iPad or Android Tab for Go

[oren]

What do you think the advantages of android over iPad are?

Missed this earlier. I just find my Android tablet to be more user friendly. The ability to pop it in, copy and sort files, and interact with just seem more intuitive to me. I don't feel like I'm lacking anything other than Nihon Kiin magazines that I would like to check out.

Also for the $300 difference, you can get a lot of study material.

[lobotommy]

What do you think the advantages of android over iPad are?

Missed this earlier. I just find my Android tablet to be more user friendly. The ability to pop it in, copy and sort files, and interact with just seem more intuitive to me. I don't feel like I'm lacking anything other than Nihon Kiin magazines that I would like to check out.

Also for the $300 difference, you can get a lot of study material.

Sure, $300 it's a huge difference, but belive me - SmartGo books, Tygem, Wbaduk, PandaTetsuki, SmartGo Kifu, XGoo HD, EasyGo...Well there are a lot more good go apps on iOS than on Android. Sure it can be only a matter of time, but hey, how long we need to wait? Two years ago there was nothing acceptable for Android. And now it is still not any better in Apps area. Panda-Tetsuki showed up... after three years. For me, it is a consumer's nightmare to get cheap hardware with no good software.

[oren]

Sure, $300 it's a huge difference, but belive me - SmartGo books, Tygem, Wbaduk, PandaTetsuki, SmartGo Kifu, XGoo HD, EasyGo...Well there are a lot more good go apps on iOS than on Android. Sure it can be only a matter of time, but hey, how long we need to wait? Two years ago there was nothing acceptable for Android. And now it is still not any better in Apps area. Panda-Tetsuki showed up... after three years. For me, it is a consumer's nightmare to get cheap hardware with no good software.

I've used SmartGo Books on my family's ipad, and it's not made it worth changing. I have Wbaduk and Tetsuki on my Android. I have sgf handling software I'm happy with. One of these days I may try some of the others, but I've never had anything that made me desire an Ipad other than the Nihon Kiin magazines. They keep promising Android support, but it's never appeared unfortunately.

[Charlie]

I have an iPad and these are my opinions:

• SmartGo Kifu for the iPad is decent but not brilliant. I use it primarily for tsumego but the tsumego collection is uses (from goproblems.com) is imperfect and sometimes quite annoyingly flaky - problems missing branches, solutions marked incorrect etc. It does include some pro. games but omits any sort of pattern search feature and many of the commented games are poor quality - some of them even stop part-way through the game and refer you to a book to buy on SmartGo books!
• SmartGo Books for the iPad is decent if you like electronic books. I don't so I will reserve judgement. (I find page-turning to be a chore on a device - particularly when a book is not read linearly and forward-only.) I also have some concerns about buying content that will eternally be locked to an Apple-controlled device.
• Panda Tetsuki for the iPad is amazing when it works. It is easily the best IGS client extant today and is a shining example of a good, touch-based U.I. for the game of go. Be aware that it does have some bugs. I have lost games due to its poor handling of wireless connections and resuming interrupted games.
• The iPad's Web Browser is not always your friend (no flash) but I have found that it is sufficient for most go-related browsing requirements.

I also have an Android phone but I have not found any good software for go players for that platform. I hear that the KGS application is brilliant but I am not prepared to pay the dire premium it sells for. I have tried out some of the tsumego apps but none of them have impressed.

Interestingly, one of the members of our club, here in Cape Town, wrote an Android application to interact with our national player database so we can capture results and view ratings wherever we might end up. I think the ability to do this is a huge benefit of the platform!

[RBerenguel]

Interestingly, one of the members of our club, here in Cape Town, wrote an Android application to interact with our national player database so we can capture results and view ratings wherever we might end up. I think the ability to do this is a huge benefit of the platform!

Emphasis mine. There's only one thing preventing anyone from writing iPad apps, and it's just Apple Developer fees (I think it's 100€ per year, have not checked in a while) Anyway, you can always develop either web apps or even just offline javascript apps if what needs to be done is easy enough, without paying any fees (not counting the hosting of a web app).

[lobotommy]

[*]The iPad's Web Browser is not always your friend (no flash) but I have found that it is sufficient for most go-related browsing requirements.[/list]

Try Puffin web browser - full flash support on iPad.
Also if PandaTetsuki is not sufficient try Tygem app or WBaduk. Also I have found current beta version of PandaTetsuki to be more stable than AppStore version - contact author on facebook and give him UDID of your iPad - you will get access to beta versions via TestFlight which is really good way to distribute beta apps.

[Mivo]

If it's an iPad 3, or you plan on using it for playing something else than go, pick the 32 one. Retina-enabled games (and apps) eat a big chunk of disk space.

32 GB isn't enough even on my iPad 2. I decided to skip the iPad 3 and wait for the next model since buying one every year is a little unreasonable, but I think 64 GB is almost a must if you are a virtual pack rat like me. (Strangely opposite to how I am with physical stuff.)

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but there is also DropBox, if you want to transfer/access files without jailbreaking the device (I think jailbreaking it removes the ability to buy in-app products, which may apply to SmartGo Books, though I'm not sure -- never saw the need for it, especially not since iOS 5.1 fixed wireless syncing).

[RBerenguel]

Jailbreaking usually does not break anything, at least all times I have checked. I only jailbroke my iTouch, but now I'm running all devices on the standard OS. I'm also quite a packrat, but 32GB somehow are manageable... 16 would be impossible

[calm2]

One thing to keep in mind--Samsung will be releasing ( in the next few months ) the Galaxy Note 10.1.
This tablet will come with a pen ( wacom digitzer ), which might make a lot of difference.