Your complaint has been answered numerous times. I maintain the FreeRepublic Apple/Mac Ping list of over 500 of your fellow Freepers who have asked me to keep them appraised of articles about these specific subjects. This activity, which HAS been approved personally by Jim Robinson, and is therefor sanctioned on FR. There are MANY topics discussed on FR that are NOT purely Political in nature and JIM defines what he allows, NOT YOU. Jim's edict, that he posted in several Apple threads is quite simple and quite explicit. If you don't like Apple products, don't buy them. If you aren't interested in Apple/Mac threads on FreeRepublic DON'T READ THEM and don't post in them. Skip them and go to something that does interest you. Don't start Flame Wars in Tech threads!
Since you like Android based products, why don't YOU start a FR Android Ping list? There's a distinct need for one.
As for the chart, you can deny all you want. The first generation of competing products is BETTER than Apple's alleged upgrade.
As to the whether these on your limited chart are better than the iPad 2, they are not according to those who are actually handling and reviewing these products... this is just one of multiple published articles from multiple reviewers, from multiple sources coming to the same conclusion. There must be a reason beyond Apple hype.
Even the MAKERS of those products have made comments about the need to rethink their design in light of what Apple showed. . . they were certainly NOT expecting that Apple was going to be rolling it out NOW, they were anticipating June or July, not March. Apple shocked everyone by only a one week lead after announcement to product shipping in quantity. That's unheard of! They were totally unprepared to compete with that timeframe!
Read the hands on reviews, not just the spec sheets. One on the market, the Xoom, two "soon to be released" lists of specs (read this summer), with mock-ups photos of simulated screens shots that no one has touched, and a beta operating system that reviewers are reporting as "buggy", and the iPad 2 that has actually been in the hands of the reviewers who are the ones who are claiming that the others are going to have to go back to the drawing board.
You see, unlike you, I'm not married to a brand when it comes to technology. When something better comes along and it works for me, great. That shows in my tech history from PC to Macs (I've owned 5, and still have a Mac classic in my garage), etc.
As for reviews, for every one you find in favor of the iPad(2), I can find one for the Xoom, etc.
As for your elitist bent, let me remind you not every Apple product has had a flawless market entry. Case and point, iPhone 4. And that was the 4th generation they screwed up on, not to mention the white phone.
Like any other innovative product, the competition always catches up, and in many cases, surpasses the entry product. That is what is going on now. It's these competitors that are keeping Apple's feet to the fire- though in a growing market of feature-based tablets, the iPad2 has failed. Yes, failed.
Do I doubt they'll catch up? Nope.
Isn't capitalism grand?