Help me pick a tablet computer

[Zero Sum 305]

Title is self-explanatory. Obvious bias in the +/- are welcomed, but please substantiate them so I can understand why you think they way you do.

[Zero Sum 305]

I guess you all use iPads.

[Amby 490]

I have iPad. I hate typing on it. The auto-correct drives me nuts. I mainly use it for ebooks (textbooks only). I like it for what I use it for.

Edited April 1, 2011 by Amby

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I haven't been keeping up with all the recent entries, but the Samsung (Android) tablet looks pretty good. Apple's Safari can't view/open certain file types. That's enough to make me want to get an Android.

[JAYKE 0]

If you are going Android, Motorola Xoom smokes the Samsung Galaxy. I work with these devices daily, as well as ipad, and ipad2,and I always, always recommend the Xoom. The Honeycomb OS is incredible, the touchscreen responsiveness is almost enough to get a keyboard fan like me to want one. If you have a droid phone, the learning curve is almost non-existent. The ONLY downside to this over Ipad is that the google based android system likes to cap ALL email attachments, regardless of provider at 10mb. So if you are getting giant powerpoints, etc., go ipad.

[Ban Hammer 14,569]

i'm waiting for them to come out with wings.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

If you are going Android, Motorola Xoom smokes the Samsung Galaxy. I work with these devices daily, as well as ipad, and ipad2,and I always, always recommend the Xoom. The Honeycomb OS is incredible, the touchscreen responsiveness is almost enough to get a keyboard fan like me to want one. If you have a droid phone, the learning curve is almost non-existent. The ONLY downside to this over Ipad is that the google based android system likes to cap ALL email attachments, regardless of provider at 10mb. So if you are getting giant powerpoints, etc., go ipad.

Cool, I haven't really kept up with all of the ones on the market. 10MB's is pretty big. I believe Yahoo has the same limit. I send computer animation files through my Yahoo account and haven't run into any hitches yet. I zip my files, which also helps.

[Zero Sum 305]

I am a pc user, and would like to have better cross-platform utilization of Office documents. I know there are apps for the iPad that could do the trick, but why I'm not convinced is weird.

[rsn 135]

I am a pc user, and would like to have better cross-platform utilization of Office documents. I know there are apps for the iPad that could do the trick, but why I'm not convinced is weird.

Cross-platform: Google docs, or Open Office. You may want to play with both before you decide. They are both free. Not sure why anyone pays for Office anymore.

Edited April 2, 2011 by rsn

[Zero Sum 305]

Yes, this may be an option. Is Open Office available on iPad? I seriously want an tablet as a backup to my laptop, but as Murphy's Law goes sometimes, I just think that I may need cross-platforming when I don't have the laptop on my person. Call it PC paranoia.

[Amby 490]

Yes, this may be an option. Is Open Office available on iPad? I seriously want an tablet as a backup to my laptop, but as Murphy's Law goes sometimes, I just think that I may need cross-platforming when I don't have the laptop on my person. Call it PC paranoia.

I will look on the app store

[Amby 490]

ok when I searched for open office these came up. I don't use open office so I have no clue if any of these are close to what it is.

Confetti Disk - free

Open Reader - $4.99

Doc Reader I - $2.99

Forms Central - free

I searched Google Docs and got

gogo docs Google docs - $4.99

eta: I have no clue what any of these do.

Edited April 3, 2011 by Amby

[rsn 135]

Yes, this may be an option. Is Open Office available on iPad? I seriously want an tablet as a backup to my laptop, but as Murphy's Law goes sometimes, I just think that I may need cross-platforming when I don't have the laptop on my person. Call it PC paranoia.

OpenOffice will not work with iPad at this time, as far as I know. Porting it to iPad will be difficult for a variety of technical and non-technical reasons. The iPad is more of a phone than a computer, technically speaking. It may not be powerful enough to handle an app like OpenOffice. As I said, there are other reasons why this is not currently possible though. You may have to fork over $$ for iWork on your iPad, which apparently can read and write MS office file formats.

ok when I searched for open office these came up. I don't use open office so I have no clue if any of these are close to what it is.

Confetti Disk - free

Open Reader - $4.99

Doc Reader I - $2.99

Forms Central - free

I searched Google Docs and got

gogo docs Google docs - $4.99

eta: I have no clue what any of these do.

You don't need an app for google docs. It is web-based.

[Amby 490]

OpenOffice will not work with iPad at this time, as far as I know. Porting it to iPad will be difficult for a variety of technical and non-technical reasons. The iPad is more of a phone than a computer, technically speaking. It may not be powerful enough to handle an app like OpenOffice. As I said, there are other reasons why this is not currently possible though. You may have to fork over $$ for iWork on your iPad, which apparently can read and write MS office file formats.

You don't need an app for google docs. It is web-based.

I know you don't since I have my gmail on my ipad. Google docs opens things in my email on the ipad. PDF files open in the ibooks app. I was just telling Zero Sum what I found.

Edited April 3, 2011 by Amby

[Zero Sum 305]

OpenOffice will not work with iPad at this time, as far as I know. Porting it to iPad will be difficult for a variety of technical and non-technical reasons. The iPad is more of a phone than a computer, technically speaking. It may not be powerful enough to handle an app like OpenOffice. As I said, there are other reasons why this is not currently possible though. You may have to fork over $$ for iWork on your iPad, which apparently can read and write MS office file formats.

You don't need an app for google docs. It is web-based.

Thanks rsn. I heard iWork (like $10/app- Numbers, Keynote, Docs) can open them but Numbers and Keynote kinda suck (as per what I've been told) for porting to PC-usable files.

Hence my rollercoaster ride with the iPad.

I know you don't since I have my gmail on my ipad. Google docs opens things in my email on the ipad. PDF files open in the ibooks app. I was just telling Zero Sum what I found.

Thanks for the app list too. This dependency on formats blows.