Smaller than 7 inch isn't very usable. It's great having a smartphone, its great having a computer in your pocket that is stuffed with all types of sensors and ways to connect to different devices, but it isn't the best experience. The larger ipads and tablets are too large and heavy. It's the middle that works.
Our first steps into mobile computing were with smartphones. I'm on my second smartphone, and my wife is on her third. It's great, but in trying to accomplish some things in more detail, the small size just gets in the way. It's great for getting quick data, gps, weather, tides, sunset sunrise times, restaurants, movies, things to do, finding gas, playing music, ..., but it's not great for digging for information.
The second step was buying an iPad Retina. We wanted larger thinking this would give us a better experience when wanting to get more detailed information about things. Using the iPad has not been all that great, though. It's too large and heavy to hold in your hands for as long as you probably want to. You'll be looking to put it on your knee, lap, a chair arm, better yet a table, after a short time with it in your hands. It's the torque of the larger device as well as the weight. The extra screen space hasn't really been enough to overcome this.
The third step we sort of got into sideways. I bought my mom a 7 inch Android tablet and got to use it before I gave it to her, setting it up, and playing around with it, so that I could answer her questions. About that same time I bought my sister one as well. Playing with the two 7 inch tablets impressed me enough that I wanted one. I now have one, and I've bought three others for Christmas gifts. We have also bought an ipad mini for my wife's mother. Her sister and niece, are also using Apple products, so it made more sense to set her mom up with Apple as well. Really it's all about grandma being able to talk to the niece via Facetime. The niece had to buy a iPad 2 as a requirement for school, but now wants a itouch as the ipad is again, too large. Fine for home on her desk, just not for dragging around. She'll probably be happy with the itouch for a while and then at some point we'll get her a mini.
Mostly I don't like to work on photos when I'm traveling. My wife and I usually are spending 14 hours out of the hotel room, going and doing, so by the time we get back to the hotel room, I just want to charge batteries, backup photos, shower, and go to bed. I like to leave a set of backup cards in the hotel room when out an about. When we are actually traveling place to place, I keep the second copy in my pocket, so that if my bag gets stolen, I might at least save the cards in my pocket. I really should make a third set and ask my wife to carry a set. I just bought a couple of 64Gb cards, to go with the two 32Gb cards I normally use for backup, so that's an option now.
I have one 64 micro SD in my tablet and I'm planning on getting a second for my phone. I've thought about using them as a way to mail out my photos as well. A micro SD card mailed in a birthday card, should provide another option to add some redundancy. I wouldn't buy another set of micro SD cards for this, but having the option to pull them out of my tablet or phone would be fine.
To make back up with the tablets and phones easy, Android or Apple, I bought a
Kingston Mobilelite. It's a wireless bridge with storage capabilities. It has a SD card slot and a USB 2.0 interface for connecting external media. It has a battery you can use when not around power, but I just use it plugged in at the hotel. The power connector for the Mobilelite is the same mini USB that my phone charger uses. The battery can be used to charge your cell phone though, so it's still useful.
Since the unit has its own wifi network, an external network isn't needed to use the device. When one is available, you can bridge the Mobilelite to it, so that you can still use your tablet or phone through wifi to connect to the internet when it is connected to the Mobilelite. This also lets you send a file directly from a card to a remote site without having to transfer the photo to your tablet or phone first. I don't really use this ,as the device lets you start a directory copy, and then disconnect your device without having to wait for the copy to finish. I just find connecting my phone or tablet directly to the external network after disconnecting simpler to use. From this you can guess I don't normally post files either, so don't use that functionality on a regular basis.
Thank you
Russell
