Rumour Roundup: A big tablet to swallow

With just five months before Christmas and the iPad selling well, other companies aren’t going to sit back and let Apple make all of the money. Tablets are, like so hot right now,  with news and speculation about forthcoming models from every major company emerging almost daily. Something new about Samsung’s first Android-based tablet appears nearly every week, and we’ve now heard that HTC is eyeing a late November timeframe for some sort of a tablet too.

Expect another announcement (and possible  release) in November of the BlackPad, an iPad-styled device from Research In Motion that runs an operating system based on BlackBerry OS 6. We’re not sure that the name will make it to market, but are intrigued, nonethless, to see if RIM can pull off the perfect portable email device, especially considering the company has already achieved this with its smartphones.
Then you’ve got LG, a company that’s truly jumped onto the mobile deep-end with a range of up to ten new smartphones on offer by the year’s end, and a tablet aimed at Christmas.
We’re also expecting at least five Android phones from Acer to be announced next week, with the possibility of a 7 inch tablet being previewed too.
+%28pioneer%2Dpad%2Ejpg%29
Will the Australian tablet from Pioneer Computers end up being better than the rest?
Locally, Australian company Pioneer Computers has created a few tablets that are already available, with one model looking especially promising. The $499 DreamBook ePad N7 is yet another Android-based tablet, except this one includes a 7 inch screen, a front-facing camera and Nvidia’s very capable Tegra II technology. Most significantly, this is actually available in Australia. We’ve heard it might not have access to Android’s Marketplace, which is a concern, but we’ll be able to check this out as soon as we’re able to get a look at one.