Centercode, the guys behind OnlineBeta.com, have just announced a new community: iPadBeta.com.

We’re pleased to announce iPadBeta.com, a new unique user community being offered by Centercode.  Unlike other communities we’ve announced in the past which use our software, iPadBeta.com is owned by Centercode and will act as a sister community to OnlineBeta.com, but focused specifically on the Apple mobile platform

Very similar to the OnlineBeta.com project, iPadBeta will allow users to sign up to test new iPad/iPhone/iTouch apps.  The site allows users to chat about the new product in forums, create problem reports and submit bug reports.

App developers will  have FREE access to a wealth of knowledge and, what I’m sure will be, a huge tester community.

App Developers are each given their own private projects which include bug and feature tracking, custom surveys, discussion forums, custom wikis, build distribution, tester participation monitoring, reporting, and much more.  iPadBeta.com will also recruit App Testers matching the Developers market; or they can invite their own friends and customers. Developers will also have access to market research materials on the App market, as well as the ability to request custom research.  These services are all offered at no cost, with no ads.

Head on over to iPadBeta and join in!

Well, it finally happened…  Way back in July, many speculated about a tablet coming from Apple, and now we get to see how close everyone came with their guesses.

Am I disappointed?  Well … yes and no.  It’s cool, it’s really f-ing cool.  It’s almost exactly what I expected from Apple,  but it’s not exactly what I wanted.

Oh, and can I just mention the name….  Uhm.  iPad just sounds like a feminine product.  I don’t know why, since crunchpad sounds like a great name and doesn’t bring tampax to mind, but I can’t shake the image….

Anyway — I can’t wait to get my hands on one for a little real-word play.  Maybe it’ll be enough for me — at the very least, it’ll make a great little news-reader and e-book platform.

The ExpReview crew have run the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat benchmark on a rig in both DirectX modes to point out that differences do indeed exist.  The shadows look a bit more realistic, and the tessellation in DX11 brings a bit more details to some of the textures.  There’s a slight performance hit for the increase in eye candy, but that’s to be expected.  Check out their results, including nice, big 2560×1600 screenshots.

AMD’s newest top-of-the-line huge honkin’ dual-GPU beast of a graphics card has been officially released today, & the reviews are hitting the interwebs.  The verdict?  AMD’s made an enthusiast card that enthusiasts will appreciate not only for eye-bleeding speed, but overall build quality as well.  That is… if they can find one to spend their hard-earned money on…  On to the reviews:

• Anandtech
• Guru3D
• TweakTown
• HotHardware
• PCPerspective
• the [H]
• techPowerUp
• Hexus
• BSN

A tidy sum of just a hair under $3 billion.  I’m not so sure that adding 3Com’s gear to their ProCurve gear will make any sort of dent in Cisco’s market share, but then again, I’m not a major business analyst, either.

Perhaps … NEVER!  The last few days have been full of rumors that the Crunchpad is dead, but is it?  Are Mike Arringtons dreams of producing a $200 $300 tablet dead in the water?

The time-line behind the Cruchpad does play out like your typical too-good-to-be-true vaporware product, but the evidence of real working prototypes and even fancy packaging have leaked into the wild making this more than some drawing board pipe-dream.  It’s real, it works and we’ve seen it.

Many seem to think that the project might be scrapped due to higher than anticipated production cost.  Arrington has stated that he wants to sell the CrunchPad as cheap as possible — initially shooting for the $200 price point, and later saying “you can sell it for $300 and probably not go out of business”.  Is cost the sticking point?  Are they worries that people won’t pay more than $300 for a tablet that won’t do anything more than surf the web?

Another popular theory is that Fusion Garage and their Linux/WebKit based browser OS may be the hitch in the giddy-up.  Perhaps with Google and their open source Chrome OS seemingly around the corner, Mike has made the decision to dump Fusion Garage and wait for the Google offering to become a reality.  This would definitely put the CrunchPad in a holding pattern, but since Google Chrome OS is bound to be very well developed and more full-featured than the Fusion Garage offering, it seems it’d be a much smarter way to go.

So, is the CrunchPad dead?  Has the project run into problem it can’t overcome or are the delays just a reflection of changes in market overall?  I for one hope to to be sitting on my couch, surfing all my favorite blogs on a  CrunchPad, or Google Tablet, in the near future.

TechCrunch has a full run-down on the Google Nav application that will ship with Android 2.0 (Eclair), along with a demo video.  If you couldn’t tell by the screenshot alone, this is one killer navigation app.  It includes plain English search, as you can see in the video below.  Oh yeah, & did I mention that it’s a free application to boot?  When, o’ when, will AT&T pick up some Android phones….?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Acer joins in on the mutli-touch all-in-one party with their announcement of the Z5610.  This announcement come just a week or so after Sony and Gateway announced similar All-In-One systems.

Priced at $899 for the Z5610-U9072 comes configured with a 23″ HD Display (1920×1080), Pentium Dual Core E5300 Processor (2.60GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB), 4GB DDR3 SDRAM, 320GB SATA Hard Disk, SuperMulti Optical Drive, Multi-in-One Card Reader, ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570 Graphics With 512MB Memory, High Definition Audio With 5.1 Channel Support, 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11 b/g/Draft N, Six USB 2.0 Ports (Two Side, Four Rear), eSATA Port, Integrated HD Webcam with Microphone, Integrated Keyboard Light and Foot-Mounted Ambient Lighting and wireless Keyboard and Mouse.

Want a tablet?  Why not turn that cheap netbook into one?  That’s exactly what one guy over at myDellMini did.  He’s hacked up a Dell Vostro A90, added a Hoda Technology solderless touchscreen kit and this is what he ended up with.

Image by nDevilTV via Flickr

Since Nintendo’s traditionally been an ATi customer, this would be a major win for nVidia if true.  Personally, I can’t wait for more smart phones that are based on Tegra…

Currently, we have no information what exact chip is being used [just that nVidia won the contract], but with the debut set for February 2010, the second generation of Tegra chips could make an excellent base [to be launched at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona].