The tablet race continues to heat up. The iPad set the stage for this generation's tablet race, and although things have definitely tightened up, Apple's wunderkind, like it or not, remains the industry standard by which all others are judged. Seasoned technology buffs will likely recall that tablets had another go a decade or so ago, as a number of largely Windows-based, bulky devices hit store shelves. Unfortunately, those products weren't very well thought out -- they were hardly thin, battery life was terrible, and they ran a full desktop OS that wasn't designed for touch input.