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iPad Sales Slip In Q2 2013 As Android Tablets Increase Their Lead [Report]

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For a long time after its launch, the iPad was by far the best-selling tablet on the market, and no matter how hard they tried, rival devices didn’t stand a chance of stealing its market share. But that’s all changed, according to the latest figures from IDC.

Android-powered slates saw a staggering 163% increase in the last year, and they’ve now overtaken the iPad and opened up a rather large gap in market share.

New Asus Transformer Pad Infinity Tablet Has As Many Pixels As A Retina MacBook Pro

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Asus has today announced its latest Transformer Pad Infinity slate at Computex 2013 in Taipei, and boy is it a beast. Not only does it carry NVIDIA’s latest Tegra 4 processor — which has a 72-core GeForce GPU — but it also has a 10.1-inch display with the same 2560×1600 resolution as the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro.

That’s a whopping 299 pixels-per-inch.

iPad Tops J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Survey For Second Year Running

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The iPad has earned first place in the J.D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction survey for the second year in a row, just a month after Apple’s iPhone secured the award for the ninth time. The popular slate scored 836 out of a possible 1,000 points having been rated on performance, ease of operation, styling and design, features, and cost.

WSJ: Microsoft Developing 7-Inch Surface To Compete With iPad Mini, Nexus 7

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Microsoft is planning a new lineup of Surface tablets that includes a 7-inch model designed to compete with Apple’s iPad mini and Google’s Nexus 7, The Wall Street Journal reports. The device will enter mass production later this year, according to people familiar with Microsoft’s plans, but it’s unclear when the company will bring the new slate to market.

iPad Among Most Difficult Tablets To Fix In New iFixit Repairability Guide

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Teardown specialists iFixit have published a new tablet repairability guide that quickly tells you how difficult it’s going to be to mend your broken Android, iOS, or Windows 8 slate. The guide features 18 popular tablets, which have been given a repairability score between one and ten. The higher the score, the easier they are to repair.

Unsurprisingly, Apple’s iPads are some of the hardest tablets to fix, second only to the Microsoft Surface Pro — the only tablet with a score of one. Amazon’s Kindle Fire’s, on the other hand, are relatively easy to repair, as are Dell’s devices.

FCC Reveals Amazon’s Next Kindle Fire Could Match iPad’s 9.7-Inch Display

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The Kindle Fire 2 may not look this small up against the iPad.
The Kindle Fire 2 may not look this small up against the iPad.

Despite being labeled an “iPad killer” prior to hitting the market, Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire never really gave the iPad anything to worry about. However, it’s going to come back and take a second shot at Apple’s hugely popular tablet, and this time its chances could be improved by a larger display. If a recent FCC filing is anything to go by, the Kindle Fire 2 will be significantly larger than its predecessor.

Got Butterfingers? Get A Nexus 7 Instead Of An iPad [Video]

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Some people do this for fun.
Some people do this for fun.

If you have a tendency to drop your expensive gadgets, and you’re looking for something a little more robust than the iPad, you should probably check out Google’s new Nexus 7. According to this drop test from warranty provider SquareTrade, Google’s $199 slate handles drops and water damage better than the new iPad.

Amazon Follows Apple, Google Into 3D Mapping With UpNext Acquisition

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Amazon follows Apple and Google into 3D mapping.
Amazon follows Apple and Google into 3D mapping.

Following Apple’s Google’s leap into 3D mapping technologies, Amazon has acquired a 3D mapping startup of its own. The online retail giant today sealed a deal to purchase UpNext in a move that could signal the company’s intentions to bring 3D maps to its Kindle Fire slate without any assistance from Google.