Vizio, known more for its cheap televisions than computers, announced at CES 2013 that it’s bringing a 11.6-inch Windows 8 tablet to market later this year. Much like the Surface, Vizio is selling this a tablet that doubles a premium PC. What sets it apart is that it uses AMD’s latest APU for a presumably cheaper price point.

The new tablet features a full HD 1080p display, 64GB SSD, and an AMD Z-60 APU with on-board Radeon HD graphics. The processor was built with Windows 8 tablets in mind, and as such, features a low-power dual-core 1.0 GHz CPU. The on-board GPU is clocked at 275 MHz, but supports DirectX 11. It’s not going to be a gaming machine, but no Windows 8 tablet has yet proven to be one either.

“We built a tablet PC with Windows 8 that truly allows consumers to accomplish any task while being mobile,” said Matt McRae, Chief Technology Officer, VIZIO. “We are excited to work together with AMD to bring consumers a Tablet PC with the Windows experience that also delivers exceptional visuals using AMD’s expertise in superior graphics processing.”

There’s no mention of pricing or availability yet, but it should be cheap. Vizio has a good track record of keeping prices down, and the use of an AMD processor should help keep the price down even more. With that being said, the use of an AMD processor may turn some people away who prefer more powerful Intel processors in their tablets, but that’s what the $899 Surface Pro is for.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the iPad Mini is now being manufactured on a mass scale across China. It was already suspected that Foxconn would be manufacturing the device, but there was no concrete proof until now. Those familiar with the situation said that iPad Mini will feature a lower resolution screen that’s currently being produced AU Optronics and LG.

Ever since the iPhone 5 was released, all of the attention has turned to the iPad Mini. Apple’s latest phone did incredibly well, but it did miss some investor’s expectations. The iPad Mini is something that could go above and beyond everybody’s expectations. It’s expected to launch at a lower price point to appeal to the tablet market that’s currently cornered by Amazon and Google.

If the device is already in full production, we can expect a launch by the end of October or early November. They should also be able to have plenty of iPad Minis available at launch to avoid delays in shipments. A constant supply of the rumored device could help Apple win the holiday season as Amazon and Google are ramping up their efforts to market the Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 respectively.

We got our first really good look at the iPad Mini yesterday, but the device is still just a rumor. Steve Jobs famously said that a tablet under 10-inches was no longer a tablet. It’s the Tim Cook show now and things are different. The iPad Mini will be the first true test of what an Apple without Steve Jobs can do. The iPad Mini is most assuredly real, but will it resonate with consumers like previous iOS devices? A recent survey seems to indicate that it will.

Toys ‘R’ Us today announced that it is releasing its own tablet. Designed specifically with kids in mind, the tabeo tablet is a 7-inch Android tablet that will come with 50 free, pre-installed apps to entertain children. Toys ‘R’ Us stated that the design of the tabeo focused on “safety” for children. It comes with integrated parental controls for filtering internet access and a special tabeo store with “safe” apps for kids.

“Over the past year, we’ve spent considerable time talking to parents and children to determine what features and functions they really want in a kids’ tablet, resulting in tabeo,” said Troy Peterson, divisional merchandise manager for Toys“R”Us. “We are proud that tabeo offers robust and flexible parental controls that can help protect children as they surf the Internet, and we are pleased to offer the tabeo App Store, which features only kid-safe content carefully curated by the Toys“R”Us team.”

The tablet itself has a 7-inch, 800 x 480 screen, 4GB of memory, a microSDHC slot, 1GHz ARM processor, and a front-facing camera. It will run a version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Toys ‘R’ Us will begin selling the tabeo for only $150, exclusively through its stores and website starting October 21. The company is already taking pre-orders for the tablet through its website.

Family Christian, a company that deals in wholesome family friendly products, is now selling a tablet called edifi. It’s an Android powered tablet that’s all about the Bible and family-friendly programming. Speaking to Fox News, technology supervisor for Family Christian, Brian Honorable, says that the tablet came about as a way to “offer our customers the ability to use our Holy Bible application.”

The edifi tablet definitely has the Bible, in 27 languages no less, but what else can it do? It features the Family Christian Reader app so that you won’t have to expose yourselves to the evils of the modern publishing industry. Other apps include a browser with pre-installed safe search, Christian Internet radio and movie playback capability. While the tablet doesn’t have Google Play, user reviews indicate that you can download apps from third party Android app vendors.

The actual hardware behind the machine isn’t too shabby for its asking price of $149. It features a 7 inch touch screen at 480×800, 8GB of internal memory that can be expanded to 40GB through SD cards and HDMI output up to 1080p. The actual innards, while a mystery, are reportedly similar to that of the Kindle Fire.

Despite the number of Christians in the U.S., you would think the edifi serves a niche demographic. Most of my Christian friends are happy with their iPads or Android tablets and wouldn’t even give the newest competitor a chance. He wouldn’t cite sales numbers, but Honorable did tell Fox News that sales have been strong. It’s impressive enough that a small Christian company was able to make a tablet, so I’m willing to accept that it’s at least probably profitable for them.

If you find yourself in need of some digital salvation, the edifi might just be what you need. You can pick it up from their online store or at one of Family Christian’s many retail locations.

Check out the promotional video which features odd choices such as music from Sister Act and a video clip from Wall-E. I would have figured they would use VeggieTales instead, but to each their own.

According to NPD’s Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report, tablets – most notably the iPad – will account for an ever-increasing percentage of mobile computing sales over the next few years. By 2016, tablet sales are expected to surpass notebook sales for the first time, with the margin between the two increasing again in 2017.

According to NPD’s data, 208 million notebooks will be sold in 2012, compared to 121 million tablets (most of them iPads). By 2017, they expect notebook sales to clime to 393 million, whereas tablets will grow to 416 million. A key factor in the growth of tablet sales, they say, are mature markets like the North America, Japan, and Western Europe, where notebook penetration is high but tablet penetration is significantly lower.

NPD also predicted that the line between tablets and notebooks will become fuzzier over the next few years. In a trend that has already begun with some of the most recent models (including the MacBook Air), notebooks are trending sharply toward thinner, lighter form factors, SSD drives, and other features that increase portability and ease of use. Meanwhile tablets – which already pretty much have the portability and ease of use thing down – are trending toward the use of more powerful hardware and gaining more robust productivity capabilities.

Like during the keynote, Google talked up the major mobile redesign of Google+ that hit iOS and Android smartphones a few weeks ago. This led to more people using Google+ on mobile than they did on desktop so Google wanted to capitalize on this with a native tablet app.

The tablet app brings the best that the iOS and Android app brought to the table, but with a few new redesign choices that help make the most of the tablet. Here’s what Google has brought to the tablet app:

Here a few screens of how Google+ will look on tablets:

The new photo stream

New ribbon sidebar

New hangouts

As you can see, Google is designing this specifically for the tablet. The new Google+ for tablets is available on Android today for all. The iPad app with retina display support will come out a bit later. The tablet-specific redesign is also hitting Android phones today. Check it out on Google Play.

The Infinity will be launching sometime during the week of July 16. The tablet itself will cost $499 for the 32GB model and $599 for the 64GB model. Nobody said mobile computing was cheap and the Transformer Pad Infinity proves that. The good news is that owners of previous Transformers can save some money as the Infinity is backwards compatible with previous Transformer keyboard docks.

As for the specs, the new Infinity is the closest Android tablet to catch up to the iPad’s ridiculous retina display resolution with a 10.1 inch display at 1900×1200. It’s still powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 3 processor which probably helped keep the price lower than it could have been. It also uses the same ol’ 1GB of RAM, but that should be more than enough for any applications that one could possibly use a tablet for.

As for Android versions, the Infinity will launch with Ice Cream Sandwich. Asus’ other tablet, the Google Nexus 7, is expected to be the first to have Jelly Bean when it’s announced this week during Google I/O. Considering that Google and Asus are pretty chummy at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if they gave the Infinity Jelly Bean before the others.

While Asus is launching the Wi-Fi version of the Infinity in July, the manufacturer is also prepping an LTE version of the same tablet. The only difference is that the LTE version will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Dual-core processor. It will be out at a later date.

We’ve known about the Transformer Pad Infinity since CES, but the announcement of Microsoft’s Surface definitely changed the playing field for laptop/tablet hybrids. The Transformer Prime was pretty much in a league of its own so it will be interesting to see how Asus responds to the Surface.

[h/t: The Verge]

The most surprising aspect of the Surface tablets is the design. Manufacturers have been trying to emulate Apple’s brilliant design and attention to detail for years now. Most have come up short, but the Surface looks to be a solidly-designed tablet. Kickstands are normally laughable when placed on mobile devices, but Microsoft has somehow managed to make the Surface’s kickstand seem to fit with the device.The magnetic keyboard/cover for the tablet is incredibly thin and suitably stylish.

Speaking of the keyboard, Microsoft is showing some flair by displaying their new device with different colored keyboards. Already the company has shown black, white, red, pink, and blue versions. Check out all of the pictures Microsoft has officially revealed:

The Surface tablet is unique because it comes in two operating system varieties – Windows RT and Windows 8 Pro. The Windows RT tablet uses an ARM processor and is clearly targeted towards college students with its included Office 15 apps. The other Surface tablet – Windows 8 Pro – is the one we have to pay attention to.

The specs according to Microsoft peg the Windows 8 Pro Surface as having an Intel i5 Ivy Bridge processor. That puts the Windows 8 Pro version of Surface on par with an Ultrabook and Microsoft themselves said it would be comparable in price to one of Intel’s Ultrabooks.

So we have a tablet that’s powered by one of the best processors on the market, comes with a keyboard and has multiple outs for expansion. That just screams gaming machine if only on a smaller level. Considering that it’s also coupled with Windows 8 Pro only cements it as being the mobile PC gaming machine that many people have always wanted.

We got a bit more confirmation last night when Eric Neustadter, self-proclaimed Xbox Live Operations Gaming Ninja, said that Surface with an Intel CPU would play Civilization.

I’m convinced that a Microsoft Surface tablet w/ an Intel CPU will be the greatest Civilization-playing device known to mankind.

— Eric Neustadter (e) (@thevowel) June 18, 2012

@nikito122 the iPad can’t play Civ 4 or Civ 5. The Surface runs Win 8, so my PC games work.

— Eric Neustadter (e) (@thevowel) June 18, 2012

You could take this as just a Microsoft employee hyping up his company’s product, but it does make sense. The Intel-based Surface has all the necessary requirements to play a lot of PC titles. While integrated graphics have long been the bane of PC gaming, more and more developers are beginning to offer support for Intel’s Ivy Bridge on-board graphics. A game like Civ V would be no problem for the Intel-based Surface.

Well known gaming guru Kevin Dent also offered his two cents on the gaming possibilities of Surface:

For those asking about where the content will come from on the Surface tablets? You are welcome:tinyurl.com/5v8wgl

— Kevin Dent (@TheKevinDent) June 19, 2012

Dent links to Steam, Valve’s digital content delivery service. As long as Microsoft offers a full-fledged Windows 8 Pro experience with the surface, Steam should be able to thrive on the device. The addition of a USB 3.0 port means that gamers can use their gaming mouse in tandem with the cover/keyboard.

It’s apparent that the Surface can be the best gaming tablet ever, but will consumers jump on board? It’s unfortunately not going to appeal to those who own an iPad. Those consumers are only in it for the short bursts of distractions that games like Cut the Rope or Angry Birds bring. Microsoft would be smart to market the Surface to the core PC gamers out there who would love to have a super thin gaming laptop/tablet hybrid.

Of course, Microsoft could really drop the ball and ruin any chance the Surface has at being a gaming tablet. In that case, there’s another Windows 8 tablet coming out that’s even more powerful than Surface that should be able to run every PC game you own on max settings. Have fun paying more than $1,000 for it though.

Thanks to a leak coming out of Shifted2u, we know that the potential Microsoft tablet may be called the Xbox Surface. That fits in with a rumor we reported on earlier this morning that Microsoft was working with Barnes & Noble to make a Nook tablet that streams Xbox Live content. The Xbox Surface is a little more interesting than that, however, if the leaked document ends up being true.

The leaked documents reveals that the Xbox Surface has a 7.0 ince multi-touch LED screen, a max resolution of 1280×720, SD card slot, bluetooth and Wi-Fi. That’s a pretty standard tablet by today’s standards, but the innards is what really excites me as a technophile and a gamer.

The document says that the Xbox Surface will be powered by two IBM POWER7 SCMs with each SCM having 6 active cores at 3.1 GHz. It’s also rumored to have 5 GB of DDR3 RAM and a custom 28nm GPU from AMD featuring 1.2 GB of memory and full Direct3D 11 support.

As for storage, it will have a 250 GB disk drive alongside storage that can be expanded via USB drives. It will also have support for up to four wireless game controllers and one headphone port per controller which pretty much confirms that it uses Xbox 360 controllers. It also features 4 USB 3.0 ports and component video/HDMI out.

As you can see, this machine is not a tablet, but rather some kind of awesome monster PC hiding inside of a tablet. I can already feel the skepticism and you wouldn’t be wrong to be skeptical. Tablets today are weak compared to this, but maybe Microsoft needs this to grab our attention. If they just announced a tablet, it wouldn’t be news. If they announced a tablet that’s many times more powerful than the iPad or anything else on the market, that’s news.

Of course, the real question is how to find a market for such a thing. A lot of people just want tablets for content consumption and nothing else. They’re fine with shallow experiences that allow them brief distractions from their day. If true, the Xbox Surface will be the tablet for the power user and gamer. It will be Microsoft handheld that many consumers have wanted for years to combat the 3DS and the PS Vita. It will just have the extra benefit of being able to compete head-on as a portable computer as well.

It’s important to note that this is all a rumor for now. We won’t know anything until tonight at 6:30 p.m. PST. If this is true though, count me among the first in line. I haven’t jumped on the tablet bandwagon yet due to my status as a power user. The iPads and Kindle Fires of the world just don’t cut it. The Xbox Surface, if true, would cut it and then some.

UPDATE:

Thanks to our readers pointing out my own lack of being able to see light grey text on a white background, it would appear that the Xbox Surface document points to two separate devices. One of them being the tablet with the other being a “stationary computing device.” What does it all mean? It’s too early to tell at the moment, but it could be the next Xbox. We’ll find out later tonight at Microsoft’s press event.