Do you think that the brand of the tablet will make your decision easier?  If you are a Google fan you might just take a look at all the Android powered tablets before even thinking about the iPad for instance.  Apple fans are more likely to keep with the Apple brand and it only makes sense noting that Apple generally does a good job making that decision for you.

More than 48 million iPad’s are expected to be shipped in 2012 and experts are calling that number “conservative”.  Some are commenting that with the proposed specs for the Apple iPad 3, the number should be estimated at more than 100 million.  Apple has a very good community following, slick user interface on their products and can distribute large amounts of products like it’s nobody’s business.

These sales numbers are about to put Apple at the top of the PC market in 2012.  With the possibility of a quad-core iPad 3 with a new HD display and 4G LTE support, you can bet that will help the sales climb throughout the year.  Those that do not have an iPad, because of price, will be able to pick up the iPad 2 at a reduced cost as the iPad 3 is launched in March.

Consumers are really enjoying the Android operating system and all of the products that it powers.  With the recent release of the Ice Cream Sandwich update for the software, consumers are racing to update their smartphones and tablets to get a good look at the new operating system.  Android powered devices still out number iOS products, but since the first of this year, Apple has been closing the gap as Android’s market share starts to fall.  Android powered tablets are coming out of the woodwork, but that does not mean they are all worth buying.

Higher end tablets like the ASUS Eee Pad, Acer Iconia, Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Toshiba Thrive might be the best options on the market and might be good enough to pull market share from the iPad, for now.

As the launch date for the new iPad 3 gets closer, what direction are you going to go if you don’t already have a tablet?

Let’s take a quick look at an info graphic that was sent to me by RetailMeNot.com.

The Kindle Fire is one of the most popular tablets released in recent months and if expert predictions are right, the Kindle Fire will sell over 5 million units in the first two months on the market.  If that number is true, Amazon will stand to lose over $13.5 million in total.  These numbers are based on the component pricing information released by iSuppli.com.  According to the bill of materials they have posted for the Amazon Kindle Fire, the total cost is just over the $199 selling price, $2.70 over the selling price to be exact.  Of course, since you can do the math, that is a lose for Amazon, initially.

See, what Amazon.com does is they use the Kindle Fire as a “loss leader” to get you into their ecosystem of streaming and subscription based content.  Amazon figures taking a loss of just under $3 is worth getting another subscriber to their content.  Well, the content and the Amazon Prime memberships, which cost a user $79 for a year of free two-day shipping and other perks.  The plan that Amazon uses to price the Kindle Fire under cost is similar to the way a wireless company offers a smartphone at a discount, with a two-year contract.

So, now you know why the Amazon Kindle Fire lost the company over $250,000 on launch day, that number being on the actual sales of the product, nothing added on after the sale.  Do you know what part was the most expensive?  Maybe you could leave a comment with your answer.

Netflix has many subscribers to their movie and television rental platform. Netflix is can also be streamed through many devices including Blu ray disc players, gaming consoles, televisions and now, your Android powered device. Netflix has released a free app for Android phones that allows users to stream movies and television shows anywhere as long they have a 3G or 4G connection.

A stream only subscription is only $7.99 a month and if you can essentially take the subscription anywhere with your Android phone, it’s well worth it. As of right now, the app that was launched is only compatible with a few phones and those include; HTC Incredible, HTC Nexus One, HTC G2, Samsung Nexus S and the HTC EVO 4G, all of which should be running 2.2 or higher.

You should not expect to have access to Netflix’s entire catalog with this app though. Even though the selection is fairly large, you will not find any award winners or new releases with the app, at least not right now.

In order to get the app all situated on your phone, all you need to do is download it from the Android Market, plug in your Netflix username and password and you are done. From there you can see the interface and the options you have available to you, Home, Search, Genres, and Queue. The popular “title you might be interested in” feature is right there on the home screen and suggests titles based on other titles you have added to your queue, or watched recently. The app will also coincide with what ratings you have on the Netflix.com website.

The search function is nice and actually will suggest titles as you type in the letters, so that saves time in finding what you are looking for. If you spell a movie title incorrectly, you are still shown the titles of movies that are close to what you typed.

Having a reliable Wi-Fi connection is important for the app to stream properly. The audio will play perfectly and the picture will be high quality. As soon as your connection drops, you will see the quality of sound and video reduced right away, much like you get if you were streaming Netflix on your television.

If you experience a crash while watching Netflix, it will capture the point at which you were watching and allow you to resume right there as soon as you can get the app going again. As popularity rises, so will the features and size of the catalog that is available through the Android app.

Privacy issues have been on the front of Facebook news for a little over a year now, but have you ever thought about the security of your account? Hacking accounts and getting malware to spread around the internet is something that should always be on your mind. With a website as large as Facebook, it’s a perfect breeding ground for malicious behavior. Not to mention the many users are younger and might not have the sense that what they are doing could cause a very large problem for people.

News websites, videos and other types of attempts to get you to click a link that sends you to a malware laden website are popping up on Facebook at an alarming rate. One friend check’s it out and then their friends check it out and it goes from there, spreading the virus like wildfire. Facebook will now display a warning message any time you click a link that might be sending you off the site into a site that is not safe.

Each day something new pops up and it tends to follow a breaking news story or some kind of celebrity news. People click on these because they believe they are going to read about the news, but end up creating a problem they cannot solve before it’s too late. Some people might not realize that the attacks that happen have more to do with what browser you are using. Internet Explorer 9 has a couple of things in place to help block this activity. Facebook is currently working with other browser companies to help make using Facebook safer in any browser setting.

To combat “clickjacking”, Facebook will not ask you to confirm your “like” before it is posted to your profile for your friends to see. This will make sure that you are aware you are sending information to your news feed before you go ahead and do it.

Facebook is also offering up a two step authentication for your login page. The “Login Approvals” will alert a user to enter a code that Facebook will send via text message to a mobile phone, before they can complete the login process. Facebook is also teaming up with Web of Trust service. This free service gives user a little more information about sites they might be clicking to before they get that far. Notes about why a site might be dangerous will be posted, which gives the user time to go back one page or ignore the note and move on. Web of Trust has over 31 million ratings for sites across the internet.

Do you have a tablet computer?  Do you consider it a fast computer, for a tablet?  Trying to creep one up on other brands, tablet computers are trying to improve on any small thing to get the edge.  Speed of a tablet, or any computer, is important in this super-fast “no time to wait” world.

With the arrival of the iPad 2 and other tablets like the XOOM, speed just might be one thing a non-brand loyal customer would look at before buying.  The Motorola XOOM isn’t exactly the same as the iPad, out with it’s version 2, but when the price is the same, what sets these tablets apart?

Did you see the video test of page-loading times between the iPad 2 and the XOOM, posted online by CNET?  With the pages loading very, very fast it was a close call, but the XOOM took home the blue ribbon in that category.  But will that keep people from buying the second generation Apple Tablet?  Not likely, in fact, most in the industry would believe that the XOOM won’t be able to keep up with the Apple products that are holding on to a large part of the tablet market share.

Don’t get me wrong, the iPad 2 was faster than other tablets, it just couldn’t beat out hte XOOM in web page loading speed.  That doesn’t really say a whole lot, since each one has their own benefits.  The poll on the CNET site asks if users are surprised by the results and 75% said “no”, at the time of this post.  Maybe some people think that because a product came from Apple that it must just be the best.

What do you think?

How can you describe your use of Twitter in 140-characters or less?  Today marks 5th birthday of Twitter and the site is still gaining users and breaking records all along the way.  Five years ago, the first tweet, “inviting co-workers”, was sent out by co-founder Jack Dorsey and it’s been quite a ride since then.

Many people flocked to Twitter to sign-up and see what the “hub-bub” was all about, without really ever knowing how to even use the site.  Much like a Facebook status update, a “tweet” is a short, description of what you have on your mind.  Or maybe it’s what you just ate for lunch, a link to a review of a new product or maybe you just wanted to let your “followers” know how your cat was doing today.  It can be whatever you want as long the tweet is 140 characters or less.

What has Twitter been up to over the last 5 years?  Not only has the site become one of the best places to find up-to-date breaking news, headlines, sports scores, and more, Twitter has also helped when other forms of communication have failed.  Is your father a follower of you?  You can contact him via Twitter if you are unable to call for instance.  Granted, your father might not be into Twitter as much as you are, but at least he can’t say you didn’t try to communicate.

One thing Twitter has still been trying to figure out ways to make money.  Don’t be confused, Twitter has plenty of funding from investors, but there has been little return on that money.  Do you think Twitter could survive without making money in the long term?

Nonetheless, Twitter has been a large part of our lives for the last 5 years.  More and more businesses use it as a way to connect with their customers and many devices are used in connection with Twitter, thus getting more connecting out of each user.

There are plenty of celebs and pro athletes on the Twitter wagon as well.  You can search for tweets from 50 Cent, Bob Vila, David Spade, Ice-T and John Cena just to name a few.  Pro athletes make news when they tweet and some of them include, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, Eli Manning or even Shaun White.

Don’t forget, you can follow this blog on Twitter too.