After coming out swinging a few days back with a Surface ad that focused on Office, Microsoft has a new ad that confronts the iPad head-on. And here’s the crazy part: it’s surprisingly amusing.

The commercial is a takeoff of Apple’s iPad Mini piano commercial. In the Microsoft version—entitled “Windows 8: Less talking, more doing”—the company pokes fun at Apple’s personal digital assistant Siri, all the while showing off the advantages of a Windows 8 tablet over the iPad.

“Sorry, I don’t update like that,” Siri says when the disembodied hand often seen in Apple commercials tries to get Live Tile updates from the iPad’s grid of icons. “Sorry, I can only do one thing at a time,” Siri chimes in again while a Windows 8 tablet shows off the Snap feature that lets you view two apps at once.

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AMD hopes to have a big second half in 2013, launching three new CPUs featuring integrated graphics that perform on par with the company’s discrete GPUs. On Thursday, AMD revealed key details of these next-generation mobile chips, code-named Temash, Kabini, and Richland.

In a briefing in advance of the announcement, AMD vice-president John Taylor explained how the new chips leverage a number of firsts in AMD’s history: The first CPU with an onboard memory controller, the first dual-core CPU, and the first CPU with an on-die GPU.

These are interesting achievements, but it's worth noting that AMD hasn’t bested Intel in the CPU market since 2006. That's the year Intel introduced the first generation of its Core microarchitecture, and pulled ahead. AMD has performed better in the discrete GPU market, frequently trading the number one spot in the graphics space with arch-rival Nvidia. And now the company is looking to that GPU effort to catch up to Intel in the mobile CPU market.

Taylor says that consumers’ desire for thin and light computers of all types—desktops as well as notebooks and tablets—favors AMD’s APU (accelerated processing unit) effort, a chip design that combines x86-compatible CPUs with AMD’s latest Radeon graphics processors. “If you want low power and long battery life,” said Taylor, “you need an APU. Combining those functions on one chip reduces cost. It reduces power consumption, and it eliminates the complexity of using the PCIe bus to communicate with a separate graphics processor.”

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Since it launched in late 2012, Microsoft has positioned its Surface tablet as a fun, hip alternative tablet, emphasizing its construction and form factor. That failed. So with its latest commercial, Microsoft has returned to its corporate roots: productivity.

Microsoft’s latest Surface ad is oddly named—“Imagine”—but it's actually the most grounded of the Surface advertisements Microsoft has produced so far. And the real kicker of the ad, which begain airing last week, is the tagline: “Microsoft Surface. The tablet that runs Office.” The key message is clear: OK, so we weren’t really able to position the Surface as the bridge between work and play. Instead, let’s get down to business.

Recall that, to date, Microsoft’s Surface ads have been all sound and fury. Witness the “Movement” premier, followed by “Groove” as well as “ Vibe." But what have they signified? Little. Microsoft has seemed inordinately proud of the rhythmic noises the Surfaces', er, surfaces make, as well as how easily the hardware opens, shuts, and snaps together. Every so often there's been a shot of the Start screen—look, Netflix! And is that a chart?—but, by and large, Microsoft’s Surface strategy appears to be predicated on dancing its way into our hearts and briefcases.

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Dell, following in the footsteps of many other PC retailers, just slashed the price of its only Windows RT tablet to a jaw-droppingly low $300.

For a limited time—though we'll see if that holds true—you can snag the 32GB Dell XPS 10 for a full $150 cheaper than its original $450 asking price. If you’re willing to spend a little bit more you can get the XPS 10 with a laptop dock for $350, or an LTE model for just $500—a whopping $280 reduction off the original price.

Windows 8's struggling baby brother

Dell’s RT bargain basement sale is just the latest in a long line of Windows RT price drops to try and get ARM-based devices off store shelves. As PC industry analyst Patrick Moorhead recently told us, PCs are like produce: the longer they sit on store shelves, the less desirable they become.

And there’s every indication Windows RT is starting to smell a bit ripe. In early April, Windows RT price drops were so widespread that they suggested the OS had failed to gain any traction. Not long after, the market research firm IDC reporte that only 200,000 Windows RT tablets were shipped between January and March.

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PC gaming is poised to break free from the desktop. It just needs a device that delivers fast frame rates and lush graphics in an affordable, portable package. Enter the Razer Edge Pro, a Windows 8 tablet built expressly for playing PC games on the go. The hardware even comes with an optional controller accessory that turns the tablet into a handheld game console.

But Razer's pitch goes way beyond gaming. The company is marketing the Edge Pro as a multi-purpose machine that can replace your laptop, desktop, tablet, and, yes, even your Xbox, PS3 and Wii. After using the premier version of Razer's new tablet as my primary device for a week, I think it comes close to delivering on its multi-disciplinary promise, if you're willing to make some compromises.

First, the good news: It works. Thanks to a Core i7 processor and discrete Nvidia graphics, the tablet is powerful enough to run Far Cry 3 and Dishonored at decent frame rates. And thanks to Windows 8 Pro, it can run legacy desktop applications, including essential gaming utilities like Steam, uPlay and the launchers for World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2. The Edge Pro also easily chews through productivity applications, handling the processor-intensive Photoshop with aplomb.

The bad news: Whether you’re playing games, watching movies, editing images, or writing tablet reviews, the Edge Pro requires significant compromises. In terms of raw processing performance, sure, the tablet can do everything. But in terms of ergonomics, convenience, display quality and price, the tablet falls short of more specialized, cheaper devices. We reviewed the highest spec'ed version of the Edge Pro, and at $1450, it proved to be a luxury product for hardcore PC gamers only.

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Samsung’s latest Chromebook – the Series 3 XE303C12-A01US – is small, slim, and speedy. This little laptop weighs less than 2.5 pounds and packs a decent performance punch, assuming you’re comparing it to the right machines.

A laptop-shaped improvement to a tablet or smartphone

Google

Our review model, which costs $249.99 as configured, sports a 1.7GHz Samsung Exynos 5 dual-core ARM processor, which is the same mobile system-on-a-chip found in the Google Nexus 10 tablet. Like the Nexus 10, the Chromebook pairs the Exynos 5 with 2GB of memory and 16GB of hard drive space.

The Chromebook also sports built-in Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, two USB ports (one USB 3.0, one USB 2.0), a 3-in-1 card reader, and a headphone/microphone combination port. There’s also an HDMI-out port on the back of the machine. Samsung offers USB dongles for VGA-out and Ethernet (sold separately).

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It's a tough time to be a Windows 8 RT tablet. Sales seem to be slow, or even negative, for products using this 'lite' version of Windows 8. If Samsung's recent withdrawal of Windows RT products from the European market is any indication, these products are competing with Boeing's 787 Dreamliner for rockiest maiden flight.

What, if anything, can the Dell XPS 10 tablet do to sell itself when its category could be dying? Its saving grace could be its innovative design, which features batteries in both the tablet and dock. When the two halves are married, the XPS 10 delivers a stellar 16 hours of run time--a major selling point if you're commuting internationally. The unit is also handsome in a conservative way, and tactilely appealing thanks to Dell's soft touch paint on the exterior.

On the down side, the performance is just average compared to other RT tablets. The display's 16:9 aspect ratio is less than optimal for reading, and the keyboard and touchpad could be a lot better than they are.

From great battery life to sensational battery life

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Surface RT was a broken promise. When it launched in October, it showed the world a vision of a revolutionary tablet-laptop hybrid, but it couldn’t close the deal. But now we have Surface with Windows 8 Pro, part two of Microsoft’s always fascinating, sometimes heartbreaking Surface saga. This is the hardware everyone has been waiting for. Surface RT was the warm-up act, the proof-of-concept, but the good money has always been on Surface Pro, the Surface sibling with PC-caliber specs and a fully functioning desktop.

image: robert cardin

The good news: Surface Pro is a marked improvement over Surface RT. It has a vastly better display and Ultrabook-caliber components. And thanks to Windows 8 Pro, it can run all the legacy desktop applications that we need for serious productivity. Surface Pro comes much closer than Microsoft’s ARM-based RT offering to fulfilling that elusive promise of uniting a tablet and a PC in a single, uncompromised package.

The bad news: Surface Pro doesn’t run away with the Windows 8 hybrid crown. And based on your needs, it might not be the best Windows 8 portable you can buy in the neighborhood of $1000. This is a problem because Surface Pro needs to stand out as a kick-ass reference design, and not be just another interesting-but-imperfect hardware option for anyone taking the Windows 8 plunge.

Microsoft is Microsoft, damn it! It owns Windows. Its war chest is huge. If it can’t conceive, manufacture, and market the hands-down best Windows 8 hybrid in the world, it’s got unfinished business.

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Acer's Iconia W510 is a 16:9, widescreen Windows 8 tablet with a nicely-designed keyboard dock. When sidled down and locked into said dock, the W5 appears and functions as a small, netbook-sized laptop. Alas, the W5 dock is a pricey option--the $750 W510-1422 and $800 W510P-1406 configurations that include it are $200 more than the otherwise identical dock-less models.

Widescreen tablet

The 16:9 aspect ratio of the Iconia W510's 10.1-inch, 1366 by 768 display is mirrored by the unit's 10.2-inch by 7.3-inch form --a form quite common in the Windows 8 tablet realm. The wide aspect is both good and bad news; While 16:9 is perfect for movies, it's considerably less so when held in portrait orientation to read books or surf the Web--one of the major reasons that 4:3 aspect units have ruled the marketplace. But if video is your focus, the W5's widescreen can be appealing.

Feature-wise, the Iconia W510 is largely your standard Windows tablet. Features include micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports, an SDHC card reader, a headset jack, plus a 5MP rear-facing camera and a 1.3MP display-side Webcam. There are a Windows button to facilitate alternating between the Windows 8 Metro and classic Windows interfaces, and a rotation lock to fix the image in portrait or landscape mode. Wi-Fi is 802.11 a/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 are both on hand for top-notch wireless connectivity.

Ho-hum looks

As conceived and realized as the W510's dock is mechanically, Acer could have done better with its appearance. The W510 looks nice enough on its own, but when combined with the docking station, the two shades of white (dock keys/tablet bezel), black, and silver color scheme give the unit as a whole a vaguely cheap feel. Neither part is cheaply made, but visual impressions can be hard to shake.

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Windows 8 opens up some interesting design possibilities for computing devices, and Acer's Iconia W700 epitomizes the hybrid desktop/tablet or modular small PC possibility. The W700 can be used as a normal Windows 8 tablet, but ships with a docking station/stand and Bluetooth keyboard that allow you to use it as you would a normal touchscreen PC. It's a good idea that, unfortunately, isn't perfectly implemented.

PCWorld earlier took a close look at an engineering sample of the W700. This review is based on shipping hardware.

Design and Usability

Measuring 11.6-inches wide by 7.5-inches tall and a little less than a half-inch thick, the tablet portion of the W700 is larger than average. Weighing in at 2.1 pounds, this is not a tablet that is comfortable to hold for extended periods, so rest it on your stomach if you plan to read War and Peace.

The W700 controls are the standard Windows tablet variety. On the right side is the power button and rocker volume control. On the front, there's the Windows 8 button for switching between the Metro interface and desktop mode.

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Whether Samsung is trying to confuse buyers into thinking they’re buying a laptop, or can’t make up its mind what it is, the Samsung ATIV Smart PC is (mostly) a tablet. Sure, it’s got a nearly full-size keyboard, but the keyboard is included as a detachable accessory. The slender tablet, just 9.9mm thin, is only three ounces heavier than an iPad. Even the CPU, the Atom Z2760 (“Clover Trail”) is Intel’s attempt to take on ARM-based CPUs. Users expecting a laptop may end up disappointed.

The ATIV Smart PC is really a harbinger of things to come. The Smart PC’s performance as a laptop leaves a lot to be desired, but it keeps up pretty well with the current crop of ARM-based tablets, both Android and iOS. But you can still dock it to its keyboard, carry it around and use it as a standard clamshell laptop. It also runs the full version of Windows 8, not the semi-crippled Windows RT that runs on Microsoft’s Surface RT. But it’s Clover Trail processor is 32-bit only, and while it’s fine for web browsing, email and light duty office chores, you’d never mistake it for a full-featured laptop.

The tablet under the hood

When you dig down into the specs, the hardware mix more closely resembles a tablet than a laptop. The system ships with 2GB of DDR2 memory and 64GB flash storage. The 11.6-inch screen is 1366 by 768 pixels. The screen is large for a tablet, but the resolution is more akin to the Surface RT than the iPad’s Retina display. However, 11.6 inches is small enough that you don’t see individual pixels, so it’s not a major issue.

All major controls are on the tablet part itself. The power button, volume controls, a power jack, one USB 2.0 port and a microSD card slot are built into the tablet. This makes the SmartPC pretty self-contained. The keyboard dock lacks any buttons or controls, but does include two additional USB 2.0 ports and a power connector. The power connector is needed, since the tablet’s power connector disappears into the dock latch.

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Around this time each year, the editors at PCWorld and TechHive gather to recognize the best new tech products—the hardware, software, gadgets, and devices that had the biggest impact on the world. The process starts out casually enough, because editors get to name their favorites from their respective beats, and everything is included in the first pass.

But passions rise when the time comes to winnow what inevitably becomes a very long list to just 100 new products. There’s a fervent back and forth as the editors make their cases as to why their product should remain on the list—and someone else’s should be whacked. Staff alliances form and dissolve as editors strategize how they’ll win the day for their picks.

A list with 100 computers, smartphones, printers, cloud services, and other great products inexorably emerges over the course of a few weeks. But that’s only half the battle, because the editors must now decide the order of importance that each product holds. That came together surprisingly quickly this year—at least for the top 10 products. As for the other 90; well, let’s just say the list was settled only after great deliberation.

And here, without further ado, are our picks for the 100 best products of 2012:

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Reviewing an operating system is an odd endeavor, because people don’t really use operating systems; they use applications. The OS should be as transparent as possible, acting as a platform for applications. In today’s cloud-driven world, however, the notion that your application will run in a single OS is tenuous at best. Toss in the increasing use of smart devices, whether phones or tablets, and the idea of a single-platform operating system is less relevant now than it was just a few years ago. These days we have “ecosystems”—Microsoft, Apple, or Google, take your pick.

That said, PC users still expect their Windows applications to run as before, and they want to have the same control over their laptop and desktop computers as they’ve always had. New software features should enable users to do more. And as the reaction to the late, unlamented Windows Vista illustrated, all the shiny new bells and whistles should not harm performance or require new hardware.

Can Windows 8 meet its goal of being one aspect of a new Microsoft ecosystem while maintaining its roots in the PC? Can existing computers run Windows 8 without the need for expensive new touch displays? Will the revamped Windows 8 user interface turn off existing Windows users or pull them into the ecosystem? I’ll try to answer those questions and others as I dive deeply into Windows 8.

This review is based on the Windows 8 final release—what Microsoft calls the “release to manufacturing,” or RTM, version. The final release is available to Microsoft TechNet and MSDN subscribers. Desktop PCs, laptops, and tablets ship with Windows 8 preinstalled on the official launch day, October 26.

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More than a year ago, Microsoft invested $300 million in Barnes & Noble’s plan to spin-off its Nook business. At the time, the deal promised a few tablet-centric possibilities. Would Nook tablets dump Android in favor of Windows? Would the Nook catalog be part of an entertainment-centric device like the still-mythical Xbox Surface?

Twelve months later, all Microsoft has to show for its Nook investment is a Windows 8 modern UI app—an app that probably would have landed in the Windows Store anyway. But new reports suggest that hasn't soured Steve Ballmer and co.'s taste for the Barnes & Noble spin-off. In fact, Microsoft may have even bigger plans for Nook.

TechCrunch recently got its hands on internal documents that show Microsoft is pondering an outright acquisition of Nook Media LLC for a cool $1 billion.

But what use would Microsoft have for a struggling e-book business? For $1 billion, this has to be more than just a strategic acquisition to keep Nook out of the hands of competitors like Google or Amazon.

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A standards organization has created a boot environment for tablets and PCs that could potentially run a 64-bit version of Windows RT.

The UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) Forum on Wednesday announced that its boot firmware specifications will now support ARMv8, a 64-bit processor architecture announced by ARM in 2011. ARM’s processors are used in most smartphones and tablets, and chip makers such as Nvidia and Samsung are expected to release 64-bit processors for smartphones and tablets in the future.

Microsoft on Windows 8 and RT requires PCs and tablets to carry a feature called Secure Boot, which prevents a system from being hijacked. The Secure Boot environment is based on UEFI firmware and ARM has already said it is working with Microsoft to develop a 64-bit version of Windows for ARM-based devices. However, it is not yet clear when the OS will come out.

ARM expects 64-bit processors to start shipping later this year or early next year. Most smartphones and tablets today use 32-bit ARM processors.

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In an interview yesterday with CNBC, Bill Gates shared his views on Microsoft’s position in the mobile device market.  After arguing that iPad users are “frustrated” by the limitations of their devices, he stated that with Windows 8, Microsoft is poised to scoop up the many consumers who demand greater capability out of their tablet.

“Via Surface and Surface Pro, you’ve got that portability of a tablet but also the richness – in terms of a keyboard and Microsoft Office – of a PC,” Gates said. 

“It’s getting harder to distinguish products whether they are tablets or PCs,” He continued, “Windows 8 is revolutionary in that it takes the value of the tablet and PC, and is able to support both of those.”

Gates’ comments echo some of the common arguments Windows loyalists make when attempting to trump Apple fans.  Without the capabilities of MS Office, iPad users have a harder time doing full-scale computing.  Apple operating systems are designed for either mobile (iOS) or full-scale computing (OSX), while Windows 8 was designed to be optimal for both, as well as any gray area in between.  Also, the proliferation of devices with varying weights, sizes, features, and capabilities leaves the options wide open for Windows users, while Apple fans have only a handful of options.  

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Would you pay an extra $50 for a pint-sized tablet if it ran Windows 8 instead of Android? Asus thinks you might.

The Taiwan-based electronics maker plans to release a smaller Windows 8 tablet later this year, Asus CEO Jerry Shen recently told The Wall Street Journal. Shen also expects the new Windows 8 tablets to hit prices below $300 to better compete with cheaper Android-based tablets such as the Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

Microsoft began paving the way for sub 10-inch Windows 8 tablets in March by slashing licensing fees for Windows and Office, and reducing screen resolutions for official Windows hardware requirements. Windows Blue, a Windows 8 refresh expected to roll out as Windows 8.1 later in 2013, is also expected to feature enhancements more suitable for small-fry tablets. Most notably, Windows 8.1’s Snap feature is expected to work with resolutions as low as 1024-by-768; the current version of Snap requires a minimum 1366-by-768 resolution. Snap is a Windows 8 feature that allows two modern UI apps to be viewed side-by-side.

Microsoft’s partners are also working towards a mini Windows 8 tablet revolution. Intel is prepping new Bay Trail Atom processors using the new Silvermont microarchitecture that could pave the way for $200 Windows 8 laptops and tablets. Microsoft is reportedly working on its own 7-inch Surface tablet, Amazon recently leaked an 8.1-inch Windows 8 tablet from Acer, and now Asus is excited to join the mini-Windows fray.

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Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates stuck to the company line on tablets Monday, and disparaged rival Apple’s iPad for its lack of a keyboard and its inability to run Office.

In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” program, Gates, who appeared alongside his friend and fellow billionaire, Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Gates was asked about the PC sales slump and the concurrent rise of tablets.

But if viewers were hoping for some new insight into Microsoft’s strategy, they were to be disappointed, as Gates essentially parroted what others at the company have said previously.

Wikimedia Commons/World Economic Forum

“[Windows 8] takes the benefits of the tablet and benefits of the PC, and it’s able to support both of those,” said Gates, repeating the messaging Microsoft CEO Steve Baller and Tami Reller, CFO and head of marketing for the Windows division, have used numerous times.

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The first-ever small-screen Windows tablet made a brief appearance on Amazon.com today, before quickly being yanked from the online retailer's e-shelves.

While Acer was busy showing off a smattering of large-screen Windows devices in New York Friday, the 8.1-inch Acer Iconia W3-810-1600 was briefly available for perusal in the digital realm. Why does that matter? Because all Windows 8 tablets released thus far have packed 10-inch or larger displays, as Microsoft's operating system was engineered before diminutive tablets like the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire became all the rage.

Microsoft has tweaked a bevy of features and specs since the release of Windows 8 to create a friendlier environment for smaller slates. The OS's hardware certification program recently dropped the minimum allowable screen resolution for Windows 8 tablets from 1366-by-768 down to 1024-by-768, while leaked builds of the impending Windows Blue update sported a Snap feature that works just fine on tiny tablets. (Previously, Snap only worked on displays with that 1366-by-768 resolution.)

As far as Acer's Iconia W3 goes, rumors of the 8-inch slate first surfaced in late April. It's still yet to make an official debut, but the Amazon page revealed that the tablet packs a dual-core Atom processor, along with numerous other technical details you can see in the image to the right.

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Windows RT tablets grabbed just 0.4 percent of the tablet market in the first quarter, a dismal result that led some tech experts to urge Microsoft to scrap the platform that's in its six-month infancy.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they do streamline and do drop [Windows RT]," said Brian Proffitt, an adjunct instructor of management at Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business , in an interview. "Microsoft is going to remain heavily invested in its Surface tablet strategy, but that doesn't preclude them from making changes and cutting. Cutting Windows RT would be a smart move, unless the number of shipments suddenly improves."

Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates, was more blunt: "I believe Microsoft would be much better off killing RT and going with one unified tablet OS [with Windows 8]. The need to support ARM [processors] was why Microsoft went with RT. But it never really worked that well."

IDC said last week that just 200,000 tablets running Windows RT, including Microsoft's own Surface RT, shipped in the first quarter, which was 0.4 percent of the total market of 49.2 million tablets. Windows RT tablets first started shipping late last October, although Samsung early on decided not to ship a Windows RT tablet in the U.S.

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Retailers share part of the blame for poor Windows 8 sales and the ensuing decline of PC shipments, analysts contended today.

Microsoft’s radical overhaul of Windows has been cited by some to explain plummeting PC shipments, but the very organizations whose best interest is served in selling those systems were at least partly at fault.

“Windows 8 brought a brand new UI [user interface] that had not fundamentally changed since DOS,” said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, in a blog post Tuesday. “[So] how did big-box retail respond? The same way they have for the last 20 years.”

Moorhead was critical of big retailers—Best Buy is the largest in the U.S.—for not modifying how they sold PCs when Windows 8 landed on their stores’ shipping docks.

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Fiddling with the Registry is old hat to anyone conversant with Windows, but Microsoft's Surface RT—well, that's a tablet with a specialized version of Windows. Surely it has no Registry to hack, right?

Wrong—and stop calling me Shirley. (Dang, that joke just doesn't work in print.)

It turns out that you can indeed access the Registry of a Surface RT tablet, and one of the first discovered tweaks can greatly reduce the lag time between touching the screen and getting a response.

Let me just pause right here and note that if you've never noticed any lag on your Surface, or it doesn't bother you, it's probably not worth monkeying with the Registry. As always, any changes you make therein can have undesirable results, so I don't recommend this to anyone who's not an intermediate or advanced user.

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Tablets are easy to carry around, but your hands need a break from holding them. Resting your mitts keeps you productive for a longer stretch and prevents repetitive stress injuries. Making a tablet stand on its own is a necessity for running a videoconference, or for deploying your tablet as a second screen next to your desktop or laptop. These unique tablet stands do the heavy lifting and free you to focus on serious work, whether you’re at the office, on a plane, or even in bed.

New Trent’s iGeek iPad and smartphone charger is portable and lightweight, just about nine ounces. A little larger than most handsets, it charges an iPhone 4S in about 2 hours and recharges itself in 5.8 hours. The gizmo is compatible with iPads, the Samsung Galaxy Note, and the BlackBerry PlayBook. It comes with Micro- and Mini-USB cables, and works with all original Apple cables.

Battery capacity: 9900 mAh Price: $69.95, New Trent

If you want to bring your own Android or iOS tablet to work, you should consider a couple of factors before taking the plunge. First, in some respects you lose ownership of your device once you commit to using it at work and keeping potentially sensitive data on it. Corporate intellectual property or client data is extremely valuable to your employer, and as such you lose certain freedoms regarding any device that contains that information. Mishandle that information, and you might lose your job.

Second, you have to think about how to secure the device against tampering, to protect its information and thereby minimize your loss of ownership. If you plan to store confidential material of any kind on your tablet, you’ll want to safeguard that data against the chance that you lose the device or let it slip into the wrong hands.

So how do you keep your data secure? You encrypt it. The field of data encryption is always changing, and you can encrypt your tablet in many different ways. Here are a few popular methods of tablet encryption that I was able to test.

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The inherent flexibility and freedom to get business done anywhere, anytime, also makes it much harder to maintain the security and control of corporate data when employees are accessing and storing business information on their smartphones, tablet computers and other mobile devices. And the rush of new devices never seems to end, making it hard to stay out in front of innovations.

"Enterprises must plan now for the mobile devices of the future that they don't even know of yet," says Kevin Benedict, principal analyst at Netcentric Strategies LLC in Boise, Idaho. "So you build an infrastructure that says it doesn't care what devices are on the end of it and you have a framework that you just plug into."

Getting there isn't easy, however. One approach that can make implementing a mobile workforce easier--or at least consistent--is through mobile device management (MDM) strategies that can help enterprises address all related mobile issues in a top-to-bottom approach.

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Choosing the right tablet for your business needs can be tough; fortunately, no matter what tablet you buy, you can find excellent apps for both iPad and Android that duplicate the functionality of popular document-editing software packages such as Microsoft Office. This guide will help you select an editing app and get started in editing documents on your tablet.

Try the Rest, Then Buy the Best: Quickoffice Pro HD

Getting started with these syncing services in Quickoffice is as simple as tapping the '+' icon in the bottom-left corner of the iPad or the '+cloud' icon in the top-right corner of the Android interface, and entering the credentials for the service of your choice. You’ll need to log in only once. After setting up Dropbox or another service, you can browse it from the left-hand menu to find a document to edit, or just create a new document using the '+document' icon in the toolbar. Though the app gives you a choice between Office 97-2003 and Office 2007-10 formats, you should stick to the newer versions (namely, the 2007-10 .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx formats) unless you have some reason not to.

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Before you begin migrating your life from your BlackBerry to your new Android device, I’d like to review the main difference between BlackBerry and Android hardware. All BlackBerry devices have keyboards, but only some models have touchscreens; on Android it’s the opposite, with every Android device sporting a touchscreen but fewer and fewer coming equipped with keyboards. Although most people seem to have gotten used to typing on a touchscreen, I’m not one of them, and if you aren’t either you might want to look at our collection of the best smartphones with a full QWERTY keyboard for assistance in making a purchase.

Setting Up Email

Now, moving on to software. First--and probably most important for a majority of BlackBerry users--you have to set up your email accounts on your new Android device. Google really wants you to use Gmail, and the majority of Android phones are designed to reflect this, with a friendly home-screen Gmail icon that needs only your username and password to be effectively configured.

If you don’t already have a Gmail account for personal email, by all means make one--it’s a great service, and you’re going to need it anyway to sync your Outlook calendar. If you already have a Gmail account, you may want to consider persuading your IT department to forward all of your business mail to Gmail automatically; many companies balk at this notion because they’d rather not have their mail travel through Google’s servers, but the fact is that you could do a lot worse, and anybody who can arrange this option is rarely unhappy with it.

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If you haven’t noticed already, ebooks are no longer a niche market. As of June 2011, ebook reader adoption had reportedly hit 25 percent in the United States, with the market growing at a phenomenal 169 percent year over year. Today, most new releases are being published in ebook format.

An ebook can provide your small business a real competitive advantage by giving you instant credibility and visibility in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, the ebook sales market is fragmented. Publishing an ebook means working directly with numerous companies, each with its own formats, rules, and quirky systems. While Amazon is the clear leader, both Apple and Barnes & Noble have solid user bases for their respective devices. Industry watchers generally believe that Amazon holds about a 60 percent share of ebook sales, while Barnes & Noble has 30 percent and Apple claims the remaining 10 percent, with a smattering of other services filling in the cracks.

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Most interface changes to new editions of Windows have been minor--an icon moved here, a toolbar added there. Windows 8 will be different, using a completely new Metro interface as the primary environment, and removing important elements like the Start menu from the older but still accessible “desktop” interface. Even IT pros may need to do some web searching to figure out some features. What questions will your workers have, and will you have the answers?

With all that in mind, here are answers to some of the basic questions workers will be asking their first day using Windows 8.

How Do I Log On?

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