The Dell Streak is much smaller-with just a 5-inch screen and makes cellular voice calls, something the Apple iPad can't do.

Dell said it will begin shipping the product on Aug. 12 to select customers, and make it widely available on Friday.

"With closer access to the Arm technology we will be able to enhance our R&D activities for ARM-based products," said KD Hallman, general manager, Microsoft.

Now, many or all the famous (Nvidia, Qualcomm, Marvel...) TSMC customers already use ARM designs with TSMC, but this deal might make things easier for smaller ones. In short: expect to see ARM continue to proliferate on the mobile computing market.

The rumored RIM tablet may have a 7-inch screen, a 1GHz processor and dual cameras.

WebOS tablet is expected to have most of the features and functionality missing from the iPad. A tablet built on a mobile OS, but including USB or SD memory card ports, front and/or rear facing cameras, and compatibility with Adobe Flash content offers business professionals a number of compelling reasons to shun the iPad.

"Palm will be responsible for WebOS software development and WebOS-based hardware products, from a robust smartphone roadmap to future slate PCs and netbooks," an HP statement said.

Cisco announcedthat in 2011 it will be launching an Android-based tablet, named the Cius, aimed squarely at the business market.

ARM is more valuable as a standalone company and a buyer would be wasting money, said company CEO Warren East. The chip designer rose last week to an eight-year high on takeover talk.

SanDisk's SSD P4 and SSD G4 offer up to 128GB and 256GB of storage, respectively, double the capacities of the company's previous SSD offerings.

At the Web 2.0 conference, Adobe is cheering for Android with demonstrations on Android devices, free Android phones for its employees and now, a demonstration of Flash running on an Android tablet powered by Nvidia's Tegra 2.

Currently, Apple pays royalties for ARM's chip designs used in its products. If the company acquired ARM, it could conceivably raise licensing costs to rivals or even take ARM designs off the market.

Their system-on-a-chip (SoC) platform is based on ARM's Cortex-A9 processor and Globalfoundries' 28nm manufacturing process, and will be used in smartphones, tablets and smartbooks.

Apple intends to stay "nimble" on pricing of the iPad, possibly lowering prices if the newly unveiled tablet device fails to gain traction among consumers.

Apple's iPad device may significantly increase demand for components such as touch screens and memory chips, especially if it succeeds in creating a new product category and spawning competitors, according to industry analysts.

Since the new device apparently will rely heavily on NAND flash for its computing and storage needs, and because the most recent products Apple has produced have tended to sell very well, the NAND flash industry may be looking at a major stabilizing factor.