I've just bought a macbook air (buying a lappy just as everyone switches to tablets, cutting edge me ) and that's more or less exactly what I'm going to do with that. Got a big portable USB hard drive with all my media on it & I'll shuffle stuff onto the lappy as required for individual trips.

Jon

Agreed, if it was aimed at the iPad it would have a bigger screen, bigger capacity and a much higher price point.

I feel an impulse coming on.. must resist!!

The Register has just (tangentially) pointed out something which is possibly the most staggering part of the whole deal.

Google paid $12billion for Motorola's mobile device division, yet they're paying someone else to build the nexus 7 for them.

The 16GB version is available for £189.99 at Currys and PC World. See here for details:

http://www.nexustabletcentral.com/2012/ ... yspcworld/

you expect a manufacturer to be able to tool up and build from scratch a new model and ensure its quality in just over a month?

They've had a declared intention to buy Motorola Mobile for almost a year and it's been 'in process' for pretty much all that time. There is no regulation to stop the two firms working together before the two organisations have been completely integrated. If it really only occurred to them to get Motorola to build a tablet for them after the last t was crossed and i dotted, they're bigger fools than either you or I.

And let's not kid ourselves, there's very little bespoke about the Nexus 7 that would require massive retooling. It's very much 'off the shelf' parts and when you're in China, you're looking at manufacturing plants the size of large towns which are already churning out most of the components anyway and specialise in short lead times, so yes, you pretty much can tool up and start making something in a pretty short space of time. Maybe not a month but probably a couple of months. And does it really matter if the Nexus 7 is launched now rather than in a month's time?

If they'd actually wanted to, they could have got Motorola to build the Nexus 7. They didn't.

Here's a review of said fondleslab.

Jon

Google have stated many times that Motorola won't get any special treatment over their other Android partners and will continue to operate as an independent entity, thus I imagine Google's decision not to employ Motorola to build their tablet was entirely intentional.

Besides, the Motorola Xoom is already a very capable tablet.

www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/apple/3367363/ ... ily%20news

That's as specific as predictions get these days

Well, if it means an end to these idiots I see at events waving their iPads around filming things, I'm all for it.
I'm not convinced it'll happen though. But maybe, in these post-Jobs days... who knows? The company did some stupid [LIFTED] the last time he wasn't around...

do I tell my wife what I've just ordered

The old 'sure we can both use it' if it gets tough?

She would see through that quicker than a quick thing in a quick place, but in my defence I have booked us into the Three Ways house in Mickleton to experience the Pudding club.

That sounds utterly filthy

Hmm, just visited the website, not available in your country...

I like the specs, but I still don't know why I would want one...

I ordered one; I want it for sketchbook pro mostly, and because it's smaller than an ipad.