At first glance, the FonePad looks extremely similar to the Google Nexus 7 tablet. It has the same 1280 x 800 resolution 7-inch touchscreen, an optional rear camera — only 3 megapixels, however — and the Google Android Jelly Bean software. Two key differences stand out though: The speaker atop the display and the Intel Inside message on the tablet’s back panel. Yes, this is an Intel Atom tablet, running at 1.2 GHz and paired with 1 GB of memory. Battery life is expected to be nine hours.

The choice of Intel Atom over an ARM-based chip likely won’t matter much to consumers as most Android apps now work with chips based on the x86 architecture. The bigger difference then is that speaker on the front of the device and the integrated support for cellular voice calls.

Asus isn’t the first to try this approach of merging a cell phone and 7-inch tablet though. The original Samsung Galaxy Tab I bought in Dec. 2010 had the same functionality. There was only one problem with it: Voice calling software was stripped out of the Galaxy Tab for the U.S. market on all four major carriers. I suspect the same will happen with the new FonePad as well.

So while my overseas friends were chatting away on their Tabs — either handsfree or with a Bluetooth / wired headset — I had to root and install custom modem software on mine as a voice hack. Unfortunately, when voice calling was active, the 3G data connection wasn’t and vice versa. The “solution” was never fully baked and I ended up using the tablet with a data-only SIM card for VoIP calls, giving me the best of both worlds. U.S. carriers never embraced this though and why would they when they can sell you two devices with fees for both?

Indeed, there’s no indication of the Asus FonePad even coming to the U.S. market. CNET notes the price and availability as limited:

The FonePad will be landing in the U.K. between April and June, likely toward the end of June and costing £179, or 219 euros in the rest of the continent. That’s a tad more expensive than the Nexus 7, so it’ll need to impress in terms of performance and battery life.

It’ll reach Asia-Pacific around the same time for $249. Unfortunately there’s no word on a release in the U.S., but Asus does have a habit of bringing its devices stateside. Fingers crossed, folks.

Yup, we can cross our fingers but I doubt it will do any good. Not until we move to Voice over LTE do I expect a traditional small tablet to include carrier support for voice calling in this country. And that’s a huge disappointment when there’s really no good technical reason for carriers to not support this functionality.

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The company, which was founded in 2010 has built a peripheral device that you plug into a computer or laptop that can enable a gesture-based user interface that incorporates all directions — not just a flat perspective. Some have described it as a Kinect for computers. The device has a 150-degree field of view and can accurately track the movements of all 10 fingers down to the 1/100th of a millimeter, which is apparently pretty darn impressive according to reviewers.

And with a $30 million second round of funding, Leap plans to manufacture its peripheral device at scale. The funding round, led by Founders Fund with previous investor Highland Capital Partners participating, follows a $14.5 million Series A round. It will also support today’s second piece of news — namely that ASUS will bundle the Leap Motion device in with its all in one computers as well as select notebooks this year.

That’s a nice win in the computing space, but the real question for me is can a new UI change how we interact with computers, and perhaps help keep the PC relevant? David Holz, the a co-founder and CTO of Leap told me that he helped invent the product because he wanted to do things on his computer, like play an instrument or make a model, that were made far too complicated by the existing programs limited by drop down menus necessitated by having a keyboard or mouse interface.

But beyond a new UI that makes existing applications a bit more user-friendly, the company’s CEO and Co-founder Michael Buckwald also want to promote the creation of new apps that take advantage of the horsepower today’s computers have. He says most people don’t use their computers fully , but with a new interface editing a video or even CAD design becomes more accessible to novices.

I’m excited by the idea that people can use the gesture-based UI to build increasingly rich data analysis programs. Imagine taking the spreadsheet and adding more dimensions to it. You could relate different data sets to each other more easily and perhaps let the computer perform correlation analysis quickly by dragging information from location to another on multiple axes.

Today with more than 12,000 developers working with the product and its software development kit, Leap is hoping that new applications in gaming (play angry birds where you mime sling shotting the birds instead of just touching it), navigation of documents (doctors or home cooks could navigate a medical file or a recipe without worrying about messy hands) and even video and image editing help make its controller the new mouse. And if, in doing that, it can get people excited about their PCs and the horsepower available to them, then companies beyond Leap will benefit.

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An example of this change can be seen in one of my most-read posts ever here on GigaOM. Out of more than 7,500 posts I’ve written, one of my most viewed is “A quick guide to netbooks” from September 2008. No matter what news was hitting the tech cycle, this post on netbooks kept finding its way in front of readers who searched for netbook information on the web. Even a year after publication, the post was appearing on a daily basis near the top of our stats. Then 2010 arrived, and with it, the first credible consumer tablet in Apple’s iPad.

Charles Arthur provides four reasons for the netbook’s demise, but by analyzing the stats of my netbook guide post, I suggest that the revamped tablet market was the beginning of the end for netbooks. True, these are completely different products in terms of form factor, design, operating systems and supported applications. But both share an important commonality: relatively inexpensive mobile computing devices.

Let’s face it: There are only a few reasons that netbooks even became a “thing.” You could get one for between $200 and $400, you could run the apps you wanted to, and you could take them everywhere. The idea of a small, cheap laptop that ran all the same software your larger notebook or desktop could run was appealing at a time when the global economy began a huge downturn. The timing of netbooks was simply right.

I know because I bought the very first one available  in 2007 and used it to cover the Consumer Electronics Show in 2008: All of my posts were written on a small Asus Eee PC. I later upgraded to an MSI Wind machine and then a $399 Toshiba model in 2009. For half the cost of a full-sized laptop, I had something more portable that lasted longer on a single battery charge.

The idea of a netbook then morphed into a smartbook: A small laptop that ran not on Intel chips, but ARM chips used in smartphones. The concept was great, but with Apple’s iPad introduction in 2010, I immediately suggested that smartbooks were DOA; a point that Qualcomm confirmed nine months later.

Some current netbook owners will continue to cling to their device, mainly because it meets their needs of Microsoft Windows applications in a small laptop, and that’s fine: One should always use the best tool for the task at hand.

Our tasks, in terms of computing needs, however, have changed. Legacy application suites are getting replaced by a seemingly never-ending stream of smartphone and tablet applications. Cloud services for productivity and storage are the new Microsoft Office and hard drive. Touch computing is becoming the norm, not the exception, and mobile operating systems are optimized for it. Simply put: Netbooks are just another example of old-school computing and world is moving on. Farewell netbooks; it was fun while it lasted.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Google’s Chromebook initiative as it can appear on the surface that the company is continuing to offer a netbook experience: Low-cost, small laptops that run for hours at a time. There’s one key difference, however: The entire interface is a modern desktop browser that works as a jack-of-all-trades for creating and consuming web content. Best of all, the simplicity of the software brings all the benefits of the web without the distractions, upkeep or power-consuming features brought by a legacy desktop environment.

That doesn’t mean I think Chromebooks will take over the world as netbooks were expected to do, but the different software approach and deep integration with Google services give Chromebooks a chance to survive beyond the age of netbooks.

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The company announced the PadFone 2 on Tuesday and it improves on its predecessor in nearly every way. Yes, there was a PadFone from Asus that launched earlier this year, but the product was mainly sold in Taiwan. Reviews showed some technical glitches and a clunky phone and tablet package. PadFone 2 is sleeker and more powerful, making for a potentially good combination device.

The handset looks like most other high-end thin Android slabs these days, both inside and out.: It’s a 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 Super IPS+ display with Qualcomm’s 1.5 GHz quad-core processor inside. A pair of cameras adorn the phone with the rear shooter topping out at 13 megapixels. The 2140 mAh battery in the phone provides up to 13 hours of web surfing. But that’s only half the story; dock the phone into the PadFone 2 Station — a tablet shell — and you’ve got a full tablet running off of the phone’s hardware.

The Station is a 10.1-inch display and has a 5000 mAh battery of its own, meaning there’s enough juice to run for another two dozen hours. The entire tablet is powered by the phone and therefore shares the same memory, so there’s no need to sync any data, photos, music or other files between the two devices. Think of the PadFone Station as a tablet-like dock for the phone and not worrying about where you’re data or apps are.

Asus hasn’t yet announced a price and says the device will officially launch by end of year in Europe (Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Sweden) and Asia (Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and U.A.E).

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IHS iSuppli, which tracks worldwide device shipments, says Apple shipped 17 million iPad 2′s and iPad 3′s in Q2 2012, an increase of 44.1 percent from Q1. Apple’s estimated market share for tablets rose to 69.6 percent, up from 58.1 percent in the previous quarter. IHS says that’s a five-quarter high.

Meanwhile, market share for Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble tablets suffered greatly. IHS says Amazon shipped 1 million Kindle Fires in Q2, down 13.3 percent from the previous quarter. Barnes & Noble shipped 459,000 Nook Tablets, down 25 percent from the previous quarter.

“With the expected entrance of the 7-inch version of the iPad in September, Apple is sending a clear message that it plans to dominate this market over the long term,” said IHS’s Rhoda Alexander.

Amazon is rumored to be releasing a 10-inch version of the Kindle Fire this fall. And on Sunday — possibly in preparation for a new product release, or maybe just as a last-ditch attempt to gain market share — Barnes & Noble dropped prices on all of its Nook Tablets. Its most expensive model is now $199, in line with prices of the Kindle Fire and Google’s Nexus 7. Those efforts could give Amazon and B&N a boost, but the market faces more fragmentation with the June launch of the Nexus 7 and the upcoming Microsoft Surface.

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As you can tell from IDC’s chart, the competition last quarter wasn’t even close:

According to IDC, even as competitors have released new tablets in the last year, Apple has only put more distance between itself and those tablet makers, moving from a 62 percent share of the tablet market in the second quarter of 2011, to a 68 percent share in the second quarter of this year.

Samsung, thanks to its Galaxy Tab, and Amazon with its Kindle Fire, also saw their shares of the market rise, Samsung from 7 percent to almost 10 percent, and Amazon from nothing to five percent. That almost every top tablet maker saw a little bit of growth (save poor Acer), means that the overall base of people buying tablets is expanding.

And the end of this year should see an even bigger expansion, thanks to the just-released Nexus 7 from Google, new products from Amazon, and Microsoft’s Surface, which is expected to arrive in late October.

But an influx of new alternatives to the iPad isn’t without potential complications, IDC points out in its report. ”If anything, there’s a real risk that people will have too many options from which to choose this holiday season,” writes IDC analyst Bob O’Donnell. “Consumers baffled by the differences between Amazon and Google versions of Android, or Windows 8 and Windows RT, may well default to market leader Apple. Or they may simply choose to remain on the sideline for another cycle.”

Perhaps. But iPad alternatives in smaller and cheaper packages with brand names like Amazon and Microsoft are still a potential threat to the iPad — and that does offer an explanation for why Apple could be readying a smaller iPad, as has been reported multiple times.

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Luckily, others such as Droid-Life captured the information, which show a landscape orientation dock expected to cost $49.99 with an anticipated launch targeted for the week of August 24. According to the data, the dock will use a microUSB cord and wall charger, which will refresh the Nexus 7 battery through the metal pins. Also included is a 3.5 millimeter jack for external speakers. The Nexus 7 will likely change to a software “dock mode” when placed into the accessory.

Also planned is a $39.99 premium leather cover that doubles as a stand for the Nexus, which could be handy for watching videos when not docked. The leaked information shows that more color choices will be coming to the standard Nexus case, which is currently available in dark gray for $19.99.

If these products are legitimate — and based on the post takedown, I suspect they are — I could see a Nexus 7 dock in my future. Currently, I plug the tablet in and leave it on my nightstand, but it’s not readily useful. With the tablet in an angled view and still taking a charge, the Nexus 7 would be a handy bedside media player and alarm clock.

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IHS iSuppli’s estimate comes after another research firm, UBM Techinsights, suggested the Nexus 7 bill of materials was around $180. However, that figure was solely estimated on paper; the company didn’t have a unit to tear down and examine. I’m more inclined to believe the IHS iSupply figure as a result. The company says the doubling of memory in the 16 GB Nexus 7 only adds $7.50 in material costs, so at a $249 selling price, Google is turning a profit on it. When factoring in production costs and limited marketing / distribution costs, I suspect Google earns around $30 to $50 on the higher-end model, although Asus is sure to get a cut here as it builds the device for Google.

That’s interesting to me because early in Android’s life, Google suggested it could earn around $10 per user solely through advertising and data. By selling hardware directly, Google still has the potential to make money from its software services, advertising, app store and digital content offerings, but even if it doesn’t do so, Google can now turn a profit on hardware.

I suspect much of the cost savings here over older small tablets is helped by Google using Nvidia’s Kai platform: A Tegra 3 system-on-a-chip solution that Nvidia announced early this year as a low cost all-in-one solution to build $199 tablets. With Google and Asus leading the way — this is the first tablet to use Kai — others will surely follow because the platform offers superb value in terms of price and performance. I’ve been using a Nexus 7 for nearly two weeks and it easily handles everything I can throw at it.

Amazon is rumored to offer a more powerful follow up to the Kindle Fire — a rumor that makes sense to me — and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kai used to power the device. If so, we’re likely to see the original Kindle Fire price decrease and the new model to hold at $199; possibly even less as Amazon’s ecosystem can drive profit through the device. Samsung may stick with its own chips for tablets, but other device makers with no chips of their own have to give Nvidia’s platform a look. Think LG, Acer, Toshiba and of course, Asus, for example.

How does this fit in with Apple and the stories of a smaller iPad? Apple designs its own chips, so it’s not going to use a Tegra 3. But it could be reworking the A5X or other silicon to improve performance, even as costs are lowered. Why would it do that? Because as Google has shown, it’s possible to sell a $199 to $249 tablet that works well and still turn a profit. Given its history, if Apple does create a smaller iPad, it’s sure to have a healthy profit margin. It can be done as the recipe for Google’s Nexus 7 proves.

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Current Transformer Prime owners looking to upgrade will be happy to know the old keyboard dock accessory works with the new Pad as the dimensions of the 10.1-inch Android slates are nearly identical. The big upgrades include a quicker Tegra 3 processor (1.6 GHz), 1920 x 1200 display, and faster RAM. Initially, the device will ship with Android 4.0 as Android 4.1 hasn’t yet officially been announced, although that’s likely on Wednesday of this week.

Here’s a look at a marketing video for the new device:

My look at the Pad’s predecessor showed a very capable Android tablet, especially when paired with the keyboard dock. I enjoyed the performance, portability and long run-time between charges. With the new hardware upgrades, the Pad appears even more capable and a few reviewers have already had their first looks. Here’s a sample of what folks are saying about the new Transformer Pad Infinity tablet:

Engadget notes that the better performance is welcome but comes at a cost of battery life over the initial Transformer Prime models:

[T]he TF700 doesn’t offer many reasons for Prime owners to upgrade, given that the battery life is actually longer on the original, and given the similar camera performance. Unless your Prime has signal reception issues, or you just have to have that higher-quality screen, you’re better off sticking with what you already own.

CNet likes the overall hardware package although it suggests that few Android apps are utilizing full HD screens and quad-core processing:

Compared with the Prime, the TF700 has a sharper screen, faster games performance, and improved front and back cameras. Text looks just as sharp as it does on the iPad, but unfortunately, as of now, a very, very low number of Android apps take advantage of the increased pixel count. The faster CPU and RAM translate to speedy app launch times, but similar to the dearth of apps that make full use of the TF700′s screen, Tegra 3 has yet to get anywhere near the level of app support it deserves, a full six months into its life.

Lastly, PC World generally likes what Asus is offering and says:

You get high performance mixed with high style, and you don’t have to make a lot of sacrifices to get both. Other tablets–including the Prime, which is expected to drop in price once this model gets into the market–may provide better value, but no other Android tablet will give you the full package that the Infinity does.

I recommend reading the full reviews for all of the nuances, likes and dislikes found. Based on initial impressions, I’d likely hold on to the current Transformer Prime if I owned one. Yes, you gain a higher resolution display on the new Pad, but with few apps that can readily use all those extra pixels, you won’t yet gain a huge benefit. Perhaps when I get a review unit, the software situation will be different.

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