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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeff Wilder" data-source="post: 4638524" data-attributes="member: 5122">I think iPhone or one of its competitors will end up being the killer device for this.  (I thought I was done with Palm after my Centro, but have you seen the new Palm Pre?  Them's donuts, and me's Homer.)There are also subnotebooks that should be great for it.  Dell was recently running a "buy a PC, get a subnotebook ("netbook") for $99" promotion which a buddy took advantage of, and the device (loaded with Linux) is really sweet for the money.I use my Centro -- as a player, not a DM -- for access to the SRD and for other docs I've created (like "Standard Adventuring Kits" and "Wealth-by-Level," among others).  There are also tools for XP, CR, and EL calculation.  And there are some nice dice-rollers.As a DM, I often use an outliner program to map out adventurers and game-world events, as well as making note of cool ideas for NPCs, PCs, magic items, spells, and so on.  Occasionally, if I'm waiting somewhere, I use a word processor on the device to flesh out the ideas.  But I don't use my Centro at all at the table as a DM.I dislike having the laptop on the table, both as DM and as a player.  I like that my DM keeps it nearby, because he's pretty good at quickly finding rules with it, but constant reference to it would detract from the game for me.  (I also don't like DM screens, and I suspect the reason -- perceived isolation from players -- is similar.)  I don't think I would have the same issues with a smaller device.I think using a device as a diversion is outright rude.  We have a player in one game who constantly played games on her PDA, and consequently slowed the game to a crawl because she never knew what was going on or learned the most basic rules and tactics.  I snapped at her twice or three times about the disrespect it represented to our DM, and she finally stopped doing it.  And -- surprise, surprise -- she's become much more interested in the game and educated in the rules.</blockquote>

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