I just dont know if i want an iPad really. I got one of those mini 7 inch laptops, and just dont use it. Well it was useful when i was travelling, but now it usually just sits in the cupboard. Do i dare to get an iPad or a gPad when it comes out and risk leaving that on the shelf as well? Ah well the screen technology is cool!

google pad the gpad

Last week’s announcement, on the Download Squad blog, that HTC is building a tablet using Google’s Chrome operating system, and not Microsoft’s Windows 7 OS, shouldn’t be too surprising, given that the manufacturer made the NexusOne cell phone for Google, but it represents a shift for N-trig. The Israeli developer’s technology is integrated into Windows 7, and in a departure from policy the giant from Redmond, Washington has invested in N-trig. There’s no legal barrier to the “betrayal,” though, as Microsoft and N-trig never signed an exclusivity agreement.

The news about the N-trig-HTC collaboration was delivered to TheMarker via the Taiwanese firm, and N-trig declined to comment for this article.

So, what’s so great about multitouch? If you don’t know already, borrow your daughter’s iPhone or take a spin at a store that carries Apple varieties. It’s easy, convenient and very, very fun even on the relatively small screen of the phone-PDA. Just imagine the fun you can have whisking images and applications along the screen of a full-sized screen, not to mention rotating pictures with the twist of a finger and zooming in with a pincer motion.

For now the gPad is in the single-prototype stage, a closely guarded secret even from most N-trig employees. Let’s just hope, for their sake, that no one leaves it in a Ra’anana bar. The secrecy extends also to the details of the new tablet’s branding – will it bear the colorful logo of Google, or the staid one of HTC? – as well as of the agreements among the various companies that are involved. Even the November rollout date, one of the few known details, is subject to change.

via haaretz