Has The Tablet Changed Your Lifestyle

[HuskyPup]

I've been using tablets for more than a couple of years now for my own stuff, I'm greedy, I have four of them, and they have without doubt changed my interaction with technology and especially so in the evenings and when travelling.

These days I would guess I strike up my laptop maybe once a fortnight just to check for updates etc but very rarely for any typing work, I just leave that to my office PCs but I do a lot of research using the tablets whilst watching TV etc.

However the biggest change I've seen is with my other half and daughters. Since my wife got her tablet some six months ago her 17" laptop has not been switched on once and that thing used to be on maybe 15 hours a day! She does everything on it and it goes everywhere with her.

Likewise with my daughters, I actually had to update one of their laptops a few days ago since it hadn't been used for three months.

Is this a similar experience others are having? I'm keeping a diary now to check their usage and if it stays around the almost zero level I can feel a laptop sale coming on in the Spring/Summer.

[Jon_King]

For us the opposite.

I have an ipad that sits on the table of which only my 6 year old granddaughter uses.

My wife and I are right next to it and still use our laptops... For me its a mater of speed. I can type and research soooo much faster on a laptop compared to the tablet... it is more of a toy to me.

Can you type 40 to 50 words a minute or sail through scores of numeric inputs at lighting speed on a tablet? I just use the tablet to test my websites for function and compatibility.

The comparison is really apples to oranges. A tablet is not half the machine.... and I don't seem to see where the advantage is when I can flip open my laptop and have a whole machine.

[brotherhood of LAN]

>Can you type 40 to 50 words a minute or sail through scores of numeric inputs

That's it for me, too slow for 'the stuff i do' (which mostly involves typing). I've no doubt they're good for other users though.

My daughter is 2 and to introduce her to anything online I'd probably buy a tablet as the touchscreen seems more intuitive for the young mind.

[HuskyPup]

I still use my PCs for "serious" input work, definitely typing on a tablet is slow, very slow, however I have found that my tablets have freed-up my evenings simply by not having to use my laptop plus I take my 8" Xoom out with me every night in my jacket pocket and there is never a night goes by when it is not used to settle an argument:-)

My grand-daughter will be four in a couple of weeks time, she's been using my 10" Xoom for 8-9 months and my wife's Playbook since she's had it.

We also have a family touch-screen PC and the funniest thing ever was when she went to a new kindergarten and kept trying to use their mouse PC by touching the screen, a little boy of 21/2 had to show her how to!

She's now used to a mouse:-)

[lawman]

I used my Galaxy Tab every day right up until my Galaxy S III arrived. Tab has seen very little usage since then.

[lucy24]

Preliminary conclusion: It depends on how much of your online time is spent typing things. This number is bound to be lowish for people in the 2-4 age bracket.

I use the iPad when I urgently need to look up a word in the night. That's about it.

[graeme_p]

Tablet for watching video, reading ebooks, and light web browsing (e.g. quickly looking something up).

Real work, real research, real computer. (I know, I know).

[topr8]

>>It depends on how much of your online time is spent typing things

slightly off topic, but why do these smart phones and tablets insist on displaying a full 'keyboard' to type with ... IMHO using just 10 touch keys and a good predictive text algorithm would be so much quicker (just like phones used to do) eg. it's impossible to type properly on a tablet so why mimic a laptop keyboard?

[HuskyPup]

but why do these smart phones and tablets insist on displaying a full 'keyboard' to type with

For people with big fingers like mine! Seriously, I can hardly use those smart phone ones even when typing landscape, thankfully my Nokia E7 has a real keyboard.

[topr8]

>>Seriously, I can hardly use those smart phone ones even when typing landscape

yeah, HuskyPup that was exactly my point - so why don't they impliment less 'keys' and predictive text!

[Leosghost]

Because they'd do it all in American and not English..

[incrediBILL]

I'm using my tablet right now and I love the Nexus 7, best thing I've purchased since my original computer in 1980.

At the moment I'm using speech input which is very good and very fast and surprisingly accurate on the Nexus tablet. I also use swype which is much faster than trying to type on on a tablet keyboard unless you have a USB or Bluetooth keyboard.

The only real problem I'm having with tablets is the crappy web sites that arent designed to deal with mobile devices and don't use response design on theIr web sites,

TBH I miss speech input and swype when using my desktop these days as I'm starting to prefer it over typing.

My wife also has a tablet and hardly puts it down, I think we're both hooked!

[breeks]

I use a tablet when watching TV during the commercials. Mute sound and play or browse, keeping an eye out for when the commercials are over, then back to watching the show.

[idolw]

My wife stopped using her laptop completely the day she got her ipad. She was 100% google before so the switch was very easy. There is not much need for a PC if you run the house and raise the kid.
I use my Galaxy Note 2 everywhere and only use the regular PC for work - I have a laptop at home and desktop PC at the office. They are just terminals really as I keep almost all my stuff in the cloud so I have instant access on all my devices. I think the Galaxy Note 2 has better spec than my laptop PC :)