Tablet buying help

[fastbilly1]

(instant on has NEVER worked for me on a netbook - my 900a took 3 seconds less to boot an instant on OS than to boot Ubuntu)

Care to elaborate on that? You loaded an instant-OS onto your netbook? Is that possible?

There were several developed before the tablet craze took off. Moblin and gOS are the only two that come to mind right now. They touted instant on, but Moblin usually took 20-25 seconds to boot, my trimmed down Ubuntu takes about 40-45. 45 seconds is by no means a terribly long time to turn on, but I would prefer instant.

[gtmtnbiker]

Keep in mind that the iPad is not instant on from a cold start. It probably takes about 30 seconds to start (guessing because cold starts are rare for me). The iPad is usually in sleep mode which takes a few second to come out of. I think if you have a laptop with an ssd drive in sleep mode, you could get similar behavior. The iPad does have an advantage with the battery life.

[dsheinem]

iPad 2 is far and away the best tablet and well worth the extra dough, fast. go with it and you won't be disappointed. I never owned an Apple product until I had an iOS device, always being a Microsoft (or Linux and, once, Palm) guy...but their current hardware and software are both a thing a beauty.

[isiolia]

For a lite-OS tablet, I'd probably get an iPad 2 - not that I dislike Android, but Apple has a lot of focused developer support right now.

Long-term, I'm more hoping that better Windows slates will be better later in the year. That's more what I'm waiting on for an upgrade to my laptop, and something that'll likely replace my iPad I've got from work. While I'm still not sure I'd pay $500+ for what the iPad adds, it is a nice class of device to have in addition to computers. The form factor is a ton nicer (to me) for casual web browsing on the couch/toilet/etc than a laptop is.

If you decide to flip it, maybe a Macbook Air (or Ultrabook) instead of a netbook? I know personally, I've yet to find a netbook class machine that had a trackpad (particularly) that wasn't garbage. Apple's touchpad, on the other hand, is actually quite nice.

[Zing]

I have tried two Android tablets and they were, by far, some of the worst computing experiences I have ever had. It was like going back in time to a Packard Bell running Windows 95.

I tried the PlayBook. I really liked the OS. It ran smoothly, even flash player wasn't bad. I had high hopes for this one, but HP gave up on it almost instantly.

Apple's touchpad, on the other hand, is actually quite nice.

This glass, multitouch trackpad alone is worth switching to a Mac.

[gtmtnbiker]

iPad 2 is far and away the best tablet and well worth the extra dough, fast.

I think fastbilly was considering iPad 1 which has less memory, a single processor and is slower. I would recommend sticking with iPad 2.

[fastbilly1]

Well this all just got nixed. I talked to a rep at Gamestop and he said I could not use my giftcard on a tablet. He said I have to call corporate to get approval for this to work. Since he obviously doesnt want my money, I am going to another store and buying Skylanders and random stuff on the way home with the giftcards.

I think I figured it out. It is probably the last Transformer they have instock and he wants it for himself. They got a shipment of ten today and sold nine within minutes.

[pakopako]

Care to elaborate on that? You loaded an instant-OS onto your netbook? Is that possible?

There were several developed before the tablet craze took off. Moblin and gOS are the only two that come to mind right now. They touted instant on, but Moblin usually took 20-25 seconds to boot, my trimmed down Ubuntu takes about 40-45. 45 seconds is by no means a terribly long time to turn on, but I would prefer instant.

Ah. I'm with gtmtnbiker on that one; 30~40 seconds to boot is something I would consider on-par with tablets... and you get the full functionality of a robust OS. (I'm relatively new to Ubuntu, but I love it -- from power-on, it only takes me about 20 seconds to reach logon. Another 20 to input my PW and connect, and finally another 20 to boot Firefox 9. That compares to the 3:10+ for XP before I had GRUB.)

Well this all just got nixed. I talked to a rep at Gamestop and he said I could not use my giftcard on a tablet... It is probably the last Transformer they have instock and he wants it for himself. They got a shipment of ten today and sold nine within minutes.

A little weird they give you a gift card (cash) and won't allow you to use it to buy in-store stock. (Although it is also weird to me that GameStop stocks computers.)