I would be interested in any views / recommendations on the subject of iPads versus Tablets or similar devices.  I am thinking of getting something of that sort but am holding back because of the difference in price between iPads and other similar devices.  I am impressed by what I have seen of the iPad but know absolutely nothing about the alternatives.  The iPad seems exraordinarily expensive for soemthingt at will no doubt be old technology within 12 months !

 To be honest, I have always also been loyal to Microsoft and find it hard to think of siding with the Devil !

The rumour is the iPad 3 will be launched in March so you may want to hold off any decision until then.

http://www.appleinsider.c...y_to_launch_in_march.html

I have had an Ipod Touch for several years and on the back of that experience I have just bought SWMBO an IPAD.

They "just work" as I believe Apple say in their publicity. They aren't sold as a computer and you cant change anything apart from downloading APPs but for my wife that's perfect but it wouldn't suit me. But I work overseas and I want something which works straight out of the box and I dont have to maintain it  

I believe Apple have the largest range of APP's available of any of the tablets and there seems to be one for whatever you want to do.

The strangeness of the IPOD is no USB, you cant install a printer, you cant transfer files with windows computers, you cant network. No it just logs in to your router and acesses the internet  

In my opinion all Apple devices are expensive if you consider just the hardware but they are typically stylish, the hardware is well put-together and the software can perform some impressive tricks.  However you are locked-in to greater expense if you require extras or repairs.

Depends on what is more important to you, the "look at me" felling or the "Mine does the same but cost £100's less".
I personally only own 2 ipod's no other apple equipment. The Google Market has 100K's of software for free on it, don't know about the apple one. You can't put any other f/w on an apple but the Android tablets have a blossoming mod market (all free).
If you want a device to surf/view the odd video/utube and are not itn the first case above then get an android tablet.
There are 2 main types of device, resistive & capacitative screens the latter are better and a more expensive (generally £200+ tablets). You want at least a 1Ghz processor and the amount of on board ram is up to you as they all take sdcards.

7" are fine for general use, but if you want to read magazines the 10" would be better, but more cumbersome,

For me I spent my xmas money on a 7" 2Gb resistive one (£50) I is a bit slower (800MHz) than I wanted but the price was right, for what I want it for this will be fine (email and odd web page).

Thanks for the comments above which are all very helpful, and show that iPads do not necessarily have the market sown up.  I am guessing that buying an iPad would be playing it safe, but that I could be paying over the odds to achieve the same thing by ignoring Android devices.

One question about Android tablets - I assume that there would be the same functionality as an iPad - in other words, could one watch TV occasionally on wi-fi with Android devices ?

Please keep the comments coming.   I still have a lot to learn and cannot yet decide which way to go.

Thanks.

As long as you get a tablet that can play flash then iplayer will work in the browser. (I assume that is what you mean my TV?)

An iPad is a tablet.

Just a "designer" expensive one  

You might also want to read this Child labour, lost wages uncloaked by Apple factories audit about Apple's far east companies, and their use of child labour to keep cost down (Production cost, not end user obviously). Another reason for not buying Apples toys.

Last year, I bought one of the refurbished Advent Vega tablets that PC World were selling off. Out of the box, with Android 2.2 pre-installed, it was utterly useless for anything (including web browsing). iOS was a much better experience. However, after installing the Vegacomb ROM, which is a custom version of Honeycomb (Android 3.x), I'd say it becomes competitive with the iPad. For pure simplicity, and something that "just works", the iPad still wins. For tweakability and flexibility, Android 3.x wins no question.

With that said, I sold it back on eBay after a couple of months. Every task that I could think to use it for, my existing netbook could do it quicker. That in itself was not necessarily my reason for getting rid, the deciding factor were hardware flaws with the device itself such as poor battery life, awful viewing angles on the screen, inconsistency in the screen sensitivity towards the edges (capacitative, but a poor capacitative). I imagine that spending a bit more on the Motorola Xoom or Xoom 2 is a wiser choice.

Before I invest in an iPad or other tablet, I have been experimenting with iPlayer, having never used it before.  I am a little disappointed at the quality of the tv.  The video seems to lag a bit behind the sound - by that I mean that speech is not quite synchronised in so far as there are gaps and the video seems to have to catch up by freezing momentaily.  It is not permanent but I can see that it would become irritating.  I have set the settings to unlimited.

Is this either normal or due to bandwidth ? - I have up to 8 mb only as I am in a rural area and get about 4 mb on speed tests.  If this is an indication of the quality I am likely to get, then it is probably not really going to be a solution for me.  But hopefully, I am missing something and need to tweak the computer.

Any suggestions ?

This is a streaming problem.
If you download the programme and play from disk, this should "cure" the problem.

I have experienced the voice-out-of-sync problem on downloaded videos (.avi files) and, occasionally, on downloaded programs on the BBC iPlayer.  So I'm pretty sure it's not just a streaming problem.

I used a Windows PC for years at work and home but switched to an IMac (out of curiousity I suppose)  around two years ago. I am not any sort of PC nerd and so getting used to the Mac has been frustrating at times - the main issue is that you have to do things predominantly the "Apple" way and (being a bit bloody minded) this made me somewhat anti, latterly taking the view that as soon as I could justify the cost I would switch back to a Windows PC. My wife is totally non PC literate (and to a degree anti PC) but she decided that she wanted an IPad for her birthday. The day after we bought it I couldn't get her attention all evening as she was e.mailing all her friends. The thing is easy and intuitive to use and I can see why it has proved so popular. We have now set it up to use ICloud (and that wasn't difficult either) so she can share our main list of  contacts (on the IMac) and when we are away we can access any e.mails coming to my e.mail address on the IMac. The claim that Apple "just works" is justified, and the after sales support is good and helpful (certainly it is in Bath from the Premium Apple reseller), although you must be prepared to do things the "Apple" way. I never thought I would say this, and would not claim in any way to be a strong and committed Apple advocate, but I am increasingly impressed by their products and may now stick with Apple.

Having recently bought one,  I can definitely recommend the Asus Transformer Prime.  (Using Android 4.0). 
You get the best of both worlds with a fully fledged tablet which can be docked with a keyboard.

The tablet has a MicroSD slot which the IPad doesn't,  and when docked you get a SD card slot and USB.
Also,   the keyboard dock has its own battery which gives an extra 8 hours of use and the dock will recharge the tablet.

Thanks for this. I am looking at one now with Misco.  About £540.  Does that sound a reasonable price ?

One other question.  With Android, do you have to download "Apps" for everything ?  I know absolutely zero about "Apps" - it's just a word I keep hearing.  Are they expensive and are there things like Open Office etc. that can be switched between PC and tablet ?