Originally Posted by wv9k

Yep, someplace with lots of wifi access reasonable could indeed make these things VERY useful.

Originally Posted by krisse

That's North America though. Go over to Europe and 3G prices can get very reasonable (at least in some countries). I pay less for my 3G connection than I do for my broadband connection.

Originally Posted by bilofsky

Many less expensive hotels have free WiFi,

Originally Posted by fpp

Yes, that's what you get for living in "developed countries".

Here in good old backwater France (you know, the land of frog eaters, smelly unsterilized cheese and fast trains...), my DSL landline costs me 30€/mo (used to be about 30$ too, currently 47.40, but still the same to me, right ? :-).

That includes uncapped, unfiltered, un-traffic-shaped bandwidth (20 Mbps downlink, 1 Mb uplink) with fixed IP; unlimited free calls (with a regular phone, not Skype) in France and 70 other countries, with Skype-like rates for the rest; a few hundred TV channels and radios through a set-top box, free, PPV or VOD; and VoIP service that lets me call from anywhere I can use Wifi and a SIP client as if I were at home.

Mobile data used to be a problem though, being either very expensive or requiring clever hacks. Just this month (March 6th) Orange blew a big hole in the local oligopoly with its 9€/mo (that's $14.22 fer y'all) data plan for "unlimited" http/https browsing... without a proxy. That means unlimited anything if you can set up your own OpenVPN endpoint.

The innovative part (for us here) is that it works not only as a monthly option to a voice plan, like all other data plans, but also with Orange's prepaid call cards. In that case the "option" is paid for using the card's credit, and lasts 31 days. You can let it lapse if you don't need it, the re-credit the card and subscribe again with a phone call when needed again. Very convenient, and no bad surprises on monthly bills...

This is on Orange's EDGE/3G/3G+ network, so speed depends on your mobile's abilities and location.

When I bought my first tablet I also believed it would mostly be used with Wifi. But given the relative scarcity here of (free) hotspots, and more reasonably priced data plans, I actually have used it (them) just as much with my mobile phone, if not more...

We, the few, the strangely masochistic, the perpetually beta-testing, do hereby publicly and shamelessly profess an inexplicable affection for our not-quite-ready-for-prime-time internet tablets.

We readily acknowledge the protests over OS shortcomings, and stubbornly burn each firmware upgrade anyway.

We begrudgingly accept the API breaks, reinstalling our suddenly-fewer precious apps in spite.

We gleefully look forward to testing half-baked notions, unhildonized game ports and random nightmares.

We swallow hard and make the most of odd hardware decisions, such as usb ports hidden under kickstands and those horrid MiniSD cards.

We smile and nod numbingly at iPhone addicts as they chortle over fingers flicking at icons and simulations of popcorn... then <spit!> and mumble pathetic excuses as to Why We Can't Do That.

We gush enthusiastically over the 3 or 4 internet videos that play well on the things and wail with despair over the billion or so that... don't.

We proudly pump DRM-stripped MP3s over the tiny bass-deprived speakers and scratch our collective heads when friends are not at all impressed.

We shrug and deal with application idiosyncracies like file managers that don't and alarms that fail to realize you're traveling.

We shake our heads sadly over missed manufacturer opportunities and unknown promotions, and engage in endless, mindless speculation over unpublished sales numbers.

But above all, we grit our teeth and tolerate the slings and arrows of naysayers, trolls and never-shoulda-bought-its and just keep on tappin'...