I got a new Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 tablet over the weekend. It is loaded with every Heinlein eBook I could find anywhere (of course), and in addition most of the Pournelle/Niven collaborations (esp. "The Mote in God's Eye"), Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy, several of Lois McMaster Bujold's best books.... The thing is, you can install apps to turn this into a Kindle/Nook/Adobe Digital Editions/PDF/RTF/text (Project Gutenberg) eBook reader, all for a bit less than a Kindle fire. It has a wonderful display that lets you zoom in for older eyes, etc.

I am told it also works nicely for watching TV and movies. Haven't tried that yet.

I paid $329 for the Wifi-only version, which hooks up to Verizon Wireless nicely via my Jetpack MiFi hotspot. So I would not bother to get it from a Wireless carrier and pay the premium. Just get a WiFi hotspot from your favorite Wireless carrier and hook up however many devices you want to it. Better, more flexible, cheaper.

I've been working my way up in screen size - EVO 4G, which was the first really powerful smartphone; then a Galaxy S3, and then I had an opportunity to upgrade to the Note II early. It may be a little small for some tablet users and a little big for some phone users, but it's the perfect combination for me, especially as I use the device about 95% as a tablet and 1% as a phone (rest is other communication channels).

My wife has an iPad 3 that I gave her and it gets a ton of use, but if I get a tablet or give one to any of the kids, it will probably be an Android platform like the Tab 10. Apple is nice, but it's not worth twice the price any more.

I agree that having a wireless carrier for tablets is unnecessary. Pretty much anywhere you can sit and use it, there will be wifi. My N2 runs almost entirely on wifi for data; we have a shared gig of data that barely gets nicked each month.

Overall point being, I'd rather have a flexible device than a phone-mit-features, or one optimized as an e-reader with everything else tacked on. Either iPad or the big Android tablets are a helluva piece of gear to have.

I've got a Vizio VTAB1008 tablet which is fine for reading. It is wifi only, no cell network data links/account. My phone is a Motorola Droid Bionic, with a data package. I use a free app (FoxFi) to turn it into a local Wifi hotspot.

If I could handle a smartphone, I could do what you do, Bill. But my vision is bad (not just kind-of bad -- I don't drive any more) and I have fat fingers, so typing on a smartphone screen is frustrating to the point that I'd throw the thing if I had to use it. So I kept my old non-smart phone, and got the MiFi for mobile data. I'll probably get a Jitterbug when my current phone dies -- probably not soon.

My laptop computer actually has a Gobi 2000 3G wireless chip on it, which works with any of the major Wireless carriers and is a *cool* bit of technology. Rather than upgrade the chip to the Gobi 3000 4G, however, I got the MiFi. It creates a WiFi hotspot wherever I am and sends the connection through Verizon Wireless. I can use it, and share it with my husband or any friends who need it when we are somewhere that doesn't have WiFi that we can use.

I'm rereading "The Mote in God's Eye". It wears as well as "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", IMHO: a stunning book. I see why Heinlein sent Niven and Pournelle a 70-page letter with edits and comments. Come to think of it, I'll probably reread TMIAHM next.

Had the Toshiba Thrive 10.1 for a year.

Wonderful, but clunky to carry around (HDMI tab was Super...)

Got the Samsung Galaxy tab 7, now; much handier. Loaded it with ebooks. Re-reading a bunch of Scalzi's stuff, and Red Planet.

I travel a lot, and find it charges FAST, which makes it easy to use over long periods. There is so much WiFi here and there that I seldom have to cheat with my Pda.net and FoxFi, on my Android phone.

oz, deeeep in the Ozarks, 'bout three hours from Butler