Apple iPad 2

Steve Jobs' resignation as CEO of Apple will have only a small impact on the company's sales, a new study by ChangeWave Research has found.

According to the research firm, which surveyed 2,297 consumers between September 6 and September 12, just 4 percent of respondents said that they would be "less likely" to buy Apple products in the future, now that Jobs is no longer CEO at Apple. A whopping 89 percent of respondents, on the other hand, say that Jobs' resignation will have "no effect" on their purchasing plans.

The 4 percent figure is the lowest it more

For the first time since launching in March, Apple seems to have caught up to online demand for the iPad 2 in its online store in both the U.S. and Canada.

Ship times for all 18 models of the second-generation Apple tablet now sit at 24 hours, down from a high of "four to five" months just days after launch. It's the quickest Apple's offered to get the device out to buyers since first making it available. By comparison, it took Apple just under four months to hit the 24-hour milestone with the first-generation model.

During Apple'more

Please keep in mind that this post is based on a beta version of iOS 5. Apple can (and often does) change the behavior of features before the latest operating system hits consumers' hands. If anything drastically changes in regard to this feature in iOS 5, we will be sure to update the post.

We have already shown quite a bit of what iOS 5 has to offer for both the iPhone and iPad. This time we are going to show you something that is specific to just the iPad. Steve Jobs announced a new split keyboard for the iPad more

Dear RIM, here's the thing about love.

You don't just declare it and make everyone believe it's there. You carefully cultivate it by design. You make it part of your business.

Apple's new iPad 2 ad, which debuted yesterday, is an excellent example of how and why the company knows more about people than all of its competitors put together.

Please don't tell anyone, but Apple's last iPad 2 ad was a strange cacophony of boasting, one that seemed to have been written by a harassed, delusional PR executive.

It was a strange follow-up more

Can the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 best the iPad 2 in my grueling performance speed tests? Read on to find out. And please check out the full review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for more of an all-encompassing view of what it has to offer.

Once again, I take you into the murky bowels of CNET Labs to deliver hard-hitting performance test results for tablets. Well, I guess "hard-hitting" is a relative term. Let's try "light-touching." I guess I'd just like to avoid getting raked over the coals for promising too much, because if I've learned anything from Scotty from "Star Trek," it's to never overpromise. Actually, he was more of an underpromiser, but I shouldn't take my humility too far, lest it come back to take a significant chunk out of my backside. So, we'll go with "moderate-groping." Moderate-groping test results! Yes, that sounds appropriate.

Sometimes we do things then look back and wonder who we were when we did them.

This appears to be the case with a 17-year-old Chinese boy who reportedly decided that he would not give his right arm for an iPad 2, but he would give his right kidney.

I know, I know. It doesn't seem entirely sensible. On the other hand, you can live quite happily with just one kidney. It's a lot harder with, say, just one foot.

The way the Shanghai Daily tells it, the boy, from Huaishan City, said he couldn't afford an more

Have you ever walked into a bar, sidled up to a nice lady seated there, and told her how great, how powerful, how ground-breaking you are? No, really. Just once. Yes, that night after you got dumped by Clarissa with the large bank account.

It's very hard to tell someone how great you are. It's even harder when you try to do it in an ad. People wear their cynicism over their T-shirts these days, so I wonder how they might react to Apple's latest ad for the iPad 2.

This follows the excellent "We Believe" spot, which talked about philosophy, intention, and how technology alone isn't enough.

In this new ad, Peter Coyote's voice begins to talk for the people, as opposed to for the company. Some might find that an uncomfortable stretch.

The other day I noticed that one of our tech editors here, Joe Kaminski, had a light blue Smart Cover on his iPad 2. Now Joe prides himself on being kind of a macho guy--some of you might know him from the Digital City podcast--so a little ribbing was in order.

I said, "Dude, why does a guy like you have baby-blue iPad cover?"

"I know, I know," he said. "It's kind of lame, but it's the best color they had in the cheaper version. What, I'm gonna get that DayGlo orange or green one? No more

Yes, I'm a huge Mortal Kombat fan. This should be evident to anyone after watching the video above. However, I can't take credit for the whole tournament idea. That was the brainchild of my producer, Jamie Yee (she's actually a hidden Easter egg in the video, if you watch closely). Jamie's a huge sports nut (or at least, an San Francisco Giants nut) and apparently thinks only in terms of brackets and tournaments.

Anyway, last week was a fairly busy week for the CNET tablet reviews team. Donald Bell and I received three new tablets in the span of only a few days.

With all that glamorous reviewing we were doing, I didn't really have the bandwidth to conduct any official speed tests, until now.

As I alluded to before, we split the tests into two rounds. The first round, featuring the Acer Iconia Tab A500, T-Mobile G-Slate, and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, would determine which tablet would take on the Xoom and iPad 2 in the final round.

So yeah, it's a two-round tournament. We thought about extending it, but decided that doing so would involve too much repetition in the video.

Check out the results below (or above if you prefer your results in talkies form). more