HP (22%) leads the Windows 8 market. Dell (10%) is in second place, but trails significantly. Rounding out the top five are Acer (9%), Asus (9%), and Toshiba (7%).

The most obvious competitor is the Google Nexus 7 which sells for only $199 for the 16GB model. That's a pretty good deal too. With the Fire HD 8.9" you do get a larger screen, the aforementioned Dolby, and lots of content.

Thanks to continual upgrades to its Play Store, both in terms of content, and apps along with quantum improvements to aesthetics and usability, Google has erased the wide lead Apple had in years past in terms of user experience.

The HTC Droid DNA "offers the clearest image with the best tone for each of the individual colors" while Google's Nexus 4 (made by LG) "looks washed out."

The Surface Pro could face serious competition from the MacBook Air, which can be configured with similar specs for about the same price. However, I've decided my next laptop should be touch-enabled.

We recommend the iPad version (4.5 out of 5 stars) of Next Issue. Not only will you get a larger selection of magazines, you'll also get faster downloads and smoother overall performance.

Originally calling for 4 million units before year end, the order now stands at 2 million. By comparison, Apple sells just under 5 million iPads per month.

Ironically, because Google loses money on the Nexus 7, shipping less of them actually has a positive impact on profitability.

I'm convinced that my future MacBook Pro will be as thin as an iPad, be touch enabled, let me run Mac apps (Lightroom, Premiere Pro, Picasa, Filezilla), in addition to mobile apps on iTunes (Yelp, Foursquare, Flipboard, BusinessWeek magazine, etc.).

UBS forecasts that Samsung will sell 61.5 million smartphones in Q4 - largely in part thanks to the success of large format smartphones, including the Galaxy Note II (5.5-inches) and Galaxy S III (4.8-inches).