Computers, Tablet | featured news

The rumors you might've heard are true: Samsung's got a new 8-inch tablet, appropriately named the Galaxy Note 8.0, on the way. The new tablet will sit between the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note 2 smartphone and the 10.1-inch Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet. It competes with Apple's 7.9-inch iPad Mini and Google's 7-inch Nexus 7.

Increased demand for mobile devices like tablets has aided sales growth for this tech giant. In each of the last four quarters, Texas Instruments ($35; TXN) has reported growth of at least 20% for sales and 65% for per-share profits. In that stretch, cash provided by operations surged 30% to $3.59 billion.

Google Mobile Platform VP Andy Rubin literally arrived with a bag full of tricks at the D: Get Into Mobile Conference, showing publicly for the very first time an Android "Honeycomb" tablet. The roughly 10-inch, Motorola device was sleek, black, thin and sported an Android interface unlike any we've seen before. There was a very clean homepage, but the app page looked almost Apple iPad-like. Plus, when Rubin brought up the Gmail app, it looked almost exactly like Gmail on the iPad.

Unleash the tablet PCs! Asustek is planning on launching a whole pack of tablets. As Joe Stalin once said, sometimes quantity has a quality all its own. Research In Motion’s Playbook tablet is coming early next year. Samsung will start selling the Galaxy Tab in November. Now Asustek Computer President Jerry Shen says he plans to launch five — FIVE! — tablets next year. Take that Steve Jobs.

Dell introduces Windows tablet that comes with a keyboard and may be essentially turned into a standard laptop.

Tablet computers to rival Apple's iPad are creating a stir as one of Europe's largest technology shows, the IFA, gets under way in Berlin.