Our Street Squad reporter prepares for her dinner party using the latest and greatest Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Mitch Manikowski, CEO of Manikowski Worldwide decides to combine his annual corporate retreat with his 6 year old son’s birthday. Have you been chased by a pack of screaming children armed with plastic swords? The employees of Manikowski Worldwide have. Fortunately for them they brought along the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Watch how they survive this chaotic situation.

Developers can now use the Adobe Flash Builder platform to develop applications for iOS devices, such as the iPad and iPhone, as well as the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Support for the devices – which was announced in April – in Flash Builder 4.5.1 allows developers to create apps for a variety of popular devices and platforms without needing to recode large amounts of the software.

“The reaction from developers to the new mobile capabilities in Flash Builder 4.5 and the Flex 4.5 framework has been absolutely fantastic,” Ed Rowe, vice president of developer tooling at Adobe, said in a statement on Monday. “They are amazed by how easy it is to create great mobile apps for Android devices, BlackBerry PlayBook, iPhone and iPad.”

Support for building apps for Android devices has been present since the release of Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 in April. The platform also allows the creation of web and desktop apps, as well as mobile. Apps created using the tools can then be distributed directly via the Android Market, Apple App Store and BlackBerry App World.

Adobe Flash Builder 4.5.1 can be downloaded as a stand-alone product or as part of the Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium or Master Collections.

Source: ZDNet

Apple has announced that its newly launched iPad tablet will be coming to the UK soon.

On the Apple site, the company revealed the Wi-Fi-only version of the iPad will be available in the UK from March. The more expensive 3G version will follow in April.

In the US, Apple has struck a deal with mobile operator AT&T to provide two monthly data plans for the 3G iPad. While UK operators have expressed interest in the device, none have committed to carrying it at the moment.

Source: ZDNet News

Apple has finally unveiled the iPad, its much-anticipated tablet computer.

On Wednesday, Apple chief Steve Jobs went on stage at the Moscone Center in San Francisco to introduce the device, which handles e-books and email, as well as images, music, video, games and web browsing.

In his presentation, Jobs described the iPad as “so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smartphone”. He also derided the netbook phenomenon, saying the cheap mini-laptops “aren’t better than anything”.

Closely resembling a larger iPhone, the device is fully compatible with existing iPhone applications and is based on Apple’s own custom ARM-based processor, the A4, which runs at 1GHz.

The iPad has a high-definition, 9.7-inch in-plane switching (IPS) LCD touchscreen, which allows for a 178-degree viewing angle – wider than rival screen types – and has 1024×768 pixels resolution. It also supports multitouch input, and optional extras include a keyboard dock.

Two types of iPad will be available: one with 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, and one with just Wi-Fi, Jobs said. The Wi-Fi-only model will ship globally in two months’ time. In the US, its price will range from $499 (£309) to $699, depending on the storage capacity, which ranges from 16GB to 64GB. Versions with added 3G will cost an extra $130 and will ship in 90 days’ time, Jobs said.

“We want to put this in the hands of lots of people,” Jobs said, referring to the pricing for the device.

For the launch, Apple has made a number of partnership deals for content applications. It has drafted in media firms who have created newspaper and magazine apps that can run in-page videos on their virtual pages for the iPad.

The device is also an e-reader, through a new application called iBooks. A new iBookstore lets users download e-books to their iPad, in much the same way as Amazon customers can do with the Kindle Reading Device.

In addition, Apple has introduced a version of its iWork productivity suite tailored to the iPad. Users can create presentations, spreadsheets and documents using a redesigned, gesture-based user interface.

So the iPad can be used for personal information management, virtual painting and for mapping services.

Source: ZDNet News

“Tens of millions” of tablet computers will be sold in 2010, according to technology analysts at Deloitte. The keyboard and mouse-free devices are likely to be a top trend among consumers, they anticipate.

Deloitte’s prediction fuels rumours that Apple is set to unveil a tablet-style computer at a press event it is hosting on 27th January.

The company’s report, which forecasts the tech trends for 2010, describes tablets as “the Goldilocks of devices (not too big, not too small)”. It said that previous attempts to launch tablet PCs – notably by Microsoft – had been largely unsuccessful for many reasons. “The graphics, software, and user interface were underwhelming, not well connected to cellular or WiFi networks, and, most important, they have largely served as work-oriented data-entry devices.”

“By contrast, an easy-to-use, consumer-focused device used primarily for media and web browsing is much more likely to be widely accepted by the market.”

Source: BBC Tech News

Apple is inviting reporters to an event next week to see what it calls “our latest creation,” which is thought to be a tablet-style touch-screen computer.

The company email offered no specifics about what it would display at the invitation-only January 27th event in San Francisco.

But it comes amid speculation that Apple is close to unveiling the gadget that is bigger than an iPhone but smaller than a standard laptop.

Tablets are one-piece computers with big screens and no keyboards. Such devices have been around since the early 1990s, but haven’t seen much success in the mainstream.