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A worthy tech battle is about to commence, and has been billed as Amazon-v-iPad. While some industry observers are trying to argue that the latest kindle tablet from Amazon won’t be worthy challenger to iPad’s title as their unit will only have a 7” screen compared to the iPad’s 10” touchscreen. Industry insiders have often been wrong before, and the general consensus is that Apple’s iPad will be threatened by the new Kindle.

The tech gadget world is changing at such speed it’s often hard to keep up with everything. Those who say that the new Kindle is no competition for the iPad are looking no further than the software and the hardware.

There is a lot more than these that go into making a great tablet. It isn’t merely the hardware that has put the iPad at the top of the tree; it is also the support of the company and the connectivity which it has to all the other Apple products, including Mac computers and the iPhone. As well as the massive apps store Apple has, and, of course, iTunes.

So what has the young pretender got to offer? Be it on your own head if you dismiss this tablet instantly, it is being touted by Amazon as a serious player before it is even launched. The online retail giant has also revealed that they are completely revamping their website that could completely refashion the way that people shop on largest online retailer in the world.

Their new site is being streamlined for optimum performance on tablets, which effectively means that Amazon will be more user friendly for both those who have an Apple iPad and users of the new Kindle tablet. The new Amazon website has fewer buttons, a bigger search box, more white space and is overall a lot less cluttered. It is lighter, cleaner and the dream engine for tablet users.

Although they have admitted that this major overhaul is taking place, Amazon have yet to announce when the new website will be accessible by the general public. Considering that one in five of global internet users already interact with Amazon regularly, and that iPad users are already savvy with Amazon too, due to the majority using Kindle software as their main e-reader app, the battle is certainly on.

Amazon are taking a brave and bold decision by taking on the leader in the tablet market, but they have cleverly positioned themselves with first a tablet friendly website site and secondly, a signature tablet. This new Amazon tablet will run on the Google Android operating system.

Caseable are best known as case specialists who offer DIY cases for notebooks, now they have produced cases in a jacket style for Kindles and iPads with DIY designs. The book jacket for the iPad in the style of a think notepad that will fit both the iPad and iPad 2, and you can customize the covers to your own requirements.

Caseable carries an impressive range of images you can use in the design of your iPad jacket, and to personalise it even further you can even upload images of your own. The book jacket for the iPad takes DIY to the extreme by allowing you to add your own branding, logo or any other words that you want on your case.

The Caseable book jacket for the iPad offers serious protection for your device, as both the front and back covers are of the thickness that you would find on the covers of scrapbooks, and they are extremely rigid.  On the right of the case is the tablet holder, and the iPad is secured by four strong band which secure your device in place at the corners.

The iPad feels extremely secure when held by these bands, and by using the corners as the secure points the majority of the tablets buttons and ports are still accessible. As the Caseable book jacket isn’t form fitting, it will secure both the iPad and iPad 2, and any other tablet that is similar size to the iPad.

Testing has shown that the following tablets will not fit into the Caseable book jacket; both the Lenovo IdeaPad K1 and the Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 were too long for the jacket, while the Sony Tablet S was fine lengthways, but is too thick at one side to be secured.

The inside of the book jacket has a soft and grippy feel to it, and the material is like microsuede. Depending on how you customise your cover design, the interior color will either match or contrast. This sturdy cover will certainly protect your iPad from any nasty objects lurking in a backpack or bag that could otherwise bump, scratch or poke your device. Should you happen to drop your tablet it’s also a pretty good shock absorber.

Also inside the case there is a handy slot for documents where you can papers and if you like to use a stylus with your tablet, there is a holder where your stylus will sit neatly beside your tablet. The case also benefits from perfect strong stitching, and a long elastic band comes around the front cover to secure it.

One of the Caseable book jacket for the iPad’s most attractive features is the way in which you can create your own design from the comprehensive range of shapes, patterns, photos, typography and paintings. Whilst the range isn’t the largest amongst the DIY case producers, it is certainly diverse with a wide range of interesting styles and bold colors, and each one is unique.

The web based design tool that Caseable offers makes creating your own book jacket very easy, as it helps you to select the basic design and then you simply add your own touches, such as your photos, patterns and lettering. You can also reposition and resize the different elements to create a totally unique cover. One of the testers chose an American car design and then added their logo, and found the process quick and easy.

Overall, this is an excellent product that delivers what it promises, and the only buttons you may have to play around a bit to access once it is secured in place are the screen lock and volume on the side, but this really isn’t a problem.

ThinkPad Tablet Ready for the boardroom review

There is nothing exciting anymore about Android tablets and let’s be honest, they are now a dime a dozen. So what can be brought to the market to make a product really stand out? The folks behind the new ThinkPad tablet from Lenovo think they have it sussed, and they are bringing us a tablet with special features, professional styling and a sturdy construction that are quite unique, in a nutshell, it’s time for Android to hit the boardroom.

The ThinkPad tablet sticks to the familiar black styling of their notebooks, and while it is a bit heavier than other tablets, you don’t get solid construction like this without it carrying a bit of extra weight. The attention detail is, as you would expect, exemplary throughout, from the buttons under the screen that are covered in corning gorilla glass, to the solid casing. This is the professionals tablet without a doubt.

Whilst the ThinkPad’s specs are pretty typical on the whole, Lenovo have included special features to ensure their tablet stands out in the crowd. The biggest one is using an N-Trig dual function digitizer, and this allows an optional pen input to be used on the screen, as well as the normal multi touch, when not in use the pen rests neatly in a silo on the tablet.

Lenovo have also thoughtfully put a full SD slot into the Thinkpad, as well as a USB port where you attach the portfolio case, which is optional. This port can also be used by standard USB flash drives when you want to exchange files, although this can also be done via the SD slot. Whilst the 10.1” IPS isn’t the brightest out there, it has several viewing angles which are outstanding, and a very good feature for a tablet.

The front facing camera is decent enough for video chatting and although the speaker is nothing special, it is rather loud for a tablet. Another rarity on a Honeycomb tablet is the four hardware buttons that the ThinkPad has underneath the screen, for use in the portrait orientation. These are Browser launcher, lock screen rotation, a home and a back button. These are rigid and take some pressing, so many will probably continue to use the screen.

Apart for the front facing 2MP camera on the ThinkPad, there is also one on the back which is 5MP. The one at the front delivers decent video chatting on Google Talk, and the rear camera is best described as adequate, but let’s be honest, a tablet is not purchased for its cameras, and people will continue to snap with their smartphones.

The way the ThinkPad is constructed makes it easily the most rugged tablet on the market, and while the 1.6lb weight might sound a lot, it feels really comfortable and solid in your hand.

Lenovo have made no secret of the fact that the ThinkPads target market are the enterprise workers, and the software that comes with it as standard clearly reflect this. There is plenty of entertainment apps obviously, such as Netflix, Angry Birds, Slacker, kindle etc, but this tablet comes loaded with apps for the business person. Computrace, LANDesk, Citrix Receiver and a full version of Documents to Go are all here, amongst others.

Lenovo have also tweaked the Honeycomb 3.1 OS somewhat, and have customised it to include a favourite apps wheel for instant access to your most used apps and also a home screen launcher. Lenovo also have their own app shop, which is invariable front and centre, and offers apps which the company has deemed suitable and appropriate for their ThinkPad.

Back in 2008, when Apple first launched their MacBook Air, the design has many gasping, as did the sheer audacity of Apple for thinking that they could inflict a notebook on us that didn’t even have a DVD drive. When we actually got to use the MacAir, the performance was poor, as was the battery life, and it was dismissed alongside Apple TV, as a concept that was alright in theory but didn’t transfer well into reality.

Now, three years on, it has to be said that we missed the significance of what exactly was going on, and we know realise that this ultra-laptop was merely ahead of its time, and seems to have been where the future lay all along. The latest model for 2011 is the perfect reiteration of what Apple was trying to tell us in 2008, but what seemed like complete madness back then now seems to be the natural evolution in the life of a laptop.

What you will notice first off is that is springs into life in seconds, and while they may not sound particularly thrilling, all those who have sat for several minutes for Windows to come to life will know exactly how significant this is. This is thanks to using SSD for storage as opposed the usual configuration of the harddrive.

This latest Air is aesthetically identical to the update from 2010, which was the lightest configuration of a laptop we had ever seen, but still retaining the high Apple standards of quality of build and, of course, ease of use. The main additions this year are the serious increase in horsepower thanks to Intel’s Sandybridge CPU, and Thunderbolt, the high speed I/O interface.

While the 13 inch model has a card reader which its 11 inch sibling lacks, it’s hardly a major defect. Both have two USB ports, a webcam that isn’t HD, and a headphone jack, and that’s about it for the external features. The resolution of the screen comes in at an impressive 1366 X 76, which is perfect for viewing videos and 3D graphics.

The MacBook Air also comes loaded with a brand spanking new OSX Lion OS, and from the inception, it is clearly obvious that Apple designed this machine to combine with Lion. You can do everything from navigating web pages to launching apps with the fabulous multi-touch track pad.

The intuitive navigation is a joy to use thanks to this, and with the reintroduction of a backlight on the keyboard, the whole laptop experience is efficient and fresh again. Many of the apps run now in full screen mode; and this more than makes up for the small size of the display and switching between them only takes a swipe of the track pad.

While the actual keyboard is standard Apple fare it is still one of the best around, and the fact that they can put such well-spaced out keys on a machine this size is very impressive. Now, even with all the kudos so far, if Apple hadn’t addressed the major deficiencies in this new machine, this review would be winding up about now. However, they have got their act together and the multicore processors from Intel have improved the Air no end.

The speed of everything from multitasking, opening apps and even Photoshop is phenomenal, and with the InDesign CS5 running along with the HD video and Pages the Air barely pauses for breath. The full HD 1080 resolution shows movies with intense clarity and the only time is slowed slightly was with Final Cut X and some games. In other words, the new standard for laptops has been set, and the other manufacturers must be green with envy.

Amazon has just released details of their new Kindle Fire that is set to be a close cousin to the Playbook by RIM amidst controversy that the new browser is going to be used by Amazon to track their users browsing habits.

Those who are familiar with the Playbook will recognize some of the specs for the Kindle Fire as it shares the same ODM and also will come with a dual core SoC that is said to reach speeds of up to 1GHz.  Disappointedly however, it will only have 8GB of storage and 512MB of memory although given the fact that word docs hardly take up room this should be sufficient enough for most e-readers.

Given the fact that the new tablet is mainly going to be focused on Amazon’s reading crowd, it is not too surprising that there will not be a camera, 3G, or even a microSD slot, but it would be nice given the fact that it would allow the ereader tablet to become more of a multi-tasking unit that could give it a wider customer base.  It does include a custom Android web browser and free cloud storage for users to sync with their Amazon cloud as well as access to the silk browser from Amazon which allows for plenty of browsing and purchasing possibilities.

Technical specs are not what most people are concerned with however, as the larger criticism surrounding the Kindle Fire is the fact that the tablet will work as a middle man between browsers and the web with the data centres of Amazon actually pre-loading all web pages before they show up on the gadget.  This means that Amazon could track users’ movements if they wished.

Founder and CEO of Amazon defends the technology claiming that the ‘split browser’ will allow users much quicker access while on the go compared to other mobile devices and will also reduce the amount of processing that needs to take place on the actual device helping to lengthen the battery life.  Given the fact that battery life is only expected to be about seven hours, this is not necessarily a bad thing.

However, the split browsing function will allow the Amazon data system to track every web page that is visited which could be used for advertising purposes and called upon by intelligence agencies and police that want to launch investigations into suspicious behaviour.

The browser, called Amazon Silk simply does not offer reassurance to users that their information will be kept private given the fact that all web addresses will be logged and information could potentially be held for up to thirty days according to the terms and conditions that come with using it.

This system could also cause a problem for websites that log IP addresses and track users patterns to determine what they purchase and browse as all addresses will be IP logs from Amazon confusing their ability to predict their high target traffic.