10 most intriguing tablets of 2012

From the inevitable iPad 3 to the mysterious Google Nexus tablet, here are the 10 tablets to watch in 2012.

7. Sony Tablet P and Tablet S

Sony
The Sony Tablet S has the look of a folded magazine, making it easier to hold with one hand. Sony also offers the Tablet P, which features a clam-shell design. They aren't perfect tablets, but at least Sony is trying something different.

While tablets are all starting to look the same, the Sony Tablet P and S stand out. The Sony team has taken a gamble with the Tablet S, which resembles a folded magazine (in hopes of making it more comfortable to hold in one hand).

The Tablet P is even more unique – it folds in half like a clam. Sony’s “foldable touch screen tablet” has two 5.5-inch screens. Small enough to fit in a jacket pocket, the Sony Tablet P (previous called the S2) will have access to thousands of apps on the Android Market, front and rear cameras, and a 4G antenna.

Plus, the Android tablets come with PlayStation software – what more could Crash Bandicoot fans ask for? Tablet P and S are both PlayStation certified devices, meaning they can play some classic from PlayStation 1. It’ll be a while before Sony tablets can support the newer games, but it’s only 2012.

Tablet P

Screen size: two 5.5” screens

Price: $599

Networks: Wi-Fi, 4G

Release date: 2012

The hook: Unique design makes it more portable.

Tablet S

Screen size: 9.4”

Price: $499 to 599

Networks: Wi-Fi

Available: Now

The hook: Unique design makes it easy to hold.

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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