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The Apple iPad has some competition in the tablet computer market with computers like the the Blackberry Playbook and Motorola’s Xoom.
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Transitioning from a laptop to a tablet? Here’s some advice

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Transitioning from a laptop to a tablet? Here’s some advice

AUSTIN — Last year, the day the Apple iPad launched, “Sweet” John Muehlbauer bought one. After two weeks, he ditched his netbook and started carrying the iPad as his primary mobile computer.

This year, when Apple set up a pop-up store in downtown Austin for the launch of its iPad 2 during South by Southwest, Muehlbauer was first in line to buy the upgrade.

Muehlbauer, the former owner of an eventplanning business, used to own a bulky, heavy Toshiba tablet computer back when a tablet was basically a laptop with a touch screen. But the latest tablets, including the iPad 2, Motorola’s Xoom, the BlackBerry PlayBook, and dozens of others appearing this year, have made it possible for early adopters like him to do most of their computing on a slim, light device.

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Muehlbauer carries around the iPad, an Android phone, and a mobile 4G hotspot for constant Internet access, the same Net connection he uses at home. He says it’s changed the way he creates (videos, presentations, Tweets) and works.

"Apple finally got it down as far as making the tablet what it’s supposed to be," he said. "It’s something I can bring around and carry with me. It’s that notepad that everybody’s always wanted that has everything in it."

Muehlbauer is part of a shift that hasn’t quite hit the mainstream yet, but that probably will very soon. About 230 million laptops will be sold worldwide this year, according to the research company Gartner Inc. But sales of tablets are expected to reach 50 million this year, and sometime soon those sales are expected to surpass laptop sales, at least in the United States.

Already, netbooks — small notebook computers that were hot among casual Web surfers and college students in recent years — have taken a huge hit from tablets, which typically cost $400-$700 and can download powerful touch-screen apps and do many of the tasks that PCs do (and sometimes even do them better).

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But those who plan to give up a laptop, or even a home desktop PC, to spend more time with a new tablet should realize that there are still some roadblocks involved in this transition. ‘

"I think that the portability and the novelty of it has a lot of appeal," said Dave Yeats, an Austin-based partner and researcher with Sentier Strategic Resources, LLC, where he studies user experience.

“But there are some brakes on there that will keep people from moving in that direction all the way. I still think we’re in the phase that people have to recognize there’s barriers to use.”

Typing trouble

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to making a tablet your main PC is that touch screen. It’s great for watching movies and browsing the Web, but, as Yeats says, “if you wanted to write a report on a tablet, I think you’d jump off a bridge.”

Touch typists aren’t likely to keep up a fast word count on a tablet, but hunt-and-peck typists might find there’s not much difference between a physical keyboard and a virtual one.

And depending on the size of the tablet, it might not be easy to thumb-type (as you would when texting on a smartphone) and hold the tablet from each side at the same time.

Another challenge is finding the right way to position a tablet for typing. Muehlbauer says he prefers to keep the device on a desk, tilted up using the iPad 2’s Smart Cover (which doubles as a stand) or to prop it up on a tilted knee.

He refuses to buy an external wireless keyboard. ‘’I wanted to use it as it was,” he said. “If I was buying an external keyboard, it was defeating the purpose of buying something thinner and lighter; I'd be carrying all this junk around."

If you need to type documents, long emails, or reports, however, an external keyboard might be a good fit. They're typically small and light enough that, combined with a tablet, they still weigh less than most netbooks or laptops.

Accessories

Tablets generally feature Corning's Gorilla Glass, a durable glass that protects the screen. But if you're traveling or taking your tablet around town, you'll still want some kind of cover or protector in case the device gets dropped.

Cases come in a variety of shapes, colors, sizes, and prices. Try to find one that doubles as a stand.

If you're worried about staring at a tiny screen so long that you get eyestrain, you can plug a tablet in to a larger screen (like, say, your HDTV) with an HDMI adapter. Many newer tablets already have an HDMI port and a cable allowing you to plug your tablet directly into a TV. Apple's iPad 2 accessory, which also passes audio to the TV, is $39.

Data storage

Even the most modest laptops sold today have a spacious hard drive capable of storing plenty of music, movies, and more data than you might possibly need.

Tablets, however, use flash memory, which is a lot more expensive and comes in much smaller quantities. Apple's largest-capacity iPad holds less than 64 gigabytes of data. Most competing tablets have 16 or 32 gigabytes built in, and many don't allow you to pop in external storage. You also can't watch DVDs on a tablet. You'll have to either convert DVDs to a digital format and transfer them or download movies and TV shows from the Android Market or iTunes.

That means you might not be able to carry around your entire music, digital movie, and document libraries on a tablet the way you might on a laptop. You might have to be more selective about what stays on the tablet, especially as you download apps, which can also take up lots of space.

And if you take photos or video with your tablet's built-in camera, that data will also add up and lead to a space crunch.

On the iPad side, iTunes offers ways to sync only certain music playlists, videos, and apps rather than your entire iTunes library. For Android devices, apps like DoubleTwist and the recently released Miro 4 allow similar ways to manage your digital stuff.

Some users, like Muehlbauer, email big files to themselves to keep them stored in online services like Gmail. That also serves as a good backup. Muehlbauer recently lost videos, photos, and lots of iPad app data when an iTunes error erased all the content in his device.

Now he double-checks his backups and offloads new content from the iPad 2 to his home computer as often as possible. He's also started using Internet file storage apps like Dropbox, which allows you to keep up to 2 gigabytes of data online for free.

As for music, Google and Amazon recently introduced online services that allow you to keep your music files online to stream wherever you've got Internet access. Those services work with practically any tablet. Apple announced a cloud-based data and music service due in the fall that likely will ease the storage crunch for some.

First Published June 22, 2011, 4:15 a.m.

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The Apple iPad has some competition in the tablet computer market with computers like the the Blackberry Playbook and Motorola’s Xoom.  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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