My wife is hinting she wants a notebook

[woodsprite]

6. I love my tablet! It goes everywhere with me, although

I only have internet access where I can get wifi. I have an iPad through work and did not request the 4G option. With the hi-res, and with the feedback that I read, I figured data prices would be outta this world. If I needed to use GPS, maps, or other internet when I had no wifi, I would just use my phone.

My MIL was visiting over the past week. She went to the store and had someone describe the differences between the iPad, a Nook and a Kindle. She bought the Nook HD+. I helped her get it set up and with the 64gig capacity (same as my iPad, but she has 32gb on the tablet and 32 on an SD card), it set her back about $199. She can get her email, the internet, play games, surf the net, and she logged into Barnes and Noble and found tons of free books (just search for 0.00 in books). It's slightly smaller than the iPad so it fits in her purse without a problem.

For work, I needed more computing power than a Nook or Kindle since I use mine to FTP files back/forth from Windows and Unix boxes, use VPN, access card processing services, edit graphics and create web pages on mine. If I had it to do over again, I might consider the Windows tablet just because it supports an SD card where the iPad doesn't. I could keep personal stuff on the card. If I didn't need all the work stuff, the Nook looked pretty good and was a really decent price. On the other hand, I downloaded the Nook app onto my iPad, so I can read the freebie books as well. So right now I can't justify getting a Nook when work paid for the Apple.

Regardless of what brand I would get, it would want it to support "pinch to zoom", hi-res graphics, and a good variety of brightness settings. The Nook does support blue-tooth technology, so a keyboard like the Zagg Flex SHOULD work for it, but you'd have to double check. I use that one. Using an external keyboard gives me more 'screen' space when I'm editing files or want to type faster than I text. I also bought a stylus (about $14 at Staples) that lets me get a finer grained drawing or 'pointing' when I need it, but I don't use it very much.

Hope this helps some, and hope your wife enjoys the new gadget once you decide on one!