Did you buy a tablet this weekend?

Author: Riley Alexander, MD, MBA

This weekend, stretching until "Cyber-Monday" is the most hyped shopping weekend of the year. Did you purchase a tablet. There were some good deals on many of the Android tablets out there and, very surprisingly, the iPad 2 was even on sale. You probably won't see that again until the iPad 3 is unveiled.

This also marked the first official weekend of the shopping season since the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet have been in the wild. These low-cost tablets/deluxe e-readers have garnered a lot of attention and are without a doubt the two tablets likely to lead sales in the non-iOS category this season. Has anyone already gotten theirs? I actually purchased the Nook Tablet for myself last weekend and am planning on writing a follow-up post on my experience with it and why I chose it over Amazon's entry into the field.

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Black Friday deals on tablets (Android, iPad 2)

Thinking about buying a tablet this Black Friday? NewEgg.com has some refurbished Android tablets that are a great deal!

These are each $369.99

SAMSUNG Galaxy Tab 10.1 Refurbished Tablet - Metallic Gray NVIDIA Tegra 2 1.00GHz 10.1" Wide XGA 1GB Memory 16GB Storage HDD NVIDIA ULP GeForce

MOTOROLA XOOM with Wi-Fi Refurbished Tablet NVIDIA Tegra 2 1.00GHz 10.1" Wide XGA 1GB DDR2 Memory 32GB Flash HDD NVIDIA ULP GeForce

You can also get a Refurbished iPad 2 with Wi-Fi 16GB for $449.00 from the online Apple Store.

Panasonic Toughpad™ Android tablets

If you're looking for a rugged Android slate tablet, consider the Panasonic Toughpad™ Android tablets. Here's a description from the Panasonic website:

Introducing the new Android™-powered Panasonic Toughpad™ family, the fearless new business tablets that go where no tablets have gone before. Combining data and device security, seamless connectivity, enterprise-minded technology, and a long legacy of rugged and reliable computing, the new 10” Toughpad A1 and (coming soon) 7” Toughpad B1 tablets are the perfect melding of mind and muscle.

Featuring a rugged, water- and dust-resistant design for the flexibility to work freely in nearly any environment, the Panasonic Toughpad™ family offers the perfect tool—no matter what the job—and the most effective tablets for mobile workers in any industry.

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Dell Latitude ST Tablet PC

The Dell Latitude ST Tablet PC is a new slate tablet from Dell. This device may look like an Apple iPad, but it runs Windows 7 and includes both a capacitive touch-screen along with an active digitizer (for pen-based computing). In short, this device is very similar to other enterprise-level slate Tablet PCs running Windows 7. These include the HP Slate 500, the HP Slate 2, the Motion CL900, the Fujitsu Q550, and others.

All of these smaller slate tablets run Atom processors that are highly power-efficient, but they may feel slow and sluggish compared to modern processors found on standard laptops. Hence, I think these small slates running Windows 7 may fill a certain market need, but they're not designed for robust computing. I've been using the HP Slate 500 for about a year and I find that it's a great digital assistant during my busy workday, but I would not use it as my only computer when I'm busy multitasking to accomplish my work.

The Dell Latitude ST Tablet PC includes a "garage" for the pen, a feature that isn't found in every slate tablet., but a similar feature can be found on the Motion CL900. I use my pen regularly, so I hope to see this type of internal pen holder on all future slate tablets.

For now, I will wait until Windows 8 comes out and continue using my existing hardware.

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HP Slate 2 Tablet PC

HP has announced the HP Slate 2 Tablet PC. This is a business device that runs Windows 7 and it improves on the previous HP Slate 500 by adding some new features. For example, the Slate 2 offers the option for integrated 3G Mobile Broadband.

The Slate 2 uses an Intel® Atom™ Z670 (1.50 GHz, 512 KB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB)
The previous Slate 500 used an Intel® Atom™ Processor Z540 (1.86 GHz, 512 KB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB)

The optional HP Slate Bluetooth® Keyboard and Case accessory is a new sleek, stylish executive-class carrying solution that bundles the HP Slate 2, a rechargeable Bluetooth keyboard, HP Slate Digital Pen, and ID, business, or credit cards inside a single case.

Thank You Gogo Inflight Internet

I'm traveling and it's great to have Gogo Inflight Internet service. I can write this blog post, keep up with my emails, and stay productive when I'm in the air! I've used Gogo several times in the past and I hope we see inflight Internet in all planes in the near future. Prices for Gogo have come down since the last time I used it and they now offer several connection packages.