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The iPad comes with a dozen or so built-in apps. But if you want it to serve as a passable substitute for a Windows or MacOS notebook, you'll need some additional ones.

Here are some suggestions, based on polling a number of business colleagues and other research. (Disclaimer: I haven't yet tried all of these yet.) There are about a dozen apps here, give or take; total cost, ignoring monthly service fees, between $60 and $100.

An iPad or other tablet isn't a notebook computer, any more than a smartphone is a tablet, or a notebook computer is a desktop computer. But, with the right understanding of what it is and how it does - and doesn't - work, along with a modest, affordable handful of accessories and apps, an iPad may be good enough, for those times when you're away from the comfort of your desk, large display(s), full-sized keyboard, external mouse/trackball and comfy chair, and don't want to bring a notebook. (See Tablets and Smartphones Will Truly Start Killing the PC in 2015, Says Report.)

For the better part of the last year, rumors have been swirling around the possibility of Amazon launching its own tablet computer. For nearly as long, the device has been touted as a potential challenger to Apple's iPad, which remains overwhelmingly dominant in the space.

This morning, Amazon's tablet was finally unveiled. Should Apple be concerned?

In the latest sign of just how hot social reading tablet apps like Flipboard, Pulse and Zite are becoming, news came out this week that Google is working on its own such app.

After a post by ReadWriteWeb founder Richard MacManus about News.me was published on Google Plus, Robert Scoble reshared it, adding, "I heard from someone working with Google that Google is working on a Flipboard competitor for both Android and iPad." The existence of the project was confirmed by Kara Swisher, who reported that app, which will be available for both iOS and Android, will be called Google Propellor.

For all the wonders of Apple's iPad, one feature that's always been a little underwhelming is its native Web browser. Like on the iPhone, Safari for the iPad definitely gets the job done and is overall a pretty solid browser in terms of performance, but there are few features that are inexcusably absent.

Fortunately, there have been a number of third party browsers that have made their way into the App Store. Atomic Browser and Opera Mini are both very popular, streamlined browsers that support tabbed browsing. Skyfire offers rich social integration and can even play Flash videos. The newest entrant into this space is Dolphin HD, a tablet-optimized version of the popular Android browser, which just launched for iPhone a few weeks ago.

Kensington Computer Products Group released two security-related solutions for iPads and iPhones this week. Like their useful cable locks for ordinary computers, these are useful for travelers who need to keep close accounting of their devices. The first product, pictured at left, is SecureBack and operates similarly to the older cable locks that can be looped around a more stationary object. While firmly locked, the iPad can still be picked up, moved around, and used for typing and viewing. There are models that include a stand as well, starting at $50.

As expected, the tablet is exploding. Worldwide, 62.5 million units are projected to have shipped in 2011, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC). The organization increased its forecast from 53.5 million units after demand for the iPad 2 drove additional tablet sales in the second quarter of this year. Year over year, tablet shipments in the second quarter increased by 88.9%.

Apple, who is expected to remain dominant in this space for at least a few more years, leads the pack with 68.3% of the worldwide tablet market share. In the same quarter, Android's share of the tablet market actually decreased to 26.8% from 34% in the first quarter. Google's slowly-growing threat to the iPad was chiseled away at by both RIM's Blackberry Playbook and the popularity of Apple's iPad 2.

Newspapers and magazines still clinging to hopes that tablets will help revitalize their businesses have something to look forward to this Fall. That's when Apple with launch Newsstand, a marketplace for digital publications that will be rolled out with iOS 5.

Adobe announced today that its Digital Publishing Suite will be ready when iOS 5 and Newsstand go live. Using DPS, media companies will now be able to publish directly into Newsstand, just as they can now publish stand-alone apps for iPads and other tablet devices.

"We want to give users the native experience, as they migrate from their Macs to their PCs to their iPhones and iPads and Android devices. Our application within those devices should behave as they would expect an app to behave for those devices." This from Karen White, the CEO of Syncplicity, which for the past three years has delivered an innovative file synchronization service for individuals and businesses.

White's explanation comes in response to a question from RWW about how best to approach the cross-platform question, especially as Syncplicity adds support for more platforms that aren't really devices. Case in point: Salesforce.com, which was added last week to the list of platforms that Syncplicity supports. White and her business partner, co-founder Leonard Chung, tells RWW their development philosophy for now is to create separate versions of their applications, each of which is tailored to the expectations of its platforms' users.

Apple's new subscription rules requiring publishers to fork over 30% of revenue generated from apps in the iTunes Store have claimed their biggest victim to date. As of last night, the iPhone and iPad apps for the Financial Times went missing from the App Store.

The new rules have not thrilled publishers, but reactions have been mixed. Some media companies, like Hulu and the New York Times, have decided to play along with Apple and offer a significant cut of their subscription revenue to the tech giant in exchange for access to millions of iTunes customers. Others, like Amazon, have opted to build HTML5 Web apps as a way to circumvent the new rules.