Bluetooth handfree

My tablet intake is 14 of the buggers a day: now that's hard to swallow!

But with regard to the electronical computationalised witchcraft that seems to be popular with youngsters nowadays, I'm not really a fan, preferring the clunk of a proper keyboard and the size of a big, heavy screen. That said, having used touchscreen devices in the past (a Psion 7, for those who remember them) that is a feature I do like a lot and which I rather miss on the PC. Perhaps if I was more mobile I'd see the point in the contraptions, but I'm not.

The only reason I would get a tablet is because I hate lugging my laptop around campus whenever I need it. With the terrible battery life as an extra con. Also a tablet would help cut down on what I carry to class since I can take notes and such using the device.

So in a college scenario, I believe tablets to be extremely viable.

No joke, have mine too. That would be awesome.

I'm waiting for the tech to come into its own. Its useful for people with very mobile jobs that require a lot of data/info tracking, but if you're not one of these people, there's really no reason to buy one. It's in its infancy. Give it another ten five years.

Bigger screen? I would say there are reasons. None of them really appeal to me outside of loving electronic toys, so I wouldn't buy one, but they are really handy for some people. For example, I have a friend that's a graphic designer, and he needs someting that's easy to pass around to show samples on. A tablet is perfect for that. The screen on a smartphone is far too small and a laptop is too awkward to pass around a table.

Also, most high-end tablets are about the same price as high-end smartphones...except for iPad2. Compare what an Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime costs (about $500) to what a high-end smartphone like a Galaxy S II costs (about $500)...and the Eee Pad is a much more powerful computing device with a much larger screen.

I'm curious as to why, exactly, you say it's in it's infancy. From my standpoint a tablet is far better for mobile content consumption than a laptop, netbook, or smartphone (longer battery life than a laptop, better performance (generally) than a netbook, bigger screen for easier consumption than a smartphone). mobile content creation is another matter. It's better than a smartphone hands down, and certain models that have readily available keyboard options (there are a notable bunch, some better than others), it's at least as good as a netbook (and I'd say as good as a high-end netbook/low-end laptop).

I have a 10" Asus EEE PC and I have to convince myself that I don't need the Asus Transformer just about everyday. I really want one, but I don't really need one because my netbook is just as portable as the Transformer would be. I only have class for 3 hours a day and I have access to an outlet if I really am getting low on battery (which is really rare, I get about 6 average running ubuntu (is eeebuntu 4.0 out of beta yet?)). Plus if I sold my netbook I wouldn't get much money for it anymore and I would want the keyboard which is an extra $150 so I tell myself I can deal with my netbook. Besides once I graduate in December, I doubt I'll really need one anyways anymore.

The market hasn't yet figured out what it wants the tablet to be. I know some hospitals want to use the iPad to input patient data instead of carrying around charts. I know engineers would like to be able to draw up sketches, schematics, designs. Etc.

At the moment, tablets are geared at the "lite" market. They do games, movies, a few word processing programs, a few simple art programs, etc. But they're not really useful yet. They're meant for entertainment.

And spending a few hundred dollars on a machine that does what the other machines you have already do, and often does those tasks in an inferior manner, doesn't strike me as a wise use of money.

In a few years there will be specialised programs and models for this and that kind of use, but at the moment...

I know of science companies that are using tablets for data input. It isn't common yet, but it may end up being.

I hate to say this, but most of my computer time away from programming is the internet, films and email. I wouldn't get one (too much time programming and they aren't good enough for that due to screen space) but if I didn't program then they would be ideal.

I assume it is the same for a lot of other people.

They are definitely geared towards content consumption, but as your own examples and Yacoby's show, in their current state they are more than capable at content creation as well. Granted, they are not nearly as capable at content creation as, say, a desktop, but that's the price of mobility, not a flaw in their structure that will be worked out in the next few years.

A point where a tablet is better at content creation than a laptop is in a relatively normal classroom situation where you are taking notes. Drawing diagrams on a laptop with the touchpad svcks. Drawing on a capacitive screen is much better (a digitizer pen better than that, but even capacitive drawing has improved significantly, the demos at CES of the next generation of capacitive screens showed very impressive accuracy for drawing without a stylus).

Smartphones are pretty much smaller tablets, and much of what tablets can do smartphones can as well. However, one of the advantages of tablets is the bigger screen size. One of the advantages of smartphones is the smaller screen size. Smartphones are smaller, thus easier to carry around, but with that comes a loss of certain usability such as the ability to watch movies. Nobody wants to watch a movie on a smartphone, your eyes would be tired out in an hour. Tablets are also easier to show things on due to the larger screen. The advantages of the Smartphone are the small size and that, since it's a phone as well, you only need to carry one device around with and, and it can be carried in your pocket.

I don't really see any reason to buy a tablet if you have a smartphone or buy a smartphone if you have a tablet.

I love my Transformer Prime. Using a little wireless Internet device and I'm connected in the car right now. Keyboards are cool, smartphones drool.

I can't see myself ever buying a tablet. I have a smart phone with a touch screen and that's fine for my mobile needs. For serious computing, I have my laptop and I much prefer a keyboard and mouse interface.

Tablets fall somewhere in between smart phones and laptops, and it's a niche I have no need for at the moment.

I honestly don't see them as much more than a toy. I know netbooks seem to be going the way of the Dodo bird, but I'd take a netbook over a tablet any day. They're just as portable, very competitively priced, comparably powerful, and infinitely more functional thanks to having the same OS and program support as a full PC.

I doubt it will be the common tablet we find in the market. Industrial standard is a lot higher than Androids/iOS. If they want a Linux platform, they'll find something more geared and customized for that purpose.

That's how I feel. Maybe when I'm older and I can easily afford this stuff I'll start buying gadgets for bragging rights.

"Hey, did you text me? I forgot to take with me my 3 other iPhones, went out with my Super Extra Special HTC instead! Silly me".

im positive there are MASSIVE differences between laptops and tablets
my xoom can do things my dell cant and vice versa

Actually, it's the laptop market that's being eaten. Why have a semi-portable (laptops don't deserve to be called portable IMO, being large, clunky, and short on battery life). Why would anyone buy a laptop when you could get a tablet? And that really is the way the market is turning out. People have their tablet for on the go, and a desktop at home for work.

That's exactly my situation since I bought my Xoom - I haven't even opened my laptop since...

Because I don't have a desktop that's mobile enough to take with me to/from college, I opted for a laptop, which I basically treat as a desktop. Specs are, for a laptop, pretty decent considering I bought it 3 years ago, so it still functions well enough for me.

For what I do, I can't see it being worth my money for a tablet. I wouldn't take notes on it in class, and I'm not really mobile in my day-to-day to use it all that often. I can see some fringe uses for it (spreadsheet for in the lab, for example) but nothing that couldn't be accomplished with a notebook and pen. If I were a day-trader or some other profession that had me check my email or something numerous times throughout the day, I suppose it would be a different story.