Day 8 - Can I live without the laptop as well?

I've lived with the Galaxy Tab for a week and the question I keep asking myself, in fact a question all tablet owners will ask themself at some point, is can I do without my laptop/PC? The short answer is no. The tablet is a great piece of kit and I can use it for pretty much everything, but its that last 1% of tasks that it just can't do which means I just can't give up my laptop. 

It tends to be the browser that will let you down as it just doesn't seem to support things like java and some flash applets. That means that there are certain pages you just won't be able to use which can be annoying, particularly if its your internet banking as I found out last night while trying to transfer money between accounts. You will be surprised quite how many websites use such applets an example of this would be blogger, from Google, which powers this blog and I have found that the small pop-up window that comes up when you try to add a picture doesn't work too well with the Galaxy Tab. It is there its just the positioning that's off and the buttons don't always work. 

The other issue that would stop me switching entirely to the Tab is that you can't print from it. Now this isn't surprising an to be fair to the Galaxy Tab none of the other tablets can print from them as they are all designed to be a content consuming device as opposed to a content creating device. Google does offer a printing facility but there is a lack of compatible printers and that is only for Google Docs and not specific to the tablet operating system. 

Currently tablets are really designed to be partner devices for those users who are intending to keep the PC/laptop. There are certain things they will never really be very good for such as photo and video editing and hardcore 3D gaming. It's tempting though to try and live with just your tablet, this nice thin device that you can just pick up and put down with its instant switch-on, but it will only be a matter of time before a lack of a key software component or hardware component stops you from completing a task you really need to do.