Looking for opinions on Stable PC VS Laptop Vs tablet in general

[Ratatapa]

This is mostly an Opinion thread.

I currently have an iMac and a MacBook Air which is cool to have portable files and all.

My idea at first was to sell the iMac and get an iPad. To become full portability

The iMac is mostly used for FFXI and web browsing which can be done on the air.

In most people opinion how would you tell someone it,s better to have a fix pc (or a mac) Vs using tablets and Laptop for full use.

[Mayareira]

iPad is a state-of-the-art device, however seeing you've got a Macbook Air I'm not sure whether you need it or not. A good combination of ultimate power and unmatched portability would be an Apple Macbook Pro & iPad.

Macbook Air and iPad...eh, I don't see much use of them both.

[Isiolia]

IMO, part of your debate there is flawed off the bat due to the desktop machine being an iMac.

That said, my general arguments for a desktop would mostly be that they're far better performance for the money. Laptop parts need to prioritize size and heat far more than desktop ones do - so not only do you typically pay more, but in a "desktop use" type environment you're stuck with a machine constantly balancing computing power with heat in a tiny enclosure, which can mean a fair bit of fan noise, etc.
On top of that, upgrading the machine is far more restrictive. Expansion even more so, much less repair.

A desktop makes a great main workhorse or gaming PC because you'll get more, pay less, and can more easily maintain or adapt the machine down the line. The more static nature makes a desktop more reliable as a light load home server or something as well, or for rendering/encoding/etc that will sit and take a while.

Though, again, you have an iMac, which like most all-in-ones, is more or less a laptop slapped into a monitor. So almost all the advantages of desktop hardware go away, though they've got more cooling I suppose.

Personally, I would look at the usage of your Air if you're eyeing an iPad. At that point what's it become? Trading off a more robust machine to have a tablet for the in-between times where you want a larger screen than your phone, but don't have the place to rest a laptop?
An iPad can be nice - I have one from work, I use it a fair bit, though mostly just for internet browsing. There's no way I'd trade my desktop for one though (or pay $500+ for one for that matter).

[The Stig]

You seem rich enough to afford all 3. Just buy them all.

You're all entitled to my opinion!

Tablet PC (any) is useful as a "quick entertainment" device. My use for such a tablet would be purely to place on the sofa, while watching a TV/program, if I suddenly decide i need to look something else. At the moment I get by with getting up to my laptop but I get lazy with moving it, so it stays on the desk.

Portability: Lets face it, I use a PC at work, I have a (large) laptop at home, and I have an iPhone that's not hooked up to the WWW. I have absolutely zero need to be constantly on the web. I don't see why anyone does who works in the IT World needs to be, you absorb all the information you need at work and at home. I see people who seem to look important on trains and spy on their activities on the train. They get nothing done, or read a power point slide.

Seeing as you've got a laptop and desktop already, I doubt you'll see that much for the desktop, just get the ipad and be done with it. Prices are significantly more expensive here so it might different in Canada, or wherever you are, but if you've brought an Air, then in my mind you're fine with spending a bit more on an iPad without remorse.

[Mafai]

To much Apple going on here. Wait for the first Ice Cream Sandwich tablet.

[Ohemgee]

Cloud services is whats needed to be looked in to. Though iCloud does make iOS and OSX cloud services easier, its still limited to 5GB (freemium) and kind of a pain since there's currently a lack of fine grained control on what you want synced. If you have the iWork package (pages, numbers or whatever), all of the content can be synced in the cloud easily, but it requires you to use their products.

Alternative cloud services like Box.net (who's giving away 50 GB of free storage for life to all registered users up to dec.12), Dropbox, Sugarsync etc are all nice, but they do not play as well on an iOS device (streaming songs isn't too bad, but any large streaming file shouldn't be enjoyed D: )

If you wanted to completely go mobile, you have to understand what an iPad really is. Its nice to browse, play music from, use as a remote (Apple TV + Jailbreak is the greatest combo ever), ebook reader, video games (I guess...), but nothing really more. I don't regret buying my iPad 2 (I have all my documents synced in the cloud and its nice to edit things on the toilet), but its something I can live without.

The Air does a lot that you already want, plus it has a keyboard. The iMac for FFXI is still questionable, yes you're able to play it, but in reality having 2 OSX devices for just web browsing and entertainment is kind of unnecessary unless you're doing some hardcore video editing. I would personally go with a gamer rig (minimal for FFXI or if you plan on playing anything else in the future, get something nice)

When you have a jailbroken Apple TV 2, you can stream literally everything with the XBMC+icefilms plugin, but that's really on a highly recommended tangent

[Kerberoz]

Build a desktop and use a phone for mobility. Spend the obscene amount of money you saved on triple monitors or something. iPad is just a huge phone. Nothing more.

No point having a laptop at all unless you absolutely need it for work/school.