Just read through all of the above with interest.
We all have different things we require to make our lives easier, or enhance them. Both work & leisure.
I have a PC with 3 big screens in my home office. My phone is just a phone ( ok, camera as well, but not Internet accessible). When I travel I have been using hotel or airport lounge / concourse computers, as well as friends' in their homes. I travelled with a notebook computer ( no internet) briefly before 9/11, but found the extra weight in my hand luggage a nuisance. This was a period when I was subject to a lot of extra security screening, on one day 5 times in the one airport. On one occasion security made me miss a flight when they wanted me to switch the computer on, had a flat battery, & the cord & power adapter were in my checked bag, so they were somewhat hostile, to say the least. Was delayed over an hour, and somewhat intimidated by the experience, and then searched again in the same airport before boarding my next rescheduled flight, and again at lax /sfo same day. Never bothered carrying a notebook again, and my old one was thrown out about a decade ago. Since then only used a PC.
Big limitation for me has been banking / buying things on the go, where I don't trust the security of hotel / airport computers. As well as any site that needs a login except for my email. My biggest time for surfing sites like AFF is when I'm away, but there is a limit to how many views before I get asked to log in, so I Have usually gone somewhere else.
In hotels where I stay often, they do let me into the back office to use their computer for paying things, or when they nowadays usually only have 1 available in the guest lounge and its being used / out of service. So I have to make myself look respectable to go down to the foyer, and do my online things in a batch. Often the guest lounge has limited hours that don't fit my working / sleeping patterns.
So when I won an iPad 16GB with wifi recently on the SMD3, it gave me something I had briefly looked at in a shop a year ago, but couldn't work out size for me ( cloud has probably solved that problem), and touched a couple of times:
Markis10 showed me photos of his kids at the monthly Mill event. How easy was that! Big, clear & easy to page through. On the SMD3 one of the guys let me use his iPad to check my emails when I had just arrived in NYC, been traveling all day & out of touch of my email for a couple of days, sitting in the foyer waiting for others to arrive to go out to find some food. Also used his iPad to check my cc account & move some money around. On my next flight I watched someone curl up on their side & watch their choice of movies through the flight to FRA.
These are my uses for it. Some considerable photo storage & ability to see them bigger than my camera while I am on the go. Safe banking / buying on the go wherever I can get wifi - in airports / hotels / public places & access to internet to surf / check email without having to wait & without feeling I need to wash my hands after. Ability to do all of the above in my hotel room at whatever time suits me. Read Aussie newsapers at home / around the world in a print size that works. And have even been on a plane with wifi where I could surf whilst flying - how good is that!! As well as take photos using camera or iPad, and download & look at them immediately to admire my talents.
Even though I have a nice computer setup in my home office, if I am in relaxation mode I can take off my shoes & use the iPad in the dining room, lounge, on the patio, gazebo... Even hung over the fence talking to the neighbour & looked at some pics of garden sheds the way you would normally with a newspaper / magazine.
I hadn't realized that I would use a tablet like this. When I get time I'll go to the local Apple Shop & do their beginners' class on iPad, then later on the more advanced one. There may be a few things (!!) I can do with it that I havn't worked out yet. iCloud started up about a week before I received my iPad, so not getting the larger storage capacity isn't an issue.
Still need to work out Skype type function, but I think this is something I'll also use with family that hasn't been available on hotel computers.
