TOP TECHNOLOGY NEWS

The iPad 2 is a stellar upgrade, even though the tablet’s low-quality cameras leave a lot to be desired.

That seems to be the critical consensus from the first crop of reviews on the iPad 2, which hits stores Friday.

About a dozen technology journalists have had their hands on the new tablet about a week,  from several mainstream publications including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today, as well as tech-oriented blogs such as TechCrunch, SlashGear and PCMag.com.

But who has time to read all that?

To save you time, we snatched the highlights from each review and posted them on Gadget Lab’s Twitter account.

AT&T has said that iPad owners who managed to get and keep the unlimited data plan before the telco discontinued it will be able to transfer the plan to the iPad 2. The company has graciously confirmed this in correspondence with the tech blog Engadget.

This is, obviously, ridiculous. How could AT&T possibly stop you from using the plan on a new device? The only way to do that would be to axe unlimited data for all iPad users, both new and old. After all, the SIM card can just be pulled from the (unlocked) iPad 1 and slotted into the iPad 2.

I spent last Summer in Berlin, Germany, and the only iPad data plans on sale required signing up for a long-term contract.

Apple’s new Smart Cover for the iPad 2 is one of the most interesting protective cases yet, not because of the clever magnet design, but rather the aggressive business strategy behind it.

The iPad 2 is 33 percent thinner than the original iPad; a significant design difference. That means first-generation iPad cases won’t fit on the new iPad. And when the iPad 2 ships March 11, Apple, the only company that’s had direct access to the iPad 2, will be the only vendor selling a case made to fit the product just right.

Lensbabies lenses are just about the most fun you can have with your camera with your clothes on. Right up until you come to change the aperture, that is. The new Sweet 35 optic drops into your existing Lensbaby and adds a proper, adjustable diaphragm to the distortion-mongering lens.

Lensbaby lenses are low-fi optics which creatively blur all but a sharp sweet-spot of your photo.

Remember that kid at your high-school who could do pretty much anything he set his mind to? It didn’t matter if it was sports or acting or math, he mastered them all without even trying. You and I hated him, but the girls loved him. If that kid were a lamp, he’d be the Mantis.

The Mantis is from the crowd-sourcing design shop Quirky, and is almost ridiculously versatile.

The New York Times has poured cold water on a rumor that Apple is preparing to sell a smaller version of the iPhone.

The report conflicts with stories published earlier this week by Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, who both claim that Apple is making a smaller iPhone that relies heavily on cloud-based storage and media streaming.

Citing an anonymous source, NYT explained that Apple is working on methods to bring costs of the iPhone down, and a smaller iPhone wouldn’t necessarily be cheaper to produce, nor would it be easier to operate.

Note: The original version of this gallery included the JoeBike Cargo. In fact, the JoeBike is a street-legal commercial product, not a DIY project.

Monopoly Live is yet another update to the venerable money-swapping game, and introduces an all-seeing electronic tower into the mix. This tower uses infra-red light to surveil the entire board, pieces and all. It even detects when you cover your playing-piece and rolls a virtual dice for you, and takes care of money with its cashless brain.

It is, in short, the perfect metaphor for today’s society, with over-regulation squeezing out any kind of scams, and ubiquitous CCTV cameras meaning that you can’t even think about cheating.

The second of Canon’s SLR announcements today comes in the shape of the T3i, or the 600D. This comes in above the super-successful 550D, and at its core is the same camera, with the same 18MP APS-C sensor with ISO 100-6400 (extendable to ISO 12,800), 3.9-fps burst shooting, 9-point autofocus and 63-zone light-metering.

But the extra features make a big difference. The most noticeable is the swingin’ and twistin’ LCD panel on the back, a three-incher with over 1,000,000 dots.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — Google is tired of Apple luring all the mobile developers away.

To fight back, the company is trying to make it easier for customers to purchase and install Android apps.

At company headquarters here this morning, Google unveiled its Android Market web store, a web portal that lets users browse and purchase apps from the Android Market without requiring a smartphone.

Google announced the new web site in an on-campus event showcasing the new Android version 3.0, aka Honeycomb, which is yet to be released.