Hasta La Gadget!

The show floor is still under construction, but when Computex 2010 opens its doors tomorrow in Taipei, Taiwan, expect to see a parade of netbooks, 3D displays, and lot of would-be competitors to the Apple iPad. 

One of the key trends at Computex this year is expected to be tablet computers designed to go head to head with the iPad. Last week, Acer showed off an Android-based tablet at its annual sales conference in Beijing, and that device will probably make an appearance in here in Taipei as well. What’s more, both Asus and MSI are expected to debut Windows 7-based tablets at the show. Dell and Sony also plan to launch tablets this year, although they probably won’t make the show floor.

Granted, the tablet market has been downright dormant for years, but the iPad has given the segment a big boost; and vendors here at Computex sense an opportunity. Although tablets are still a small part of the overall computer industry, they could grow fast. According to ABI Research new-generation tablet PCs will reach 4 million units this year and could swell to 58 million by 2015.

This is the 30th anniversary of Computex, Asia’s largest technology trade show. According to the Computex organizers, there will be more than 1,700 manufacturers on the show floor, filling more than 4,600 booths.

The show extends across the city of Taipei, from the Taipei’s World Trade Center and Nangang Exhibition Hall. The show opens officially tomorrow, June 1st, and runs through June 5th.

Take a look at our Computex 2010 slideshow at PCMag.com.

Computers and peripherals have come a long way since the “ban the beige” days, but designs are still fairly conservative. That’s finally changing, however. Earlier this week Microsoft released mice in a variety of colors, and now Logitech is doing it one better. The input device giant is releasing its Fantasy Collection of products in brilliant styles. The collection includes both solid colors and patterns so you can get peripherals that match your decor perfectly. Some are ornate, some are mysterious.

The collection covers not only mice, but also keyboards, webcams, speakers, and lapdesks. View more patterns here and decide if you think Logitech  or Microsoft  is the pattern champion.

Remember back in March when we told you about the Booq Mamba Shift, a backpack for gamers? Of course you do, it was a grand time. Now Booq is releasing a special edition of the Mamba Shift that will be available exclusively in select Apple retails stores and Apple’s online store. That’s great: Who doesn’t love an exclusive?

What’s different about it? Apparently just the color. Exclusives are often like that; kind of a letdown. Instead of having a red lining, this version has a black lining. It looks cool and kind of Matrix-y. Like the original, it’s made with ballistic nylon, comes with a separate accessory zippered pouch, and includes a unique ID number to help your lost back get returned to you. Like the original, it lists for $149.95.

The Federal Trade Commission has responded to a letter released by Congressman Ed Markey, who wrote to the agency over concerns that copiers may be hiding digital copies of scanned documents.

Most high-end digital copiers sold today store the scanned documents on flash memory or hard drives, which can pose a security risk if the drives themselves are either lost or resold.

Last month, CBS News filed an investigative report noting that many digital copiers hide hard drives inside of them, which in fact store the documents users copy on them: medical records, pay stubs, even details of narcotics operations.

Most copiers and even fax machines store images in local memory, then, over time, the buffer becomes overrun. Companies like Xerox also supply utilities that can overwrite the drive’s contents. CBS, however, visited a warehouse where previously owned copiers could be purchased for under $400. And those copiers contained hard drives, which stored the images until the drive itself was removed.

CBS nabbed a major insurance company as well as Buffalo, N.Y. law enforcement agencies with data stored on the drives.

If you’re a new iPad owner, you have dozens of chases to choose from that will keep your new gadget protected and safe while you carry it around with you or even while you sit on the couch and use it. However, none of them until now promised to turn your iPad into a full-fledged netbook, complete with attached keyboard, or flip over into a case that doubles as a stand that holds your iPad at the perfect typing angle.

The ClamCase, unveiled last week and scheduled to ship this fall, claims to be the perfect case, stand, and keyboard attachment for your iPad. It supposedly will let you open it up and type on the included keyboard as though you were using a laptop, stand it up in portrait view without worrying that it’ll fall down, and fold it over to use in landscape mode without having to prop it up on something.