If you've been waiting for the least burdensome tablet you could find, Sony's 17.5 ounce, 6.9mm thick Xperia Tablet Z is now up for pre-order in the US. On top of being the lightest, slimmest 10-inch slate on the market, it's not exactly slumming spec-wise either: there's a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, 2GB RAM, an 8.1-megapixel Exmor R camera, NFC, LTE, S-Force virtual surround sound, 32GB storage and a 10.1-inch 1, 920 x 1, 200 display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 tech.

ENGADGET: Sony Xperia Tablet Z now up for pre-order, scheduled to ship May 24th (video)

As you'd expect, this 10.1-inch Android 4.1 tablet features the same design language as its smartphone counterpart, but it's what's inside that really sells this device: a Qualcomm 1.5GHz quad-core APQ8064 processor, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, a 10.1-inch 1, 920 x 1, 200 screen (with Mobile Bravia Engine 2), an 8.1-megapixel Exmor R camera, NFC, LTE (MDM9215M radio), microSD expansion and Sony's very own "S-Force" virtual surround sound technology.

ENGADGET

But several would-be virtual operators are lobbying the regulator to force the networks to give them a better deal.

ECONOMIST: France T��l��com enters Spain's mobile-telecoms market

He studies the material properties of tissue and organs from animals and cadavers to assign shape, size, density, mass and ten or more coefficients that describe how each cube of virtual flesh will deform when confronted with a given force from a given direction.

FORBES: Smart Dummies

Now the letters of the threads that run continuously beneath the live reporting look to me like the cogs of a virtual flywheel, one that spins ever faster as it tries to provide our inertial present with motive force.

BBC: A Point of View: Nostalgia - it's not like it used to be