iPad

We get started this week just in time to follow Intel's major Sandy Bridge chipset crisis. How will this affect review systems we're testing in the Lab? Tune in to find out. Then we answer some popular reader questions about when to buy a laptop and when to wait, especially with rumors of a MacBook refresh in the air.

Finally, it's time to clean out the old game closet, and we try a new chat room contest, rewarding correct tech trivia answers with games.

Bonus: You can download the show's theme song as a free MP3 here for a limited time! Also, if you're a fan of Dan's previous jazz/funk/indie albums, check out some rough mixes from his new bossa-nova-inspired project.

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Samsung's revenue and profit may be up, but so is the return rate for its Galaxy Tab.

According to ITG Investment Research, which tracked sale data from 6,000 wireless stores in the U.S., an estimated 13 percent of Galaxy Tab owners are returning the devices. The data was tracked from the device's release in November until the end of December, according to AllThingsD.com.

The news doesn't get any better for Samsung as holiday returns continue to come in. According to the data, if you factor in cumulative data until January 15, the return rate … Read more

After logging out of your MobileMe account, you may find that your iOS device no longer automatically syncs with your Mac, even after you log back in to MobileMe. This very thing happened to me this weekend after I logged out of my MobileMe account to troubleshoot an issue with iWeb.

What happens? When you sign out of your MobileMe account on your Mac (System Preferences > MobileMe > Account) your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch will no longer be syncing automatically. For example, adding an iCal event on your iPhone will not add it to your Mac, even after … Read more

Netgear chairman and CEO Patrick Lo reportedly slammed Apple CEO Steve Jobs for his business practices on Sunday, and said Apple would have to change its closed system to compete in the future.

Speaking at a lunch in Sydney, Australia, Lo reportedly said Apple would have to open its platform so it could compete with Google Android in the mobile space, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

"Once Steve Jobs goes away, which is probably not far away, then Apple will have to make a strategic decision on whether to open up the platform," said Lo.

The statement … Read more

Last October I called Chillingo's Cut the Rope the best game since Angry Birds. And it appears the world agreed with me, as evidenced by its current number-three spot on the iTunes Top Paid Apps chart.

If you're looking for the next big thing in Cutesy Physics Puzzlers (or CPPs, as I like to call them), look no further: it's Cover Orange.

Weird title, I agree, but it's the literal explanation of the gameplay. In each level, you must shelter (i.e. cover) one or more oranges against the "poison rain" that pours in … Read more

Apple's iPad still reigns supreme among tablets, but its grip on the market is starting to loosen.

In the fourth quarter, Apple's tablet captured 75.3 percent of worldwide market share, easily besting Android-based devices' 21.6 percent share, according to market-research firm Strategy Analytics. However, those figures differ vastly from the third quarter when Apple had 95.5 percent share and Android had just 2.3 percent.

For 2010 overall, iPad's held 84.1 percent of the market, while Android devices accounted for 13.1 percent.

Despite the iPad's slip, Apple sold millions more in … Read more

If you're familiar with Shazam or SoundHound, then you're already halfway to understanding IntoNow, a new Silicon Valley startup and iPhone app that launched today.

Like the music-tagging apps, the new IntoNow app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch uses an algorithm to pattern-match a TV show's audio output--its sound--to the right show.

Unlike SoundHound and Shazam, chances are that viewers aren't looking for help identifying the name of the show or title of the episode. Instead, IntoNow hopes that couch potatoes will use the information to get social, sharing their TV picks on Facebook and … Read more

Google is recruiting developers to work in-house on mobile apps for its Android operating system, a report says, as the tech giant continues its challenge to Apple's iOS and the popular devices that run on it.

Benjamin Ling, a Google product-management director, has been supervising an attempt to coax software engineers, user-interface specialists, and product managers into the Google fold, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.

The Journal added that some current Google workers have shifted their positions at the company to join the app project, which will be spread across Google's global offices and cover … Read more

iPad 2 reports--er, rumors--are getting difficult to keep track of, but let's put this one in the no-high-resolution-display hopper.

After repeating fairly well-established hearsay about a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor (running at 1.2GHz), an analyst cited by Apple Insider says the iPad 2 will not have a high-resolution Retina display, corroborating an earlier CNET report. Reason? Manufacturing yields aren't there yet. But "anti-reflection" is mentioned as a step-up in display quality.

Another display consideration not mentioned is cost: adding a super-high-resolution display to the iPad 2 could drive up the cost significantly, pricing it out … Read more