Hello folks,

My birthday's coming up and as my present to myself I'm thinking of getting a tablet. Ideally I'd like one optimised to support my GMing, so the criteria for what I'd want to do with it are as follows:

- Needs to have really robust PDF support - nice display, easy to read even small text, fast page turning, fast searching and looking up of bookmarks, even with multiple documents open and other background apps running.

- It'd be good if it could also play music loops in the background - either on its own speakers or, if possible on other speakers if it can steam to them. My current thinking is to get playlists set up on subsonic, which I have running on my desktop, and use the tablet to stream from there, so masses of storage space isn't necessarily useful.

- Robust streaming video support would also be useful if I want to incorporate something off YouTube into a game (or if I want to watch Netflix between games).

- Decent web browsing also useful, would prefer a tablet which by default can handle the full-blooded versions of website rather than the mobile versions.

Writing of documents and spreadsheets and the like is a decidedly secondary concern, being able to do quick edits in Google Docs of some things on the fly is about all I'd use it for in that respect.

Any recommendations/warnings?

Quote from: Warthur;750115- Needs to have really robust PDF support - nice display, easy to read even small text, fast page turning, fast searching and looking up of bookmarks, even with multiple documents open and other background apps running.

You might not want an Ipad then, unless mine, being first edition is different... it doesn't really do more than one thing at a time. Not even multiple tabs of web pages (jumping between them isn't much faster than reloading pages). It will play music in the background, but that's about it... but like I said, newer versions might be better.

Quote- Robust streaming video support would also be useful if I want to incorporate something off YouTube into a game (or if I want to watch Netflix between games).

I don't like how the Ipad interacts with YouTube video... it doesn't like to let you scrub through, if you move the marker back it tends to just drop whatever video has buffered.

Quote- Decent web browsing also useful, would prefer a tablet which by default can handle the full-blooded versions of website rather than the mobile versions.

The Ipad is, again, a bit gimped on that... I still regularly run into page features that won't work... video that won't load (apple's silly issue with Quicktime).

QuoteWriting of documents and spreadsheets and the like is a decidedly secondary concern, being able to do quick edits in Google Docs of some things on the fly is about all I'd use it for in that respect.

I wouldn't try to use an Ipad for any sort of content creation... even with a full sized keyboard plugged in, it's just too limited for my tastes.
It's a mobile storefront primarily and a media device secondarily.. any other uses are not it's forte. I use it for looking at the internet when I'm away from my desktop and for reading books (including rulebooks). Mine was given to me but, after having it for a while, I wouldn't buy one myself... I'd rather have a full laptop.

Quote from: Warthur;750115- Needs to have really robust PDF support - nice display, easy to read even small text, fast page turning, fast searching and looking up of bookmarks, even with multiple documents open and other background apps running.

So this is really more dependant on the apps than the hardware.  Older units used to struggle but the modern multi core stuff should chew through PDFs no problem.  Two things here -

A) Can you side load apps, especially the Amazon store?  Devices that can will ultimately have more choices in apps.

B) Can you get tablet versions of the PDFs?  These will have blank backgrounds, one file per chapter, etc.  Much much much easier to use, IMO.

Quote from: Warthur;750115- It'd be good if it could also play music loops in the background - either on its own speakers or, if possible on other speakers if it can steam to them. My current thinking is to get playlists set up on subsonic, which I have running on my desktop, and use the tablet to stream from there, so masses of storage space isn't necessarily useful.

Android has multiple apps where you can stream audio (and video) that's stored on the network.  I'd be surprised if Apple didn't as well.

As for hardware, I would nudge you towards Bluetooth and a Beats Pill or similar.  Heck I saw a boom box at Walmart the other day that could play Bluetooth audio.

But again both flavors should do this, no problem.

Quote from: Warthur;750115- Robust streaming video support would also be useful if I want to incorporate something off YouTube into a game (or if I want to watch Netflix between games).

When it comes to video streaming, I love love love Chromecast.  If you have an HDMI TV anywhere nearby it will blow the other solutions away.  Both types can do Chrome casting as it depends on the app, e.g. YouTube.

Quote from: Warthur;750115- Decent web browsing also useful, would prefer a tablet which by default can handle the full-blooded versions of website rather than the mobile versions.

I understand Android is best here as Apple really locks you in to Safari.  Android users can load Chrome, Dolphin, Firefox, etc and those all have plugins for desktop mode.  Chrome will even auto zoom your clicks for you, which makes those desktop interfaces a lot easier to use.

Quote from: Warthur;750115Writing of documents and spreadsheets and the like is a decidedly secondary concern, being able to do quick edits in Google Docs of some things on the fly is about all I'd use it for in that respect.

Anything can handle this for you.

I use an iPad 2. It's fine with multitasking and streaming game music to a bluetooth speaker (I use a cheap Creative D80).

PDF rendering is app dependent, and Goodreader is much faster than others  (Foxit, iBooks, etc.) with recent update, and has annotation features as well as remote synching to your server shares, etc. Worth paying for.

For trad pdfs in large format you want as big a screen as possible, IMHO. The iPad does OK, but it's still better for digest format games.

The need to use a mobile website with the iPad is a myth, and there's a Chrome app. However Safari's fine.

Downside is no flash (but there's a Youtube app).

Edit: I wouldn't want to do spreadsheet editiing. I use iThoughts for mindmapping and Mandalachart too, works well.

I've found iPad is really good for pdfs.  The only think about the iPad is it really sucks for productivity software if you're talking real apps and not phone crap.  You'd have to go to something like a Surface 2 Pro to get pdf reader of your choice, Office, and whatever players you want on it.  From your list of requirements I think iPad is your best bet.  Get Goodreader, without it, I would have tossed the iPad a while ago.

Quote from: CRKrueger;750139I've found iPad is really good for pdfs.  The only think about the iPad is it really sucks for productivity software if you're talking real apps and not phone crap.  You'd have to go to something like a Surface 2 Pro to get pdf reader of your choice, Office, and whatever players you want on it.  From your list of requirements I think iPad is your best bet.  Get Goodreader, without it, I would have tossed the iPad a while ago.

What is goodreader and does it get around some of the formatting weirdness that occurs with some PDFs on the iPad (rows missing, fonts acting funny, etc).

Quote from: CRKrueger;750139I've found iPad is really good for pdfs.  The only think about the iPad is it really sucks for productivity software if you're talking real apps and not phone crap.  You'd have to go to something like a Surface 2 Pro to get pdf reader of your choice, Office, and whatever players you want on it.  From your list of requirements I think iPad is your best bet.  Get Goodreader, without it, I would have tossed the iPad a while ago.

IDK, I find Pages to be perfectly fine as a word processor; I wouldn't use it for document layout or anything complex, but that's fine, it clearly isn't designed for that, it's a backup for when you're away from your home machine.

My suggestion, again, would be the iPad, unless you have some ridiculous holy war against Apple (Although, to be fair, iTunes is shit and the entire team behind the Windows version of it should be shot).

Probably go for a used 4th gen, for the best combination of price and capability - the 3rd has the same screen but lacks the graphics chip to properly power it (So don't bother with that one), while the older ones have worse specs, worse screen, and have long since fallen off Apple's support queue. The newest (5th) gen are wonderful, of course, but also more expensive.

The on-screen keyboard works great, the web browser handles the real versions of websites (Except for plugins like Flash, natch) rather than mobile, it does music without a problem, and web browsing on it is wonderful. It handles multitasking fine, even with a lot of apps open.

The only thing you can't really do is have two PDF's on-screen at the same time, as far as I'm aware; the default PDF reader that people recommend (Goodreader) can open multiple PDF's, but it puts them in tabs rather than both visible at the same time. Switching, though, is fast.

If you can afford it, go for the iPad Air.  It's more expensive than the fourth generation iPad, but it's also (as the name implies) less heavy.  It seems like a little thing, but the heavier weight of the older iPads compared to the new iPad Air is noticeable.  If you plan to read off the iPad a lot while holding it, something to consider.

The iPad is the most popular tablet for consumers, business and education for a damn good reason.

Quote from: Piestrio;750194The iPad is the most popular tablet for consumers, business and education for a damn good reason.

"Marketing"

I have a Nexus 7, which I use mostly for reading comics and RPG stuff. It works really well, even though it isn't the newest iteration. And its much much cheaper than an iPad.

Screen size isn't huge, but honestly, with the PPI, it has a sharp enough image to read full 8.5x11 RPG book pages without trouble for me, though I have decent vision (well, in on eye, the other is legally blind due to a work accident.)

Quote from: mcbobbo;750198"Marketing"

Funny, Apple has one of the lowest marketing budgets in the tech world. Certainly lower than was spent on the Surface, Galaxy Tab, etc...

Must be mind-control rays.

Quote from: Piestrio;750194The iPad is the most popular tablet for consumers, business and education for a damn good reason.

Nothing else was out when most people got theirs?

All Apple really has is marketshare and the more mature Appstore.  Microsoft has a real OS on a tablet, Google has better specs for less money.

Apple/Google is a Coke/Pepsi thing with Microsoft somehow deciding seppuku is a great marketing strategy.

Quote from: CRKrueger;750205Microsoft has a real OS on a tablet, Google has better specs for less money.

Microsoft has shown once and for all what an awful idea it is to put a desktop OS on a tablet.

All Google did was show that spec sheets don't matter.

I'm not a reflexive Apple fanboy (have an Android phone) but I've found the iPad to be best for viewing rpg pdfs. This is because the screen ratio is 4:3 unlike the 16:9 of Android tablets. 4:3 being virtually the same ratio as most pdfs, so you can view a pdf on the 9.7 inch iPad at a higher zoom level than on a 10.1 inch Android tablet.