I'm getting closer to wanting one. With the high res screen it has the attraction of carrying/editing/showing my photos, iWork/iLife means I can do on the go what I normally do on my Mac plus I've wanted some form of eReader for a while now.

What puts me off still is the price for 64GB and the fact I already have a device with data costs to do mobile browsing, Twitter, etc and although a much smaller screen can show photos and read eBooks.

If you're referring to a phone, can it do tethering? You'd get all the benefits of the 3G iPad without the extra cost (although it'd probably cost you a few quid extra monthly on your phone bill).

For someone like my mum, she isn't very computer literate. Nor does she really need to be.
She wants something she can sit down with in front of the telly, do some email, word processing, online shopping and the like.
It shouldn't be too heavy, it needs a decent screen and be as intuitive as possible. I've seen her struggle with using a mouse and clicking the right number of times.
It also needs to be fairly virus proof, as she will open just about anything.

She doesn't need the grunt of a full on laptop, she doesn't need the size or weight of a laptop, but she does need a decent display.
An iPad would be just about perfect I think.

It's not better, it's different. If you can't see how you would use one, you probably wouldn't, and therefore shouldn't buy one. It's that simple.

However, anyone who follows the logic line 'I can't see what I would use one for, therefore nobody could have a use for them, therefore anyone who buys one is wrong, an idiot and well below me in intellectual capability' is a blithering fool and should have starving dogs set upon them.

Jon

Steady on mate - have a biscuit.



All I've said is that I don't understand the use case. I accept that there must be a use case - it 's just that I can't see it. I want to understand it and I'm trying to understand it but I'm obviously missing something.

It becomes much more obvious if you ever use one. Or if you use a smartphone. It's basically the same, but doesn't suffer from all those, I wish the screen was bigger moments.

I have used one. For an extended period. I found it very ... restrictive.

I guess it makes more sense for content consumption rather than creation.

Oh, absolutely.

Except is that true? People like Mark will swear blind that they actually use it for content creation.

Oh for pity's sake - I'm more confused than I was to start with.

Most people use it like an interactive magazine / light games machine / social media portal.

When you're sat on the sofa in front of the TV, when you're curled up in bed or while you're on the train:
It's perfect for playing Angry Birds (most popular game in the galaxy - almost everyone says so)
It's perfect for catching up on Facebook
It's perfect for browsing the news sites
It's perfect for a nice game of chess
It's perfect for seeing what's on TV
It's perfect for browsing photos
It's perfect for sexy webcam
It's perfect for porn
It's perfect for ...

... well, lots of stuff.

It's rubbish for:
Anything that requires lots of typing. Note, typing is not a popular pastime. People don't like typing. People get enough of that at work and they don't want to do it at home. Most *normal* people that is; not the people on this forum.

There are some high productivity uses, but they are very niche. Video editing in the field for example.

Oh, I didn't mean to suggest you were thinking that. It just shows up in certain places (any comment thread on any iPad story on The Register for example) and it really gets my goat.

As I say, if you can't figure out how you'd use it, there's absolutely no good reason to spend money on one.

Jon

I still have no need for a tablet. I'll be interested to see what they do on the next iPhone though.

Nobody really needs one.

Incidentally, I still use my netbook far more than my tablet on a daily basis. It simply does more useful stuff. However, in front of the TV the tablet is better. I've used it at least twice this year already. I'd use it more if I had more time to slob around.

Take a look at this.