Researchers at a Taiwan university said on Thursday they had found a way to use silk membranes in flexible electronic devices and started talks with manufacturers about adopting the unusual but cheap material.

French media player manufacturer Archos picked Cebit to launch a color e-reader with a 7-inch touch-sensitive screen, and also announced the first tablet devices in a new budget-priced range it will brand Arnova.

When most people think of a tablet, they think of the pater familias of the current generation, the 9.6-by-7.5-by-0.5-inch Apple iPad. But today, with dimensions ranging from the height and width of a Christmas card to the height and width of a clipboard, tablets are as becoming diverse a product category as we've seen in a long time.

ViewSonic's ViewPad 7, a tablet PC with a 7-inch display, is the latest in a line of machines that bridge the gap between a smartphone and a tablet.

When CEO Steve Ballmer gave a quick peek at an HP Slate running Windows 7 at CES in January, Microsoft seemed prepared for battle against the iPad, which, at the time, had not even been announced yet.