When Should I Buy an Android Tablet?

jpyeck writes "I've deliberately avoided the smartphone craze, due to the fact I've never utilized any phone (landline or otherwise) enough to justify the monthly fees. But the geek in me craves the 'smart' part of the equation, especially since I got a bonus this year-end that is burning a hole in my pocket. The iPad is out of the question because I need a bit more hack-ability in my gadgets. I am drooling over the Android Honeycomb demo from the CES. I've had my eye on the Galaxy Tab, though it sounds like it won't support Honeycomb. The Xoom looks great, but who knows when it will come out? The consensus seems to be 'wait a few months for Honeycomb.' If you were me, with limited patience, would you buy an Android tablet now? If so, which?"

Comments

Here's what I'd do

[sensei moreh]

If I were you, I'd put the year-end bonus in a 6-mo CD, and get the tablet when the CD's term is up

Re:Here's what I'd do

[vux984]

If I were you, I'd put the year-end bonus in a 6-mo CD, and get the tablet when the CD's term is up

Waiting 6 months might well be sensible. But the average CD yield is 0.63% (APR). So... $1000 in a 6 month CD will net him under $3.50.

Re:Here's what I'd do

[cmeans]

Better yet, use the $1000 to make 40 loans to people all around the world at www.kiva.org. Make sure the loans are short term, so they'll be done within the 6 month time frame. You won't make any money...and there is the risk of loosing some of what you've loaned, but the Karma (and good feelings) of helping 40+ people around the world should far out weigh the $3.50 or more you might make in interest. -Chris

Re:Here's what I'd do

[a803redman]

or spend $300 on a ticket to Vegas $500 on one bet (black 13 is the way to go) if you will its like 18k if no you have 200 to drink the pain away at a girly club.

Re:Here's what I'd do

[ProppaT]

I think you guys are missing the point. The 6 month CD isn't to earn money, the 6 month CD is so you can't touch the money for 6 months. That way you'll avoid making the mistake of buying one of the current (crappy) offerings on the market.

Re:Here's what I'd do

[4phun]

If I were you, I'd put the year-end bonus in a 6-mo CD, and get the tablet when the CD's term is up

In spite of the irony, he just might do better with Apple stock.

After carefully examining all the tablets at 2011 CES, I would have to go with Apple stock hands down as being a runaway investment based on their share of the tablet market in 2011.

What a pile of tech crap compared to the iPad!

I am seeing major businesses lining up to buy tens of thousand of the 2 generation iPads each in the next few months. It is gone way beyond the occasional Apple customer buying one or maybe two iPads. US Enterprise is replacing laptops with iPads as a better fit for their business objectives.

Android is still seriously flawed and can not currently be safely used like an iPad so it is still Apple's exclusive market for 2011. I do not think anyone in Enterprise will ever be interested in seeing advertising from Google on their business tools.

Apple needs to split their stock to allow those with less to invest an opportunity to also share in Apple's rocket like surge in value.

Re:Here's what I'd do

[Unequivocal]

I'll just say that you'll *definitely* lose money on Kiva. It's a donation system that has some payback potential. My lossage over about 5 years of donating on the site is about 30%. It doesn't bother me as I'm able to help some folks and many do pay the loans off-- it beats the heck out of the ridiculous overhead that most big non-profits charge..

Re:Here's what I'd do

[cmeans]

You're correct. Your losses are much greater than mine. I've been with Kiva for 2 years this month, and I'm at a default rate of 0.58%, but the average Kiva user has a default rate of 1.08%.
It definitely "pays" to review the loanee (how they're going to use and payback the money...loaning to groups generally helps guarantee more of a return), and review the MFI, it's default rate and current rating etc..
A 30% loss is significant...and can't be written off as a donation. So loan carefully if you'd rather get your money back.

Re:Here's what I'd do

[Coward Anonymous]

Even GOOG or AAPL are better choices than a CD. Volatility be damned.

Re:Here's what I'd do

[Telek]

Not to incite, but I too have been with Kiva for a while (5 years), have made about 200 loans and my default rate is 0.55%. Carefully choosing those that you donate to can lead you to have very low risk and great reward for the karma and sense of accomplishment far more than monetary interest ever could get you. Honestly I have no idea how anyone could have a 30% loss rate considering that the average default rate is 1.09%. Please do not besmirch a fantastic organization with inaccurate statistics.

Re:Nook Color

[man_of_mr_e]

The nook color is also pretty hackable. Apprantely, the device comes with a bluetooth adapter that is disabled by default, and hacks have been able to re-enable it.

Wait for Honeycomb

[p0p0]

Wait for tablets that tout Android 3.0 Honeycomb as that version is geared towards proper tablet support. The tablets out now are hack jobs to be able to run the older versions of Android, such as faking accelerometers and other hardware Android specifies.

The iPad is out of the question

[nurb432]

Because its too much $. At least for me. While i would rather have one, I can get a decent Android tablet for under 200. If the ipad was down to 300 id have chosen that instead.

Its not a 'reqiurement' to have one so the budget comes into play for some of us.

When they finally ship one worth using

[gstrickler]

In case you haven't noticed, companies have been trying to make a tablet computer for 10+ years. The iPad finally showed people it could be done and now everyone is scrambling to come out with something competitive. Wait at least 6 months to see what comes out, because right now, there is very little selection and the chances of anyone getting it right on their first attempt is pretty small.

Re:When they finally ship one worth using

[KonoWatakushi]

The iPad may be a good start, but it is still very crude, and doesn't even scratch the surface of what a tablet could be. A tablet should at the very least also support stylus input, and allow people to explore/develop alternative input systems. (Of which there are already a number that are far superior to fixed on-screen qwerty keyboards, or even miniature physical keyboards.)

No one is going to get it right the first time, and selling locked-down featureless hardware, which is guaranteed to be forever crippled isn't a winning strategy. (This applies not only to Apple, but tivoized Android systems as well.)

Re:When they finally ship one worth using

[93 Escort Wagon]

The iPad may be a good start, but it is still very crude, and doesn't even scratch the surface of what a tablet could be. A tablet should at the very least also support stylus input, and allow people to explore/develop alternative input systems. (Of which there are already a number that are far superior to fixed on-screen qwerty keyboards, or even miniature physical keyboards.)

No one is going to get it right the first time, and selling locked-down featureless hardware, which is guaranteed to be forever crippled isn't a winning strategy. (This applies not only to Apple, but tivoized Android systems as well.)

Stylus input "tablets" have been around for over a decade - and they've mostly died off. The same can mostly be said for tablets with a so-called "full blown" OS (e.g. Windows tablets). The market has spoken, and it's pretty much disproven everything you said. Whether you choose to recognize that fact is an entirely different matter.

Re:When they finally ship one worth using

[KonoWatakushi]

The market doesn't speak, but if it could, it wouldn't be saying what you think. All that can be inferred is that people didn't buy something, not why, and consideration for a tablet goes far beyond wether it has a stylus or not.

Even if the perfect device was available a decade ago, which it wasn't, it would be meaningless without the software to take advantage of those features. That isn't going to happen if the hardware doesn't exist though, so there has been little opportunity for innovation.

The only device that I know of which even has potential for an interested developer, would be the Lenovo X series tablets, but I don't know if the relevant documentation is even available. (Of course that isn't nearly in the size and price range that most people would consider for a tablet.)

Re:When they finally ship one worth using

[Antisyzygy]

If I could write equations on a tablet and it would transcribe it into LaTeX I would buy a tablet right now.

Re:When they finally ship one worth using

[SimonTheSoundMan]

TeX is available on the iPad. :)

Re:When they finally ship one worth using

[KonoWatakushi]

That would be because you are implicitly qualifying that statement with "on crude devices for ascii text input".

Have you met any artists who hate stylus input? How about taking notes, drawing, or entering symbols not found on your keyboard, as with most non-latin languages including mathematics.

How about with alternative input systems like ShapeWriter or HexInput? Such technology has come a long way since the Palm Pilot...and yet has a long way to go.

Multitouch is great and also offers immense opportunity for innovation, yet that need not be mutually exclusive with stylus input. Rather, they complement each other, and would make a tablet a far more versatile device.

Re:When they finally ship one worth using

[Mr. Underbridge]

Stylus input "tablets" have been around for over a decade - and they've mostly died off. The same can mostly be said for tablets with a so-called "full blown" OS (e.g. Windows tablets). The market has spoken, and it's pretty much disproven everything you said. Whether you choose to recognize that fact is an entirely different matter.

Just because a particular product failed doesn't mean that the idea in general is bad. Otherwise, I'd have turned gay after breaking up with my first girlfriend.

Here's a prediction for you - there will be an Apple stylus tablet within 3 years. Until about 6 months before launch, it will continue to be the dumbest idea ever. Then, Steve will proclaim it to be brilliant.

Re:When they finally ship one worth using

[grapeape]

Been there done that no one cared. Everytime a thread about tablets comes up there are a flood of posts about how they all suck because they don't have this or that and usually about how they don't have a "real" OS. Motion Computing, Fujitsu, HP and several others have wasted plenty of effort to bring slate computers with full operating systems, styluses, miniature physical keyboards, etc, no one bought them. The simple fact is that every attempt at a tablet has failed up until the ipad was released, Google is following the lesson learned properly and is also locking things down and simplifying things. I think what most geeks whining about what is lacking on tablets are missing the point....though they want want it bristling with features, menu's, dangly bits and expandability, the vast majority of normal people just want a nice user experience, both Apple and Google are doing a nice job of that...sometimes simple is simply better, the more crap you have to support the more complicated it becomes. I really don't see the majority of vendors willing to give up the target user base to placate a couple of geeks that think everyone else wants the same things they could have had for the past 10 years or so if they had actually supported any of the earlier efforts.

Re:When they finally ship one worth using

[minniger]

The market speaking is people buying things. Customers are giving a serious buttload of money to apple for their take on a tablet/pen/palm computer. Customers are not spending money on all those alternatives. Therefore the market is saying exactly what escort wagon asserted.

qed

Re:When they finally ship one worth using

[jc42]

Customers are not spending money on all those alternatives. Therefore the market is saying exactly what escort wagon asserted.

Well, I was at an event yesterday where there were a number of iPads visible and, remembering the comments here, I asked the people who had one why they'd bought an iPad and not another brand tablet. Every one of them responded with a blank look, and/or said something like "What other tablets?". I also heard a few people commenting that they were thinking of buying one, and when I asked them the same question, they were also puzzled because they didn't know of any others.

So I'd say (based on this tiny sample) that The Market just might be saying something like "If you want people to buy your new product, you have to market it so they know it exists".

I ran across a similar, but funnier, example a while back, when Android started getting traction. I'd ask people why they'd bought an Android gadget rather than one running linux. Usually, they'd actually heard of linux, and gave answers making it clear that linux is a toy, not something that anyone would actually buy. Or it doesn't have windows, so they couldn't use it. But Android was a cool new product that finally did a lot of things right.

I think that what The Market is often really saying is "I'm an idiot". (A number of economists have drawn the same inference, but they usually use a lot more words to express it.)

nookcolor, rooted

[fimbulvetr]

Posting from my rooted nook color.

Seriously, with the native book app installed, plus the kindle app and angry birds. This is some of the best$ 250 I've ever spent.
Ps:
You pay tax b&n books, but not on amazons.

Re:nookcolor, rooted

[dougsyo]

If you're looking for something in the 10" range and/or to spend $400+ then wait. Even then, there's going to be only a few real winners and a lot of losers.

Many of the $250-and-under tablets are junk (slow processors, older Android versions, low-resolution screens with crummy touch sensors, etc), and I don't know that that's going to change in the short term. Probably the best choice in that price range is a rooted nook color. And when you're ready to get something new/better, you can restore it and resell it, or pass it on as-is.

For what it's worth, I have an Evo (practically a mini-tablet) and an iPad. The iPad has its merits, and you can do programming on it now (there's at least three BASIC interpreters, for example), but if you want to do app development, it's much cheaper to get started on Android.

Doug

Re:nookcolor, rooted

[Rob the Bold]

The iPad has its merits, and you can do programming on it now (there's at least three BASIC interpreters, for example) . . .

REM find iPad with BASIC installed in store

REM

10 PRINT "Rob Rules"

15 BEEP

20 GOTO 10

REM leave store

REM takes me back to 1983

Re:nookcolor, rooted

[Kitkoan]

Too bad, it does not come with 3G. That is a deal breaker for me.

I think of it not coming with 3g as a positive. I don't want to spend $30 a month to have access to very slow wireless, and the hardware to do 3g is typically an extra $100-$150 I would prefer to spare. If I need the internet that badly I'd tether it to my smartphone and not have to spend more money to use what I already have access to.

Notion Ink Adam

[patjhal]

Seems like the best I have seen and they made it a point to improve the interface with their own homegrown, yet still allow you to install ubuntu if you like. Tegra2, pixelQI, hdmi out, good battery, weight, and size. I have seen nothing else beat it. Of course it is still only in preorder.

Do as Google says..

[Keruo]

If you really must have Android tablet, do as Google says and wait for the release of android 3.0.
Google says 2.x is not suited/intended to run on tablets, so your experience is likely sub-par.

Re:Do as Google says..

[TheEyes]

That's always true, though. If the reason you are waiting is because things will be cheaper in X months, you'll always be waiting. The right way to do things is to match your needs to the hardware capabilities, and pull the trigger when those capabilities fall into your budget range.

Re:Do as Google says..

[whoop]

What's even better is waiting for 20.2. It is going to be WAY cool than the crap that's out now. I can tell you this because I know someone at Google who may or may not be working on it. While all of you are wasting time with your phones, tablets, netbooks, cerebral implants, I am going to sit here on my futon knowing I'm going to be having a vastly superior experience than all of you combined. Trust me, good things come to those who wait. All you people are suckers.

Galaxy S PDA

[adanedhel728]

If I remember correctly, there was a story about a non-phone Galaxy S PDA coming out. I would personally prefer a PDA to a tab. Smaller means smaller screen, but much easier to carry around. I see people carrying around iPads and I think, you do know that there's an iPod touch that's the same thing but easier to carry, right? Lol. And if you're willing, you could get a Nexus S unlocked, because if you don't put a SIM card in it it should work just as a mobile Android platform that uses Wifi. That's not a small chunk of change, though.

I know that doesn't really answer the question, though, lol. But if I wanted to get an Android tab, I'd be more likely to just get a netbook and put Ubuntu on it. Half the cost, twice the function. And, yes, I know that's flamebait, but I never understood the appeal of tabs.

But... to actually *answer* the question, given those options, my opinion would be to go ahead and get a Galaxy S tab now. There'll always be something new on the horizon. When Honeycomb comes out, you'll just be drooling over the next version, "Dancing Banana." (And, yes, I did just make that up.)

Re:If you were me...

[Jake73]

Yes. The geek is weak in this one. If you waited this long for a smart phone, surely you can wait another decade for the best features of tablets to come out.

Don't use a phone enough?

[cgenman]

Saying that you won't buy a smartphone because you don't use your phone enough is like saying that you won't buy a computer because you don't use a typewriter enough.

A smartphone is basically a universal data device at your fingertips at all times and all places. When was that movie out? How late is that store open? Where is Grandma's? What was that server's IP? It's Star Trek, man. Star Trek. A phone just lets you talk. The scale of functionality difference is several orders of magnitude.

Re:Buy one that follows standards.

[Graham J - XVI]

That's not very good advice considering the best tablet on the market doesn't have a USB connector, at least not right on the device. The utility of a device is not governed by its connectors.

iPad more hackable

[SuperKendall]

The iPad i(and in general iOS devices) are actually more "hackable" in the classic sense of the word.

If you like to write software, either is fine. But the spirit of hacking is also partly in altering what is there to suit a need you have.

Because jailbreaking enables use of the MobileSubstrate, and most applications are written in Objective-C, you can not only write your own applications but very easily add hooks and modifications into existing applications - it's a lot easier to hack an addition to an application you already like to make it do something extra, than to write your own application from scratch.

Wait for MeeGo

[PortaDiFerro]

I'm following the tablets rather eagerly as well. Only this xmas did I get acquainted with Android (2.1) phone and I'm positively surprised. Still, personally I'll be waiting until MeeGo tablets start popping up before I make my decision about a tablet. Unless I run into an irresistible offer as I did with the phone.

Buy?

[SphericalCrusher]

Buy? I took an older Motion Tablet PC I had, stuck an extra stick of RAM in it, and formatted it to install the Android OS. It works really well. If you are tech-savvy, I'd recommend doing the same before buying a high-dollar iPad competitor android tablet. If the price is right though, I'd recommend the purchase. Browsing the Internet on the built-in Chrome browser with flash playback works really well. Much like the iPad is a large iPhone in a sense, this is a large version of an Android phone. I'm really impressed with the tablet OS. The tablet PC has a gig

You didn't say what you were going to use it for

[Overzeetop]

That's really why you are getting a tablet - to do things, right?

So, are you going to be telneting around, or developing,t aking it wardriving, or trying to create art? Are you going to be using it to read email and surf the web from your couch, plus stream or watch movies on it? Do you want it to impress your friends?

See, that will answer your question. If you're going to be just hacking to hack, get a mid-level Android box (sorry, too many for me to keep up with). If you're going to be surfing and looking at email, get an iPad - unless you want flash, in which case get the top of the line Android tablet today. Want to impress your friends - well, the last recommendation covers it - Android if your friends are hard core linux geeks, iPad if your friends are anything else. Don't forget to ask yourself how big a screen you need. The 7" and smaller models do NOT work well for any sort of book use, save novels, unless you like squinting.

Based on your description of what you want (i.e. - you really don't know for certain) - put that bonus somewhere that you can't touch it for 6 months, and then decide next summer what you want after Honeycomb is out.

Waiting for Godot

[ChunderDownunder]

You might be waiting a while. There's still no N900 successor as Nokia puts its energies into resurrecting Symbian[1] via a shiny Qt interface. As for 'tablet' devices, I think other vendors would be waiting for some traction before launching a Meego branded product.

Android and Meego are both Linux distros. So in theory you can buy an Android (or Win7) tablet today and 'upgrade' to Meego when it's ready. Assuming you don't buy a locked-down appliance...

Re:So don't call it a phone...

[whoop]

You don't know how much you'll use it until you start using it. Then you find neat little things to do here and there. I could care less about music, so I never bothered getting ipods, itunes, etc. I barely used the phone, so I just had a simple cell phone to call the wife for the grocery list on the way home from work. I told myself I can just wait until I get home to check email, web sites, etc.

Then, I got the HTC Hero (Sprint) in October 2009 to play with making Android apps and make billions of dollars in a weekend once I thought of a cool idea. Then I started checking email, RSS news, web sites, etc a couple times an hour. I listen to a couple dozen podcasts throughout the day. I put down my DS (actually my daughter took it over), and play similar simple little games on this. Here we are over a year later, and the battery was giving me grief. I started to get the shakes (almost) from not being able to use my phone until my replacement battery arrived yesterday.

You don't know just how much you will use it until you start using it. There will always be another phone/tablet better than yours, but just get one and start having some fun.

Re:Buy one that follows standards.

[arnott]

Check out Notion Ink adam tablet. Reviewed by engadget : http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/05/notion-ink-adam-hands-on-preview-video/. specs : http://www.notionink.com/techspecs.php

Wait for dual core

[roc97007]

Wait until dual core tablets become common. Current single core tablets are orphans -- they'll never run Honeycomb.

Re:Buy one that follows standards.

[Anonymous Coward]

the best tablet on the market doesn't have a USB connector

Thats strange, considering my definition of best would be one that has an USB connector.

Just get an iPad

[dokebi]

Yeah, this should get me some down votes. Karma to burn and all that.

I would say that if you want to have a nice tablet experience now, buy an iPad. If you can wait, wait for iPad2. If can wait even longer, then I think the second round of Android tablets after Honeycomb (Honeycomb 2?) should be awesome. iPad has literally one year head start vs everything else and iPad 2, presumably with video chat camera is just around the corner. Android is moving up fast, but it will take time to catch up to the quality and the quantity of apps iPad has/will have in the next 6 months.

Re:Wait till end of Q1 2011

[peragrin]

Why would you want a full blown linux install? non of the apps will be tailored for a touch screen interface.

Re:Simple answers

[Urza9814]

Then you can make keeping the tablet customized and updated and flashed and jailbroken your new personal hobby for a few years.

Or you could buy from a decent company that dosen't think it owns your soul because you purchased one of their products.

http://www.archos.com/products/ta/archos_5it/dualos.html

Just like a PC, the ARCHOS 5 Internet Tablet can be freely programmed in alternative ways in addition to the applications that can be created for the Android platform. To have total control of your Internet Tablet, ARCHOS has opened up this device, thus allowing creative minds to program their own tablet, or create what could be the tablet of the future.

I currently have 3 OSes on my Archos - The original Archos software (based on Android 1.6), Angstrom Linux, and Android 2.2. And I can update any of them without having any impact on the other two.

I could go on for pages about how hackable Archos devices are. Every time I try to do something, I'm once again amazed at how simple it is.

Do you care about phone at all?

[dbc]

I just got an Archos 70. Runs Froyo. No phone, has WiFi. Very hackable, Archos has built in a dual-boot mechanism, and is one of the few Android makers to be good about posting their GPL'd code. (They just put up an Angstrom distro you can dualboot.) If you just want a tablet to hack, and don't care about not having access to the cell network, an Archos generation 8 tablet is not a bad way to go. At this point, though, you have to consider *any* money spend on *any* tablet to be money flushed down the toilet. In my case, I got it mainly for hacking and am happy to consider it a disposable hack-toy.

Re:Viewsonic G-Tablet

[Mordok-DestroyerOfWo]

I think you're on the wrong site...

isn't it obvious?

[kfonda]

You should get an Android tablet at about 3:17pm (local time) on Tuesday.

Unlocked phone + prepaid plan

[SoftwareArtist]

If you really want a smartphone (aka handheld computer) but won't use it enough as a phone to justify the expensive plan, here's what you do: get an unlocked Nexus S, which is a really nice phone available with no commitment. Then sign up for T-Mobile's "pay as you go" plan which lets you buy time in increments as small as $10 that (once you've spent a total of $100) last for a whole year before expiring. I use my Nexus One only rarely as a phone, but constantly for other things. I spend a total of about $25/year on phone charges. And they recently added the ability to buy data access ($1.50 for 24 hours), which is really nice on those rare occasions when I want data and don't have access to wifi.

Having fun with Viewsonic gTablet

[DusterBar]

This is a nice Tegra2 tablet with rather good community support. The main downside is that the screen is TN and not IPS. But it seems well made and is looks like it will have no problem going to 3.0. Android. And for under $400 it is relatively well priced for a 10.1 inchtablet

Re:Wait till end of Q1 2011

[ghbpiper]

Why would you want a full blown linux install? non of the apps will be tailored for a touch screen interface.

Because THEN you can do what you want with it, not just what the fecking vendor/service provider says you can do.

a suggestion

[cinnamon colbert]

Quote " especially since I got a bonus this year-end that is burning a hole in my pocket. "
We got 10 -20% unemployment, depending on what numbers you believe, which has been getting worse every month since O got elected; we got deficits, we got a technology competiton we are loosing with Asia,,,and you want to buy a smart phone
how about you take the bonus and figure out how to get Chinese to spend their remimbi on stupid gadgets made in america - at least someone will have a job
and don't tell me to lighten up...

Re:Market; try before buy

[Urza9814]

There's no official way to get the market on them, because they don't meet the hardware requirements entirely. But there are plenty of .apk files floating around for it. It's literally download the file to the device and make two taps, and it's installed. All the apps work fine too as far as I can tell. They do have their own market preinstalled that has a decent amount of apps in it.

Not sure where you can try it, but I can tell you that I _highly_ prefer it's touch screen to the iPhone devices. Mostly because it's resistive. Feels about the same (does take a bit of pressure, obviously), but I can grab any random thing (I've used keys, pencil tips, screwdrivers, etc) as a stylus. Which makes a lot of tasks far easier. That was always my biggest problem with the iPhone screens - damn near impossible to type when the keyboard keys are smaller than the smallest touch it can recognize...

Slatedroid.com...

[It's the tripnaut!]

...Is probably the best resource online for all the Android tablets around, even the cheap sub $100 ones from China (clones that run Froyo are at least $140).

MeeGo

[dwater]

If open-ness and hackability are your aims, I would suggest considering a MeeGo tablet since that is as open and as hackable as you can get.

totally depends on what you want to do with it

[obarthelemy]

once you know that, and find one that can do it, go for it.

in my personal case, that means reading books, watchings vids, browsing the internets, and doing some light office stuff. i need a reasonably open system (not apple), a good screen (asus and the adam seem promising), and lotsa ports + full bluetooth for a keyboard, mouse, headset, and good battery life. As always with portable system, build quality is important.

it also seems that any android version lower than 3.0 is not designed for tablets. i'll probably wait for 3.0 unless some of the new pads have very good hardware specs. i'll be watching asus closely, from what I've read they seem to be the ones closest to getting it.

Good linux device

[w3c.org]

A few months ago I bought a WeTab from these people http://wetab.mobi/en/, and it rocks. I don't know if it's already shipped to the U.S.A., as I'm in Europe, but the specs look really good: 2 USB ports, 1 mini HDMI, the usual audio out jack, and a proprietary port (for a dock) on the bottom, but unused at the moment (the company hadn't produced a dock yet). It runs a WeTabOS, which is basically MeeGo + a graphical interface known as 4tiito, and that OS can easily be replaced by whichever flavour of GNU/Linux you'd like (MeeGo, Ubuntu, ...), and I think someone could also try cramming windows on the SSD. The processor is an Intel N450 at 1.66Ghz, with 1Go of DDR2 RAM. There's also a webcam, a SIM port... Basically everything you would need. At less than the price of an iPad (I paid mine about 460 euros, while the iPad here is 499 euros).

Re:Wait till end of Q1 2011

[Skal Tura]

Nokia N900 seems to get by fine with regular apps and touchscreen ...

Carl Helmers said it best

[Nefarious Wheel]

Carl Helmers, the first editor of Byte Magazine, said it very, very early on in the piece.

"There are people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people who wonder what's happening."

The first couple of issues of Byte, by the way, were corner-stapled and printed on blue paper to discourage photocopying.