I am thinking about getting a tablet. I would mostly be using it for small amounts of word processing for work, teaching online courses (logging in, reading, grading, etc.), checking email, taking notes at conferences, that kind of thing. I have a Kindle, so I don’t necessarily need one that’s fantastic for e-reading, but I’m not averse to it.
So, when I go looking around, what should I look for? Got any recommendations? Thanks in advance!
I love my Motorola Xoom. I have apps to open up MS Office files such as word, Excel and adobe pdfs. Can even create them from the tablet and rarely ever use my home PC anymore. I have a 4G Verizon connection, but I hear that the WiFi version is pretty good if you have access to a good WiFi connection; which as a teacher you probably do. Still you want the ability to be able to remotely log onto a PC (either home or a work PC) to be able to some things; there are several apps available that can make this happen, the sticking point may be your schools network administrator letting you do this. Also, go with the 10" screen; it’s not so big really and easy to carry around, the newer 7" ones are more for people watching media.
I believe that an iPad can pretty much do the same type of things and as an educator you may find more support among the other teachers (and your network admins) if you go with an Apple tablet.Oh, and taking notes by hand on either one is still a pain as the resolution of the screen makes everything you write look like it was done in crayon. Best to take notes by use of the software keyboard.
new models are coming out in these weeks so there is more to look at.
Well, now I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t just get a small (10" screen) laptop. I have a 15.6" screen laptop that’s good for me for long work sessions, and I basically bought it to be a portable desktop substitute. But when I travel or go to conferences, it’s bulky, so I thought a tablet would be a good in-between. But maybe a smaller laptop would be better?
The tablet would have to work with everything I already have, so nothing Apple.
I should have titled this thread “tell me what to buy, because I am clueless.” 
What do you have that you think won’t work with an Apple tablet? The iPad, because of its popularity, is probably the best-supported tablet on the market. The number of applications that support Google’s android tablets is much, much smaller. And Apple fully supports using the iPad with a Windows PC.
For note taking, I would get one of the cases that has a built-in hardware keyboard.
If you want a small laptop instead, Apple’s 11" MacBook Air is great, and starts at $999. You can run Windows on it if you really want to.
nettop/netbook (small laptops) have 9 to 11 inch screens, can have solid state hard drives so they are rugged, have USB, LAN and wifi connections.
This works for what you want; get one now! 
It has an micro SD card slot too, one thing Apple doesn’t have; very useful for transferring large amounts of files from a PC or a camera. And although it may be a bit heavier than some tablets out there it is very solid and durable. And since it has been out awhile you can get accessories cheap. Check out the reviews, people who actually own one like it and are not envious of the Apple crowd. Really. 
Really, once you go tablet you will not even consider netbooks. Netbooks are basically just undersized PC’s and don’t have enough memory for some PC based software. Tablets have a lot of support and apps are being developed for them constantly now. And don’t be fooled by Apples claim that theirs is better because there are more apps available because most of the apps in the Apple store are just plain redundant variants of the same program or are worthless junk. You only really need about 8 to 10 apps to do everything you are talking about and the Android developers have those covered pretty well (and the useless junk as well!).
I was hoping to spend in the $400 to $500 range, so the MacBook price is :eek:
That Motorola thing looks interesting.
Given what I’ve said I want to do with it, what technological specs should I pay attention to? SD card slot is good, I didn’t even think about that.
I bought an ASUS Eee 1015PEM notebook for under $300 that might fit your needs. I looked at tablets, but other than the ‘gee whiz’ factor of a touch screen, the expense didn’t justify it. It comes with 1GB of RAM, easily upgradable to 2GB for about $15. Three USB ports, Wi-Fi, headphone, PC cable output, and cable ports. Comes with Windows 7 and Microsoft Office Starter programs. It’s one of the best-rated notebooks out there. You can buy a Case Logic soft case for it at any computer supply place.
I don’t have a tablet, but I know several people who do. The consensus seems to be: great for viewing content, not so great for creating content. If you’re going to be doing a significant about typing, get a netbook instead.
You might also ask to have this moved to IMHO, as you’ll probably get more input there.
I have a wi-fi XOOM (using it now, in fact) and I’d echo this. It’s better than using my phone but not as good as my netbook. We bought this largely to keep our 5 year old daughter entertained on the upcoming 24 hour flight we’r
e taking. We’ve loaded several DVDs onto it, after some fiddling about, along with a heap of games and we’re crossing our fingers.
I love the XOOM, and in fact my husband tipped orange juice over my netbook the week we got it, so it’s my surfing option now. It helps that I read a lot more than I post.
Huh, it autocorrects XOOM to all caps, whatdoyouknow?!
I’ve used an ipad for taking notes, both with and without an external keyboard. It’s fine in a pinch, and makes sense if you mostly need tablet-friendly features (reading, size) and writing is secondary. But I wouldn’t recommend a tablet if writing is your primary need. In particular, editing text with a touchscreen is much more frustrating than with a mouse.
The Asus Eee Pad Transformer is a tablet with a keyboard dock that gives you a trackpad as well, and it would suffice for light word processing. There’s a slider version as well. I’ve got the Transformer and I’d say it’s actually superior for typing compared to my old Dell netbook.
However, Android is nowhere near where Windows is with content production software. There are some office suites, but nothing that’s going to match the functionality of MS Office or OpenOffice or the like. Depending on just how light your light word processing is, the Android options might be sufficient, but at this point you’ve got to consider why you’re spending $400 on a tablet plus $150 for a keyboard dock (which, granted, gives you like 16 hours battery life) when a $300 netbook will have more processing power and a real operating system.
You buy the tablet if you like gadgets or because you want the tablet form factor, but if your primary uses of the device involve typing, then you don’t want the tablet form factor.
Moved from General Questions to IMHO.
samclem, Moderator
My wife’s $250 netbook has 1 gig of memory (and a 250GB drive) out of the box and adding another gig would be about $25 except she hasn’t needed it yet. What software are you talking about? Especially in comparison to a tablet?
I wasn’t impressed with PhotoShop Elements on a Tablet for one thing; also some some home design/landscaping software didn’t even want to load. If I was going to have a windows based operating system I’d like it to do everything.
As for the OP; it appears that she more wants to view and markup which is easily done with a tablet. Once you get used to not being on a windows based operating system you realized that it opens up options that you may never have considered before. I actually use PicSay Pro to view and markup things very nicely now; something I would never thought of looking into if I were using a netbook with Windows. After a couple of weeks of using a tablet I realized that I had been brain washed into thinking that MS Office products were the only solution to any task and once I realized that I was able to let go.
Still, I can remotely long into a PC with my XOOM and use it’s software when I have to; it’s not a big deal. That and they make carrying cases with bluetooth keyboards for these things; no bigger than a netbook and you can leave the keyboard behind when you don’t need it.
Kolga, i have an Asus Eee netbook, and i use it for basically exactly the same things that you want to do with your new device.
I often use it to do things like update my class website, grade papers, take notes for my lectures, and other teaching-related tasks. It’s light (although not as light as a tablet) and small, so it’s great for conferences and for research trips to libraries and archives. The battery life is excellent (8-10 hours on a charge) so i can do a full day’s work at a cafe or in a library without needing to plug in.
I have a powerful desktop at home, and a desktop at work, so the netbook is used only for my mobile computing needs. That’s important, because while it does fine with email/web/office and other low-power tasks, it’s not powerful enough to deal with more resource-hungry programs like Photoshop, and the 10" screen would be a real limitation for that sort of work anyway.
I like tablets, but for my own needs, i prefer a netbook that runs all my regular office software, that has a proper keyboard, and that has the other things that i expect from a computer, like USB slots (none on an iPad). Mine also has an SD card slot.
For me, the main functional downside is that i’m not a huge fan of the trackpad. But i’m a desktop person, and i’m not a big fan of any trackpad. I much prefer a mouse. I bought myself a small travel mouse for the netbook, and it makes quite a difference.
Anyway, just my 2c.
ETA: My netbook is 2 years old now. You can get one now that is cheaper, a bit lighter, and more powerful.
samclem, thank you for moving the post. I apologize for posting in the wrong forum.
And many thanks to everybody for all of the advice and recommendations! I have a lot more to think about than I realized. 
From my own personal experiences using a desktop, laptop, netbook and tablet I would say that if I wanted to do actual work on the road, I’d choose a netbook for the increased power, keyboard and standard Windows environment. If I wanted something for just email, web browsing and entertainment, I’d go with a tablet. Of course, you can browse and check your email via any device these days so the only real reason to go tablet is if your needs are limited enough to make the form factor a plus instead of a detriment.
Of course, if I needed specific applications where the netbook’s screen, CPU or keyboard size would be an issue, I might go laptop but I can’t imagine where a tablet would have an advantage in those situations.