Apple has released the new version of its 10-inch tablet and decided that it was the right time for a small name change, so the new iPad it is now known as the iPad Air.

The name change is somewhat surprising, since it was less expected before the launch, but on the other hand it’s justified by the fact that Apple’s reference tablet suffered the biggest changes in design since the iPad 2.

Tablets have evolved quite a lot since they first appeared and can run pretty sophisticated and graphically challenging games for some time now. What’s the best tablet to game on? Well, there are several good contenders, but all vary in terms of price, specs and OS.

A predicted surge in sales of smaller, lower-cost tablets will bump up the number of shipments this year, according to a new report from IDC.

The research firm now expects global tablet shipments to rise to 190.9 million in 2012, up from its prior forecast of 172.4 million. IDC also sees an average rise in shipments of 11 percent from now through 2016, leading to more than 350 million tablets shipped by the end of 2017.