We take a look at some of the hottest upcoming tablets, from Windows 8 designs like the Surface to the rumored iPad mini.

Tablets are invading our schools, our offices, and our homes. Back in June, we heard that nearly a third of U.S. Internet users already own a tablet. The vast majority of them have an iPad, but Apple is no longer the only company at the table and we’re seeing more and more tablets announced every day. If you’ve yet to take the tablet plunge, or perhaps you’re looking to snag a second tablet or upgrade, we’ve got a roundup of the best upcoming tablets (and rumored tablets) for you. 

If you can’t wait, be sure to check our list of the our favorite tablets currently on the market.

Dell Latitude 10

There has been a strong consumer (you and me) focus with most of the tablets released so far, but we also know that many businesses are trialing and adopting them. The Dell Latitude 10 aims to target that market with a functional aesthetic and Windows 8 Pro, which means it’s also pretty much a full-functioning PC. Unusually, it has a removable battery and a “productivity dock” so you can transform it into a desktop. It is packing Intel’s Atom Z2670 CPU, 2GB of RAM, and a solid-state drive with up to 128GB of storage capacity. For the security conscious business crowd there’s TPM 1.2, file-level encryption, and optional fingerprint and smartcard readers.  Dell, Intel, and Microsoft are a strong trio and this could turn heads in IT departments across the land.

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9

At the other end of the spectrum we have the extremely consumer-focused Kindle Fire HD 8.9 from Amazon. This is essentially a window to serve you a steady stream of content from Amazon’s all-you-can-eat buffet table of books, movies, music, and more. It runs Android 4.0 (ICS), has an 8.9-inch, 1920×1200 pixel touchscreen, and packs a 1.5GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor with 1GB of RAM. Battery life is good, it has 32GB of storage, and there’s a 4G LTE version. You can get your hands on one from November 20. (Check out our review of the smaller Kindle Fire HD 7.)

iPad mini

Rumors about a smaller iPad have been circulating for a long time now. They are nothing, if not persistent. The latest iPad mini rumor concerns an Apple event on October 10 and production lines starting up. For a while, we thought we might see the new iPad at the last Apple event where it unveiled the iPhone 5, but there was no mention of it. If it does ever become a reality, we can expect a smaller and cheaper version of the current iPad with a screen around the 8 inch mark. Beyond that we’ll just have to wait and see.

Microsoft Surface

We’ve known about the impending Windows 8 release for a long time now, but Microsoft caused a splash with the news that it would release its own self-branded tablets. There are two flavors – one running Windows RT with 32GB or 64GB storage, and one running Windows 8 with a bigger battery and 64GB or 128GB storage. Both will feature a 10.6-inch touchscreen and an innovative Touch Cover that protects the tablet and doubles up as a keyboard. The big question is – what will they cost?

Barnes & Noble Nook HD+

Barnes & Noble’s answer to Amazon’s new Kindle HD is the Nook HD and HD+. The larger Nook HD+ has a 9-inch touchscreen with a 1920×1280 pixel resolution. The processor is a 1.5GHz dual-core OMAP 4470, there’s 1GB of RAM, and it will run Android 4.0 (ICS), but don’t expect to run any Android apps. Barnes & Noble, like Amazon with its Kindle Fires, has stripped out all Google services and replaced them with its own. It’s 16GB or 32GB, but it does have a microSD card slot. It also features multiple log-in support and Nook channels for curated recommendations. This is serious competition for the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 and might be the tablet to have if reading is your priority.

Samsung ATIV Tab

The Ativ Tab is 10.1-inch slate running Windows RT; we forgive you if it reminds you of the Android Galaxy Note 10.1 when you look at this. It has a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, a screen resolution of 1,366×768 pixels, and it comes in 32GB or 64GB varieties. Battery life looks to be a highlight as Samsung is promising 12 hours of movie playback. The drawback is that it might be expensive (no official price yet), and the keyboard dock is an optional extra.

ASUS Vivo Tab (810)

The impressive Asus Vivo Tab brings us an 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 Super IPS+ display, 2GB of RAM, and 64GB of solid state storage. It runs full Windows 8 and also boasts NFC support, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Naturally it has a keyboard dock which transforms it into a laptop and will come as standard. There’s a Windows RT version with a 10.1-inch touchscreen which will be cheaper, but no price or release date has been confirmed for either just yet.

Wikipad

Here’s a curveball for all you tablet hunters out there – the Wikipad is a dedicated gaming tablet running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). It has a 10.1-inch, 1,280 x 800 resolution touchscreen, the Nvidia Tegra 3 T30 quad-core 1.4GHz processor, and 1GB of RAM. The USP is the attachable controller frame that the tablet slides into for comfortable gaming and enhanced sound. It also has 16GB storage, a microSD card slot, and an 8-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front-facing camera. A partnership with Gaikai for streaming premium console and PC games from the cloud could make this the perfect gamer’s choice, but has it done enough to justify a $500 price tag? We’ll find out.

HP ElitePad 900

If the Dell Latitude didn’t tickle your fancy, perhaps the HP ElitePad will. This is another business tablet and it has optional accessories including the “Productivity Jacket” which essentially transforms it into a laptop, the docking station which makes it a desktop, a tough case, an extended battery case, and a stylus. It has a 10.1-inch touchscreen, an Intel Atom Z2760 processor, 2GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of internal SSD storage. Pricing is unknown and this one won’t hit the market until January 2013.

Kobo Arc

Third in the e-reader race behind Amazon and Barnes & Noble we find Kobo puffing and panting its way along. The Arc is another Android tablet that is aiming to compete with the Fire HD and the Nook HD. It runs Android 4.0 (ICS), has a 1.5GHz dual-core Texas Instruments processor, along with 1GB of RAM, and a 1280×800 pixel 7-inch touchscreen. Pricing and specs are competitive for this November release so it could help close the gap on the frontrunners.

Archos 101 XS

Here’s another 10.1-inch tablet with a keyboard cover that transforms the tablet into a netbook. The Archos 101 XS uses a magnetic design and it is very thin and light if you remove the keyboard cover. It runs Android 4.0 (ICS) with the standard 4.1 (Jelly Bean) upgrade promise, but since it is vanilla Android that upgrade should happen soon. There’s nothing remarkable in the specs, but they are solid. There’s a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 1280×800 pixel resolution 10.1-inch touchscreen. It has 16GB storage, but there is a microSD card slot. It should be available in November.

Lenovo ThinkPad 2

This Windows 8 tablet has a 10.1-inch 1366×768 pixel touchscreen and boasts ten hours of battery life. It comes with a stylus and there’s an optional keyboard attachment. You can get a good look at it in out Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 hands-on. It has NFC and 4G LTE support, as well as an 8-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Early rumors suggested a frighteningly high $800 price tag with the keyboard attachment, which could make it a bit too expensive, but from our early hands-on, it does appear to be one of the best Windows 8 tablets coming out, complete with a stylus.

Are there any other new tablets on the way that you’re excited about? Post a comment let us know about your upcoming tablet pick.

Rich Vogel, laid off from BioWare in July, has joined The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim publisher Bethesda to head a new studio.

Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax Media’s grand expansion continues. The company announced on Wednesday that it’s opening a brand new studio in Austin named Battlecry Studios, headed up by none other than Rich Vogel. Vogel was the executive producer of Star Wars: The Old Republic until he was laid off from BioWare Austin following one of the numerous rounds of layoffs that plagued EA’s floundering MMO across the summer.

Prior to working with BioWare on The Old Republic, Vogel worked on other standards of the genre including Ultimate Online. While his specialty is in MMOs, though, he won’t be joining ZeniMax Online, the studio hard at work on The Elder Scrolls Online. Job listings for Battlecry Studios do, however, call for developers with a “passion for online games.”

What could Battlecry Studios be working on? Bethesda’s main office is still busy pumping out content for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and rumors hint that it’s busy scouting locations in the Boston area for inclusion in Fallout 4.

Battlecry isn’t the only ZeniMax studio based in Austin though. It shares the town with Arkane Studios, the company behind the much hyped Dishonored. It’s likely that Battlcry’s task will be to build another original IP for Bethesda to use in its attempts to grow.

October is a big month for Bethesda Softworks and its parent company ZeniMax. Dishonored’s release next Tuesday marks the next phase of the company’s aggressive expansion beyond the role-playing realm of its core studios. Early buzz pegs Dishonored as one of 2012’s bright spots though.

Past efforts to build beyond Fallout and The Elder Scrolls haven’t worked too well in recent years. Wet slumped out to retail after a prolonged development, Brink was an interesting but failed experiment, and Hunted: The Demon’s Forge was ignored by players despite an aggressive marketing campaign (and deservedly so, since it was horrible.) Elsewhere ZeniMax has invested heavily in the development of other ambitious titles, and has had no problem with cutting them from the line up when they’re no longer working out. Prey 2 is a famous example from earlier this year. (Bethesda still hasn’t officially canceled the game, though it removed it from its website in August.)

The good news for Battlecry then is that Bethesda will fund it well. The bad news is that its early work has to be strong if the studio is going to survive.

A new report suggests the Apple iPad Mini has gone into production, and that it's already plagued by supply problems.

Sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal have said that components for the device we currently know as the iPad Mini have entered mass production. As with everything iPad Mini related, the sources are anonymous but “familiar with the situation.”

The report says it’s the device’s touchscreens that are being built, and again speculates that they will measure 7.85-inches, and have a lower resolution than the 9.7-inch iPad.

However, previous rumors have suggested the iPad Mini will share the new iPad’s 2048 x 1536 pixel Retina screen, and that production was supposed to start in August.

This news comes soon after a quote from an anonymous Apple investor, who in turn was quoting from a gaggle of unnamed sources, said invitations to the press event for the iPad Mini’s announcement would appear on October 10. An October launch has been on the cards for a while, but then, so was a joint iPhone 5/iPad Mini event.

Supply problems

But, nobody said making a hypothetical product was going to be easy, as no sooner had the elves begun working on the iPad Mini, than those ever problematic supply problems arrived. This time it’s Brian White, an analyst for Topeka Capital Markets with the inside gossip, saying that suppliers had found the iPad Mini’s specification a “challenge” and that the production had suffered because of it.

This, White says, is the reason for the iPad Mini’s delayed launch.

He goes on to talk about “continued yield challenges” — supply chain geek talk for producing the right number of products, at the right time, to make the most profit — before adding that while the iPad Mini is “on track to reach acceptable volume levels for launch,” there will be supply problems “during the first month or so.”

In other words, demand will likely outstrip supply, which is just the way Apple likes it.

The iPad Mini is supposed to be Apple’s response to the popularity of budget tablets such as Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Google’s Nexus 7. For this reason, if it does ever arrive, the price will most probably be the primary talking point, and it’s expected to be no more than $300.

We’ll know more on October 10, or not, as the case may be.