The wife came to the pub last night wanting to know if an iPad would do what she wanted it to do. Up until I told her how much one costs. She's looking for a way of : Taking a register easily at the local guide group she runs, and keeping contact details up to date. The rest of the leaders are using Google Docs, and this will need to be used in an off-line capacity, as there is no internet connection in the church. She would also like a way of using it to watch movies and music when she is away, so a reasonable battery life would be preferential. My criteria. Capacitive touch screen, Expandable memory USB Host ability - for cameras, etc. Not Apple. Wifi What can you suggest?
Let's say for the sake of argument, there isn't a price range. What's out there, that isn't an actual laptop with a swivel screen.
Possible tablet Closest I've been available to find to an iPad that is currently available is the HP Compaq TC1100 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_TC1100), brand-new are ridiculously over-priced, but a pre-owned one can sometimes be picked for a around £200 or less. Snag is, that it only runs XP Tablet Edition which requires a stylus for precision, no multi-touch and is probably going to be farely slow compared to an iPad especially if you stick with the stock 256-512MB RAM. However, if you can wait til later in the year to next year, then some newer, more iPad-esque slates will hopefully be on the market. My personal favs of the upcoming ones are either the EeePad 101TC for a Win7 experience ( http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mobile/2010/06/12/asus-eee-pad-101tc-and-ep121-hands-on/1) or the Notion Ink Adam (http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/31639/notion-inks-adam-tablet-appears) for a Android/Linux. Tho it's possible that either may end as expensive as the iPad but IMO there are advantages over the locked in iOS platform that compensate for that. Another device that might be worth looking at if she doesn't necessarily need the physical size of the iPad is the Dell Streak ( http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/dell-streak?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cid=Streak&cs=ukdhs1&dgc=IR&lid=NHP_BB2 or http://http://www.o2.co.uk/dellstreak/dellstreakspec which meets at least 4 out of 5 of your criteria (not sure about USB Host). Hope that helps, Shamrock Holmes
The Dell-thingy, which would be the only available option atm costs just as much as the iPad, but offers less actually. So far there's nothing really comparable to the iPad available. My best guess for other comparable devices to show up and become available would be Q4 this year, sometime before xmas, but I don't expect them to be anything better or way cheaper then the iPad. Yeah, Apple hit the sweetspot again with the time of release for it's device.
Update While I agree with jrs77 that more iPad-esque devices may be able be Q4 of this year - including hopefully the two linked above - I would disagree with the assertion of that the Streak is 'as expensive as the iPad'. According the official pricing http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad?afid=p202|OVUKE338079161&cid=OAS-EMEA-KWY-+UK_Y_iPad-UK the 16Gb iPad - which has similar 'out-of-box' storage capacity (non user replacable/upgradable unlike the Streak) costs £429 for the WiFi model and £529 for the 3G model (plus £15/month for 3G, TCO over 2 years is £889). By comparison, the Streak has only a 3G model, costing £399 from O2 if you want PAYG (it's actually slightly more expensive direct), or £0 up-front and £25/month for 2 yrs of 3G (3GB/month as with the iPad), TCO is £600. Significantly cheaper than the iPad. However, I will concede that there may be cheaper 'infrequent use' options that might suit the OP better. As far as 'getting less' goes, the only 'headline' feature IFAIK that the iPad has over the Streak is it's greater physical size and greater resolution (though I would question whether either would be necessary for the tasks mentioned and the ~16:9 (5:3/15:9 actual) should give a better playback on modern HD video. That said, though I like the Streak, and would probably buy one if I had the cash, if the 'headline' feature of the iPad is important I'd definately wait a) because the iPad might drop in price and/or get the iOS 4 update by Q4 and b) I think that Android tablets have the potential to significantly improve on the iPad now that Apple has 'shown the way' (aka created a mass market where one didn't exist before). Shamrock Holmes
