iPad? Or something else?

[1gear]

Anyone have one? Are they any good for day to day things like browsing the internet and sending emails?
Im abit tempted to get one to use most of the time instead of the PC, and i mainly use the PC for browsing the internet and chatting on msn and thats about it, ill send the odd email aswell, the BlackBerry i have is mainly used for sending emails. I dont do any typing up documents etc but if i did need to we have a main computer for that.
I like the design and having abit of a play on one today they didnt seem too bad with the touch screen and typing but wasnt able to get onto the internet to see how fast it was. I also like the idea of not having a screen up infront of you while your part watching tv and sat on the sofa.
Only thing thats putting me off is the £429 price tag, which when you look at laptops you can get a decent-ish one for that.
But laptops put me off because ive often sat with a laptop on my knee and after a while it isnt so comfortable, and i can often spend 4/5 hours in an evening on the computer.
What are netbooks like to use over a long period? My mum seems to thing that they are abit too small and you start to get aches after using them for a while.
Samsung Galaxy tab just looks from pictures to be quite small in comparison to the iPad.

Would i be stupid to go for an iPad over a laptop?
Battery life isnt a huge issue because i wont really be using it anywhere i wont be able to plug in.

Any advice?

Oh, angry birds is also on the iPad isnt it? Thats a big plus

[rusky]

IMHO, you'll get fed up with the lack of keyboard apart from anything else.

Get a laptop & a lap pad/tray.

[1gear]

IMHO, you'll get fed up with the lack of keyboard apart from anything else.

Get a laptop & a lap pad/tray.

Its weird because with phones ive always likes keys and ive stayed away from phones that are just touchscreens, which is why ive got a BlackBerry and not an iPhone.
The iPad seemed to be fine for me to type on with it sideways and i seemed to be able to get up to a decent speed, weather it will be the same when its flat on a table or at a slight angle unlike how it was in the shop i dont know. Ive seen you can get keyboards for the iPad though, if im right. But they were quite expensive.......

[PaulF]

Unless you want to write War and Peace then the keyboard on an iPad is just fine once you get used to it

[Tewdric]

You could save a shedload and get something much more useable:

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/GRADE_A2_-_Asus_EEE_PC_901GO_A2-901GO-OUK-BK01/version.asp

Stick Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition on it, get a 3G dongle and away you go.

[1gear]

Mobile usage doesnt matter, i use the BB when im at work in my breaks and its enough for me.
The iPad will be used at home instead of my computer for browsing the web, and chatting on msn.
Infact, doing everything that im doing now
Can you listen to music on the internet on them, like say on youtube and also be on an app? Or can you only listen to music on it when using the music player?
I do mainly use my iPod for music but occasionally use youtube for music

[dasmoth]

Unless you want to write War and Peace then the keyboard on an iPad is just fine once you get used to it

And if you do, it hooks up to a Bluetooth keyboard fine.

[mike]

i got an ipad and use it when i'm travelling.  Writing emails is about as easy as on a blackberry, browsing is great, books, videos and music are excellent on trains and planes.  Battery life is very good, the only challenge is editing documents which is quite clumsy.

it's sometimes impossible to connect to a local wifi if the login form needs flash (but it's normally fine)

& angrybirds is much better than on an iphone.

[1gear]

i got an ipad and use it when i'm travelling.  Writing emails is about as easy as on a blackberry, browsing is great, books, videos and music are excellent on trains and planes.  Battery life is very good, the only challenge is editing documents which is quite clumsy.

it's sometimes impossible to connect to a local wifi if the login form needs flash (but it's normally fine)

& angrybirds is much better than on an iphone.

The wifi being used is the one at home and at my GF's if i ever use it there.

The angrybirds bit is the main bit of importance ofcourse. At the moment the GF has control over it because its on her iPhone and iPod Touch so she can limit it for now........

[border-rider]

The iPhone is bloody awful for text editing - replying on forums or editing emails.  It really is sufficiently bad to put me off an iPad.

[1gear]

Not used the iPhone for anything more then angrybirds, like I say I prefer keys to touchscreen normally. However, I think with the iPad turned on its side the letters seemed much easier to use. But over a period of time do you notice you get fed up of the touchscreen
Going to take some serious thinking I think and a lot of reading of reviews and opions on them

[border-rider]

touchscreen is fine - I like it, works well.

It's the rubbish text editor that bugs me.

[DrMekon]

Does iOS have Swype or an equivalent?

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/XCWwuIXxBuI&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/XCWwuIXxBuI&rel=1</a>

I use it (i use slideit 'cos the swype beta is closed) on my HTC Desire HD - absolutely fine for forums, emails, notes etc.

I like Android, and the 7" format would suit me better, so something like a Samsung Galaxy Tab would be my choice, but I'd wait for the next android update before I'd make the leap to tablets - wait and see what google have planned.

[mike]

the actual typing is pretty good, the keyboard is about the right size and with a bit of practice it's not too much slower than a normal keyboard.  I dont really think swype is needed (you can touch-type on it)

but moving around among the text, editing what you've written and cutting and pasting is very painful. 

[Hot Flatus]

touchscreen is fine - I like it, works well.

It's the rubbish text editor that bugs me.

Yep. Very irritating.

I dont know if the iPad is the same in this respect (I'm sure we'll hear Wendy's high-pitched  Zimboid squeal anyway) but if it is then the iPad is a 'game-changer' in a negative way in so far as it limits what you are able to do.

[geraldc]

If you watch a lot of online videos on anything other than iPlayer or youtube, stay away from the iPad, with no flash you can't watch a lot of streaming media.
It's not like a PC with multitasking and the ability to have a lot of apps open at the same time, i.e. you can't watch youtube, play music and play a game at the same time.

[border-rider]

You can on the iPhone with OS 4.n

That's a huge improvement over OS 3 - means I can have Skype open in the background, permanently, use it to play music and do my emails at the same time.

+1 to the lack of Flash though.  That's just crap.

[geraldc]

What I meant was things have to be used full screen, you can't run more than item at once that requires you to see things, e.g. reading a paper and youtube at the same time are out.

[border-rider]

OK, sorry

I was just so excited at its ability to do something now that it should always have been able to do 

[Clandy]

Flash is yesterday's news. HTML5 is where it's at now.

[Greenbank]

Flash is yesterday's news. HTML5 is where it's at now.

That may be true but many existing sites will continue to use Flash for a good few years yet, and there will probably be sites starting to use Flash in 2 or 3 years' time despite there being plenty of advances in technology/standards such as HTML5.

There are several sites that I use now that rely on Flash, so they're impossible to use on my iPhone (or the iPad I don't have¹).

1. I don't have one for 4 reasons. (a) I'm skint right now, (b) The keyboard just can't keep with my typing (>100wpm), (c) No Flash means no support for *all* sites I would want to use it for, (d) I don't really have a need for one as I've got a laptop at home and an iPhone for the few times I need to do something on the move.

[Woofage]

Flash is the current news. HTML5 is where it will be.

FTFY.

[citoyen]

touchscreen is fine - I like it, works well.

It's the rubbish text editor that bugs me.

Yep. Very irritating.

I dont know if the iPad is the same in this respect (I'm sure we'll hear Wendy's high-pitched  Zimboid squeal anyway) but if it is then the iPad is a 'game-changer' in a negative way in so far as it limits what you are able to do.

The iPad is better than the iPhone in this respect but only because the larger screen means it's less fiddly. The user interface is to all intents and purposes exactly the same otherwise, with the same flaws - the same brilliantly bad autocorrect feature, for example.

d.

[Hot Flatus]

That isn't what I'm referring to really.. I know the iPhone has a small screen, and I wouldnt criticise it for that.  The problem is you can't always select certain bits on text on many webpages in order to cut and paste them.

Like I said though, I don't know if this is an issue with the iPad

[citoyen]

The larger screen makes it less of an issue, but not a non-issue.

d.