One of the first things you’ll notice about the Sony Tablet S is its design. It’s not flat, but a wedge that fits comfortably into the hand, like a magazine with its cover folded back. The Tablet S looks wholly unlike any other tablet on the market. It’s something original, something that instead of simply trying to be an iPad knock-off has its own distinct design language. And it’s without a doubt the best thing about the Sony Tablet S. It’s just a shame that this brave and wonderful sense of identity in a sea of iPad clones is only skin deep.

The Gmail app received a performance update today bringing Ice Cream Sandwich functionality to Honeycomb users and new label API’s to Froyo and Gingerbread. Honeycomb users will benefit from the new Ice Cream Sandwich features, including:

Customers in the U.S. have been able to purchase various versions of the Google TV for about a year now from various OEMs, but according to a new report, the Google TV is launching in Europe this September. The first devices across the pond will be from Sony and will include a €200 ($266) set-top box and a €300 ($399) set-top box featuring a Blu-Ray player.

Down with those elitist Ice Cream Sandwich users and their Roboto fonts! That’s right, Ice Cream Sandwich now occupies 1% of Android devices according to this month’s Android Platform Distribution chart. While that’s really just a sliver of the pie, at least its a number that’s rising. Speaking of rising numbers, Gingerbread is now on 58.6% of Android devices and is by far the most distributed version of Android, with the fading Froyo at 27.8%.

Sprint is hoping to get in on the budget tablet market with its latest announcement of the ZTE Optik, a 7″ Honeycomb tablet that they will be offering for $99 with a 2-year agreement. Contracts aren’t for everybody, but if you don’t mind them, you can get a pretty decent tablet for under $100. The ZTE Optik will be available February 5th and will feature: