Technology review: tablet computers

Flat, hard packages will be welcome this year. Tablet computers are extremely popular, and electronic reading devices such as the Kindle have matured and come down in price.

Still debating which one to get? That's mostly a matter of your budget. The iPad and other full-blown tablets are more expensive, but they do virtually everything better.

If you have more than $300 to spend, go for one of these full-size tablets. They have color screens that are about 9 inches diagonally, and they have built-in cameras:

If you only want to spend $200 to $250, go for one of these e-reader/tablet hybrids. They add movies, games and other applications to the e-reader's capabilities, so they're not just for bookworms.

Amazon Kindle Fire ($199): The Fire is Amazon's first color Kindle. It runs a highly modified, user-friendly version of Android. The selection of apps is smaller than for other Android tablets, however. Notable inclusions are Netflix, Hulu and Comixology, a comic-book reader. The Fire also streams a selection of movies for free to Amazon Prime subscribers, and you can buy movies for download. The Fire has only 8 gigabytes of memory, which can't be expanded.