Real reason for a tablet?

kilogramz718 said:

idk i want a tablet cause it looks ill but i wanted to know other peoples opinion on why its so necessary and wanted now besides it having Gingerbread lol

In my eyes its a big phone or just a even smaller laptop but can someone let me know lol show me the light

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You answered your own question. For the most part its a fad...

Unless you are in marketing, sales, or some kind of agent or use it for business or education purposes, I really see no reason to get a tablet. My wife does not fall into anyone of those categories, and i want to mentioned that she already has an ipod touch, a Droid Incredible. I was baffled why she wasted her hard earn money on this expensive toy instead of spending on other necessary things. IMHO, it is a waste of money if you already have a smartphone and laptop.

MyNamesTooLong said:

You answered your own question. For the most part its a fad...

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I thought netbooks were fads . Tablets are just another portability option. I don't think it's necessary unless you want to be cool like all the other tablet owners. haha jk.

The real reason is that some people think they are cool. I certainly do, but I just don't think it is worth the price. Other reasons include longer battery life than smartphones, larger screen that is more comfortable to read from, more portable than laptops. At least for me, I don't need anything less portable than a smartphone that is an additional device that is not as good for heavy text input as a laptop with a full keybaord and cannot play the games that I have on my laptop.

Have you ever tried to read a book in bed on a laptop? How about watching porn on an Eris. Obviously a 7-10 in tablet is the only answer...

Seriously though, tablets do what all consumer electronics do, create a niche, then fill it. We got by without laptops or cell phone 25 yrs. ago. Early versions of both were hardly "portable" but the ball was rolling. Now both are considered necessities by most of us.

Same reason i had to get an iPod. I need a development platform to test my websites on. I was originally going for Notion Ink Adam, but after months of delays i heard about Archos and shifted my attention to that. The fact that it ran everything on my home server (comic books, mkvs, etc.) was icing.

When a decently priced Honeycomb comes out, i'll likely get one too.

Currently, my sisters laptop got busted and she's looking for a replacement. I'm having a bit of trouble convincing her not to get a Galaxy Tab. Her counter was that she has another laptop (her company laptop) for handling the heavy stuff and wants something she can carry around her condo.

I still think she's making a mistake and should prioritize getting a personal computer first. Galaxy tab is sold here for $800.00. You can buy a decent laptop for that!

OT:

I'm starting to think getting your site to run on all devices is pointless. iPod 3rd gen, iPhone 3gs, ipod 4th gen, iPad, Archos 101 (Froyo), Firefox, IE8, IE9, Safari. When you make an HTML5 site to run on one of them, it's guaranteed to be broken in atleast half the browsers i mentioned.

Rather surprising, considering the iDevices are supposed to be running the same OS with the same browser from the same company. One of my sites was made and tested to run on an iPad, with a codepath for iPod 3rd gen, last Christmas i got a 4th gen, ran my site on that, and it was broken. I've already been adding separate codepaths for iPod 3rd gen, iPhone, and iPad. Seems i have to add yet another codepath for 4th gen.

On the other hand, the flash sites i've made two years ago worked on my android tablet with no modification.

What did Jobs say about fragmentation?

For me, tablets fill a particular niche:

I wanted something that is instant on, last whole day/evening depending on orientation. Its capabilities for me are: Simple web/news browsing, ability to do simple (not necessary technically simple) transactions, basic note taking, occasional amusements/games nd lastly a media player.

- Today's Android tablets falls short on a few fronts: battery life, poor hibernation (drain/sleep of death) and flash 10.1 is missing.

For my kids, their primary requirements is flash 10 as they want to play online flash games.

For my friend - her requirements are a basic email/ebook reader, web browser, brag book and quick reviewer for her camera/camcorder. We tried a Toshiba Folio because it had SD card slot and advertised Flash 10 (NOT!) and it fails flat on its face.

Still, I would say that they are coming close and in a year or 2, it won't be surprised to see quite a few folks abandon the notebooks for tablet for casual portable use.

At home, I can work on my notebook, watch a movie/TV on my FT2 and play Robo Defense on my FT1 all at the same time in my home office!

Or just read the news on my FT2, in the living room whilst supervising the kids at their homework.

kilogramz718 said:

In my eyes its a big phone or just a even smaller laptop but can someone let me know lol show me the light

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If you don't get it then don't get one. I don't understand people looking for justification to buy something. Like many other things out there, some will find it useful, some won't. I'll be picking one up for couch web surfing, email etc. It's a matter of convenience. I'm not replacing a laptop or my phone with the tablet. YMMV.

Shortly after I got my evo, I realized my netbook was covered with dust and my home laptop hardly got used. The tablet gives me everything I love about my evo in a larger size. I've read a bunch of books on it, surfed on it, and played games on it. For the casual home and away use, it's perfect for me.

Droidx08 said:

Unless you are in marketing, sales, or some kind of agent or use it for business or education purposes, I really see no reason to get a tablet. My wife does not fall into anyone of those categories, and i want to mentioned that she already has an ipod touch, a Droid Incredible. I was baffled why she wasted her hard earn money on this expensive toy instead of spending on other necessary things. IMHO, it is a waste of money if you already have a smartphone and laptop.

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Honestly, I think it's the opposite. Marketing, sales, Agents are usually power users and I don't think tablets are made for power users. I think tablets are for more the casual crowd. So your wife is actually the type of person tablet makers target. I have a laptop, smartphone, desktop and a tablet. The one I use the least is my laptop. I don't think it's a waste of money if the person who bought it uses it. IMO, I think the perfect combo for casual users would be a smartphone, a tablet or laptop/netbook, and a desktop. The smartphone you can always carry around, a tablet/laptop/ netbook can be used if you are stationary and not at home or at home but on the couch, and of course the desktop for home use.

When I first responded I didn't really provide details so this is what I use my tablet for.

• Internet- It's much easier/faster to use a tablet when all you want to do is browse the internet. Especially when someones on the desktop at home.
• Movies- Replaced my portable DVD player. Bigger screen and less to carry around. (mainly for my kids)
• Gaming- Android games and emulator. It's portable. My kids use a wiimote and play NES,SNES, PSX, GBA etc. It's perfect to keep them busy on long trips.
• Ereading- I don't do much of this lol.

So I think these are good reasons to get a tablet.

Well if you have smart phone then there is very little point in a tablet but if you have a reg phone u might want it. And i Personally like it better then a netbook so that is my opinion

Angry Birds

Julein said:

Well if you have smart phone then there is very little point in a tablet but if you have a reg phone u might want it. And i Personally like it better then a netbook so that is my opinion

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I think it depends on what smartphone a person has.

I've got a droid X and several laptops. A tablet is a larger version of my X, hopefully with honeycomb, and hopefully a good option as a laptop replacement for the most part. That being said, I will likely always have a laptop, and also always have an android smartphone. I can see myself bringing my tablet instead of my laptop on trips, etc, as long as I have most of the same functions in a smaller form factor. Also, it's pretty nice to have the ability to have the android marketplace - tons and tons of free apps that I really can't have on my laptop. I do think tablets are much more than a "fad". They are a cross-platform rig currently, but I think they will take a siginificant size of the market once there are true laptop replacemenyt type tabs available. For instance, I am very interested in a tab along the lines of the Asus Transformer - something like that I can see being a replacement for my daily use laptop which I bring from home to work every single day.