Mikio Katayama, Sharp’s president, is a man not in the business of making weak-assed claims, touting Sharp’s upcoming e-reader as a rival for the iPad. Considering the iPad is much more than an e-reader (okay, not that much more), such a claim would seem ludicrous. But Katayama’s bold as hell. Katayama likes things extra-spicy. Likes shaking things up. But while we puzzle over Katayama’s confidence, the Sharp e-reader is still turning out to be a pretty interesting device. Out later this year, the device will employ a colour display and utilize the new XMDF file format for e-books, which allows…

Sometimes, I like to think I’ll be famous for something, some day. In fact, on a good day, I firmly believe it. I pound my fist on my desk and declare knowingly that there’s nothing but sweet life ahead. I think, sometimes, we all have that feeling of invincibility. That we’ll overcome any obstacle. That we’ll be celebrated. That we’ll be seen. So, really, I don’t think Acer chairman JT Wang is entirely batsh*t for making the claim that by the time the tablet market has ‘stabilized’, Apple’s share of it will have plunged from 100% (okay, not really 100%, but not far off) to 20-30%. JT is a firm believer…

I don’t normally like talking about iPad cases. Your Techi time is precious, and I’m not about to waste it on a piece of molded plastic. With that in mind, I’ve got this great piece of molded plastic I’d like to show you. It holds your iPad, and everything. In all seriousness, though, this isn’t the wrong kind of rad. The iPort is a for real-real grown up serious dock that transforms your iPad (or iPod Touch, if you get the smaller one (or iPhone, if you get the smaller one, and are unwise)) into a wall controller for music systems or other tasks that need roboticizin’. To be honest, that’s just about the long…

Even dorks need downtime, and what better way to relax than with a nice cold beer? But wait. What if you didn’t know the exact temperature of the beer you were drinking? What if there wasn’t a computer involved in any part of the beer drinking and/or partying that may or may not happen once said beer was consumed? What if you needed a wide array of data about the quality of the beer and which of your friends had consumed the most beer in any given time frame? The guys from Yelp have you covered. They’ve invented an iPad controlled beer keg. Using RFID tags, beer drinkers must “check in” before pouring a beer,…

Adobe clearly isn’t out to win any brownie points with Apple or it’s users. Photoshop Express for iPad was finally released on Friday, although the initial reviews were not great. Apparently the app crashes repeatedly, opens other apps when it tries to relaunch and cannot switch to landscape mode. It’s true that the app is free, so perhaps Adobe pushed it out the door quicker than it’s commercial titles, but that still doesn’t seem like a great publicity win for them. Either way, it’s fixed now, so if you grabbed the app (iTunes link) on Friday there’s an update available….

To be fair, while Playboy has always been about boobs, it’s also traditionally been about a bunch of other stuff, too. I was actually surprised the first time I got my hands on a Playboy. Expecting porn like I ain’t never seen, I was instead treated to reasonably tasteful mostly-clothed spreads, and a guide to buying lingerie for your girlfriend. There were boobs, too, but certainly none of the raunchy, sweaty hotness I was expecting. Nevertheless, that won’t stop Big Steve from keeping anatomy out of his iPad. Hef himself broke the news last night, and you can certainly feel the disappointment…

Whatever you may think of the iPad – whether you believe it to be the savior of old media or simply “a big iPod Touch” – there is one thing that cannot be denied: the thing has been a massive success. By last count, Apple had sold 3.27  million of them in the last quarter and, if that rate is anything to go by, sales are now probably over 4 million. The tablet computer, it seems, has arrived. Naturally then, Apple’s competitors are gearing up their own versions. This, for better or worse, is the state of our industry: Apple innovates and others then play catch-up. Research in Motion, makers of the Blackberry,…

I’ve always found SteamPunk a little bit of an enigma. Who are these people combining antique items and old world look and feel with cutting edge technology? Is it art or science? Do I need to follow the Antiques Roadshow to understand the whole thing? Either way, it’s awesome to see some of the contraptions, particularly when it’s not just contemporary computer equipment dressed up in a corset. This thingamajig actually works and actually combines old world and new world. The video shows the work so far, which is basically a globe tied into Google Earth using RFID tags. The man responsible for this…

Blackberry is hoping to get all up in the iPad’s business with a new tablet device being released in November, claim a fuzzy source of “two people familiar with RIM’s plans”. The device will be roughly the same dimensions as the current iPad. The name of the device will be Blackpad, and will feature a full touchscreen and a slideout QWERTY keyboard for typing e-mails, which, let’s face it, would be a nice addition to the current iPad. The Blackpad is just one of many tablet devices slated for later this year and in early 2011 to try to grab some of the market share away from Apple’s iPad….

The other day, while digging around for the day’s news, I chose not to cover an iPad app that seemed to be grabbing a bit of attention. This iPad app was Flipboard, the social news doodad that presents your Twitter and Facebook accounts as a sexy analog of print media. ‘So what,’ I said, ‘it’s an app. Whatever.’ Boy, do I have egg on my face. Colour me all kinds of mistaken. Hype for the app has reached a fever pitch, and an ocean of users attempt to log in. ”Due to overwhelming interest,” the app’s error message reads, “we are currently limiting the rate at which we are accepting new Facebook and Twitter…