Amazon, Google, and Microsoft won't reveal their tablet sales numbers, but...

So picking your favourite earth-raping techno-gadget team is completely foreign to me as well.

I guess in the process of killing species & ecosystems its about time we start making our own Gods.

So I read post out of curiosity.
Progress, technology and the world is going to move on with or without you.
Lighten up. Eight years of President Obama. Celebrate.
The world is a fun place - you just have to get out in it and live.
When I go an NFL playoff game is a couple weeks, as millions will and have done, I'll be texting and video message friends/family having the time of my life, win or lose.
What am I thankful for?
That people like you - who would if they could - can't do a damn thing to stop it.

Perhaps after the collapse of the industrialized food system due to climate change--and the multi-billion head famine--people may be more open to ideas about sustainability and resilience over earth-raping and "techno-progress".

In the meantime (perhaps a span of only a few decades according to IPCC AR4 based studies), you have every "right" to enjoy your circus as long as its just the world's poorest dying off from our excess.

Maybe the Apple or Sony God will save us then?

Its important for us all to understand how our individual and collective actions impact the greater system, regardless of how fancy the logos may be on our favorite devices

Each has certain advantages and disadvantages.

All are useful for reading books but the original Kindle can organize the books into folders and has the ability to be able to search your entire collection of books for a term or name. You can access the web with the original Kindle but it is clunky at the best. This Kindle is superior if you wish to read outdoors in bright sunlight.

The Kindle Fire has better internet access by far than the original Kindle and there are apps available but nowhere near the quantity or quality of those available for the Ipad. I do use it for bedtime reading as I don't have to have a light as I do with the original Kindle.

I am using an Ipad coupled with an aftermarket keyboard to type this reply and I feel it is quite capable of being a replacement for a laptop. The biggest drawback to the Ipad is the expense.

(Note: I don't have the latest version of the Kindle nor the latest Kindle Fire HD. The Ipad is the latest version.)

..

I haven't tried to do so yet as I have owned the Ipad for less than a month. I have merely used the printer hooked up to my older Windows computer.

Check out this link:

http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/assistant/airprint/

A piece of software to do it. On the Mac I use Printopia, which allows any printer to AirPrint.

it was buggy, the UX was horrible but that's par for the course from what I understand of MS.

I have the first iPad and don't really like it 'cause I have small hands and it isn't comfie to hold for too long. I'm saving up for the iPad mini (which is so light and small and perfect).

Not sure if I'm gonna like it or not.

when I first got it because I love books, but my Kindle is one of the best purchases I've ever made. I base things on a cost to enjoyment ratio and by far I've enjoyed the Kindle far beyond its cost. I love being able to download a book whenever I want one. I don't have to drive to the library or the store when the newest bestseller by my favorite authors hits the stores. I just click on Amazon and download it. Amazon archives every book I've bought and the ones I want to keep on my Kindle I can put in categories. I love, love, love it! With the cover it feels like a book. I may eventually get the new PaperWhite when they work the bugs out.

I hope your cost to enjoyment ratio is as high as mine.

I guess I just need to get used to it. Reading has been an addiction my entire life so I'm sure I'll get used to it. Thanks!

and many books are speech enabled and will read to you. You can carry 100s of books with you on one little device....great when you are going out of town.

I suggest you sign up at Pixel of Ink. They will send you a daily email with the name of free books and book deals at Amazon. I found lots of new authors that way. If you don't want a daily email you can just check out their website: http://www.pixelofink.com/.

Thank you!!!!!

enjoy and report back to us in a month or so.

Getting spoiled by my kindle but I still love books with paper too.

netbook running Android 4.0. The Kindle is my favorite reading device, and the Fire does web browsing well. The Android netbook just sucks in general, and probably won't get much use.

My wife has an iPad 2. She hated it until she bought a bluetooth keyboard for it with a clamshell case. Essentialy it's now a touchscreen netbook.

Keyboards are important, if you aren't just running around on the web and actually need to put data of your own somewhere. Only a real, physical keyboard does that efficiently enough to be practical.

I love this thing. I can read books while I listen to music and go on the internet. My Dad has the Kindle and loves his. Neither were over $250.

Picked up a 16GB Nook Tablet for under a hundred with free shipping right before Christmas. Sent it to my Luddite sister. Within ten minutes after set up she was using it to shop for a dishwasher. TRIUMPH!

Now that Overdrive is on the Nook, she can borrow and download books from the library without getting out of bed.

Because, I don;t see the need to spend all that extra money on an iPad, when a Kindle or Nook has everything I need.

I have a first gen Nook right now.

archived and I don't have to find bookshelf room for them.

It is a few years old, so I do not surf the web on it, but I love to sit outside and read in the sunlight and the Kindle is very lightweight and portable. If you haven't yet, I suggest getting a cover for your Kindle to protect it.

Also have Galaxy Media Player 4.0 for my purse. Buggier than the bigger one. But I love them both. HATE not being able to load apps on my SD card with the Tab 2 because of the ICS.

I love the Galaxy II. It has all the Nook and Amazon apps on it also. Has a ton of free Samsung apps. Is really quick and a bit easier to read than my Kindle HD.

get the damned thing unlocked to root. I have followed all directions, but it keeps telling me the fastboot is not recognized. It is very frustrating, so I would say, stay away from the Google Asus Nexus 7. It does not support flash application, so I am limited to what I can see on it.

Kindle with ads, and I love it. It is nice and light and feels like a paperback when I am reading before bed. If I want to do PC stuff, then I will use my PC. I don't have to worry about fingerprints on my Kindle screen, and the pages look just like a book. I can adjust the font for my old eyes as well.

I've gotten hundreds of hours of enjoyment out of my $79 Kindle, while the $600 tablet gathers dust and the $400 smart phone has become little more than a fancy text messaging machine.

for you, too. I'd give up my laptop before I would my Kindle. I tease my husband and tell him he's not allowed to look at it much less touch it. Best $100 I ever spent.

Have you heard about Pixel of Ink?

I got it for Xmas last year and it's turned out to be the one of favorite things I've ever owned. I'll probably try a tablet after my laptop goes. Right now I can't justify the expense. But for books, I really love the Kindle.

and conversely that Surface users are ashamed of their brand.

Personally, I'm waiting for the asus transformer book, then I'm dumping my IPad.

Strip windows, install Linux, groovy!

In addition to reading, I watch Amazon Prime videos on it, check Facebook, and check a few news apps (Politico, Huffington Post) on it.

I've had it about 6 weeks and I love it so far.

Considering how other phones are now kicking the iPhone's ass, it seems likely Apple's lead in the tablet market won't last either.

Android users largely buy (or get them free) an Android because it's cheap and they want a flashy screen. They make phone calls with it and barely do anything else.

Free Android phone with purchase of cheap suit:

A consumer can get a bigger, nicer screen for less money. WTF is wrong with them, huh?

For the record, I have both an iPhone and an iPad. But I don't worship at the altar of Apple; I recognize their products' shortcomings and limitations.

Seriously, without even being able to acknowledge your favorite products' known limitations, you make yourself appear ridiculous.

Hopefully executives at Apple are not as blind as you, or they will lose the significant share of the tablet market they enjoy today.

LOVE it. My sister is trading in her iPhone for one in a couple months.

I'd much rather have an asus, personally

should put a dent in tablet sales come February.

So Asus will not make a dent.

There's definitely a difference in the personalities of apple fans vs. all other users. Apple users put a lot more emphasis on emotions, colors, and visual stuff (at least the ones I know). I would have never thought to tweet something like that.

More apple users buy tablets to be indicators of status as well as tools. So of course they're the one's "tweeting" out their new trophy!

I bought my son an S3 for Christmas, and my wife surprised me with a Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga. I doubt that tweeting about them ever crossed either of our minds.

To me, in the end, a computing device is just a screwdriver. It's a tool to get a job done. Some screwdrivers are unquestionably nicer than others, but I'd never be "proud" of a screwdriver or rush to the defense of my favorite screwdriver brand if someone suggests that another may be a little better. It's just a tool (and, in 5 years, it will be less useful to me than the REAL screwdriver in my toolbox).

In my personal experience, this pretty well sums up the views of most computer and smartphone users. It's also why most computer users just roll their eyes and ignore the geeks who dorkpout and nerdrage over operating systems and hardware minutiae.

Apple owners, on the other hand, tend to take a completely different perspective toward their computing devices. They tend to see their computers and phones as an expression of their lifestyle choices, and as status symbols to their technophile friends. To the majority of Apple fans, their devices aren't simply tools, but are an extension of their own personalities. When you insult the device, you insult them. The whole mindset has always seemed a bit odd to me, but life is short and I'm not going to begrudge someone their happiness simply because it comes from a bit of code and silicon.

Thank you.

Apple "screwdrivers" as being shallow and image-obsessed, on the basis that they themselves own copycat "screwdrivers" that they somehow feel they must explain are really just as good.

First off, put your tunnel vision away. I was talking about far more than just smartphones and tablets. Apple has had this cult following since the 80's, and the company has openly embraced and encouraged it as much as possible (it's the only technology company on the planet that actually employs people with the job title of "Evangelist", whose job is solely to "spread the word").

Very few users of other technology platforms give a flying leap about the "superiority" of their gear. They just tend to get defensive when an Apple fan starts deriding their gear as inferior "copycats". I have NEVER seen a PC user or an Android user walk up to a Mac user or iPhone user and start ranting on about how their device was "better". I've seen Apple device users do it more times than I can count. I wouldn't say that Apple owners are shallow and image obsessed, but I WOULD say that they integrate their technology into their self image in a way that nobody else does. And...they take offense to differing technologies in a way that nobody else does. Very few Android, Windows Mobile, PC, or Linux users really care about you using your Mac or iPhone. Whatever. It works for you. Apple users, on the other hand, often see it as their personal quest to deride these other technologies as much as possible and convert you to their way of seeing things.

Aside from Apple users, very few people really care what specific brand of smartphone or laptop they're carrying...they just want something that is inexpensive and does the job they need (I have personally had a Motorola and two HTC smartphones, my wife and son have Samsungs, and my daughter has an LG). When I purchase a new phone, I don't ask myself "Is this as good as an iPhone?" Instead, I ask myself "Does this do what I need?" That's the only question that really matters.

No one began the present conversation (or any of the countless similar such on DU and elsewhere) with breathless exhortations about the superiority of Apple stuff or its users.

Instead, we got buckets of insinuations like yours that the only explanation for the apparent sales success of Ipads is that Apple users are insufferable snobs who value their electronics gear as badges of status and style.

It's simply not possible that Apple products sell well because they're good, is it?

On the other hand, you don't see hordes of Apple people running around trying rationalize the popularity of some other type of gear by theorizing on all the ways people that buy other products must be vain or idiotic.

It's painfully simple, really. Apple is highly visible because it's highly successful, largely, because they make good stuff. Hype? Sure, that's inevitable with anything popular.

But it's a big, fat, frankly infantile leap from there to the conclusion that, for example, the Ipad, a product which the "Apple sucks" crowd originally decried as a useless "giant iPod," now universally copied, must only be outselling its copycats because stupid, impractical people can't stay away from them. Nevermind it's the best-reviewed tablet on the market -- all those tech editors are just drinking the Kool-Aid, right?

I moved to Apple years ago because I was tired of my laptops dissolving into slag after 2-3 years of use. Still have every Apple product I've bought -- down to the first Ipod Video. Not one failure. And it's hardly been a waste of money, given I've been able to stop replacing things except when I want to upgrade.

I'll worry that Apple is actually overhyped and underpowered, or has become a silly status symbol, when everyone that uses something else doesn't feel the need to constantly explain how much happier and smarter and less egotistical they are.

You know, like Apple people do now.

I have become a fan boy of the google nexus tablets ever since I bought one and used it daily for a couple months, and will buy the new models of it that google puts out in the future. I don't care about the sales numbers race, I know google will support the product and they will just keep getting better and better.

Maybe.

http://www.android.gs/cheap-nexus-7/

Love love love it. The LTE is as fast as broadband.

Messed around with my brother's kindle HD and the movies are gorgeous, but the browser is pretty bad. That was the default browser though so maybe there's a better app version. Waiting to get my hands on my bil's galaxy. That looks pretty cool.

It is ugly and incredibly cheap looking, and the advertising is about the worst I've ever seen.

I am not an MS hater. I am just shocked that any large company could have brought something so unappealing to market.

It may be chock full of swell chips and clever aps, but it looks like something from the dollar store and the functionality *that they are advertising* looks like a 5 year old cell phone.

Watch the commercials and you will see EVERYONE in them has the keyboard, which is an upcharge. So you're not looking at an iPad replacement but a small laptop...which can't be used in your lap because the keyboard, which is held on with magnets, will come off.

Next problem: a full-fledged laptop can be had for what Surface costs.

Oh, and check out MS's "buy now" button. Most companies with these buttons on their websites take you to a page so you can tell them what you want, feed in payment info and tell them where to send it. Microsoft gives you a list of stores.

Sans blue tooth keyboard

I tested them at the store. There were other reasons to say no, but my blue tooth keyboard (appe) would work as well.

The way I use mine also use an external keyboard.

And it is really, really nice. However there are two unforgivable issues.

1. Licensing: The included Office 2013 is only for non-commercial use, however how an individual or organization goes about securing "Commercial Use Rights" outside of a monolithic enterprise licensing arrangement is unintelligible and will undoubtedly be expensive. We have been waiting for our Microsoft "Technical Account Manager" to explain to us how our contractors go about properly licensing themselves for this since November.

2. It is already too expensive, my brand new Toshiba Portege Z830 cost almost to the penny what this thing would cost. And oh yeah, it is a real PC with twice the memory and four times the storage.

after the Christmas season...

the outlook is not so great either:

...DC's researchers also predicted that Android-based devices would account for a larger proportion of tablet sales than they had in previous years. The company's estimate gives Android tablets 42.7% of the global market for 2012, compared to 39.8% in 2011, while Apple's share is predicted to decline from 56.3% to 53.8% at the same time.

The best tablets for the holidays

Ryan Reith, who manages IDC's mobile device trackers, says that shifting form factors are partially responsible for this change.

"The breadth and depth of Android has taken full effect on the tablet market as it has for the smartphone space. Android tablet shipments will certainly act as the catalyst for growth in the low-cost segment in emerging markets given the platform's low barrier to entry on manufacturing. At the same time, top-tier companies like Samsung, Lenovo, and ASUS are all launching Android tablets with comparable to premium products, but offered at much lower price points," he says.

Nevertheless, the relative market shares of the two leading platforms will both decrease slightly as time goes by, according to IDC. By 2016, the company's researchers said, Android and iOS will both surrender minor amounts of market share to Windows, which will account for 10.3% of sales at that time. ... http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/120512-tablets-264824.html

Fast, intutive and extremely reliable. And half the price of an Ipad.

Silly me. I thought that I could just run to the local Best Buy and pick one up.

No way.

Then I called every Apple store from New Hampshire to the south shore and no one had any Minis in stock.

Luckily, after I ordered one online from Apple, it was delivered in the nick of time for Christmas.

so paid Apple shills like yourself can woof on message boards.

How proud you must be.

I have a first gen Nook, and LOVE that. It has definitely paid for itself over the past two years.

and I'm trying to avoid patronizing Amazon whenever possible.

They don't tweet, either. I wonder how many children got Kindle Fires or other tablets because of the parental control options who don't use Twitter. I wouldn't use the Twitter numbers as definite.

Couldn't afford iPads and frankly I don't see much difference between a Kindle and an iPad. The Kindle does everything they needed and I managed to get 3 for the price of 1 iPad.

I am not fond of the Kindle Fire from what I have seen due to the older customized version of Android it uses but the people that have one seem to love it. The Microsoft Slate is too damn pricey but the saving grace is that it can run remote desktop and I can manage my server from bed if I so desire. My family uses Android based tablets which seem to have correct combination of afford ability, dependability, and usefulness.
Footnote : The closest thing I can think of to Apple aficionados are the hard core gun enthusiasts. They both approach their subject of interest with a certain single-minded intensity.

Stockpiling an arsenal of handsomely designed, highly rated computer equipment against the Zombie Apocalypse? Writing angry letters to Gubmint on their iOS devices?

I'm sorry, but that is cosmically silly.

We get it. You don't like Apple. Costs too much, not your cup of tea, whatever. But this pompous bullshit that no one could possibly enjoy something you don't happen like without being some kind of asshole, is clearly about some childish, sour-grapes hostility that is itself, something very akin to paranoia.

I use mine for actual production.

The Surface and the Ipad are capable.

I ended up with the Ipad since there is no equivalent apps to what I already used in the Ipad one, on google.

I use a mid range phone for the rest. The android does what I need well...twitter, messaging.

Buy a computer to meet your needs...not the cool factor.

Have not turned desk top computer on in two months

I think Apple being first to the market with this idea helped them eclipse everybody else and it's hard for anybody else to displace that. (This is not unlike how Windows has historically had a hold on the PC market.)

I have a Blackberry Playbook and after using my parent's iPad for a few hours I still prefer many of Blackberry's UI decisions over Apple's. Apple has tried to fix some of these limitations with the four/five finger gestures, but Blackberry's single swipes in from the bezel are much more natural. At the time I bought the Playbook (May 2011) the Android offerings were really lame, with the OS at that time being still very phone oriented. I assume in the past year and a half it has improved, though I have not been keeping up with it.

Snap a bluetooth keyboard on it and will slice 'n dice surfing, e-mail, & apps without mercy. And I haven't noticed it getting hot as the iPad3 was reported to do.

I haven't caught it raping the earth yet either, put I will put my foot down hard if shows any predilections in that vein.

And/Or

What sometimes (often) boils my blood is the way Apple haters attack the company. When the company was struggling they were dismissed as an also-ran whose products were crap that no one would buy. Now that Apple is a success — from seemingly producing better product that people are buying — they are an evil corporation supported by millions of fan boys. I have a word for that.

Jealous – feeling resentment against someone because of that person’s rivalry, success, or advantages

http://khurt.com/blog/2012/08/30/what-boils-my-blood

People are being forcefed virtual "books" in an attempt to force them to never own anything designed for entertainment.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/22/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20121223

In fact, they won't be owners at all. They'll be licensees. Unlike the owners of a physical tome, they won't have the unlimited right to lend an e-book, give it away, resell it or leave it to their heirs. If it's bought for their iPad, they won't be able to read it on their Kindle. And if Amazon or the other sellers don't like what they've done with it, they can take it back, without warning.

All these restrictions "raise obvious questions about what 'ownership' is," observes Dan Gillmor, an expert on digital media at Arizona State University. "The companies that license stuff digitally have made it clear that you own nothing."

Typically, e-book buyers have no idea about these complexities. How could they? The rules and limitations are embodied in "terms of service" documents that Amazon, Apple, B&N and other sellers shroud in legalese and bury deep in their websites. That tells you how little they want you to know.

The rules are based, in turn, on the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, with which Congress hoped to balance the rights of copyright holders and content users. "In the digital environment, that's always been the trickiest balance to strike," Annemarie Bridy, a specialist in intellectual property law at the University of Idaho, told me. In those terms, the DMCA looks like a failure.

I just bought a Kindle, but it certainly isn't the same kind of experience that reading a real book is. I will keep my vast library of hard copy books, thank you. I won't spend more than a few dollars for a download and mostly will limit it to "free" downloads when I can get a used hard copy for 1 penny plus shipping from Amazon's dealers. And it's mine forever.

I had to "install" a different launcher to make it useful but that only took 2 minutes to sideload. Now with 1mobile it's easier.

I don't know if the new KF HD is as flexiable without rooting it. A co-worker has one I tried to load something on when he first got it and unlike my easy kindle his was locked down kinda like apple does to it's users.