AA>> I would rather purchase a non-Apple tablet since I know it
 AZ> will perform AA> as a standalone product, yet marry nicely
 AZ> with a pc only if necessary.

 AZ> It's really only needed to synch
 AZ> photos/music/videos/calendar/contacts w. a main computer - and
 AZ> that's equally true of a non-Apple tablet... there's no way to
 AZ> get music onto an Android or other tablet other than from a
 AZ> computer. As I mentioned, if you don't need to do this, it is
 AZ>  easily ignored.

Not entirely true.  U.S. users can purchase songs and albums from Amazon's
online music store and download them directly to their devices over the
air.  We Canadians aren't so lucky at this time.

Failing that, the ability to get tunes/pics etc, onto a 'droid device
simply by drag and drop from ANY computer is a big plus. For instance, if
someone wanted to share some tunes with me, the  requirement of needing to
install iTunes on their computer can be seen as a burden.  Similarly.. if I
currently wanted to share some tunes off my iPod, I can't (officially by
design) - unless I store the tunes onto my iPod using a completely
different method (such as with the FileDisk app) in the first place.


 AZ> While iPads use iTunes to synch while Android tablets appear
 AZ> as drives on the desktop, the actual usability difference is
 AZ> less than it might appear.

My side-view mirror says the differences "may seem LARGER than they
appear."  ;)


 AZ> Moreover, the next iOS update is widely expected to provide
 AZ> more features independent of the synch cable.

Good to know.  My iPod's strict reliance on iTunes really bugs me!

--- Thunderbird 2.0.0.24 (Windows/20100228)