Interested in what everybody thinks of the tablet craze...  Gates has talked about tablets for years, and finally it took Apple and Google to make them a reality.  What do you think?  Please vote and/or reply.

Chip:
 
Does Meta run on Ipad2?  If not, what would it take to make it work?  Everyone I know either has one or is getting one.  I'm not personally interested in one unless Meta works on it.  But, it sure would be awesome to be able to play stratego while sitting at a baseball game or waiting in an airport without dragging out the 5 pound laptop.

Tablets are double-edged...
 
On one hand, they are utterly useless in terms of how they actually advance civilization.  Its a grown-up toy.   When you think of the trillions of hours people spend on them playing with the "apps" and engaging in mindless and pointless texting, you almost have to conclude that all these hand-held gadgets are harming us.  How is a tablet/smart phone any sort of upgrade over a hand-held phone (which you could argue modestly enhances civilization in its convenience)
 
On the other hand, it is one of the few products we actually can create these days (even if they are made in China or Singapore), and claim that it is American.  Its our technology and other countries gobble up those phones in droves.  Apple benefits from its popularity and it is something people buy (I wonder how many jobs that tablet actually provides for though in the U.S. economy?)
 
Remember when we actually used to make nuts people needed?  Just remember the Romans...toward the end of their empire they built the arenas for the gladiators and thoroughly enjoyed themselves while the Barbarians ravaged the countrysides.  I can't help but see the parallel there.

Thanks for the answer, Chip.  I'm not sure that the screen is big enough on an IPad2 to really allow usage of the meta interface at any rate.  When I play, I usually have the game board open, the control board open, and frequently a private message box open at the same time.  Those all fit nicely onto a laptop screen (mine measures about 13".)
 
However, it certainly seems that these tablets are going to replace some large portion of the laptop market.  As that technological wave starts to curl and become viable, I would hate to see my favorite little corner of the internet get swept away like a Sega Genesis game.  It seems that preventing that requires some prognostication: will Apple incorporate Java and it's battery sapping characteristics, or will the market for software be forced to adapt to Apple's hardware?  I am a relative neophyte in this high-tech world, but now I suddenly feel like I have some skin in the game because for the first time something I really like is going to be influenced by the outcome.
 
Perhaps the appropriate venue for this discussion is offline via email, but I would like to engage you further on this topic.
 
Thanks, razor

html5 will solve all this in a year or 2
M