What is the Best Tablet for Business?

No really, I'm asking...

All Torque's [account managers / sales engineers / sales representatives] are traditional salespeople: on the road, in front of customers all day, managing the entire supply process.  As such, catalogues, presentations and information gathering are all done using traditional paper-based media.

Well, the world is turning quickly and information technology follows Moore's Law religiously.  Tablet computers have become the weapon of choice for all businesses on the go, but which is the best one and what apps get the most out of it?

With the iPad holding the high ground and the Playbook and ThinkPad looking to compete at the top end, new offerings like the Kindle Fire are aiming for a different (non-business) market altogether.

We've got a collection of iPhones and Blackberrys to help us on our way at present.  My preference is for the Blackberry with its superior e-mail capability but news about RIM's ongoing viability is always concerning.

Help me out here, people!  Let me know, money no object, what the best tablet for business currently available in Australia is.  Also, let me know when the money is a slight object. 

Out With The Old, In With The New

Well, All Torque Preston's trusty old laptop whirred and fizzed its last noises last week, before keeling over and yelling "Enough!!" Life's Good, claimed the logo on the front of Ol' Faithful, but life turned pretty ugly very quickly as we hurriedly hunted down our last backup dongle. Luckily, it was only from the previous day so there wasn't too much that needed to be recovered.

Crisis management became the catchcry of the day. We organised for a new desktop to be built (something we had in the pipeline anyway, so we just had to bring it forward), whilst a reserve laptop was rushed into temporary service. Photo at left - Greg at work on Ol' Faithful. May he rest in peace.

Our new computer arrived this week and it is FANTASTIC! All of a sudden, our computing power has skyrocketed to today and has made our lives a lot more straightforward. If there was a moral to this story, I would say that keeping up to date with technology may be expensive, but the cost of not doing so is frightening, especially when something goes wrong.