I don't know the methods and whether they're ideal, but Comscore just claimed the iPad has 97% of all tablet mobile traffic. Now traffic may be different than ownership (and there's some scattered evidence that breaks in the iPhone's favor), but it's fair to say that the iPad is much more common.

I don't think the members of this board match the public--Android tablets are way more common, thanks to KGS and demographics. So here's a poll. The Kindle fire is included for the future.

Please answer based on tablets you use. If you bought a $99 HP tablet (can't even remember the name) on a whim but never use it, don't count it.

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Occupy Babel!

I like my iPad, it's not a must have but I use it often

I don't even own a cellphone ... what would I do with a tablet?

Get off my lawn!

I would ordinarily prefer an android tablet to an iPad, because I lean to open software environments. I bought an iPad last spring because the android market just didn't seem mature enough for me to risk $500 on an android tablet when I knew I could do everything I wanted with an iPad. Now that I'm learning Go on my ipad with Smartgo Kifu and Smartgo Books I'd be hard-pressed to make my next tablet an android unless they or their equivalent are available for the android. I'll just have to tether myself to my desktop when I'm ready for KGS.

Panda-tetsuki is a really nice IGS client for iPad.

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That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.
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My (sadly neglected, but not forgotten) project: http://dailyjoseki.com

Thanks for the tip. I've just registered, and I can ease in to internet go by watching other games.

I'll probably get an Android tablet in the near future.

No, it's more about waiting for a few more paychecks. However, Ice Cream Sandwich might be a good reason to wait longer as well.

What I want does not exist yet: weight ca. 600g, battery 10~15 hours, screen matt, 4:3, ca. 10", Windows 8 (or in case of emergency Android). And when I am dreaming, it should also have iPad's outer design (without a home button) and be available at a reasonable price. So presumably I need to wait a year or two... iPad? No way, as long as the file system is closed, the screen glaring and an USB port missing.

I picked up an iPad 2 in May and while I half expected that I would regret the purchase after a week or two, it has become a daily companion that I would not want to miss. For once, a "don't really need it, but want it"-gadget didn't lose its appeal within days!

I use it for browsing, email checking, light work, tsumego, watching games on Tygem and Wbaduk, playing against igowin HD and CrazyStone, studying games with SmartGo Kifu, playing other games (there is an amazing number of actually creative puzzle and strategy games available for it), watching TV shows (streamed via AirVideo from the PC) and reading ebooks. The latter surprised me the most because I expected to get a headache rather quickly or lose focus, as I do with reading long text documents on a normal LCD screen, but it is surprisingly pleasant.

If I had bought an Android tablet in May, there would already now be various newer and arguably better models. The iPad is still top of the line and just seems to have overall better longevity than the fast evolving Android market. There are too many competitors, I feel, and now that Amazon comes up with their own store, there will be even more fragmentation. I prefer the "stability" (or better: steadiness) I get from the Apple product, even though from a philosophical perspective using an Android device would be more compatible with my views.

Robert, you can "hack" (jailbreak) the iPad and access the file system via SSH and other methods. This comes at the relatively small cost of not being able to purchase "in-app" products. I say "relatively" because the SmartGo Books are in-app purchases, so depending on what you'd want the device for that could be a significant limitation. It's not something I've done with my iPad (no need), but it's simple and fairly risk-free compared to hacking other devices (where there was/is a greater risk of "bricking" the device).

About longevity: I'm quite scared that my iPad battery will degrade on me the way my wife's iPhone battery did. By the time I broke my phone (27 months, perhaps?), hers was essentially unusable. From what I understand, it's a general issue with the type of batteries used, but that doesn't make it less bothersome.

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Occupy Babel!

Quite surprised: I had thought that I'd see a lot more people with Android tablets.

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Occupy Babel!

Lets see... I have an Android tablet, a Windows Vista convertible tablet PC, and a Nokia N800 (Maemo) tablet--which I didn't include in my vote, as I currently have it boxed and no longer use it (I would like to use it again, but will wait until I have a good use for it).

I like all my tablets, and all for different reasons. My Windows tablet would be the king of productivity if it weren't so heavy and the battery so bad (this is a used machine, a couple years old, and the battery close to shot). The Xoom is a beautiful little device, and great for media consumption... not so great for actual work (I did finally find a neat little note-taking app, and have just recently ordered a stylus online--if this works out well, I hope to be able to use this to take notes in class...we'll see).

Anyway, it doesn't really matter what sort of market share iPads have right now. It's only a matter of time before Android catches up, and ultimately surpasses it. Oh sure, there probably won't ever be any individual device that outsells the Apple equivalent (phone or tablet), but the shear numbers and varieties will win out in the end.

Jailbreaking is a great security risk (I have heard for Android, but probably it is also true for iPad). When I use any computer, I presume security. So before I would jailbreak any tablet, I would first inform myself how to maintain the prior security level. As a Windows user, I have almost no idea how to do it for another OS. I like Windows so much also because I know how to set security very tightly. For another OS, I would have to learn that afresh. Android and iPad are said to be (still) reasonably secure if one does not jailbreak. I would want to use a tablet rather than having to learn security before daring to enter the internet. Without jailbreak, I could simply use it. (In contrast to smartphones, whose OSs appear to be cans of worms.)

I'm not really sure about this.... I do recall one instance where some malware was discovered that used an exploit to gain root privileges without the user's knowledge or consent--on unrooted phones, at least. On rooted phones, this same app and technique popped up a window requesting root access, and as such, the rooted phone was actually more secure.

Of course, if you install malware and give it (or allow it) root access, that malware can do more harm than if it didn't have root access. So I guess this comes down to how much you trust the developers of these root-enabled (or root-required) apps. But the same can be said for any software, ever--regardless of the operating system.

It must be pointed out, though, that both jailbreaking and rooting do void your device's warranty.

Given the popularity of iPad and Android in our age of exponential malware growth, it is only a matter of time until malware (coming from the internet rather than only via an installed root app) will attack every badly configured (jailbroken) tablet quite like today's badly configured Windows PCs.

And what about the badly configured not jailbroken devices?

I have never seen a device or operating system that ships with a default setting that is secure. Smartphones are no exception. In fact it's worse: Usually, you as a consumer, can't really do anything about it, at least, ironically, not without jailbreaking it

Which actions and methods (don't suggest filters like anti-malware tools, outbound firewalls or HIPS instead of real security) would you suggest for Android or iOS?

(For Windows I recommend thinking before acting, data separation, user accounts, user access rights, software whitelisting rules, integrity levels, (later) dynamic access control, hardening of OS and softwares, filtering / blocking executable imports from outside the PC or making them non-executable.)

I wondered whether go players would be different in their current iPad preference but

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/ ... -soar.html

suggests a similar relation of 66% iPad and 27% Android. Reading reviews, those complaining about iPad's disadvantages identify too high price, unnecessary restrictions of functionality (file system, iTunes, not suitable outside in the sun, not up to date cameras etc.) and non-PC-standard interfaces (esp. USB). This makes it all the more surprising that the market share is that great. A good part of the same reviewers also say that they have bought an iPad despite its price. Ok, let's face the reality: The iPad is still about the only good enough tablet if one wants a lifestyle product. It will be interesting to see when the competitors will catch up.

Basically the same things you listed for Windows. I would also add blocking incoming network connections unless whitelisted. But there's a little caveat: You can't actually do that without root access

That was actually the point of my post: Smartphone operating systems don't let you configure these things, and unfortunately, the defaults are not very secure. With iOS devices, you don't have a chance to improve that at all. With Android, since it's running a Linux kernel, it's theoretically possible when you have root access, but it's not easy.

Personally, I'm using a Maemo device, which is a real GNU/Linux, opposed to just using the kernel. And even there I had to install a custom kernel just to get iptables support, which is necessary to do any sort of network filtering.

So to sum up: Forget it. You have no real control over the security of Android and iOS devices. For Android, it's a bit better if you jailbreak it *and* know what you're doing. Otherwise, you just have to hope there are no exploitable holes in the software (which is unrealistic), or as a next best thing, hope that all discovered holes are fixed fast enough by the vendor (which, as several incidents in the recent past have shown, is also unrealistic).