I don't get tablet computers

[pokerfan]

They've always seemed overly specialized to me, ie. great for Fed-Ex drivers and Star Fleet petty officers. The veritable clamshell (laptop/notebook/netbook) design has two distinct advantages: 1) a real keyboard and 2) a built-in http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2010/01/apples-ipad-has-major-design-flaw-no-builtin-stand-for-watching-video.html">stand. Unless it can fit in a pocket (iPod, iPhone, etc.), I just don't get them.

To my mind, the only place a tablet has in the world is when it's combined with a dock that provides both of the features listed above, something like the IdeaPad U1 Lenovo announced at CES. Put everything (CPU/memory) in the display and treat the base as a dock/hub/charging station/keyboard/stand.

To my mind, the tablet is one piece of Star Trek Tech that really isn't worth chasing.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

1. I think the iPad is aimed to compete with devices like the Kindle

Even though Apple hasn't come right out and said so.

Personally, I hate the things - they're like enormous brick-sized cell phones. A Blackberry does just as much in a lot smaller space.

But, if anyone can make an over-priced piece of technological over-kill cool, Apple can.

[Fumesucker]

2. I've seen a computer that works both ways..

As a regular laptop with a keyboard but you could also twist and fold the display around and it stacks on top of the keyboard portion with the screen up and acts as a tablet.

[marybourg]

3. I think of it as a couch computer. I won't have to get up and go to my

desktop in my office every time I think of something I want to look up!

[MyNameGoesHere]

4. iBut iT's iSo iNnovative!

iRemember iThis is iThe iCompany iThat iHas iGiven iUs iThe iPhone, iTunes, iPod, iMac,iRaq,iRan, and iRon. iThe iNext iNovation is iThe iCantBelieveTheseSheepThinkThisIsInnovative.

iWhen is iThe iMaxiPad iComing iOut?

[charlie]

5. I didn't get the iPhone, either

Then I wound up driving my son to the the store in the dark hours of the morning so he could wait for his bauble, so what do I know? Jobs could make Apple branded can openers a national fetish if he wanted to.

Wacom must be freaking out right now. The day a decent sized tablet can run Photoshop is the day their company is finished.