[Loccy]

I ask, because I am a little confused by some of the "the TP is awful", "I can't wait to ethnically cleanse WebOS and put on Android" stuff doing the rounds on the interwebs. The TP has become my primary tablet, leading me to sell my two Android tablet and give away my iPad. I don't understand how people can have such wildly different experiences.

For me, a tablet device is primarily recreational with a very occasional bit of work done. I use my TP (and its predecessor devices) to curl up and watch video and TV, to bum around on the internet, email and occasionally, as a note taking device at meetings. That's it and to be entirely honest, apart from games, I can't think for the life of me of any other realistic purpose for tablet devices. Even on the iPad, office suites are shadows of what is needed to get actual work done. What else is there? Tablets are basically toys - and I don't mean that as a bad thing, because recreational electronics is not exactly unnecessary.

So, I'm intrigued to hear what people's use cases for their tablets are - and how well the TP does (or not)

[vanzanthp]

Surf the web, play games, watch videos, listen to tunes. Just started using the SNES app yesterday. Good Times.

[fkpaul]

Yep, well I was travelling through Asia a few weeks ago, happened to be in Singapore. Checked into my hotel, plugged in the laptop and about half an hour into checking my email the hard disk crashed. Lucky for me my company enforces mandatory backups done online so wasn't too worried about data loss.

However, having no laptop while on business travel is a real downer. Lucky for me I also had my TP. So rather than being an option, I was literally forced to completely rely on my TP for everything I would normally rely on my laptop to do. And you know what? It was brilliant. Okay, so its not a full replacement for a laptop, but it gave me about 90% of the basic business functionality I needed via email, web browsing and viewing office files like PowerPoint and Word.

The real revelation was, about two days after I had my laptop back in operation (my company has Exec support all over the place, even Singapore) for the remainder of my 2 week business trip I hardly used my laptop and instead continued to use my TP.

Why? It was lighter to cart around, it lasted all day, and gave me super quick access to what I needed when I needed it. When it wasn't being used for business, I was using it to catch up on news, while on my flights it was my personal entertainment device eg watching movies, playing games, listening to music and writing documents. Alas the crappy Kindle update meant I could not use it for reading books as the app kept giving me that stupid and frustrating whitescreen. Not the TP's fault per se, but nonetheless rendered useless because of it.

I'm convinced that in one shape or form, tablets will erode the value of laptops for the average user. Don't get me wrong, in its current state the TP can't do much of what I need to do (well) but its clear that the writing is on the wall. Lots of organisations are starting to see the practicality of these devices and frankly I'm already convinced. These are more than just light duty entertainment devices, these are becoming serious contenders for the mobile business professional.

Just my 2 cents -- peace ;-)

[flight]

Mainly to check Twitter (using Glimpse) and Google Reader (using Tea Reader). I also browse the web a bit, but would probably use it more if the browser wasn't so terrible.

[CaCHooKaMan]

SNES, ScummVM, N64 and other games. thats pretty much it.

[cgk]

I'm using it for reading comics and the odd bit of web browsing but honestly it's mainly sitting on my desk unused.

I took it out for a journey last week but it kept letting me down - first the pdf I wanted to read was unavailable because the dropbox integration does not actually seem to cache documents (huh?), then Quick office crashed and took some work with it.

It was still a good purchase at £89 but I haven't moved from my original position that a tablet is an optional extra that I wouldn't pay full price for. I might feel different when ICS becomes available for it but then again I might not.


I might have to try the SNES emulator however...

[tannim]

Currently I use the touchpad mostly for Accuweather and maybe a game of smart sudoku on that ridiculously tiny pre-emulator window. Sometime I even play freecell or the hard to control due to lack of buttons snes emulator.

I'd type with it, but with no USB ports, my unwillingness to shell out $40 for a bluetooth keyboard that only this thing could use, lack of dvorak hardware keyboard layout, absolutely no non-online writing program other than maybe the email program(quickoffice is not a writing program, it's a frequently crashing joke), I can't use it for that.

The only real valuable thing I've found it can do, other than weather and a few games, is view my friend's livestreams. My computer tends to crash doing that lately, I'm not sure why. Don't seem to have a virus but something got screwed up.

[Xeron]

General web browsing, iPlayer, 4OD, games (mostly Angry Birds, Supersonic, Bee Hive and Slice It!), and developing webOS apps (well 1 so far, more to come .

I love it.

Edit: Oh, forgot email, skype and facebook.

[slbailey1]

Picture Frame, Web Browsing, News Feed Reader, Email.

[cgk]

Picture Frame, Web Browsing, News Feed Reader, Email.

What newsfeed reader are you using? I tried teareader and find it to be a bit clunky.

[Peterjoy931]

I use it when I am out to watch TV, I have Playon. Also checking email and youtube stuff. I use it in the kitchen for recipes. Google documents is handy for me also. If I had to choose between my laptop or tablet I would choose the laptop. I do work with someone who has all his school textbooks on his iPad so that is pretty cool.

[Bohh]

Surf the web mainly.

[D4ve2]

Watching videos and web surfing. I use twitter alot and can't seem to find an app for it. is there no official twitter app for this device?

[Touchpaddle]

I'm ashamed to admit that I use my Touchpad
while "taking care of business" in the bathroom.

In fact, that's exactly why I decided to spend
$84 and order it from HP.com in the first palce.
Even if I drop it in the toilet, I probably won't
feel as sad as dropping my iPad 2 in the toilet.

My $799 iPad 2 never goes anywhere near the
bathrom.(which is ironic because it has a 3-year
warranty with accidental damage & spill coverage)

In case anyone is wondering... YES, I have done
something that stupid... I dropped my Samsung
Galaxy SII unlocked phone in the toilet bowl a
couple of months ago. It didn't make it.

[slbailey1]

What newsfeed reader are you using? I tried teareader and find it to be a bit clunky.

NomNomNom

[guinny1759]

Web
E-mail
Flash

I'm pleasantly surprised with Flash performance in particular, it does well majority of the time.

[crucian4]

SNES, ScummVM, N64 and other games. thats pretty much it.

N64???? There is an N64 emulator available? Where?

[icecube0045]

N64???? There is an N64 emulator available? Where?

preware

[Loccy]

I'm using it for reading comics and the odd bit of web browsing but honestly it's mainly sitting on my desk unused.

I took it out for a journey last week but it kept letting me down - first the pdf I wanted to read was unavailable because the dropbox integration does not actually seem to cache documents (huh?), then Quick office crashed and took some work with it.

It was still a good purchase at £89 but I haven't moved from my original position that a tablet is an optional extra that I wouldn't pay full price for. I might feel different when ICS becomes available for it but then again I might not.

I might have to try the SNES emulator however...

Apart from your assertion that "a tablet is an optional extra" I agree entirely - I do see tablets as servicing an important recreational niche. But the operative word is recreational - I certainly wouldn't have been attempted to take a tablet (be it an iPad, Android or TP) if my trip necessitated me editing documents to any real extent. I've had more or less exactly the same experience on all tablets, not just the TP - would be fascinated to hear how fkpaul handled his document editing.

To my mind tablets are recreational devices and for me on that level I don't think anything beats the TP. Mind you, my recreational needs don't really include games - so I can see why someone's who is a gamer might rail against the few choices in that regard.

As an aside, I also don't understand this browser hate for the TP. It seems faster on the TP scrolling through web pages than on my iPad. The iPad does the checkerboard cheat more often than the TP.

NomNomNom

I don't do RSS, but I might have to grab that app just for having the most awesome name in the history of history itself.

[fkpaul]

Yeah, document editing was not a great experience with the current QuickOffice version. But it was sufficient, I wrote some lengthy pieces which were an exercise in patience. I'm curious to see if SmartOffice would substantively improve things in that area.*

I'm quite realistic, the TP is a tablet and its effectively running on the same spec of your modern mobile smartphone but with a larger screen.*

If I hadn't had the experience of being completely cut off from my laptop I probably would have continued to view the TP as a recreation-only type gadget. Since then my view has changed and I see the value in it being more than that. As tablet technology matures I'm confident we will rely on them more.