Seriously thinking about picking up a xoom / ipad 2. But i'm wondering do I really need it. What do my fellow bit-techians use there tablets for? I was mainly thinking surfing the net and reading ebooks on it ( colour ones) as well as using it to read technical books. What do you's all use your tablets for?And do you regret purchasing it?
Used my mate's iPad for a while and I loved the convenience of it - sitting in bed surfing the net or watching movie etc. (and the battery life is incredible), but would I ever buy one? No way. A good question to ask is what else could you spend the money on? Nobody "needs" an iPad or similar, which is the genius of their marketing campaigns: they make you think that you do need it.
I have my Galaxy Tab for nearly a year. I use it for dust collecting . Plus i charge it +/- once in a week or two. That pretty much covers it. Worst buy in my life (right next to Nero 8 registration).
headache and hay-fever. i use my ipad 2 for surfing web. basically lets my iphone tucked away, and still connected to forum/FB/twitter. Flipboard is a must-have app for all tablets! even with moderate use including a few 'tube videos every day, the ipad still manages to go a weeks before needs charging!
So theres nothing really you can do on a tablet that you cant really just use a laptop for? To hell with that... that money will be ablot more games, hardware and 40k stuff
tablet is a cutdown laptop, so no. but you will get stronger wrist/arm (for holding it up), less neck pain and pleasure from using tablets. (but then, there are other things in life also offers two of those things, for free)
A laptop will do everything a tablet will do. The tablet is just more convenient to carry around & use. My iPad 2 was one of the best things I've bought. The whole family use it. Even my 3 year old knows how to turn it on and find either his films, games or fire up youtube to search for trains etc
Tablets If you going to mainly read books etc.. I would just get an Amazon kindle Wifi version. Got one, its brilliant, read so many books from it it in the last 2 months. If you going to watch films etc, I would just tick with computer + TV Kindle can apparently play music, havent tried to yet. For me its brilliant because I can upload pdfs and lectures from uni on to it + all my study notes.
-Surfing the web. This is what I do mostly with my tablet. -Reading ebooks on Kindle/Stanza. Also, it's great with comics as nearly every major publisher has an app and a digital store nowadays. (Dark Horse Cheesecake) -Playing music and movies ( I have dedicated home theater gear in our living room but I don't always feel like bothering my wife and kid. I use PlugPlayer/Airplayer to stream my files to my pad so 16GB capacity my pad has isn't much of an issue.) -As a controller for Sonos. -For gaming. -For watching TV. I only regret not getting my iPad 2 any sooner.
An iPad is excellent if you do graphics. Brushes or SketchBook Pro are awesome and from my POV better then a pen-tablet allthough the iPad is missing pressure-sensitive pen-input. I just can't stand it, that you draw on a pen-tablet and not on the screen you're looking at. Also, if you do alot of websurfing, reading fforums etc, then there's nothing better then to do it on the couch in a relaxed position, like you would read a printed magazine or newspaper. A tablet is very convenient aswell, if you do commute alot. Nothing beats a tablet with 3G when you sit in the train for an hour every morning and every evening. If you don't do the above examples alot then a tablet is not worth it's money.
The thing is about these tablets is you can just use your smart phone everything that a tablet can do a phone can do. Example typing this from my Samsung galaxy s2. all you get is a bigger screen really
Looking at getting an iPad 2 too and asked this question to people at school who have one. they all said they never put it down but couldn't really name one thing they use it for other than apps and web surfing
Apps are how you use it. You don't go skiing with it, nor will it make you coffee. I can't see the problem here. On a second thought, there might be app for skiing and making coffee, too. This is correct. But you are seriously underestimating the effect screen size has on usage experience. I used to surf the web on a coach or in bed a lot with my iphone, but with >4 inch screen it is not much fun. So getting an iPad was only a logical thing to do. I could do most of the things I do with my iPhone (I still use it a lot for reading for example, Kindle crossdecive sync Cheesecake), but since I got the tablet already, why not make use of it?
It's really a cross device thing. Your reading list get synced across your tablet and smartphone. This way, you can pickup your phone and go, or come home and continue to read whatever you were reading on your way home, with a much bigger screen.
i only have tablets from the doctor!!!!!!! i use my iphone4 or my laptop for everything out of the office
I use my iPad for web surfing at night in my bed, when I wake up or jsut generally in the day if I've just come home from being out or etc. As Wuyanxu mentioned, Flipboard is very good for catching up with facebook/twitter/news feeds - and it's free! I also listen to music through it just before I go to bed as if I've been gaming all night it's good to have a good chill with music before you nod off. When I went on holiday abroad, I mainly used it for watching videos and playing games, there's an excellent app called "AV Player HD" which les your iPad play .mkv, .avi, .vob and others, which means I was able to store loads of videos on my iPad . There hasn't been a day where I haven't used it. Also compared to a laptop it has a very long battery life and when it standby it uses very little battery so I never turn it off so it's always there to just pick up and go .
well sorry to disrupt the ipad talks but I am currently using an Archos 101 Internet Tablet which runs off gingerbread. That was when I still had school so the reasons for me are a bit old. I bought it because I wanted an entertainment device that can play a wide range of video formats (so I don't have to convert my files). At the time of purchase which was in October last year, there were not many choices if you wanted to play .vob files. Also I needed a light web surfing tool so that I can google stuff during class. Also, I didn't need the extra cost of 3G since most places that I would be using the school's, home and the free wifi hotspots that are dotted around the city. It was cheaper than what other major brands were offering. The reason I chose Android is because I don't really like using Apple products. I prefer not to if I had the choice. Now that I have graduated high school and uni won't start until next year, I am already looking to a new one. Except it is less likely that I would actually by another tablet, since I will be writing more stuff on the go so laptops like the Vaio Z are better options then a tablet. IF I were to get one, then I would like to have a smaller than 10 inch device. Something that can fit into my pocket and I would use it as a map/internet surf/skype.
