Dr Andus wrote:

I bought an Asus netbook
when it first came out for the exact same reason. I thought it would become easier to
capture ideas on the go. Also, I wanted to be able to surf the internet on the sofa and in
bed. Eventually this remained a dream. While it was easier to carry around than the
laptop, the boot times prevented it from turning into a notetaking device and it was
still too heavy and the wrong shape to watch anything on it on the sofa or in bed.

Then I
caved in and bought and iPad and I never looked back. It delivers on all of the above and
more. As I also bought the bluetooth Apple keyboard, there are days when I don't even
turn on the PC any more. Since the iPad I stopped using paper notebooks. The killer apps
for me are the following:
- the instant-on;
- the built-in Notes app that
automatically syncs with Gmail (this is where I capture random ideas);
- CarbonFin
Outliner where I add notes into hierchical outlines;
- Mail, the Google app and
Safari for email, blogs, and browsing;
- PDF Expert and GoodReader for reading and
annotating PDFs;
- BBC iPlayer for watching BBC programmes in bed.

So I don't think
you can go wrong with iPad 2. I have iPad 1 and I'm still extremely happy. I did try a
Windows tablet and returned it the same day. While my initial preference was for an
Android tablet, I just couldn't find the kind of apps I needed. And in the area of apps
iPad is far ahead.

They say misery loves company, but I would not exactly call using my netbook misery. Nonetheless, it sounds like we had similar experiences. I would buy an iPad2, but they are harder to find than hen's teeth! I had considered Samsung's 7 in. Galaxy Tab because its about half the size of the iPad, but I am not certain if it will be immediately "orphaned" with all of Android's OS updates. I hoping that my netbook will hold out a bit longer, but I hate to have it go before I have a replacement in place.

--Ken