When Will Tablets meet Laptops?

Tablets are light, offer decent screen size up close, use touch response which is more intuitive at close distances and have been utilised as a larger mobile screen. Movies on bigger screen, Games on bigger screen, and basically anything on a bigger screen when compared with the ever expanding size of mobiles (which has now found contentment in the 5" to 6" genre).

Laptops on the other hand offer more power and plugin options (HDD, DVD, USB, etc). They offer screen sizes bigger than Tablets but as they are kept on laps, i.e., a bit more away from the eye than the Tablets, eventually they don't seem much bigger to the eye. They offer less intimacy as they usually lack touch option but offer more productivity because of keyboards and also because mouse/trackpads are more intuitive at larger distances from the eye than touch.

Over the past year or so, gaps between Tablets and Laptops are being closed primarily by Software teams who also make hardware such as Apple and Microsoft by offering Pro versions. Although software has never really been a problem for productivity, a lot of emphasis on these models are on the exclusive productivity options provided.  Some ads depicting these productivity options are great. In general these Tabs are great. But at what cost?

These tabs offering the best of both worlds are priced at sum of prices of both worlds. The price of these one off great tabs equals the price of one laptop with similar spec plus the price of a similar sized Tablet.

Inspire of all these wonderful developments, there is a need for something more. This is because I don't want to have both a Laptop and a Tablet. I want my Tabley to replace my Laptop effectively or bring a new genre of hybrid. Although the hardware manufacturers like Dell, HP, etc do offer new hybrids, they don't appeal to me as they seem too bulky to carry around. They seem to be more like Laptops with Touch rather than Tablets with more functionality.

So, what do we want?

Simply, a Tablet. With a detachable Keyboard & Mouse. Bluetooth Headphones connectivity and a 3.5 MM headphones jack so that I have the freedom to connect my own headphones and not proprietary ones. Connect my external HDD. LAN cables and HDMI ports. Charging my Tablet while all of these are connected at the same time. And finally robust browsers to show Desktop versions of website by default as they usually offer much more options than the Mobile Versions.

As can be seen, it's primarily hardware and browser is just a minor tweak. It's not necessary that these options/ports have to be built in to the Tablet. However, it is necessary that these be available within the price of the current Laptop.

Trip to Istanbul - Day 1

Through the lovely but very busy T2 International, to the Turkish Airlines (which changed my pre-booked seat numbers without informing and later altered the seats on request - so mixed feelings about the first leg of journey) with professional hostesses/hosts (which is neither good nor bad), with the Raki, Ayran and Local wine onboard, and finally to Ataturk airport in Istanbul.

A little help to get IstanbulKart (10 Lira) with a 20 Lira top-up (24 Lira effective balance), and all of us were on our way through the Metro to Zeytinburnu. Dragging the luggage along, we went to the T1 tram stop next door and faced the rush of the busy tramway right up to Cemberlitas where we got off and made our way down steep slopes to our hotel, the Oba Hotel, a quaint little 3 story building (along with another building- Annex building) run by a family and booked via Tripadvisor and Booking.com.

Located in a narrow alleyway close to the tourist spots of Sultanahmet, on entering the hotel, we were invited with some water, wonderful Turkish Tea, and delicious cake (or scones) with an elaborate advice on what we could see or do after knowing our backgrounds. It was a warm welcome. We were taken to the 2nd floor of the same building into our room with help to carry our bags up on the wooden staircase to bright and nicely decorated rooms with what looked like standard hotel amenities (except the lack of microwave we saw on the booking receipt).

After some much needed rest, we went out to fish for dinner and found some cheese and olives from nearby Bim supermarket, Migros Jet supermarket, some local Efes beer, and shops for full roast chicken and Doner Kebap sandwiches. All the while it rained and made for a very wet and cold walk through the Grand Bazaar which we went to fish for food but all was closed by the time we reached there except some freebies like Turkish Delight and chocolate. After dinner, our bodies, now cold and tired, dragged us to the dark depths of sleep.