
Ask HN: Do you use a tablet? - Raed667
Everyone around me seems to have a tablet these days. I have never used one and I don&#x27;t see the need to.<p>I&#x27;ve been thinking about getting one lately, maybe for note taking or web navigation when I don&#x27;t really need to code.<p>Do you use one? Why? Why not? And if so what model do you recommend?
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wishinghand
I use an iPad primarily for 3 things

1\. Music production/performance. The iPad does few things objectively better
than Android and touch responsiveness when it comes to playing music apps is
one of them. There's a 100-400ms delay with Android for some reason. I had
heard they'd gotten better recently but my girlfriend just got a Galaxy S5 and
even though it's a last generation phone it's unplayable for being on time.

The iPad has a lot of great emulations of older synths and exciting new apps
that aren't available anywhere else. Some big names have also made apps, like
Korg, Propellerheads, and Native Instruments. Check out iPolysix, iProphet,
Animoog, DM1, Auria, E.L.S.A., Beatsurfing, Impaktor, BIAS Amp, Audiobus,
Swoopster, Sparkle, Galileo, Thumbjam, Steel Guitar, Arpeggionome, Orphion,
Xynthesizr, Glitchbreaks, Loopy, and Gadget.

2\. A second monitor. Duet Display lets me plug in my iPad as a second monitor
to my MacBook. This is convenient for coding on the go.

3\. Casual laptop use replacement. About the only thing I can't do easily on
just an iPad is code or write a lengthy bit of text. If I bring a Bluetooth
keyboard I can conceivably do the latter. Possibly the former but I hear the
coding apps are still "meh". But if I travel lightly and I want to read,
answer email, check the news, play music, or watch some videos, then an iPad
suffices over a laptop, and I don't need a heavy power brick. If I want better
speakers I can either use headphones or a Bluetooth speaker. If I want a
bigger screen there are converter cables or apps that let me do that.

~~~
stinos
_Music production_

Do you write actual songs on it or rather just work out some melody or beat or
so? Just asking becasue I cannot imagine doing the former, especially handling
sequencer-style ui's on a tiny screen with touch seems problematic.

~~~
wishinghand
Depends on if that's all they know or if they come from a workflow where
that's foreign. Or depends on how flexible they are mentally.

I use it mostly as my guitar amps, guitar effects, and drum machine. I have a
lot of synths on there that I sequence with a separate app or have someone
play with at MIDI keyboard controller. My new favorite thing is to get
Xynthesizr (sequencer) in random mode but in a certain key to talk to a synth
app and have that be a background bleep-bloop thing that is every changing
while I do heavy reverb and echo drenched ambient guitar stuff.

------
gaze
I have a surface pro 3 that I use exclusively for note taking. I'm a physicist
and hand written notes are absolutely crucial. The fat iPad style stylii have
way too thick a tip for anything useful. Surface Pros, Lenovo tablets with
digitizers, and Samsung Galaxy notes are very popular among people who do
calculations

~~~
analog31
Any thought of using iPython Notebook as a lab notebook? I ask, because I'm a
physicist too (albeit in industry, not doing real physics research), and am
experimenting with doing so myself.

~~~
gaze
I use ipython notebook daily for data processing and interacting with
simulations. Works great. The problem is that I need SOMETHING that lets me
draw diagrams and write equations by hand,

------
SandersAK
I use my iPad exclusively at home. I now never take my work laptop home and it
had dramatically made my life better. iPad forces me to be much more switched
off but I can still email if need be. It's honestly one of the best things for
my work-life balance that's ever happened to me.

~~~
irixusr
To disconnect I got a blackberry curve. Still has email and wifi feathering if
I need it. Other than that it sucks and I love it.

I might replace it with a "tomorrow m5" phone; a feature phone the size of
four stacked credit cards.

------
jmaistre
I have an iPad Air 2 and use it every day. My main use cases:

1\. Reading. I love reading the old, free PDF books available from Google
books and archive.org. The OCR doesn't work well, so you really need to read
the original scanned image version, which requires a big screen and a fast
enough processor (a phone or older model tablet won't cut it). I also moved
from using my Kindle to the iPad for reading ebooks, since it is much faster
to thumb through the repetitive parts of non-fiction books using the iPad.

2\. Playing games with my girlfriend. Our favorite date activity is going to a
bar or hanging out on the patio, having a drink, and cooperatively playing
some trivia or puzzle game on the iPad.

I previously had a Nexus 10, but it was too slow to read scanned PDF's and it
crashed all the time. The iPad Air 2 is much, much better.

------
juandazapata
I used to, but after buying an iPhone 6 plus, I realized that I was doing all
my reading, browsing, etc, in that device, and that I just set my iPad mini
aside. I gave it to my mom as a gift, now I don't use a tablet, just my phone.

~~~
dave1619
Same here. My iPhone 6+ feels like a small tablet but is more convenient and
always with me.

~~~
icebraining
I'm the opposite - I feel that smartphones, even 6" ones, are too small to
comfortably enjoy using for more than very basic activities, so I just got a
Nexus 7 and a very cheap dumbphone which lasts a week on a single charge, all
for <100€.

------
ant6n
During my ugrad 2005-2008, I had a convertible tablet pc and took most of my
class notes using it in tablet mode. But it had a Wacom pen and no distracting
touch input. And when I needed a keyboard, I could just flip around and have a
full laptop.

To me, modern tablets seem like toys, except maybe the Surface pro
(expensive). I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and barely use it. The screen is
uncomfortably small for taking notes, and the note taking software is
exceedingly basic compared to the 13-year-old Windows Journal (which is itself
quite basic, like a notepad for pen-input, but powerful enough to take decent
notes and making drawings).

~~~
SyneRyder
That's intriguing to me. I love my Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (the successor to the Note
8). S-Note has improved a lot since the Note 8 came out, you can now cut &
paste and resize parts of your drawing. I think the screen is larger as well
(it's now a 4:3 ratio, not the 16:10 of the Note 8).

I've never tried Windows Journal though, so I'm not sure which features I'm
missing out on. S-Note could definitely be improved more.

~~~
ant6n
In journal drawings, are vectors: you can zoom in a lot, you can copy
paste/resize them, you can erase individual strokes completely by tapping one
part of them (if you set the eraser to vector).

In journal you can specify your own background; I like little squares to draw
and take notes rather than college-book style lines. In S-Note they pre-
defined a few paper templates, and the only thing that comes close ('idea
notes' or something) uses a beige back-ground, which looks ugly when putting
on a webpage. Thus I use an imagemagick script to fix those (cumbersome).

Journal makes it a bit easier to manage notes, they live in a proper file
system; pages within notes are easier to manage (that page-management sub-tool
in S-note is very cumbersome). Journal allows searching in notes based on text
recognition, per file or per folder.

I found exporting easier with journal, but that may just be because you are on
a proper operating system where you can copy and paste quickly; on the Note
the normal modus operandi for copying seems to be to 'lasso' stuff, which you
can't put on a website nicely (images are rectangles, not hand-lassoed loops).

Is there a way to update S-Note? (If not, that could be sort of another
complaint: lack of updates)

~~~
SyneRyder
Sounds like the new S-Note has addressed some of your concerns. Strokes are
vectors, and you can resize/ move individual strokes. You can zoom in & out of
the page too.

You can change the notes background, including to backgrounds saved in your
own image library. So you could create your own forms to fill in, but there's
no guidance on how to design those background images. They're now a mix of
Paper (background color/texture) and Pattern (eg repeating lines for writing
on, or grids / dots for graph papers).

S-Note files are also in Android's file explorer, but I don't know of any
program that can open them. You can export to PDF. Text searching is via
Evernote, and I'm not sure its handwriting recognition is reliable with
S-Note. Page management is still a pain. There's an option to convert your
lasso into a square now & save it to your Scrapbook, but it isn't as easy as a
crop tool.

I don't think there's a way to update S-Note, unless Samsung updates the whole
tablet (ie to Android 5). Frustrating! The new S-Note would make your Note 8
much more powerful if there's a way to hack it onto there.

~~~
ant6n
Thanks for the useful hints, I'll try to check it out. Maybe I'll just upgrade
the device itself; the form factor seems more useful (although software
upgrades will always be an issue...)

Actually I couldn't find the new galaxy tab in 8" with the pen, only the 10"
is available with pen on Amazon.

Is the text searching possible among multiple notes (e.g. a folder, or
multiple folders?)

~~~
ant6n
Actually it was possible to install the new S-Note via the Galaxy App store
(Samsung's eco-system layer on top of Android.. ugh).

The new S-Note is indeed better, I appreciate the copy/paste/resize features.
Gotta make a graph paper template (cumbersome). So thanks for the hint!

It's still not as good as the more than ten-year-old journal. One can zoom to
only 200%. And the drawing is pretty laggy (if you draw slowly at max zoom, it
updates like 2 times per second). Laggy drawing makes good penmanship very
hard, and drawing accurately painful and slow.

It's also odd that the app overrides the screen brightness to full, and there
doesn't seem to be a way to stop it from doing so.

------
shaded2
I found that I hardly used my nexus 7 and my toddler pretty much made it his
own. I use my work MacBook for everything I couldn't or did not want to do on
my phone.

At some i began to feel like I needed an in betweeen device and a tablet which
is essentially a bigger phone was not the answer. Enter the Asus chronebook
flip. Its a thin 10 inch chromebook with a touchscreen that flips all the way
around and becomes a tablet. It seems to fill that void. Once Google opens up
the ability to install more android apps on chromeos, it will be even more
useful.

~~~
Raed667
I just found a nexus 7 (2013) being sold around the corner by a guy that never
even opened the box for 150$. Should I pass if I'm going to use it for web +
note taking ?

~~~
kabouseng
My nexus 7 (gen 1) is very slow these days, just something you should be on
the lookout for...

------
anonyfox
My iPad (air 2) works for me as the perfect "consumption" device wherever I
are. Reading blogs, kindle app for books (prefer it to the old kindle device
by far), twitter, facebook, mails, and so on. Also a few games like fallout
shelter for the 5 minutes in between, or even stuff like deus ex, quite
immersive gaming experience for a tablet.

For when I want to "produce" things, I grab my 13" mbp pro.

Actually I have always both, my ipad and my macbook, in a bag with me.

Bonuspoint for developers: the iPad can serve DashDoc remotely when coding on
your mac! :D

~~~
geophile
My wife started working for Apple retail a year ago. During training, they
asked what an iPad would be used for, and my wife gave pretty much exactly
your response -- it's for consumption. WRONG! There was an ad campaign at the
time, showing iPads as an important tool in writing music, climbing mountains,
etc. They were trying _very_ hard to convince people that iPads were for
people doing things, not couch potatoes. I'm not sure they really convinced
anyone.

~~~
anonyfox
Of course you _can_ be productive on an iPad, no question. I have a keyboard-
case for it, so writing a few letters or stuff like that is fairly
straightforward and without much hassle.

It comes down on what "producing" means for you. I am a developer. Yes, I can
code even on my iPhone (code editor, ssh client, git client is installed), but
i'm much more productive on an actual mac.

If you're kinda office worker that uses mainly office software (word, excel,
...) and messaging (mail, slack, ...), an iPad with optional keyboard is
perfectly capable as a primary working device, plus it's extremely portable
and may even have mobile data plans attached.

~~~
geophile
The question was what people actually do on an iPad. And the consensus among
people who don't get paid by Apple seems to be: couchsurfing.

------
analog31
Tell HN: There are probably a lot of people, myself included, for whom a
keyboard is integral to our work, due to coding. If this is the main obstacle
to using a tablet, maybe someone should develop an on screen keyboard with
layouts that can be customized for the different languages. I'll take one with
all of the vital symbols for Python on one layer.

Right now I have a tablet that can be used with or without its detachable
keyboard. It was given to me, so I have nothing invested in it. Aside from the
obvious uses of surfing and note taking, I've got iPython Notebook on it.
That's become my primary "terminal" for most of my technical work these days,
so I can't live without it.

In all due honesty, I'll have to admit that the motivation for having iPython
Notebook on a tablet, is to occupy myself during meetings. I've settled on not
trying to compose big codes, but use the time to learn more about Python and
general programming by surfing the web for cool tutorials and interesting new
packages.

A tablet seems to be pretty much the biggest thing that I'm willing to
actually carry around. The keyboard has the drawback of requiring me to have a
horizontal surface to put it on. My little Moleskine notebook still wins for
note taking.

------
rev_bird
_tl;dr: I use the Galaxy Note 3 for my phone and tablet. I use it because it
's got just enough real estate to check out Reddit/Twitter/websites while on
the go, but I wouldn't personally recommend it for note-taking._

\--

I had an iPad for a few years and then sold it somewhere around 2013. I just
didn't use it enough, because my laptop was so much more useful for what I was
doing, which was mostly coding and writing emails.

I have a Kindle now, but am honestly thinking about selling that too, if only
because the DRM really freaks me out. It's so much easier than lugging books
around, but I've never had to charge my book and it won't disappear should
Amazon go out of business one day.

I was going to say that I don't have a "tablet" anymore, but then I realized I
have a Galaxy Note 3 for my personal phone, and that's a tablet compared to
pretty much any phone before it.

The thing made me nervous when I bought it because I was worried it was going
to be too big, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It's big enough for web
browsing, even for a guy with terrible eyesight like me, but I can still toss
it in my pocket. I'd feel like a tool if I did that with an iPad, and I can't
figure out why. It's totally normal to see someone fiddling with their phone
in a waiting room or on line at the DMV or something, but an iPad looks silly
in those situations, for whatever reason.

One downside to the "phablet" revolution: When someone calls me and I don't
have headphones handy it looks like I'm holding an LCD TV to the side of my
head. But I spend way more time staring at this thing than talking on it
anyway.

~~~
vram22
>I realized I have a Galaxy Note 3

Notice any drawbacks to it, after using it a while?

~~~
rev_bird
Some funky problems with displaying certain characters after it's been too
long since a restart, but otherwise I really like it. I've probably only used
the "S-Pen" a dozen times or so, and the little pen-specific apps can be
frustrating to use, but that's a really small part of my use.

------
Bjartr
I have a dell venue pro 8 attached to a repurposed drafting table articulated
lamp to hold it in place in front of my couch as a media center remote / quick
web browser, so I don't have to find a place for it when I'm done using it and
I don't have to check all the places I could have put it when I want to use
it, it just "floats" either out of the way or right where I need it.

------
Gustomaximus
They're great for on lounge/bed browsing. Also for travel to consume media in
downtime or work information if you don't have to type too much. And if you
have kids they are almost a must for easy entertainment.

As a workstations I don't think they would suit most computer dependent roles.

I'd say overall they are great to have and use mine a bunch, but they're a
luxury not a necessity. If you can afford this level of disposable income Id
say get a reasonable one and try. Cheap ones tend to lag from reviews and
disappoint from performance. If your budget is tight Id put the money into a
more quality laptop/phone. Also cost wise tablets tend to last longer than
phones in my experience. If you buy a decent one you might get 4/5 years out
of it vs 2/3 for a phone.

I'm sticking to iPads for the moment. I use Android and Windows phones so
definitely not a fanboy. I would be open to a cheaper Android/Windows if they
have improved tablets UX but last Android one I used 12+ months ago didn't
seem to work as well as the iPad.

------
SyneRyder
I love my tablet. I specifically got one with an S-Pen for handwritten notes &
diagrams. I got a "Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 With S-Pen", perfect size & cheap
enough that I wouldn't feel I'd wasted too much money if it didn't work out.
But I love it & just bought another one for my parents.

It has replaced all my loose paper notes. It synchronizes handwritten notes
with Evernote, so I can search across all my devices. I use it to take notes
while on the phone or during web conference calls. I also use it to write
notes while reading Kindle, though Kindle doesn't work in split-screen mode
yet. My other uses are Pocket, Duolingo, Toodledo (to-do list), but I could do
all of those on my phone. I am dying for a decent Project Management app that
works on a tablet with the S-Pen.

Before that I had a Nook Color running Cyanogenmod, but I never used it except
to test apps. Pocket wasn't a compelling enough use case; the S-Pen is what
made a tablet compelling for me.

------
petercooper
I used to, but once I got a bigger phone (Samsung Notes and iPhone 6 Plus) I
ended up finding the phone and tablet could become the same thing, so now it's
just big phone + MacBook for me on the move. Nonetheless, I do recommend
having a tablet because you might find it really works for you - we're all
different.

------
buster
I have an iPad and i really only use it as my portable spotify pad and
streaming station for music for my receiver.

edit: i very much prefer my kindle to read books, and for everthing else i
still use a laptop or a smartphone..

------
towb
I have a Nexus 9. I can't say that I need a tablet, I don't use it a lot, but
it's still nice to have one. I use it for netflix in bed, ebooks, check the
news whenever there is a commercial break on tv or to google something from
the sofa, a couple of fun games, get access to my notes if I reinstall linux
or do something that can break my computer. Stuff like that.

My opinion is that for reading and simple point and click stuff it is ok.
Whenever I try to write a little more text than 3 - 8 keywords on google or to
chat with people, it gets slow and wonky.

------
r0ll3rb0t
I was in the same boat, ended up then getting iPad mini. It's great, but I
wouldn't buy it again. I think I would buy a Windows tablet next, just for
OneNote and making sure it had stylus support.

------
trowawee
Yeah, I use my iPad all the time. I play a bunch of games on it, read
Feedly/Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr, read books, occasionally watch TV shows. It's
my go-to device when I'm riding the El. I have the iPad Air 1st Gen, and it's
great. My girlfriend has the Mini, which I like more for reading, although
it's not great for watching videos. I think they're about to get even better
with the iOS 9 ad-blocking capability; that's certainly the biggest issue with
browsing on mobile now.

------
eswat
I picked up a Nexus 7 years ago but found I wasn’t using it consistently
enough compared to my laptop or kindle, so I gave it the boot.

But last year I bought an iPad to replace by broken Kindle. Between reading
and deciding to put more consumption apps on it and stop using those on my
laptop – Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, etc. – I started to get more use out of it.

In the end I have a tablet out of convenience of separating leisurely
activities from work ones. Other than that it hasn’t provided significant
value for me yet.

------
hokkos
I use an iPad for :

\- read HN or Reddit, an app with reddit and safari with HN, it is nice to be
on the couch and do the same thing I would on my chair

\- play games: hearthstone a card game like magic, a tablet is the perfect
medium for it.

\- read technical papers or CS books in pdf, the best way to read rich text
book with being distracted.

\- a DJ app with spotify integration, nice UI, tactile feeling, and quite fun
for parties

I had an Nexus 7 and I hated it, I really like the ipad last gen.

------
teaneedz
I'm surrounded by tablets (iPads), but only pick them up when I'm checking out
a website layout. Tablets are too limited for me, often missing features or
content due to responsive design practices. The mobile web treats them as
second class citizens and apps are not always designed with them in mind
either. I'll stick with a handy phone and a laptop when I need a larger
screen.

------
DanBC
I have a first gen Kindle Fire. I'd use it, except it requires a US credit
card for a bunch of app store stuff and I can't be bothered to go through the
faff of getting a US credit card.

There's the possibility of rooting it, which I'm looking into.

I think making it easy for users to root / reuse devices would help drive
sales to new devices by providing a more vibrant second user market.

------
nekgrim
Got a LG Gpad 8" last year. Used it for reading comics and playing
strategy/RPG games (unplayable on my 5" nexus due to screen size).

However, I hadn't used it long, and I'm thinking about selling it. A good
device for consumption, but I always have a computer near me (at home or
work), so useless for productive work. And I can read on my computer too. And
play games.

------
jules
I have a Microsoft Surface, but I only use it with the keyboard so next time
I'm going for a small laptop instead.

------
lnalx
I found it useless until I bought one, being a musician I can easily follow
chords on it. I use it too for web development (checking responsive design),
Android development and Reading (very important as HN user!). I hadn't spent a
lot of money, it's a chinese tablet with same iPad specs.

~~~
icebraining
Yeah, with a decent holder, they're particularly great as "help screens" for
doing manual activities. Having a circuit diagram when I'm soldering or a
recipe when I'm cooking, which I can easily touch to zoom in or clarify some
term, is extremely helpful.

------
m0skit0
I don't. I even have been gifted one a couple of times but it just ends
picking up dust. Laptop or smartphone seem more suitable for me in all
circumstances for now. A tablet is either too big for the job or lacks a
physical keyboard. For reading I either use the phone or an ebook.

------
wyldfire
I bought a B&N Nook 9" tablet and put CM on it. It is decent for reading.
Later I bought an XPS13 laptop and I find myself using it much more often.
Similar weight, great battery life but allows me to surf or code, whatever I
feel like at the time.

------
dragonwriter
I use a Galaxy Note Pro 12.2; it's a more comfortable platform for reading,
note taking, some kinds of browsing, etc., than a notebook, and with the
keyboard case it's pretty generally useful.

------
Raed667
OP Here: So iPads are kind of ruling this area. I just found a brand new Nexus
7 for 150$, do you think it is still relevant in 2015? Or should I just save a
couple of hundreds more and get an iPad?

~~~
reustle
I've had an iPad, iPad Mini, and Nexus 7. My next tablet will be the Nexus 9,
I recommend checking it out.

------
atmosx
I have an iPad 3 and use it only to read content and browse online. Everything
else is done with the laptop (content creation).

IMHO the iPad is the best at what it does, especially if you have Apple HW
lying around.

------
DougN7
I inherited my wife's old iPad but very rarely use it. Just hate on screen
keyboards. Maybe I'll watch something on Netflix with it, but that's about it.

------
jonkiddy
I bought an iPad mini with cellular and enjoy it. I commute on the train and
mainly use it for reading HN, Kindle, email.

------
captn3m0
My iPad Air 2 lags way too much for any serious work on iOS8, so I just use
iBooks on it and read books.

~~~
sambe
Lags? How exactly and what is serious work? I have the last non-Air iPad and
it still Senna snappy to me. I'm normally pretty critical of UI performance.

~~~
captn3m0
Mostly reading, sketching and writing. I couldn't ever get my iPad to work for
anything major other than these three things. While individual apps work fine,
app switching almost always results in an app-refresh.

I'm guessing you have the iPad 3 (the 'new iPad'), which had significantly
better specs than the iPad 2 (along with a better screen, I think).

EDIT: Just realized I wrote "iPad Air 2", instead of just "iPad 2 3G".

~~~
sambe
I have the iPad 4th generation, often forgotten slight upgrade on iPad 3. Both
have double the memory of iPad 2, which probably explains the app refresh
difference. However, I had the iPad 1 too, and currently have iPhone 4S. Both
seemed to get worse with time having been snappy to start with though. We are
talking about 4-5 year old devices, possible just more OS functionality and
bigger apps use up that memory.

------
tomcam
I use one of the new, lighter iPads almost exclusively for reading programming
books & documentation. My iPhone 6 is used for the same purposes when I'm
waiting in traffic or in a line somewhere.

------
steanne
i got one several years ago for reading but stopped using it when i got a
phone with a nice ips screen.

------
outericky
TV replacement...

~~~
bliti
Likewise for my family. I also use it to browse the web,but very little. It's
an iPad mini. There are other tableta in the house (androids) but I loathe
using them.

------
cweiss
It's all about use cases. I have many tablets that I use for a variety of
purposes. They all fit a certain need.

I have one in the garage that I use as a Sonos (whole-house music system)
controller and to occasionally look up shop-related queries (IE - "what is the
torque spec on the axle bolt for my bike?").

I have one next to the couch that is also a Sonos controller and I use for
weather and "2nd screen" duties. IE - "Why does Con Air's cinematography style
look so much like Michael Bay movies?"

I've got one in the home office I use for hacking, many other gadgets I use
have tablet-based interfaces.

I have a retina iPad on the nightstand for reading, checking the
news/weather/sports/social networks and to control my house lights - part of
my bedtime routine.

My most compelling use though is for when I need a light computer for travel.
Two years ago, I went to Hawaii for a week on two carry-on bags (including big
camera and diving gear). I had my iPad with me and, while there, work had a
serious server outage. I was able to SSH into the server, initiate repairs,
and get everything fixed while sitting on the balcony in the sun. I did not
carry (and could not have fit) any normal sized laptop in the carry on. I also
used to it check out various tourist destinations and find places to eat while
I was there (which I could have done on a smartphone, true).

I'm an extreme geek, I have embraced the culture of technology, my house is
filled with many gadgets that have served me well and others that have served
only to drain my bank account. I have no hesitations about buying something if
I have even the slightest inkling that it would improve my life/workflow.

In the above, all but the iPads were cheap Android tablets that I dont think I
paid more than $200usd for (none of those needs required a whole lot of
horsepower).

To speak to your specific interest, tablets are awesome for casual web
navigation and almost awesome for note-taking. I have yet to duplicate the
ease and awesomeness of a pen on paper for note-taking with any tablet
app/stylus combo. Many tablet note-taking apps have great features, but the
actual 'feel' of a quality ballpoint pen on wood pulp has yet to be duplicated
- for me, I've spent far too much time being 'constrained' by computers to be
able to think as freely as I can with a pen and paper. Switching will almost
certainly be a painful adjustment. That said, if 'computers' are your native
medium, then note taking on a tablet can be a powerful thing.

For example, Microsoft OneNote is an amazingly awesome note-taking app for
computer-savvy folks. They really nailed the balance between digital data
entry and analog notation while presenting it in a fairly intuitive interface.
I've only ever used it on PC, I'd _love_ to see as brilliant an implementation
on a tablet. Not sure it's possible without a mouse-'mindset' interface.

Though really, as long as you don't need big horsepower and aren't on an
extremely constrained budget, it's not too hard to get your feet wet in the
tablet world cheap. I just saw a not-horrible import Android tablet for <$40
on a sale site.

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alekratz
No.

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collyw
no

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oskarth
Every day I see the top comment in a thread being a typical middlebrow
dismissal, the type that adds nothing to the discussion. With that in mind,
it's really surprising to me that this comment was downvoted. Before I upvoted
it, it was grey, and after I upvoted, it was still grey. Who are these people
who downvote a perfectly good comment like this? It puzzles my mind.

At the time of writing this comment, at least 10 comments in this thread were
grey. There are a lot of comments in this thread being downvoted for no
particular reason - moderators, what's going on?

~~~
dang
We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10174991](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10174991)
and marked it off topic.

~~~
oskarth
Woaha, I didn't know you could do that. In the future, when there are
suspicious downvotes, where do you want the community to report it? In-thread
like this or by emailing hn@ycombinator.com or by some other means?

Thanks for your hard work and for a perfect response, as usual!

~~~
dang
Thanks—that's nice of you to say.

You should definitely email that kind of thing to hn@ycombinator.com, because
then (a) we're guaranteed to see it, and (b) it won't dilute the threads.

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WorldWideWayne
I only use Windows tablets, where I enjoy the freedom of installing whatever I
want. I have a Dell Venue Pro 8 running Win10 for light duty & reading, I have
a Surface Pro running Win8 at a client's site for a remote workstation and my
wife and I both have a Surface Pro 3 as our main workstation. We also have an
iPad but nobody uses it since it's got a much more limited and locked down OS.

