The tablet wars are heating up, and for those of you holding up for a decent iPad competitor, such as the Motorola Xoom, you now have one more item to consider.

Although rumours have been swirling for months, Hewlett Packard (HP) today officially revealed their take on the tablet: the TouchPad. The company also added two smartphones to its lineup: the Veer and the Pre 3. Until we get a hands-on with the actual devices, here’s a brief overview of what was announced. …

We already know how great the large-screen smartphone or tablet computer is as a remote controller to play music or movies from your PC server. Now, there’s also an iOS app that lets you control your Xerox machine and send documents to print – directly from your handheld device.

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After staying quiet for a good while, the Singapore firm yesterday surprised many techies by pulling two Android-based tablet computers out of the hat with prices starting from a mere S$359.

That’s for the ZiiO tablet sporting a 7-inch screen and 8GB memory, and running Android 2.1. A 10-inch model with the same 8GB built in goes for S$429. Both are going on sale at the Creative online store from end-December and at other retailers a month later. …

When I got my hands on the Galaxy Tab here at the IFA show yesterday, I couldn’t help an evil thought: what would Steve Jobs’ face look like if he had seen this little Android wonder from the Korean electronics maker?

After the iPhone made smartphones popular, along came better, improved versions from Samsung, HTC and Sony Ericsson which are now making the Android platform more popular than Apple’s.

Now, just months after Jobs and his Apple hyped the iPad to high heaven, along comes a better version from Samsung in the shape of the Galaxy Tab. The formula is clear: let Apple “lead the market” with the hype, then enter it with better products. …

It’s the oldest trick in the book when it comes to scamming: Play on people’s greed.

Take a look at a current one involving free iPads for beta testing :

The difficulty lies in telling whether a freebie giveaway is a scam sometimes. Some are scams, and some are supposedly real contests giving out free iPads, like the one here at freeipadgear.

When in doubt, it’s probably wise to reconsider: If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

I was just gushing down a bowl of extremely salty French Onion soup at TGIF near the Marriot Grand Hotel in Moscow where I am staying when I saw Jobs flashing the iPad in some Russian news channel. That was enough for me to spend the next 90 minutes watching Job’s keynote.

Two things struck me from the iPads launch today:

1. Apple is really going into a closed lock-down system.

   The iPad will be utilising Apple’s new 1GHz processor (Apple now totally owns the hardware and the OS).

   It also launched iWorks (competitor to MS Office) for US$9.99 for each of the spreadsheet, presentation and word processor software (called numbers, keynote and something else I cant remember) It also launched iBooks – an e-book reader and store.  With App Store and iTunes Music Store,  now Apple also owns the software and services platform.

   Apple struck a deal with AT&T for adding 3G at US$29.99 per month for unlimited access. So like the iPhone, you are stuck again with a specific telco. And my guess is the two will work together to lock-in consumers and share the money.

   It looks like the Apple way is increasingly becoming a closed, lock-down system. I dont like lock-down systems and it sure makes Microsoft (who only controlled the OS and the apps and tried with the browser) look like an angel in comparison.

2. Is the iPad simply a glorified smartphone?

   Yes, it did look cool watching Jobs spin the thing round, but what exactly is the Apple 1GHz processor? Early rumours are swirling that it is simply one of the many 1GHz ARM processors (ARM licences its processor tech to people like Nvidia and Qualcomm to make smartphone processors) around. The same architecture that powers the Google Nexus One smartphone. But can it be powerful enough to support a mini-laptop? In case you are still wondering why the iPad does not support the ability to run multiple apps at the same time, perhaps this is the answer!