Gadgets, Tablet Computer | featured news

Mobile devices have become mini-pacifiers/babysitters for many wee ones: 52 percent of all children 8 and younger have access to mobile devices at home like a smartphone, video iPod, iPad or other tablet, according to Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group that studies children’s use of technology.

Hewlett Packard says it has reviewed a plan to sell-off its personal computer division and it now intends to keep it.

The Indian government thinks the $35 Aakash Android tablet has the power to change the world. After testing one out, we’d tend to agree. An Aakash tablet was brought to the VentureBeat office on Tuesday by Vivek Wadhwa, a Washington Post columnist and visiting professor at the University of California at Berkley and Duke. Wadhwa, who is researching the Indian education system, was given the tablet by Kapil Sibal, the Indian minister of human resources and development, who has been the driving force behind the tablet project. The device (whose name means “Sky” in Hindi) was produced entirely in India — a point of pride for the Indian government.

... just 14 percent of those who consume news on tablets said they have paid for news content on their devices. Another 23 percent, though, pay for a print subscription that includes tablet content. So in all, about a third of tablet news consumers have paid to access news on their gadgets.

Zombie tech? The products you thought were dead at HP may not be quite dead just yet. The HP TouchPad, the highly praised WebOS operating system, and the entire PC division are still on the chopping block, but sources at HP say that with the new CEO Meg Whitman, the butcher's blade hasn't yet fallen.

The Kindle Fire tablet may be the hottest selling gadget this holiday, pressuring Amazon.com Inc's profit margins but giving the world's largest Internet retailer potentially millions of new high-spending customers.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled a new operating system Tuesday in hopes of grabbing some attention away from the iPhone and Android phones.

An Australian court temporarily bans the sale of Samsung Electronics' tablet computer in Australia.

If you're reading this story on your iPad or iPhone, perhaps searching for "iOS 5 release date," well -- it's now, says Apple. Apple has reinvented its operating system, promising 200 new features, and, in the process, changing the way users relate to the online world.

Apple could scarcely be more dominant in the nascent tablet computing market, but Amazon could change that in a hurry, a new study suggests.