This week is all about tablets: HTC’s makes plans to release a new tablet, Barnes & Noble and Amazon fight for the e-reader tablet market and even more tablet news in this issue of Spec Tech.

Amazon launched the Amazon Kindle Fire earlier this week, a day earlier than announced. Many critics have praised the Fire for having a low price of $199, but have complained about the lack of 3G, expandable storage, or HDMI ports; however, many others have deemed it as a worthy investment for a low priced Android tablet.

Barnes & Noble announced last week that they are making an e-reader tablet that releases Thursday. It is a 7-inch Android tablet with 16GB of internal memory while having an SD card slot for up to 32GB of expandable memory.

It has 11 hours of battery life and will cost you $250; That’s $50 more that its competitor, the Kindle Fire.

Both tablets will have apps like Hulu Plus, Netflix, and Pandora. The Kindle Fire will also have the exclusives for Amazon Prime members.

HTC entered the tablet market earlier this year without a splash. Rumor has it that HTC, in order to make the fastest tablet, is developing a quad-core powered tablet set to release in February. HTC has not commented, which means it is most likely true.

A company called Ardic Technology may have built the largest tablet in the world. They have created a dock for an Android tablet, in this case the Motorola Xoom, which is displayed on a 65-inch touch screen TV. They showed it off by playing the app, Fruit Slice, watching a trailer for a movie, and even editing a PowerPoint presentation.

Ardic is talking with enterprise and education customers about placing this in schools and companies. I think that schools would benefit with this, as part of a lab class I am taking is taught with an iPad displayed on an over-head projector.

Intel and MasterCard want you to swipe your card on your ultrabook to make online payments.

This thought is much like the Near-Field Communication technology in Android phones that lets you swipe your phone to pay in stores.

Instead of having to type in the credit card number and other information, all you have to do is wave your phone at your ultrabook and it places the information in the necessary fields.

Intel and MasterCard want this technology in every ultrabook by next year. Intel has created extra security for the built in hardware so that theft will be difficult.

Logitech, in a surprising move, is stopping their current production of Google TV Revue boxes.

CEO Guerrino De Luca said that it was a huge mistake to enter in the set-top box market. He blames Google for its failure, calling the Google TV “a beta.” Logitech lost $100 million in operating profits from the Revue after only a year. Once the Revues have been bought off store shelves, Logitech will not make more. Guerrino still believes that Google TV has a future, but Logitech will not be part of it.

I hope everyone has a great and safe Thanksgiving break.

Look out for good price drops on all things technology on Black Friday.

If any of you have gotten your hands on a Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet, e-mail me and tell me what you think of it.