the tablet war is heating up

[falcarrion]

My desktop, Laptop, and Ipad each work fine on there own. I don't see the need to be tied to just one device. But I find the ipad to be the most portable and the most versitile of the three. In combination.... well use your imagination.

 

[Banshee16]

One of my players has ordered a Xoom, and intends to have his Pathfinder rules live on it. He wanted a large surface, with Android.

Me... a big chunk of me just thinks that a laptop is... just plain more useful. Mind you, my taste in laptops leans heavily toward, well leaning heavily toward the side holding the laptop carrier. I favor honking brutes, big enough to actually do some work on, especially mapping using CC3. As a result, they tend to be on the weighty side....

The Auld Grump

I suspect it really depends on the person. I only purchased my first laptop a year and a half ago.....I've always been focused on desktops. Laptops just seemed inefficient..dollar for dollar, you get less computing power.

But they've got uses. And tablets are the same way. I suspect for the majority of users, they're still expensive toys. But increasingly I'm seeing uses for them in the business world. No, they're not as powerful as a desktop or even a laptop....but they're pretty flexible, convenient during meetings, for quick research, etc.

Banshee

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I suspect it really depends on the person. I only purchased my first laptop a year and a half ago.....I've always been focused on desktops. Laptops just seemed inefficient..dollar for dollar, you get less computing power.

But they've got uses. And tablets are the same way. I suspect for the majority of users, they're still expensive toys. But increasingly I'm seeing uses for them in the business world. No, they're not as powerful as a desktop or even a laptop....but they're pretty flexible, convenient during meetings, for quick research, etc.

Banshee

No argument there - for me it can be stated as follows:
Desktop>Laptop>>Netbook (duties entirely subsumed by laptop, so unnecessary)>E-Reader (more limited, but does what I would most want from a tablet)>>>Tablet.

I bought the laptop for travel, and it has served its purpose well. But I pretty much live on my desktop.

For a tablet my first purchase would be a mouse and a keyboard, which pretty much misses the point. I do own an Archos that I won a few years ago... I haven't seen it in years, and have no idea where I have packed it away. I may have given it to my girlfriend.

The Auld Grump

 

[IronWolf]

Netbook (duties entirely subsumed by laptop, so unnecessary)

Oh yeah, I have one of those as well - received as a gift. I have found uses for it as well even with the iPad in the house. Frequently IronPup uses it these days. And more recently Mrs. IronWolf took it on a road trip instead of her MacBook simply because the netbook packed into her carry-on much more easily.

Though the other option would be to just get a bluetooth keyboard for the iPad and have the netbook/tablet advantage in one device as opposed to the two separate ones I happen to have now.

 

[catsclaw227]

I suspect it really depends on the person. I only purchased my first laptop a year and a half ago.....I've always been focused on desktops. Laptops just seemed inefficient..dollar for dollar, you get less computing power.

But they've got uses. And tablets are the same way. I suspect for the majority of users, they're still expensive toys. But increasingly I'm seeing uses for them in the business world. No, they're not as powerful as a desktop or even a laptop....but they're pretty flexible, convenient during meetings, for quick research, etc.

I love my desktop, especially for work/programming. I have three 22" Acer monitors that I can have Outlook/Word/Excel, Visual Studio, SQL Server Management Studio open at the same time, all visible to me. I also like my natural keyboard, it is much easier for me to type and I imagine that I have cut back a lot of potential Repetitive Stress Syndrome. Also, when I am at my desk working, psychologically, I feel more responsible and get more done.

I also dig my shiny new laptop, a Dell XPS17 I just got a month ago, it's got a honkin' 9cell battery, 17" widescreen, and I use that at the gaming table, on a side folding tray. It's great for my PDFs and my 4e Combat manager software. (though I still like my table space in front of me to be a traditional DM screen, with paper notes and dice. ) I couldn't imagine being as productive on my laptop for work though.

I also like my Droid X phone. A slightly bigger screen than my old iPhone (which was OK, but I prefer the Android OS) and I use that for when I am at the shopping/grocery store, need to check a bank balance, Yelp a cool new restaurant or check into FourSquared, etc. Oh and as a phone too.

So yes, they all have their purposes.

 

[Alan Shutko]

The "simultaneous" bit comes from a parallel connector like the 30-pin, while USB is, as the "S" indicates, serial. Transferring multiple simultaneous streams of data is where parallel can rock.

However, I suspect this mattered a whole lot more a decade ago. USB 2 (and certainly 3) is plenty fast enough to mimic the same thing with sufficient buffering/caching.

Doing that might increase the price of some accessories.

The 30-pin connector can output digital signals (easily reproducible with USB) or analog video and audio signals. That makes various docks, speaker systems, etc cheaper since they don't need to include a DAC. The video out cables also don't need to do the conversion, so the 30-pin can support component, VGA or HDMI without separate plugs.

It can control the iDevice, so you can use the accessory remote instead of the phone to fast forward, etc.

The variety of devices available that are compatible with the 30-pin connector is huge, and I haven't seen that variety with the officially standard cables.

 

[Banshee16]

I love my desktop, especially for work/programming. I have three 22" Acer monitors that I can have Outlook/Word/Excel, Visual Studio, SQL Server Management Studio open at the same time, all visible to me. I also like my natural keyboard, it is much easier for me to type and I imagine that I have cut back a lot of potential Repetitive Stress Syndrome. Also, when I am at my desk working, psychologically, I feel more responsible and get more done.

I also dig my shiny new laptop, a Dell XPS17 I just got a month ago, it's got a honkin' 9cell battery, 17" widescreen, and I use that at the gaming table, on a side folding tray. It's great for my PDFs and my 4e Combat manager software. (though I still like my table space in front of me to be a traditional DM screen, with paper notes and dice. ) I couldn't imagine being as productive on my laptop for work though.

I also like my Droid X phone. A slightly bigger screen than my old iPhone (which was OK, but I prefer the Android OS) and I use that for when I am at the shopping/grocery store, need to check a bank balance, Yelp a cool new restaurant or check into FourSquared, etc. Oh and as a phone too.

So yes, they all have their purposes.

I've started bringing my laptop back and forth with me to the office. I use it almost as a virtual tower. I've got an ergonomic keyboard at the office at work, and I plug that, a mouse, and a second monitor. Laptop keyboards (and by extension netbook and tablet keyboards) are too small to type on for long without risking strain issues. I find that arrangement seems to work pretty well.

Where I notice issues is the laptop isn't particularly beefy. It was on sale back in 2009, and was a Vista machine with a free Win7 upgrade. It scores like 3.1 on the Windows benchmarks.......any time I've got video on screen, or I'm trying to upload big files or I've got multiple programs open, it can chug. A 4 GB upload to dropbox for one of my developers last night basically bogged the whole unit down and took something like 18 hours to complete.

I can tell where I'd likely add a tablet......it's excellent for meetings....it's so much easier to leave the laptop plugged in on my desk, so I don't have to boot out of whatever I'm working on. I can leave it plugged in, go to the client's office, not have to worry about if there's a power plug (my laptop will last about an hour or so with no plug), and I can easily pass it around to show what's on the screen to a client.

If I had to choose between a tablet and a netbook I'd likely choose the tablet. They seem to pretty much do the same thing...but the netbook is too close to gimped laptop. My understanding is that though tablets have much weaker processers than even a budget laptop, the actual OS' they use are quite snappy and efficient compared to regular OS' like Windows 7. Kind of like having a 160 horsepower motor in a car that only weighs 2000 lbs. No, 160 horsepower isn't much, but the vehicle weighs significantly less than other cars it's competing against, so doesn't *need* as much horsepower to be zippy.

I've got clients using them at conferences, using them to collect sales data from mobile offices when they meet with their own clients, using them to store order forms, so their salespeople can be standing in a clients' office, fill out an order right there, and have it be online instantly, instead of what they were doing before, which was to fill out a paper order form, get the signature, and then have to go back to the office and enter it into a computer manually afterwards. All those purposes *could* be accomplished by a laptop....no problem...the tablet is just so much more portable.

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

The variety of devices available that are compatible with the 30-pin connector is huge, and I haven't seen that variety with the officially standard cables.

I'm pretty sure that has more to do with the popularity of the iPod/iPhone/iPad family that uses the 30 pin connector over any inherent superiority of the format.

Apple's got better marketing, and they are one device vs. a plethora of other devices. And they've got the mass popularity angle covered. Hence, manufacturers have built for their platform.

There *are* docks with the other connectors...ones that will work with Zunes, Blackberries and other devices. There's just far less variety, and not as many retailers carry them. But I *have* seen them.

Banshee

 

[Janx]

Normally, I use my laptop with my character in an Excel spreadsheet and hyperlinked galore to d20srd.org.

I moved that sheet to Numbers on my iPad for the last game, and had all the books loaded in in iBooks.

It was great. The sheet was still easy to use to get my stats and update my inventory and HP.

and the hyperlinks still worked to d20srd.org, so I could open up rules on each skill, feat or spell.

I did not miss the laptop, and actually the iPad took up less space.

I would think the same thing would work on an Android tablet (a spreadsheet ain't a big deal).

As a player, I can't imagine what else I'd need a laptop for at the table, that my iPad can't handle. (well, I could, but do you really need it).

Bear in mind, I'm the kind of player who CAN just use the laptop/iPad for gaming during game time. My buddy actually called himself out, because he was side-surfing and not paying attention. I guess I'm more focussed than some folks. But then, I also don't mindless surf you tube and look up lolcats.

For actual work, I rock a lenovo t510 on a dock and a lenovo t500 also on a dock, plus a second screen on each. Makes it nice for running VS2010 + ManglementStudio+Mysql workbench, etc.

 

[Fast Learner]

Doing that might increase the price of some accessories.

The 30-pin connector can output digital signals (easily reproducible with USB) or analog video and audio signals. That makes various docks, speaker systems, etc cheaper since they don't need to include a DAC. The video out cables also don't need to do the conversion, so the 30-pin can support component, VGA or HDMI without separate plugs.

Great point.

It can control the iDevice, so you can use the accessory remote instead of the phone to fast forward, etc.

Ah yes, I neglected to include that. It also provides that nice on-screen on-device volume change when you change the volume on the accessory.