I've been enjoying my new tablet immensely on many fronts. Unfortunately keeping the front clean has been a hassle in itself. The downside of a Gorilla Glass touch surface is how easily you have to deal with glare and especially fingerprints. I was literally wiping my surface down every few hours.

The easy solution of course is a protective film, but after going through several sheets of these films on my iPhone, I was reluctant. The big problem is for all the attempts you make to align things perfectly and keep your area clean, you still end up seeing a few pesky pieces of dust somehow get in there. Might not seem much until you're reading and your eye can't focus anywhere else. Worse are when you get bubbles you can't remove.

Thankfully there is ArmorSuit's MilitaryShield brand of screen protectors seemingly removed all the pains and hassles of installation, and I'll admit I am highly impressed at the results.

Lenovo's push into the tablet market first came as a surprise to some, since their CEO once stated how he felt slate tablets were not in Lenovo's interests. A year later, they unrolled the IdeaPad K1 to a lukewarm reception. Like other Android tablets, many simply just saw it as an iPad imitation with not much to offer to user compared to the Apple empire.

For those like myself, the announcement of the ThinkPad Tablet is when we took notice. I've stated before how much I wanted a tablet that honestly could act as a laptop substitute in many instances, and I think this tablet hit the nail right on the head. Promoted as a business machine, I look at my ThinkPad Tablet as the ideal tablet for those who would like to leave the laptop at home in many instances.

Today I was dealt a disappointment in a story I have seen unfold many times in the last year. I was all set to buy my first tablet, a Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet, when I saw they had raised the initial price point and made one of their much touted features a separate accessory that one has to buy at additional cost. I'll even toss in that any types of discounts were not being honored.

Sound familiar? I remember seeing the same scenario when Motorola released their Xoom tablet, and HP with their now killed Touchpad. Consumers hoping for a tablet with the "iPad coolness" without the "iPad price" end up finding a competitor that isn't offering much more than the iPad. After seeing what happened this past week with HP, it's becoming clear that price is holding back consumers from embracing tablets.

I normally don't like to be one of those types who simply writes an entry as a "rebuttal" to another blog out there, but this one in my book serves a bigger purpose and dives deeper into a topic that's been debated back and forth on the internet and even stands to determine the future of magazines, newspapers, and other publications.

TechCrunch columnist Erick Schonfeld published an interesting piece yesterday on what he felt were the opportunities that ePublshers are missing in their tablet-ready magazines and newspapers, as well as suggestions to improve.  I think some of his ideas do have merit, but others also seemingly take away from the idea of ePublications.

With Black Friday upon us, one of the hot gift items is of course the Apple iPad.  Unlike last year though, the iPad is now sitting alongside a bevy of similar devices all making the same types of claims that Apple did a year ago.  Touch screen, fun apps, books, movies, internet, some with cameras, etc.  While I think many of these devices look fun, they don't seem practical.  I'm sure many out there would disagree with me, but for my needs, I think this crop of tablets are simply more like toys than they are useful.

I'm not being a hater in this summation.  I own an iPhone and I love it.  I love having many of those functions one would need a computer for in the palm of my hand.  Lord knows anyone who sees me on the train will see me playing a game or reading articles.  I will admit and give credit to Apple for rethinking the tablet from its old illogic of a large laptop with a swivel screen.  The iPad did change how we look at tablets, but the problem with me is still what you can't do on one.