How low is low enough for you to consider a non-iPad tablet? $299? $199? Zero?

The marketing coup comes at a good time for Samsung, as it leaps with both feet into the iPad-dominated tablet fray.

Pluses of the new Toshiba Thrive tablet: laptop-like functionality and ports, with sherbet-colored, nonslip back panels. Negatives: bloatware. Lots of bloatware.

Men are from Mars, and at CES11 they saw 70" TV sets, 3-D Blu-Ray players, and perhaps the popular Blackberry tablet. But I for me the show was all about smart design and the emerging "Internet of things."

Thanks to an under-appreciated body armor known as Gorilla Glass, your Samsung Galaxy, Dell Streak, and Droid X are protected from scratches from keys and bullet holes from CO2-powered pistols.

Samsung's new Galaxy Tablet is the answer to Apple's iPad, but it's barely competent--which is precisely how Samsung rolls. A history of merely satisfactory products proves the point.