Adobe has debuted a family of six new applications it has developed for mobile tablets called Adobe Touch Apps, which mimic some of the professional creative functions of Creative Suite.

The scene-stealing app is Adobe Photoshop Touch, which gives Android tablet and iPad users the ability to apply popular edits and effects to photos just as they would in the full Photoshop. It adds a new exclusive extraction tool called "scribble selection", which lets users scribble over what they want to keep in the picture while everything else is removed.

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The Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics, a collaboration between Texas' Rice University and Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, announced on Monday that they are getting ready to produce their low-price, low-power tablet for Indian schools.

This is unrelated to the fabled "$35 tablet" that was shown off by India's Human Resource Development Minister, Kapil Sibal last year, but one that Rice University scientist Krishna Palem debuted at roughly the same time called the I-slate.

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The hottest tablet to debut in months has pretty puny specs. There's no camera, no Bluetooth, no sensors for orientation and no 3G radio. The device runs Android 2.1, but it's customized such your existing apps probably won't run -- and Amazon has developed its own web browser, too. But the $199 price is compelling, and seemingly everyone is talking about it. So I have to ask: Has Kindle Fire set your wallet ablaze? Amazon is taking preorders for November 15 release. As usual you can answer in comments or email joe at betanews dot com. Then there is the poll below; please take it.

I must admit to having a hearty laugh at the news coverage. For weeks, as Amazon tablet rumors mounted, bloggers and journalists posted story after story asserting that the iPad killer was coming -- like some new-found messiah they worshiped sight unseen who would vanquish the Jesus Pad from Apple cultdom. Over the last two days, many of those same sites posted about how "Kindle Fire is no iPad killer". I laughed my ass off. Seriously, there really needs to be some kind rumor-control meter for the Internet.

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Preliminary results are in from Betanews poll: "What price would be low enough for you to buy a media tablet?" For the majority of respondents (30 percent), $199 is the price. Only about 5 percent of you would spend more than $299.

Not that Apple seems all that perplexed about selling tablets ranging from $499 to $829. But perhaps it should be now that Amazon has lowered the price bar to $199 with Kindle Fire.

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You were an earlier adopter. You bought Motorola XOOM six months ago -- or five, or three, or one -- on the promise of a free LTE upgrade. Soon. But you waited, and waited, and waited. Then Verizon released Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE first. You felt gipped. Angry. Frustrated.

The wait is over. Finally, Motorola and Verizon are coming through for you. Today Verizon announced that XOOM LTE upgrades start tomorrow, and that XOOM 4G LTE models will be in stores on October 13.

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Online retailer Amazon on Wednesday officially launched its first Android tablet, the 7" Kindle Fire.

Taking its name from the company's already successful line of e-readers, the Kindle Fire introduces a handful of new features to the Android tablet business.

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Android's recent success in the tablet market seems to have hit a minor roadblock, as increased competition from RIM's PlayBook and now HP's fire-saled TouchPad chip away at its slice of the pie. Apple seems unaffected for the time being, with its market share increasing quarter-to-quarter.

Apple took a 68.3 percent share in the second quarter, up about 3 percent from the previous period, according to research firm IDC. Android tablet share on the other hand dropped significantly, falling to 26.8 percent from 34 percent in the first quarter.

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In an age where our phones seem to be getting bigger and our tablets smaller, Samsung's latest addition to its Tab family is no exception. The Korean company introduced a 7.7-inch version of its popular tablet, complete with Android 3.2 and Super AMOLED Plus display.

The device is a followup to last year's original 7-inch Tab, but is the first tablet from the company to use Samsung's better display technology. It also features 1280 x 800 resolution, one of the best in its size class. Super AMOLED means the display will be viewable in sunlight.

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Barnes and Noble's Android-powered e-reader, Nook Color, gained considerable popularity in the Android community for being a relatively cheap device ($249) that could be rooted to become a full-fledged Android tablet that runs surprisingly well, considering the device's somewhat limited 800MHz processor.

But today, Lenovo just completely smashed the Nook Color by revealing to the media at IFA Berlin the price for its baseline model IdeaPad A1 Android tablet will be just $199.

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Four months ago, Sony unveiled its first two Android tablets, a wedge-shaped slate and a dual-screen clamshell model which at the time went by the names S1 and S2, but became the Tablet S and Tablet P.

Today, Sony officially launched the Sony Tablet S, the wedge-shaped tablet.

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AT&T on Wednesday announced it will start selling HTC's Jetstream tablet on September 4th. The 10.1" Android Honeycomb tablet was known internally and in the Android rumor community as "Puccini."

HTC Jetstream has the honor of being AT&T's first 4G (LTE/HSPA+) tablet, and it is priced accordingly: a staggering $699.99 with a new two-year contract.

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Lenovo said Tuesday it would begin accepting preorders for its
business-centric ThinkPad Tablet. The Android-powered portable begins shipping within a week and will start at $499 for the 16GB model.

The Chinese computer maker aims to market the ThinkPad Tablet to the business sector. It had previously announced the IdeaPad K1 -- its tablet for consumers -- and that device has been on sale in China since March.

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Today, In-Stat predicted that the global tablet market will reach 250 million shipments by 2017. It's a seemingly big number, but its real significance is bigger: How much will tablets displace PC sales?

Right now the global install base of PCs is about 1 billion units. Shipments have been above 300 million PCs per year, but they're way down in mature markets, still strong in some emerging markets and losing sales to tablets, according to both Gartner and IDC. Is there market sustainable enough for 300 million PCs and 250 million tablets? I'm the wrong person to answer, having already proclaimed -- to the chagrin of many Betanews commenters -- that the "PC era is over."

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I failed to snag TouchPad, when HP was practically giving them away this weekend -- $99 for the 16GB model and $149 for the 32GB one. Like many other attempted or successful buyers, I was thinking: "Wouldn't it be great if this tablet ran Android?" Perhaps it will.

There's already a project underway to port Android to the TouchPad, which is sure to delight lots of people who wanted the hardware but couldn't care less about WebOS or don't see much future in it. HP insists WebOS will continue, but, c`mon, who will develop apps if there are no devices?

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It has been a rough week for Hewlett Packard, which stock took a beating following Thursday’s announcement that the company was rapidly exiting the hardware business, all but killing off WebOS and its associated line of mobile devices, including TouchPad. Within a day, a fifth of the company’s value disappeared on Wall Street.

How much, you say? A staggering $16.2 billion -- some $4 billion more than Google paid for Motorola Mobility. Analysts seem dismayed, and have downgraded the company’s stock. At least one of the credit rating agencies has threatened a downgrade of HP’s debt, and investors seem to doubt the company’s ability to make the switch.

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