. At its thickest point, the tablet is just 0.34-inches (compared with the first iPad's half an inch of girth). The device is slightly shorter than the previous model (at 9.5-inches tall), but also slightly less wide (just 7.3-inches versus the iPad's 7.47-inches). It looks and feels amazingly sleek when you hold it. As Steve Jobs pointed out at the launch event, the device is thinner than the astoundingly thin iPhone 4 -- quite a feat considering what's packed inside the slate. Of course, it's still not exactly light, weighing in at 1.33 pounds (or 1.34 / 1.35 for the 3G models), just a hair under the original's one and a half pounds.

As with the previous version, the front of the device is all screen, save for a bezel (which appears slightly less broad than the one on the first model), and a home button at the bottom of the display. The iPad 2 does add a camera opposite from that button at the top of the device, but the small dot is barely noticeable. Around back there's the familiar, smooth aluminum of the previous version (it does feel slightly smoother here), a small, dotted speaker grid on the lower left, a camera on the upper left, and depending on what model you get, the 3G antenna along the top back. The volume buttons and mute / rotate switch sit on the back left side of the device, while on the right you'll find the Micro SIM slot (on 3G versions). A standard 30-pin dock connector is along the bottom, while the top reveals a power / sleep button on the upper right side, and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the left. All pretty standard business for an iPad, but smartly put together on this tiny frame.

Internals / display / audio

Much has been made about what is -- and isn't -- inside the new iPad. For starters, Apple has replaced last year's A4 CPU with a new, 1GHz dual core chip it's calling the A5 (surprise surprise). According to Geekbench, there's now 512MB of RAM in the iPad, bringing it up to iPhone 4 standards. That still seems on the low side to us -- a device in this class should probably be sporting 1GB, though we had no memory issues. The screen is identical to the previous model, a 1024 x 768, 9.7-inch IPS display. It still looks good, though we really would have liked to see a bump in resolution -- if not up to the Retina Display's doubled numbers, then something substantial. We don't take issue with the quality of the display as far as color balance or deepness of blacks go, but we would like to see higher pixel density, especially for the book apps.

On the wireless front, you can nab either a WiFi (802.11a/b/g/n) only model, a Verizon 3G version, or an iPad of the AT&T / GSM variety. Bluetooth 2.1+EDR is on board, as is an AGPS chip in the 3G versions. All the models come equipped with an ambient light sensor, an accelerometer, and a new addition: a three-axis gyroscope.

As we said, Apple has relocated the iPad's single speaker to the back of the device. The sound seems clearer if somewhat quieter than the old version, and we can't say that there's a major improvement as far as the placement goes. It does the job, but if you're working in GarageBand (or just listening to music or watching video), you'll want good headphones or decent speakers nearby.

Still, on the specs front the iPad 2 feels very iterative. There's nothing here that is totally mind-blowing, but there's nothing here that makes it feel far off from its nearest competition. We're early enough in the tablet game that a small push in specs like this will last us another season, but Apple needs to deliver bigger guns by the time we see a "3" at the end of the iPad moniker.

Galaxy Tab 10.1 - Latest Tablet PC On The Market

Full Specification

Not its first tablet, but Samsung's first entry into the recent Honeycomb tablet boom, the Wi-Fi Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a hair thinner than the Apple iPad 2 ($499, 4.5 stars). Despite this physical feat, it won't replace last year's seven-inch Galaxy Tab—Samsung reps claim they're selling far too well. The $499.99 (list) Tab 10.1 is as capable as any of its Honeycomb competitors, but Samsung might change that. Though it was originally released with an untouched version of Honeycomb, an August update introduced Samsung's customized TouchWiz UI. Samsung has a checkered past when it comes to timely Android updates and UI customizations on its phones, and though the TouchWiz verdict is a pretty good one here, timely updates could still become a problem. Regardless, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is one of the best Android tablets available right now.

Design and Features

Measuring approximately 6.9 by 10.1 by 0.3 inches (HWD), the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 looks vastly different than every tablet we've seen thus far. Just kidding—they all look virtually identical. From the front, the Tab 10.1 most closely resembles the iPad 2 in overall appearance (no logos, just a black frame around the display) and the Motorola Xoom ($599, 3.5 stars) in shape. Like the Xoom, it has a 10.1-inch, 1,280-by-800-pixel display that makes it ideal for watching widescreen-format video and HD content. By taking up more surface area than either the Xoom or iPad 2, the Tab 10.1 manages to be thinner and, at 19.9 ounces, lighter than either. The plastic back panel is offered in white (like our review unit) or black, and both models are available in 16GB (as we tested) or 32GB capacities, the latter costing $599.99. There's also an LTE version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from Verizon Wireless, which sells for $529 (16GB) and $629 (32GB), with a two-year Verizon contract. 

The back panel houses the rear-facing 3-megapixel camera lens. A front-facing 2-megapixel lens is situated on the front panel, and both lenses sit in the middle of the long top edge of the tablet, for horizontal use. Near the lenses, on the top panel, there's a 3.5mm headphone jack that is thoughtfully accompanied by a pair of standard-issue earbuds. The earbuds aren't terribly good, but something is better than nothing, which is what you get with nearly every other competing tablet.

Along the side panels, there are left and right internal speakers; the top edge houses the Power and Volume controls, and on the bottom panel there's a proprietary connection for the included charging/sync cable, which connects the tablet to both your computer and the AC adapter via USB.

Just like all the recent Honeycomb tablets, the Tab 10.1 is powered by Nvidia's dual-core Tegra 2 processor. The tablet supports 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and there's built-in GPS, an accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass. While the Tab will handle 1080p video, there's no HDMI output to mirror to an HDTV, unlike many other Honeycomb tablets such as the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 ($399-499, 3.5 stars). And there's no USB port, either.

Performance

Because all Honeycomb tablets thus far have shipped with the same Tegra 2 CPU inside, our system test results (on the BenchmarkPi or GUIMark2 Flash tests) for the Galaxy Tab 10.1, even after the TouchWiz update, are very similar to those for almost every other Honeycomb tablet. Until a current-gen Android tablet emerges that doesn't use Tegra 2, this is unlikely to change. That said, that Tegra 2 means strong overall processor performance, with smooth UI navigation and fast loading times for most Flash-based websites. The one change we noticed with the TouchWiz update was diminished browser performance; the TouchWiz browser was noticeably slower than the stock Honeycomb browser.

Samsung rates the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (Wi-Fi)'s battery life at up to 9 hours. Our own test results will be posted here soon.

Honeycomb and TouchWiz

Android 3.0 "Honeycomb," Google's tablet-specific OS, hasn't varied much at all from tablet to tablet so far. In a nutshell, it is a very capable OS—a tad cluttered at times, but more customizable than Apple's iOS. App selection for Honeycomb is weak, whereas Apple's iPad-optimized app selection is quite strong, so there is a need for improvement in this category, but it seems more up to developers than anyone else. Google recently released Android 3.1 (the Galaxy Tab 10.1 ships with it) to most existing Honeycomb tablets, and there have thus far been few manufacturer customizations. This Android version brings better multitasking (you can now open upwards of 20 apps simultaneously instead of just five) and full support for Adobe Flash 10.3. (As you might have heard, the iPad 2 has no Flash support whatsoever.) To better understand the OS, check out our Honeycomb review. 

At the beginning of August, Samsung rolled out the update it promised for the Galaxy Tab, adding its custom TouchWiz interface to the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Though most of the changes are aesthetic and minor, and many are seemingly pointless (like changing the standard Honeycomb icons, which everyone does but no one needs to), there are more than a few really useful changes here.

The TouchWiz update added a number of new apps to the device, and gave it a total aesthetic overhaul. Let’s start with the aesthetics: Nearly every app, menu, and window has been redesigned, from the browser to the notifications window, which is now called the Quick Panel. The browser redesign didn’t appeal to me—I like Honeycomb’s grayscale look, and TouchWiz makes everything very black-on-white—but others, like the Quick Panel, are welcome. You can now access and toggle Wi-Fi, GPS, sound, and more straight from the pop-up notifications window, which saves a ton of time you'd otherwise spend digging in Settings to turn things on and off.

The Home Screen has also been redesigned, from the aforementioned button changes to the layout of the screens. Samsung fills all five home screens with widgets upon widgets; there’s one for the weather, a large clock, a photo gallery, and widgets corresponding to Samsung’s email, calendar, and social apps. It only takes about a minute to remove the widgets from the home screen, but they make the device feel just busy. Not to mention they slow down the home screen performance noticeably.

Samsung’s best addition, and something I hope Android makes standard, is the Mini Apps Tray. There’s a small arrow button in the middle of the bottom bar that, when pressed, pops up a list of apps: Task Manager, Calendar, World Clock, Pen memo, Calculator, and Music Player. They’re not full apps, but little widgets à la those on the Mac OS X Dashboard. When you choose an app, it pops up over whatever app you’re in; take a note or add a calendar appointment, hit Done, and it gets saved to the correct app without you ever really switching. This is incredibly useful for, say, making a calendar event out of an email or changing your music; it's the closest thing I’ve seen to true multitasking on a tablet, and I hope it only grows from its current, somewhat limited state. (Customization of those apps would be nice, for instance, and they have a tendency to lag.)

TouchWiz brings with it a bunch of different apps, most of which are standard TouchWiz fare. Media Hub is a place to buy and rent movies and music; Social Hub combines a bunch of social networks, calendars, and email services into one manageable inbox; Samsung Apps opens the curated Samsung app store. Amazon Kindle, Words with Friends, and Swype (a keyboard replacement) are also bundled in. Swype is an excellent tablet keyboard, and it’s certainly a welcome addition here. There’s also, mercifully, a dedicated on-screen button for taking screenshots, which most people won’t care about but makes the life of a tech journalist far easier.

Otherwise, the changes are mostly Samsung’s subtle “we can do this better than Google” modifications to the Email, Calendar, Music, and Videos apps, among others. And honestly, they’re solid and more polished than the Google apps; I preferred a few of them.

Otherwise, there’s not much to see here—TouchWiz is more of a refining and polishing of Honeycomb than a total reimagining of the operating system. A couple of gestures are supported, like the ability to put two fingers on the screen and tilt the entire device toward you or away from you to zoom in or out on the page, though why you’d ever need to do that escapes me. Much is the same here, and it’s certainly not the jarring change to Android that TouchWiz is on the Galaxy S, which makes the phone completely different to use than other Android phones.

The biggest mistake Samsung may have made is releasing the Galaxy Tab 10.1 without TouchWiz in the first place. Users accustomed to Honeycomb will have to adapt to the new changes, and may not like doing so. The real potential problem here, though, is that when Google pushes out further updates to the OS, Samsung will have to first customize them and then push out that update to its customers. Samsung's customers in the mobile phone world know firsthand that it can take a long time—months or years—before the company deems its Android updates ready for release. Tread carefully here, and don't buy the Galaxy Tab based on improvements you hope to see from future updates.

Blackberry Playbook - Fun or Work ??

 The all new Blackberry Playbook is being touted as the professionals tablet.  Compared to other similar models that are geared more towards fun, the newest in the Blackberry family is suppossed to be able deliver optimal performance for the executive and career person on the go.

The common complaint among tablet users is that the memory and the programs seem to be geared more towards fun than towards work.  The Blackberry Playbook is not receiving this type of negative feedback.  With models starting with one gigabyte of RAM and progressing from sixteen to thirty-two and finally sixty-four gigs, this is one powerhouse of memory in a small package.

And what a small package it is too.  At seven inches wide and zero point four inches thick, this little dynamo only weighs in at point nine pounds.  You make think its tiny size means it has few ports but this unit comes with an impressive amount of connectivity options.  The side ports include a micro-HDMI and a micro-USB.  But for even better charging options at double the speed of the micro-USB, there is also a three prong charger that helps seat the unit in a base.

The incredible dual core 1GHz T1 OMAP processor is top of the line.  And this professional grade tablet is installed with one of the world’s favorite operating systems, QNX.  Reviews are already saying that the Playbook has the ability to deliver an incredible Power Point presentation.  But that is not all.  This little powerhouse has the ability to deliver your presentations, and can also protect them from industrial espionage.   The security features and functions on the Blackberry Playbook  are some of the strongest and most efficient on the market today.

You might be saying what good is a tablet, if you can’t have some fun with it?  And you would be right; which is why the folks over at Blackberry have made sure that the Playbook is not all work.    With an unassuming 3.5 mm head jack for earphones and a flight long six hour plus battery, you will be able to take some time away from the office to just relax.  If your flight takes you to somewhere exotic, rest assured that the five megapixel rear facing camera will be able to show your destination to all of your office bound colleagues.  However, if you don’t want them to know where you have escaped, you can still conduct meetings using the three megapixel front facing unit.

Whether you are a workaholic or just a career minded individual who likes to have fun, the Blackberry Playbook is going to be your new friend and favorite gadget.  Just as the Playbook’s smaller cousins began populating throughout the professional world, it will not be long before it too corners the market on business executives.  Starting at just $499 for the smaller memory models, the Blackberry Playbook even fits into a fiscally sound budget.

Blackberry Playbook Features