Trying to find an internet tablet
So I currently have a 17″ MacBook Pro, a Kindle 2, and an iPhone 3G. (I also have a Linux server and a Windows entertainment system, but that’s not relevant to the discussion.)
When I work, I work on the MacBook, because it’s an excellent development environment. It’s not especially portable, though, because it’s big and heavy.
So the last time I traveled, I took my Kindle and my iPhone. It was okay. I could keep up with email and news via the iPhone and read to pass time with the Kindle. But I’d kind of like a larger portable internet device than the iPhone.
The iPad barely fits in my purse and sticks up a bit, making the top flap kind of “humpy”. It does fit, though, and is an amazingly functional device.
I’m also looking into Android tablets, but I’ve got some issues with clunky apps on Android.
I’m probably not making a decision until late this year, but still… Decisions, decisions…
I’m with you on the iphone. I don’t actually have the phone, but rather the iPod Touch. I love it for the size of it, for doing e-mails, for a few games and apps, but for reading books I do wish it was a bit bigger. I wish they’d make a Touch the size of my daughter’s small Kindle. I like the Kindle, but it does nothing but read books. I like having a gadget with multiple functions, and small enough for my purse. As for a phone, I like having the cheap phone I picked up at Walmart, where every two months I buy more time for it. Nothing fancy, no camera, no mp3′s, but the battery seems to last much longer than phones my friends have with all the bells and whistles. I have plenty of time on this, since there’s only 4 people who know my cell phone number, and I mainly use it for quick calls or an emergency phone.
Carol
At present you can’t beat the Kindle 2 for book reading. Although the contrast is lower than I’d like, it beats many mass-market paperbacks and newspapers. It’s not as good as a book printed on high-quality white paper, though.
I’ve been an insomniac all my life and one thing I do is read in bed. I have a little book light that I have clipped on my Kindle case and that illuminates the Kindle for reading. Not having a backlit screen means that there is no more eyestrain than would happen when reading a paper book.
Well, the iPod Touch is basically an iPhone without the phone. So having that plus a cheap phone makes sense. I also don’t use much of my voice time, but AT&T won’t sell an iPhone without the unlimited data plan, so I have that. I rarely get close to the limit, because I work from home and so A) I normally use a laptop to browse the internet, and B) when I do use the iPhone I’m using my home WiFi.
I see a tablet as a device to take when traveling. I use the iPhone for my grocery list and it’s fine for that.