Are Ipad 2s any good? Does it work like a laptop? What is the wireless service and speeds like?

i am not allowed to tell people what to do with Apple products because it might be construed as medical advice since it would make reference to various body parts and an application of force.

lol@dibs

ipad isn't laptop, it has touchscreen (virtual keyboard) and no normal keyboard unless you buy 1 and then its not much smaller than small laptop. it depends on what you are gonna do if ipad/other tablet is better for you than laptop.

Inspiron Duo can flip into a laptop if you need a keyboard. matter of fact, i've become kinda dependent on it's keyboard layout. it's like they finally put the keys were they were supposed to be.

Apple products are stupidly over-priced.

Unless you're dead set on something in their OS as a must have, I strongly recommend looking at other products. I have owned both Apple and Droid products (although I downright refuse to waste money on a tablet that is only slightly more functional than a good smart phone only because of screen size, and much less functional than a real laptop), and have yet to find anything that iOS can do that the Droid OS can't - and in a lot of cases Droid does it better. You'll get the exact same technology for 1/2 the price - it might not be wrapped up in a pretty, sleek, over designed package....but it's just as good, and for 1/2 the price.

Really the only reason I can see to buy an iPad over another tablet, if you really want to waste your money on something that serves no real purpose, is if you want to be relieved of even MORE of your money for some reason.

TY NOW3P,

my main purpose is to be able to use the internet for real-time streaming stock quotes or something like facebook or yahoo IMs.

In your opin. what device would be the smartest/cheapest to use/have?

what cell carrier do you have?

i would just upgrade to a capable smart phone

I think for the money, the Samsung Galaxy is my current fav, and would certainly meet your needs. If you buy it from a Verizon retailer, I believe you can pick it up for $350 right now with a 2 yr contract for service. Super fast processor, nice 10" display, lots of data capabilities (Can handle Flash - no Apple device does this), and still lightweight and portable.

http://www.samsung.com/...galaxytab/10.1/index.html


The Asus Transformer/Transformer 2 are supposed to be nice (and have a kick ass name!), but I haven't tried them personally. They're right in the same price range as the Galaxy, so might be worth a look. Same goes for Acer Iconia A500.

I'm not a fan of the Motorola Xoom. I played with a couple of them, and they just felt cheaply built and like it would shatter into a bajillion pieces if I looked at it funny. Plus Motorola insists on putting all sorts of useless fluff in their OS that you can't get rid of (Social networking tickers, info streams, etc).

Ultimately, if you're just looking for streaming stock quotes as your primary use, I'd have to agree with fordie - get a smart phone with a nice big 4" screen. It's infinitely more portable, just as easy to use, and will deliver every single bit of data that a tablet will. My Sony Xperia has about 80 quadzillion different stock tickers it can download (most of which include a widget to put on the home screen for real time), can do IM, Facebook/Google+ (although I deleted Facebook cuz I don't like being spied on), and all of those other really awesome smart phone type things as well.....and it even makes phone calls!


The way I look at it, and this really is a personal opinion thing - what works for you works for you - tablets are the stepping stone between smart phones and laptops...the missing link, if you will. The only problem is, they're not advanced enough to ever compete with a laptop, and not simple/portable enough to ever replace a smart phone. Essentially, it's serving the same role as the missing link in human evolution - that thing that got phased out because it really just wasn't necessary on either side of the equation, and didn't have any original benefits to bring to the table that the other devices (species) didn't already have.

If someone can shrink a laptop to tablet size, I'd probably be all over it. But without a keyboard, a tablet is just an over-sized smart phone that can't actually make phone calls.

ultrabooks are quite thick but those aren't available for sale for a while.

My son has one, he likes it, it has some capability to function similar to a netbook, not much in the way of supporting local applications, or games, it really depends on access to the internet via WIFI. Once you have that, it does make the most of the available entertainment choices. There are apps to support Netflix, YouTube, etc. They seem to be reliable and stable, and it is in a convenient device that allows you to be completely transportable in a way that is unmatched by other similar devices, and certainnly easier than high-powered laptops which are so much larger.