Samsung’s Galaxy Tab: iPad’s First Solid Contender

iPhone:iPad :: Galaxy S:Galaxy TabThat simple analogy is all you really need to know about the highly anticipated Galaxy Tab and what it can do.With the first legitimate competitor to iPad for the consumer-focused tablet-computer market, Samsung continues to take its cues from Apple — just as it’s been doing with cellphones.That is not necessarily a bad thing. For all its faults, the iPad is still the tablet to beat. The Galaxy Tab takes direct aim at iPad’s shortcomings and does a credible...

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Slim Fast: Apple’s iPad 2 Leads the Race

Everybody wishes the iPad 2 had a higher-resolution display like the iPhone 4, but Apple didn’t even have to go there yet. All Apple did was put the iPad on a treadmill. The tablet shed some weight and gained some speed to become the iPad 2, and it’s incredible what a difference that makes. It feels like a brand-new product.Most important of all is the iPad 2’s thinness. The iPad 2 is 0.34 inches thick, about 33 percent thinner than its predecessor. Now, reaching your fingers across the screen...

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Dell Inspiron Duo Is Indifference Times Two

You can’t deny Dell some hard-fought gee-whiz cred with the new Inspiron Duo.In a world of commoditized portables, it is nothing if not a unique product. Show it off to your friends; it looks like a netbook, and you pop open the laptop-like clamshell and wait for the bored expression to appear. Then comes the sucker punch: you rotate the screen horizontally within its frame and snap the laptop back shut. Ta-da, it’s a freakin’ tablet, bro! People are duly impressed. It’s a neat trick and,...

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Size Certainly Matters With Nintendo's DSi XL

Photo by Jim Merithew for Wired.comWhen other companies bob, Nintendo weaves. As it s rivals attempt to make their handheld game machines smaller and more portable, Nintendo hits us with the DSi XL, a supersized version of its pocket player. DSi XL, currently available in Japan and set to be released in America in the first quarter of 2010, is the size of a paperback book. It’s also about 30...

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Xbox 360 Slim Is Leaner, Meaner, Quieter Machine

When the Xbox 360 hit in 2005 it promised to revolutionize gaming. Microsoft got most of the way there (conceptually), but the original 360 hardware wasn’t without its … quirks.Enter Microsoft’s upgrade/redo, the Xbox 360 S. Not only is the chassis slimmer (hence that weird, floating “S”), but it’s packed with a lot of the extras that used to be sold separately. The most dramatic change takes place under the hood. Redmond swapped out the 360’s power-hungry setup with a much more economical...

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Realistic Rock Band Guitar Lends Cred to Your Shred

Rhythm games get a lot of guff from naysayers. If you’re a fan, you’ve surely heard the catty complaints: “That’s just a toy. It’s not a real guitar.”And it’s true. The typical Rock Band or Guitar Hero controller is fun, but it’s a bit of a joke compared to the real thing. It may look guitarlike, but the primary-color buttons up top and the plastic flipper at the bottom don’t exactly impress the ladies. You can be the best guitar “hero” in the world and you’re really still just a loser with...

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Nintendo 3DS Review: It’s Totally in Your Face

What’s so appealing about 3-D, anyway?A while back, I saw two landmark 3-D movies in the same six-month time span: Avatar and the revival of Captain EO at Disneyland. The latter, a 1986 Michael Jackson flick, used 3-D in the sort of ham-handed ridiculous way it had always been used: Asteroids flew into the seats. Evil monsters poked their claws and spears into your face. Cue screams and laughter from audience.For a movie so closely identified with the current 3-D boom, James Cameron’s Avatar...

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Sony Ericsson Aino now Remote Playing with European PS3s

We know Sony Ericsson's PS3-lovin' Aino would be hitting European shelves at some point during the month, and now Sony itself has stepped forward to confirm that the handset is on sale. We're hearing that it's selling for £399.99 ($639) sans a contract, and just in case you're wondering why you and your PlayStation 3 should care, the Aino is capable of turning your console on and off, browsing the XMB user interface, accessing DRM-free content on the HDD, shopping for items in the PS3 Store...

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iPad 2 review and Specification

To say Apple's iPad 2 is an easy tablet to review is somewhat of an understatement. The device, a follow up to last year's wildly successful (and currently market-defining) iPad, is nearly identical when it comes to software, and though improved, closely related on the hardware side as well. With a 9.7-inch, 1024 x 768 display, the general size and shape of the device has remained the same, and though inside there's a new dual core A5 CPU, more memory, and a pair of new cameras, most of the...

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Sony Ericsson Xperia Play review and Spesification

The PlayStation Phone. We've had quite the intimate history with this gamepad-equipped slider, learning of its secretive existence way back in August and then handling a prototype unit in January, so you'll forgive us for feeling sentimental and still entertaining our pet name for it. The Sony Ericsson marketing gurus renamed it the Xperia Play when it finally went official at MWC this year, but the PlayStation connection remains as strong as ever. Aside from the D-pad, iconic game keys,...

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