First, let’s start with the Chromebooks from both Acer and Samsung that will be available starting at $299.

Wi-Fi only Samsung Chromebook Series 5 in Black

Google says, “We’ve also been working closely with our partners to continually improve the overall Chromebook experience while making them even more affordable. So, we’re excited to share that beginning this week Acer and Samsung Chromebooks will be available starting at $299. The updated prices will be available through our online retail partners.”

Here’s a video clip (don’t blink) about how to set up your Chromebook.

In order to simplify things, Google has created a super clean login experience.

The tabs page was also revamped and sports the apps, bookmarks and most visited sites center stage. They also added some shortcuts to the File Manager and Music Apps and Games in the Chrome Web Store.

Will you be adding a Chromebook to your Holiday wish list?

The use of the Tablet is changing how much consumers use video game consoles, read books and newspapers, as well as how often they use computers. Here’s a chart which shows what activities are done less as a result of owning a tablet.

As you can see, 59% of Tablet owners say they use a video game console or handheld device less often, 44% of Tablet owners say they read printed books less often and 42% say they read hard copy newspapers less often.

Thankfully it doesn’t seem to be having too much of an effect on activities like going to the movies, playing sports or hanging out with friends and family.

“The fact that a majority of game-playing Tablet owners report using a video game console or a handheld video game less often as a result of owning a Tablet does not necessarily mean they are playing video games less often,” said Risa Becker, VP, Research at GfK MRI.  “But it does suggest that Tablet owners are moving their gaming from other devices to the Tablet.”

For those of you who own a Tablet, what activities do you notice yourself doing less of? Also, do you ever write up blog posts from your Tablet?

According to the report, in 2010 the iPad accounted for 83% of tablet sales worldwide. The number was down, just slightly by about 10% for 2011, accounting for 73.4% of the market.

What does the future hold for the iPad? More good news for Apple.

“We expect Apple to maintain a market share lead throughout our forecast period by commanding more than 50 percent of the market until 2014,” Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. “This is because Apple delivers a superior and unified user experience across its hardware, software and services. Unless competitors can respond with a similar approach, challenges to Apple’s position will be minimal. Apple had the foresight to create this market and in doing that planned for it as far as component supplies such as memory and screen. This allowed Apple to bring the iPad out at a very competitive price and no compromise in experience among the different models that offer storage and connectivity options.”

The complaint that seems to be holding back Android Tablet sales is high prices and a weak user interface. As one who own an Android tablet, I concur.

Here’s a table put together by Gartner showing current and projected tablet sales.

Of course there’s the rumored Amazon tablet that some have said will be strong competition for the iPad. The Amazon tablet is said to feature a 7-inch screen and will be available in November for $250.

Do you own an iPad, Android Tablet or none of the above?

According to new data from International Data Corporation (IDC), more users will access the internet through mobile devices than through PCs or other wireline devices by 2015. Smartphones are outselling the simple cell phone and tablet sales are exploding, as are the development of them.

The new study says that internet access through PCs will first stagnate and then slowly decline over the next few years.

Here are a few interesting pieces of information the New Media Market Model found:

• Worldwide, the total number of Internet user will grow from 2 billion in 2010 to 2.7 billion in 2015, when 40% of the world’s population will have access to its vast resources.

• Global B2C ecommerce spending will grow from $708 billion in 2010 to $1,285 billion in 2015 at a CAGR of 12.7%.

• Worldwide online advertising will increase from $70 billion in 2010 to $138 billion in 2015, with its share of total advertising across all media growing from 11.9% to 17.8%.

Does this new data surprise you? For all of us who make our living online, a piece of that $138 billion of online advertising sounds nice doesn’t it?

Image: SXC

He said it’s simply being called the “Amazon Kindle”, has full color content, a 7-inch capacitive touch screen and will run Android.

As for the October release, MG Siegler said it will actually be released in November. He also mentioned that this new Amazon tablet is a big deal and has huge potential.

So, everyone wants to know – where are the pictures?! Sadly, he has none, but he does have a description.

So instead you’ll have to rely on my prose to draw a picture of the device in your head. Or you can just look at a BlackBerry PlayBook — because it looks very similar in terms of form-factor.

He goes on to talk about the touch screen capabilities, the 7-inch screen and of course the cost – which completely shocked me. Amazon will sell their tablet for only $250, making it more attainable for everyone.

Siegler goes into much more detail about the Amazon tablet, all which is very interesting. It does run Android, but no Android you and I have ever seen before. He says, “This is Android fully forked. My understanding is that the Kindle OS was built on top of some version of Android prior to 2.2.”

So tell us – will the Amazon Kindle Tablet make it on your Holiday wish list this year? I want to see pictures and hear more about the features before I send my letter off to Mr. Claus. I do have a feeling this tablet will be one heck of a big seller for Amazon.

Here’s a look at the old site design.

And the new site design seen here. (Click on the new design to enlarge.)

As you can see, the orange and blue bar at the top are gone and it overall has a cleaner look. Amazon wants the new design to make it easier for users to find things, which explains the eye-catching search bar at the top. The new design also highlights products like MP3s, Cloud Player, Kindle, Cloud Drive, Android apps, Instant Video and audio books.

All of these changes definitely point to tablet users don’t you think?

Rumor has it that Amazon will launch the new site design the same time as their reported Android-based tablet, which is supposed to be a major competitor for the Apple iPad.

After looking at the before and after photos, do you like the new Amazon site design?

The company lowered the price of the tablet from $500 to only $99 earlier this month and they went fast. So fast, they are almost impossible to find right now.

In an interview with Reuters, HP executive Todd Bradley said there is a chance the TouchPad could be resurrected.

Bradley said the company could resurrect HP’s short-lived TouchPad tablet computer, which was introduced on July 1 before being terminated only about six weeks later.

“Tablet computing is a segment of the market that’s relevant, absolutely,” Bradley said.

He continued on saying “regardless of what happens, we’re the largest PC company in the world. We need everybody energized, and while this isn’t business as usual, we need people to go out and sell products every day.”

The biggest question right now is, will HP release any more TouchPads? Mark Budgell, HP’s PR Manager for Social Media Strategy, answered a few consumer questions in this blog post yesterday (August 29th).

In regards to the release of more TouchPads he said, “We will have more information available in the next few days about whether or not more will be available and if so, what the details will be about the situation.”

If HP does release more TouchPads, will you run out and purchase one? Some don’t see the point, while others want one as soon as they become available again.

Which means this is the death of their newly released HP TouchPad. They did say they “will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward”.

What led to this decision? Possibly the poor sales of the TouchPad in the first place. It seemed every where I turned they were making another announcement about a sale on the TouchPad. After looking at the reviews, I was seriously considering purchasing one, but I guess I’ll keep shopping around.

Best Buy had very dismal sales and reportedly couldn’t get rid of their inventory of TouchPads. One writer called it the OuchPad. Ouch.

There’s also the fact that E-Reader ownership is larger than that of the tablet. Both e-readers and tablets have seen growth over the last 6 months, but e-readers numbers are larger.

What are your thoughts on this news and why do you think sales on the TouchPad were so awful?

Here are the features:

• When closed, the keyboard rest securely underneath your iPad for easy transport
• When open, it holds the iPad at an ideal angle for typing
• Keyboard is fully sized
• Keyboard wakes up instantly as soon as it’s unfolded and is ready to use
• Charges over USB, no need for batteries
• You can continue to use your Smart Cover even with the keyboard

Engadget said the keyboard was a little stiff and not quite the quality they were hoping for. What do you think? To all of you iPad 2 users, is this something you would find useful?

Images: Logitech

Apple and third party developers have set a record with this number. It took them only 453 days to reach 100,000+ apps, which none of their rivals have been able to come close to. Why is Apple’s App store so popular and widely used? Mainly because it’s easy to use, regularly updated and contains a wide variety and large number of apps.

How did MacStories know about this number? It showed up through Apple’s App Store on his iPad, showing 100,161 available apps.

You may be wondering how long it took the iPhone to reach this number of apps. The app store launched on July 10, 2008 and reached this same milestone in 482 days.

What is next for Apple’s App Store? Well, 200,000 apps of course!

For all of you iPad users, what are your favorite iPad-exclusive apps and which ones do you use the most?