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Yesterday’s Amazon product extravaganza shows how much its slate business has become like Apple’s--and how much it hasn’t. The founder and CEO paced across the stage before a massive screen displaying the company’s achievements in recent years--skyrocketing sales of media and a heritage of innovative, beloved gadgets. Then he brandished the new wonder, showing its surprising features and teasing with questions along the lines of "what should we charge for it?" before naming an equally surprising low price.

It's certainly looking that way—and Apple's iPad is the victor. The latest casuality appears to be Research in Motion's Blackberry Playbook. It's still on the market, but sales have been lackluster to say the least

A newspaper publisher in Philadelphia is giving a $99 tablet to customers who sign up for two-year subscriptions to its papers, and GameStop is planning a dedicated gaming tablet based on older hardware running Android--meanwhile it's confidently and cheekily offering cash back for traded-in iPads, iPhones, and iPods. Tablets as marketing gimmicks: This, ladies and gents, is the side effect of the iPad's continuing success in dominating the new portable computing genre.

The iPhone 5 is coming, is your business ready? Here's a look at some of the expected features, and how they can impact your business. In the world of tech, Internet rumors often turn into cold hard facts—sometimes overnight

Fresh rumors from a source in Korea say that a new tablet computer, built by Samsung and sporting Microsoft's upcoming tablet-centric OS Windows 8, will be revealed at MS's BUILD developer conference next week. Bill Gates championed the idea a decade ago, but it never took off. With Samsung embroiled in a patent war with Apple over its Android tablets, perhaps this time MS's persistant innovation may pay off.

iPhone 5 Release Date A source inside Apple has indicated to Fast Company that the iPhone 5 launch event may be in the week of the September 19th, or possibly the 26th--giving a short period for pre-orders before the device is launched in multiple countries at once on a date in the first week of October (a rumor that's increasingly been believable). Speculation about the release date has reached fever pitch, and Deutsche Telecom has taken the extraordinary step of announcing a pre-order service without having official confirmation of the delivery date to give to its customers

The Kindle tablet is coming. (You may have heard a little about this.) Amazon 's just redesigned its main website with changes that make it more tablet-friendly, and one writer is even claiming to have used the device.

The iPad starts at $499. While most every device maker has mimicked Apple's price point, none have been able to mimic Apple's sales. At last count, Apple had sold 28.7 million iPads, making the iPad the clear industry leader.

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Lightbank , the venture vehicle created by Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell of Groupon fame have just pushed $4 million of funds, one of its biggest investements thus far, into E la Carte --makers of the Presto dedicated restaurant tablet devices. Lightbank is betting that in a newly iPad-invigorated world, dedicated single use tablets will sell and will be more readily adopted, perhaps even sought out, by public-facing businesses. Presto was dreamed up in 2008, and it's currently in use in around 150 restaurants in the Bay area.

A look at the companies competing to be top of the class in the digital textbooks market College tuition continues to rise, but textbooks may be getting cheaper—and a lot more portable. Instead of lugging a backpack filled with heavy volumes, some students have begun using electronic textbooks, which typically cost less and can be read on a laptop or tablet

Delta Airlines has deployed 22 iPads into its global pilot workforce, as a preliminary trial of the iPad's ability to act as an electronic flight bag. They're not the first to do so, with American Airlines bagging that title after they gained FAA approval back in 2010, but Delta's move points to a growing trend among fliers--if you're job or pastime involves gliding through the air, then the iPad is about to revolutionize the experience

You may not be shocked to learn that a lot of rumored Apple news is bubbling up around on the Web--here's our round-up of the most interesting bits.

Apple appears to be gearing up for a fresh assault on a market it's never done hugely well in: Enterprise.

Apple 's spectacular rise continues.