Dropped a stack of change on a premium Wacom drawing tablet, only to find yourself with Cintiq envy? Got an old laptop handy? If so, odds are good that you’ve occasionally (or persistently, for that matter) thought about hacking together an LCD tablet of your very own. Problem is, the mods we’ve seen require some serious shop time — building a custom enclosure isn’t for the lighthearted, you know? But if you’re in possession of a sizable Wacom Intuos and roughly $220 of post-tax cheddar, TabletMod.com has a purpose-built, laser-cut acrylic enclosure with your name on it

Whoa, Nelly! Isn’t this something? Apple has just posted details on its iPad battery replacement service, which is really not a battery replacement service at all. Check out the company’s opening line: “If your iPad requires service due to the battery’s diminished ability to hold an electrical charge, Apple will replace your iPad for a service fee.” Now, let’s compare that to the verbiage found in the iPhone’s battery replacement program details: “If your iPhone requires service only because the battery’s ability to hold an electrical charge has diminished, Apple will service your iPhone for a service fee.” We can see the puzzled look on your face from here, and we’re sharing in the same disbelief. Apple is actually saying that it won’t bother cracking open your withered iPad, replacing the battery and sending it back your way; instead, you’ll pay $105.95 (including shipping) for a completely different iPad, which certainly has its pros and cons.

Before the iPad and before the Slate , the most exciting touchy tablety thing in our lives was Toshiba’s JournE multimedia tablet . Now that the Japanese compu-maker has seen what the competition has on offer, it’s proudly proclaimed itself back in the running with an entire family of slate devices it’s planning to introduce near the end of 2010 or in early 2011. “It has proved to be a mistake to underestimate these new categories” is the word from Toshiba’s Jeff Barney, which indicates that not even he sees that much potential in the form factor, but his company is pushing ahead with its plans for fear of being left behind. Also quoted in the Fortune piece is ASUS’ inimitable Jonney Shih , who makes sure to remind us that without multitasking, Flash support, or a webcam for videoconferencing, the iPad leaves plenty of room for devices richer in features to grab market share. All we know for certain is that the major players are falling in line to make 2010 truly the year of tablet — whether or not consumers will place their stamp of approval on this vendor-driven craze, though, remains to be seen. Toshiba will have its own family of slates by this time next year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:22:00 EST

Chuck Thacker may not be quite the same household name as some other computing pioneers, but it’s pretty hard to overstate the influence he’s had on the industry, a feat for which he’s now be honored with the A.M. Turing Award — widely considered to be the “Nobel prize of computing.” While Thacker is now a “Technical Fellow” at Microsoft, he first made a name for himself at Xerox PARC, where he not only helped design and realize the very first modern computer, the Alto, but co-invented Ethernet, and contributed to a range of other projects that have had a lasting impact on computing to this day. Later, while at Microsoft Reseach, Thacker oversaw the design of the very first Tablet PC prototypes, and he continues to lead up a computer-architecture group at the company and be involved with various research efforts. Of course, that’s only scratching the surface — hit up the links below for a more complete background of the man’s work, and head on past the break for a short video put together for the occasion by Microsoft. Continue reading Computing pioneer Chuck Thacker wins Turing Award Computing pioneer Chuck Thacker wins Turing Award originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds

There’s no denying that the Mini 5 is real , but up until now, we’ve had to provide all of our own promotional material . At long last, it seems as if the suits in Round Rock are finally getting around to crafting the first advertisements for the upcoming slate, and while we knew about the 5-inch WVGA (800 x 480) touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, capacitive touch front buttons, front-facing VGA camera (for video chatting) and the 30-pin docking connector, we weren’t aware of Dell’s plans to reveal a slew of vivacious color options. If this here flyer proves legitimate, we could eventually see the Mini 5 available in an array of premium finishes and hues (thanks, Design Studio !), and we’re hoping for a few different spec builds as well. So, are you opting for the pink, or are you crossing your fingers in hopes that Dell allows you to print that embarrassing shot of you and Mr. T on the rear of one?

There’s no question that Fujitsu’s LifeBook UH900 is a niche device; much like Sony’s VAIO P , there’s just not a lot of demand for an expensive clamshell with an extremely high resolution and an exceptionally cramped keyboard. That said, there’s a curious seduction surrounding this thing, and critics over at Pocketables seemed to agree. After spending some long days (and nights, don’tcha know?) with the Japanese version of this here device, they came away with a huge mixed bag of emotions. On one hand, the snappy performance and excellent portability made it difficult to put down, but the downright dreadful 2 - 2.5 hours of battery life more or less forced them to.

Well isn’t this the most unlikely partnership of the year. Apparently world famous designer and maker of watches/belts Pierre Cardin thought the tablet selection in the world was lacking, and teamed up with a small Taiwanese OEM to bring some touchscreen devices to market. We checked out the line today, and though both the 7-inch PC729 and 8.9-inch PC819 tablets are rather thick the build quality is actually solid. The tablets pack resistive multitouch displays and include a stylus for navigating around Windows 7. Internally they’re packing VIA’s older C7-M processors which doesn’t mean good things on the battery life front — we can’t imagine these things running for longer than two hours

Fujitsu’s LifeBook UH900 started shipping to Americans just over a fortnight ago, and now one has landed into the capable hands of Pocketables . Boasting a 2GHz Atom CPU and some of the most unsightly adapters we’ve ever seen, this flip-open handheld — which just looks too lovely to be saddled with the “UMPC” moniker — strangely stirs something within our heart. It’s one of those “I know I don’t need it, but I just have to have it” things. Don’t agree? Hit the source link, scroll all the way down, think about the upcoming weekend, and then see how you feel. Oh, and feel free to check out those size comparisons if you need extra encouragement in the “ooh” and “aah” department

Want a tablet computer sans all the brand loyalty drama and eye-opening prices? Haleron ’s got just the thing for you with its iLet Mini HAL. Its humble spec brings only a 600MHz VIA CPU and 128MB of DDR2 RAM to the table, but it runs Android 1.6 and if all you want is a tablet to access the web with, do you really need more? Additionally, the onboard 2GB of flash storage is augmented with 10GB of cloud storage and the cheap expandability that’s on offer via flash memory cards or USB drives.

There’s hardly a shortage of tablet news these days, but Viliv is managing to cut through somewhat with its relatively robust S10 Blade . Introduced (and toyed with) at CES this year, the Atom-powered device is now up for pre-order at Dynamism (sort of, anyway), with the big reveal being the heretofore unannounced starting price: $699. We get the feeling that some of the more well-appointed units will end up costing far more than that, but at least you know you can get 10.3-inches of resistive multitouch action into your life for less than a carbon fiber Mustang hood. Or pretty much anything else that cost over seven Benjamins.