The lens may be ok, but it will never be as good as a decent compact or a DSLR.

I use my iPhone for quick photos - but not for anything I’d regard as serious.

I would not regard it as a serious camera but if it is the only camera that you have iPhone, iPad or throwaway compact whatever.

There is one with just wifi but there are another three versions. One with wifi+wimax, one with HSPA+ and one with LTE. So FOUR of them should be enough to make everybody happy.
http://www.techtree.com/India/News/MWC_ ... 6-893.html

I have to say I like the idea of browsing the net from my bed on Sunday morning, or late in night when I am too tired to sit behind the pc. But I don't think I would be willing to pay more than £300 for the tablet.

On the other hand, my good old Toshiba Tecra laptop with 1.2ghz centrino (i think) in it is too slow to even play youtube videos properly. And I don't really need a proper laptop anymore so if I was to get a backup device to my pc it would be a tablet.

I had a play with 1st gen Samsung Galaxy Tab at HMV but I didn't find the browsing very pleasant. I also tried Ipad and that was really good (browsing wise) but without Flash the ipad can never be provide fulfilling experience (for me).

The new dual cores with Honeycomb look like something I could get used to though. Shame that the new Galaxy is 10.1" as it would never leave my house due to its size.
7" BB Playbook seems to be portable enough and if they come up with a way to have Android apps on it (as the rumours suggest) - it will be a no-brainer (if I can justify spending £££ on a tablet).
And pairing one with a BB phone for the internet access is 100% win as you wouln't need to pay for data contracts!

I wouldn't necessarily expect to get away with that for free. Most UK mobile ISP's disallow tethering on phones by default and charge you an extra data fee for doing so - O2 charge me about a fiver a month for 3GB tethered. It's actually cheaper than a separate 3G data contract but it's not free. Have you used your BB tethered with a PC or laptop already?

Jon

I haven't.
How would vodafone know that I am using the tablet if it goes through my BB?

Ah, okay. Cheers for clearing that up. I like to be clear in my head about stuff, even if it's of no immediate use to me.

Well, its more that the feature is disabled on the phone until they send a service update to enable it. So if they haven't enabled it (i.e. you haven't paid) you don't get to do it - in fact on most phones you don't even see the option to do it.
Might be worth your while googling some instructions and checking your phone can do it before you shell out on a Playbook...

Jon

clicky
The Motorola Xoom (the first Android 3.0 tablet to hit the shelves) will be sold exclusively on Vodafone contracts by by Carphone Warehouse in the UK. Oh joy.

Jon

Some have already nicknamed it the ex-hume.







If I did want a useable 10" tablet but wanted to save a slab over Apple prices is there any real choice at the moment?

Not really. Maplin had an absolute shedload of various rather unusable looking ones for a couple of hundred quid if you like, if the display when I walked past their window this morning is anything to go off. Most of them were apparently running Android 1.something...

Given the prices of the Dell Streak, Samsung Galaxy Tab and now this (if the US price holds here), it doesn't actually look like anyone can make a decent, high quality tablet for significantly less than Apple can. But, you know, if you want a crap one there are dozens to choose from....

Jon

I am in possession of an unlocked, unbranded BB so it shouldn't affect me. Anyhoo, T-Mobile do allow tethering at no extra charge, so win-win for me.

My neice got a Jpad or Apad or some other letterPad at Xmas and it's [LIFTED]. It's a chinese POS designed to look exactly like an iPad only with crap hardware and a crap touchscreen running android. At least this one connects to the android market which is more than I can say for some. I think it was about £120-£140. she's only young though so as long as she can play angry birds and go to her "games" websites it does its job. I wouldnt touch one if it was free tbh.

On the bus this morning there was a girl using an iPad. I cant help but think it just didnt look right. I cant put my finger on it but it put me off. She was listening to music and then browsing Facebook. Maybe it was the size of the device (I'm used to my 4 incher) or the way she was balancing it or her knee when doing two handed touch gestures?

I wonder what that gesture was for? I've never used two-handed multi-touch with mine. Obviously that's going to be an issue with any tablet - by definition if you've got two hands on the screen you've got nothing to hold it with. I can hold mine comfortably my left hand no trouble but I do go to the gym, I don't know if I'd expect child or similar to be able to do so. I tend to prop it up somewhere if I'm watching something where I don't have to touch the screen.

Jon

She was choosing the crop for her new Facebook profile photo from one of her uploaded photos. She needed two hands to stretch the box out far enough.