Tablets

Apple's iOS4 is spreading out to iPhone and iPod Touch owners today. Upgrading the firmware on your iPhone or iPod may be old hat for some of you, but if this is your first time around, here's the iOS 4 upgrade process in five easy steps.

The iOS 4 upgrade is free for both iPhone and iPod Touch, but excludes first-gen models.

The very first laptops started turning up about a quarter of a century ago, so it's natural that we'd start seeing some nostalgic looks back (we've seen some vintage models recently from the Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba archives). Toshiba is taking it one step further by releasing a pair of 25th-anniversary laptops.

The first is the Portege R700, a follow-up to one of our favorite laptops, the Portege R500. While that 2007 model had a 12-inch display and was one of the last vestiges of the $2,000-plus ultraportable category (before Netbooks came in and provided a less … Read more

On Thursday, June 24, at 6 p.m. PDT here in San Francisco at the CNET headquarters, we're hosting our second CNET Showcase Live event. This time, the focus is on tablets, slates, and Netbooks, and it promises to be an informative hands-on event for the people who can make it.

I'll start the event with a discussion between me, Donald Bell, and Dan Ackerman on the market for small, portable computers, and an overview of the existing and upcoming products. Then we'll break to the best part: the demos.

We're going to have great products … Read more

Apple has released a new app to help users track lost iPhones on the go. The Find My iPhone app does what the Web application version, found on me.com, did previously, but allows users to log in from another iPhone or iPad to aid in the search on the go.

True to Apple form, the interface is simple, elegant, and easy to use. Users need only log in to the application using their MobileMe user name and password to begin the search for their lost iPhone or iPad. Each device connected to the user's account will show up … Read more

Apple's iBooks app includes a storefront of thousands of titles, many of which are free, public domain books. But if you really have a thing for free books, online repositories, such as Project Gutenberg and Google Books offer a vast selection of e-book titles that users can download to their computers.

These same files are also compatible with Apple's iBooks app, but it isn't exactly obvious how to load them onto your device.

The following CNET How To walks you though the process of downloading an online EPUB book file, loading it into iTunes, giving it cover … Read more

Samsung will release its Galaxy Tab tablet no later than the third quarter of this year, revealed J.K. Shin, president of the company's mobile communications division, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Tuesday.

Based on the few specs and a photo leaked earlier this month, the Galaxy Tab will sport a high-resolution 7-inch display, making it more compact than Apple's iPad with its 9.7-inch screen. Blog site Samsung Hub (not affiliated with Samsung) said the 7-inch model will hit the market in August, and that two others may follow: an 8-inch version in … Read more

LOS ANGELES--When Apple first released the iPad tablet, there was an instant burst of debate over whether it could or would replace Netbooks as the portable computing platform of choice. After all, both classes of devices have similar smalls screens and use low-power parts to provide long battery life, far beyond the average 15-inch laptop.

My initial view was that the iPad was not a Netbook killer. Despite its strengths, it lacked the software flexibility, and the traditional keyboard/touch pad input scheme, that most productivity tasks require. At the same time, figuring out how to substitute a small, lightweight iPad in situations where one would normally carry a laptop seemed like appealing challenge. … Read more

While Apple and Google have been getting the lion's share of attention in the smartphone world of late, Research In Motion isn't going quietly, according to a report.

The Wall Street Journal reports that RIM has a new touchscreen version of its BlackBerry smartphone up its sleeve, this time with a slide-out keyboard. The operating system running on the test device is also new: BlackBerry OS 6, which the company previewed earlier this year. It has some of the same features as Apple's iOS, which allows swiping and pinching motions on screen, as well as a new … Read more

The tablet wars have begun, although not exactly with a bang.

The Archos 7 Home Tablet has plenty going for it: a big 7-inch screen; broad audio and video format support; MicroSDHC memory expansion; and a low price of $199.

Ultimately, though, you get what you pay for. For a device that's all screen, the screen ain't that hot. The Android 1.5 OS is stale and stripped down, and the app store is more like a mini mart.

Still, the Archos 7 Home Tablet isn't half bad, given the price. And since Archos is the first … Read more