Crave

(Credit: HP)

With all the hype around Apple's still-mythical tablet, it's easy to forget that HP has been making a 12-inch consumer tablet for several years.

In fact, the product that started life as the HP tx1000, and is now called the TouchSmart tm2, is one of the only convertible tablet laptops aimed at mainstream entertainment consumers; most tablets are intended for medical, educational, or other specialized markets.

While convertible tablet laptops, which have screens that rotate 180 degrees to fold down over their keyboards, have never been a mainstream product, there's a certain appeal to using the multitouch touch-screen features, and carrying them around in your arm like an oversize Kindle.

HP's TouchSmart tm2

In our anecdotal hands-on use, the tm2 screen was not as fast and responsive as, say, an iPhone or iPod Touch screen, and the cursor dragged just slightly behind our fingers. That said, the option to use a finger or digital pen is a nice one, and there's a custom touch interface you can launch ... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog

Tablet and Netbopk combined: the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid

(Credit: Lenovo)

Tablets are rapidly becoming the hot chatter-buzzword of 2010. Netbooks were very 2009. Combine them both and perhaps you end up with a great idea--at least, so hopes Lenovo. In one of the boldest moves in laptop technology at CES, the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid doesn't just flip its screen to become a tablet--the screen detaches completely as its own separately powered computing device.

Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Notebook - photos

Perhaps it sounds too good to be true, and we're both skeptical and very curious here at CNET. At an estimated cost of $999, the U1 will have in its main body an Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor, and its 11.6-inch multitouch screen will house a separate ARM processor and battery. Both devices will produce completely different experiences, however, according to Lenovo's press release. Availability hasn't been revealed yet, but Lenovo should release those details soon.

In its notebook form, the hybrid will run Windows 7 Home Premium and

While many have been fixated on when Apple will announce a new tablet product, The Wall Street Journal says it has found out when the device will actually be available to customers.

Sources have told the Journal that a 10- or 11-inch touch-screen tablet computer will begin shipping in March. Another source says that there are at least two different finishes for the device that Apple is either still deciding on or perhaps planning to charge different prices for each.

Though there's been a lot of speculation about the tablet, there are no confirmed details yet. Industry observers are anticipating a late January announcement (January 27, according to AllThingsD) of a slate-style computer that could be used as a touch-screen e-reader and video display with wireless access for around $1,000.

(Credit: All Things Digital)

So, that rumored Apple event everyone has been jawing about these past few weeks? It's on and it's going to be a big deal.

Sources in a position to know tell me Apple is indeed planning a media event later this month at which the company will announce a major new product. The gathering is to be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, a space Apple often uses for media events like this. According to other sources, it will occur on Wednesday, January 27, not Tuesday, January 26, as had been rumored.

No definitive word on what that product is, but I think we all have a pretty good idea of what to expect.

Incidentally, this won't be the first time Apple has scheduled a special event on a Wednesday as opposed to Tuesday, which it has historically preferred for such things. The "It's Only Rock and Roll" iPod event held last September, which was also rumored to be scheduled on a Tuesday, was ultimately held on Wednesday, September 9. Evidently, Wednesday is the new Tuesday.

Story Copyright (c) 2010 AllThingsD. All rights reserved.

Whatever news Apple has up its sleeve--tablet or no--it appears something will be announced on January 26, if an unnamed source of Fox News' turns out to be correct.

The Financial Times reported last week that Apple had rented out the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco for several days in late January, immediately leading to speculation that the event might give the world the first glimpse of a tablet device rumored to be in the offing in Cupertino. And now, Fox News writer Clayton Morris says he has a source at Apple who's confirmed that an event will be held there Tuesday, January 26, and that it will be focused on the company's mobile offerings.

Speculation abounds about what an Apple tablet would entail and when it might arrive: the DigiTimes reports that Apple has placed an order for 10-inch displays and that devices would be ready to ship in March or April; several reports have surfaced that Apple told some of its key developers to prepare versions of their iPhone apps that will work on a device with a larger screen, in time for an event next month; and the MacRumors blog did a little sleuthing that turned up two patented trademarks that could be used for the name of the device and its associated software.

But the event will also answer some questions about how Apple intends to make product announcements in the future. The company has said it will no longer participate in the Macworld Expo held in San Francisco each January, leading some to question whether it would make an appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas or strike out on its own so it would no longer be tied to other organizations' schedules when making product announcements.

Editors' note: while Macworld is traditionally held in San Francisco in January, this year it will take place February 9-13.

(Credit: Notion Ink)

While the world awaits the birth of the Apple tablet, there is another touch-screen device that may have more of an impact--at least technologically. Notion Ink has announced that Adam, an Android-based tablet PC, will ship in June 2010 for around $325. However, what is really exciting is that this machine may be the first to sport the new 10.1-inch Pixel Qi display.

What's the big deal with Pixel Qi technology? While it can perform like a standard LCD display, the Pixel Qi panel has a low-power transflective display, which allows ambient light to illuminate the screen, and an e-paper mode. The latter resembles a black-and-white e-reader and is meant to be used under bright environments. This allows the Nvidia Tegra machine to consume 90 percent less power than conventional panels.

We are not sure if this device will make its way outside the U.S. but, hopefully, the Pixel Qi will start making an appearance on more machines.

(Source: Crave Asia)

This 13-inch MacBook has been modded into tablet form.

With all the crystal-ball-watching over the seemingly imminent Apple tablet, one issue hotly debated around the CNET offices, but infrequently mentioned elsewhere, is the hypothetical device's status as a mobile computer.

There are two schools of thought on this: either the Apple tablet (or iSlate, or whatever it ends up being called) will be a 10-or-so-inch tablet PC with a full Mac OS X operating system; or it will merely be a larger-screen version of the current iPod Touch, which has a closed, limited phone-like OS.

The former would mean it could very likely run any software you'd run on a MacBook, from Firefox to Photoshop, and maybe even install Windows 7 via Boot Camp or Parallels. The later points to a hermetically sealed ecosystem, where apps would have to be approved and sold through an official app store (as in iTunes).

"Sherlock Holmes" is not a wonderful movie. Despite the fact that so many ditheringly unstable people in the movie theater I wandered into on Christmas Day applauded when the final scene slithered away.

However, if you were to ask Robert Downey Jr.'s violently amusing Holmes to tell you discern the truth about the new Apple tablet, he would surely repeat his words from the movie: "Data! Data! Data! I can't make bricks without clay!"

So because there are many who are still groggy after the week's festivities, I thought I'd scour around for data that will separate the rumor from the definitive fact.

Apple's new tablet will be called the iTablet. And it will be launched last September. Yes, last September.

But wait, last September was a few months ago. So perhaps that information wasn't quite correct.

The widely rumored Apple tablet, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, has just gotten a little more interesting.

Thanks to some crack reporting, MacRumors.com discovered that Apple purchased the domain for "islate.com" back in 2007.

What we know: islate.com was registered to Apple in 2007, through an intermediary (to disguise its true owner). At the moment, that domain doesn't seem to lead anywhere--and there are a few possible explanations. First, Apple bought it as a protective measure, to stop anyone else from using that "i" prefix with that particular word. Second, Apple had or has plans for either a product or a project by that name. Third, it's the tablet. Or fourth, it's Apple's take on Slate.com.

Maybe we'll find out just what that means in January, when the tablet is rumored to be announced.

This story originally appeared on Gizmodo.