Tablet Computer, Ipad | featured news

"The Smurfs' Village," a game for the iPhone and other Apple gadgets, was released a month ago and quickly became the highest-grossing application in the iTunes store. Yet it's free to download.So where does the money come from? Kelly Rummelhart of Gridley, Calif., has part of the answer. Her 4-year-old son was using her iPad to play the game and racked up $66.88 in charges on her credit card without knowing what he was doing.

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.

Gartner cut its global personal-computer shipments forecast for 2010 and 2011 as consumers rein in spending and interest grows in tablet devices such as Apple's iPad.

Apple's iPad tablet computer -- one of the hottest items of the holiday shopping season -- got a price cut on the company's website Friday.

Acer Inc, the world's No. 2 PC manufacturer, unveiled a range of tablet computers to help it compete with Apple Inc's iPad, wading into the fast-growing market.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is developing a digital newspaper exclusively for the iPad and other electronic tablet devices, according to the Women's Wear Daily website.

Apple is reportedly working on a slimmer version for 2011, and one that would be able to run on any of the Big Four wireless carriers' network in the United States, as well as on other networks around the world.

Apple dominated the global market for tablets in the third quarter amid limited competition for its iPad, a situation that is likely to change as more devices come to market.

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.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab, one of the first tablets to rival Apple's iPad, will hit Verizon Wireless stores Nov. 11 and cost $599.99.