The 1st half of 2011 is shaping up to be all about tablets. Really, the tablet mania that everybody is adamant about past year is finally here. Even though dozens of tablets had been announced and shown off at CES in January, many of them would not be arriving till this month or even till the March.

When we began our review of the Blackberry Torch (aka the Bold 9800), our hearts were all aflutter. The leaked shots we'd been seeing of some kind of Palm Pre-sequel RIM slider were different and frankly weird enough to cause a kind of low hum gadget lust. Furthermore, although no one on the Engadget team was blown away by what the company had shown us in recent Blackberry OS 6 demo videos, the promise of a substantially revamped UI and new, Webkit-powered browser certainly got us interested.

Even if Research in Motion had been slipping on its once-unassailable smart phone game, there was a sentiment amongst the team that the opportunity for a return to innovative, industry-driving design was wide open for the Canadian company.

When the 1st Netbook arrived on the scene three years ago, the only factor that actually excited us about this was its size, and far more importantly, its cost. First-generation Netbooks in comparison to what we have got nowadays had been horrible when it comes to usability.

Dell has pressed out an over-the-air update for the Streak's operating-system carrying the device up to Android 2.2 (Froyo) through 1.6 (Donut) and allowing assistance with regard to Adobe Flash, Microsoft  Exchange, as well as Swype text enter. Although the update puts the actual device's functions comparable to additional recent Google android tablets (like the Samsung Universe Tabs) our critique of the device's awkward dimension and mediocre battery remain unchanged.

Most people are eager to visit a serious rival for that IPad tablet computer. For the moment, the Dell Ability is the strongest competitor we have seen, although its size like pocket style and phone abilities have all of us asking you if it shouldn't really be evaluated as a smart phone. However you want to determine this, the Streak's features and style quality are merely as well tantalizing to disregard, even if its cost ($299 with a two-year AT&T agreement, $549 without contract) is difficult to swallow.