Since before the launch of the iPad, we have heard rumor after rumor about tablets about to hit the market. Time and again, these rumors proved to be just that… rumors, and we’ve seen nothing. The amazing sales figures of the iPad have overshadowed all the manufacturers and models that never arrived. Companies like Microsoft and HP are two of the most notable companies with phantom tablets.

It is no surprise that after the unprecedented success of the iPad, that surprised even the biggest optimists, competitors want to get back in on the newest and hottest hardware platform.

Toshiba announced its Libretto which is a hybrid machine that has the form factor of a netback, replacing the physical keyboard with a second touchscreen and adding an accelerometer. 

Cisco is capitalizing on the iPad’s biggest shortcoming. Of all the demographics gobbling up the iPad faster than Apple can have them made, the enterprise is the slowest of the bunch. Let’s face facts, the iPad’s strong suit is not its business performance. Sure you can get the iWork suite or DocumentsToGo and you can connect to an Exchange server but the iPad is not build for the enterprise. Cisco plans to  fill that hole wit the Cius (pronounced See us?) next year. It will sport a front and rear facing camera and do full video teleconferencing. It will be priced below $1,000 and be aimed at businesses.

The latest entry is LG. There is not much information as of press time. We do know, however, that it will be powered by Android, which should not be much of a surprise to anyone.

Microsoft remains quiet and after the failure of the Kin, needs to get into the mobile space in a big way so maybe we will hear form them in regards to a tablet.

7 July - Weekly Wrap-Up #21
- FB for iPhone update for iOS 4
- Toshiba Libretto 
- The Kin is dead 

Everyone has been talking about iPhone OS 4, Microsoft Windows Phone 7 (that name still kills me) and what Google has up their sleeve for the Android OS. Amidst the confusion, hope, rumors and announcements, Microsoft was able to sneak out something totally unexpected. Enter the Kin.

If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry, not many people have. It went public just yesterday and is an interesting sort of phone. There are two models appropriately named the Kine One and Kin Two. At their core, they resemble Windows Phone 7 with a few notable differences.

The Kin revolves around social media. The home screen, called “Loop” is an aggregate source for all of your social media information such as status updates from Facebook, Twitter, etc. “Spot” is a green dot that lets you drag content to it such as photos, maps, status updates and images to share with your contacts.

The Kin One is a small, almost exactly square device that slides open to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. It has a QVGA screen, 5MP camera w/ LED flash and 4GB if internal storage. The Kin Two is rectangular for a traditional QWERTY keyboard. It boasts an HVGA screen, an 8MP cameras and 8GB of internal storage. Neither model show any signs of Flash or Silverlight in the browser; although both are capacitive with multi-touch capabilities (pinch/zoom). Both versions come with WiFi and Bluetooth as well as 3G.

Identical to Windows Phone 7 is the Zune music experience (without Zune gaming). If you’re a Mac user, don’t fret. It will sync with iTunes as well. 

There are two major deficiencies in these devices. The first is simple. It will only pull updates every 15 minutes unless the user manually fetches new information by entering the feed app or locks/unlocks the phone (which forces an update). Microsoft said it was to prolong battery life but t he always-connected crowd may find that lack of data is a bigger issue than finding a wall outlet.

More importantly is the lack of an app store. That’s right. Neither version supports third-party apps in any way, nor will they in the future. You get whatever comes on the phone. What doesn’t come on the phone is a calendar app or the ability to send photos to Twitter for example. Both missing features make it clear that the target demographic is the 15- to 30-year old market.

Verizon is slated to be the sole carrier in the US in May (Vodaphone in Europe in the fall). No prices for the devices or carrier plans have been announced.