For others, there is the new Amazon Kindle Fire that is basically a book reader upgraded to a small color tablet. It weighs about a pound, is 7.5 inches wide and 4.7 inches tall, has no cameras and costs $199.

The newly released Asus Transformer Prime is similar in function to but thinner than the iPad.  It weighs about a pound and a half, is 10.3 inches wide and 7.1 inches tall, has 2 cameras and costs $499.

There is also the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to choose from. It weighs about a pound and a quarter, is 10.1 inches wide and 6.9 inches tall, has 2 cameras and costs $499.

The Asus Transformer Prime is called the Transformer because you can attach a keyboard and use it like a laptop. It uses Android, but if Android will not run your windows programs, you will have the option to switch over to true laptop mode and run windows 8. It’s one of the first tablets to use Nvidia’s new quad-core processor, the Tegra 3, which provides lots of horsepower.

So, which Pad or Tab should you buy? You should first decide what you are going to use it for.

If you are going to read books, watch movies, search the web and play with apps like Angry Birds, you can get by with the Amazon Kindle Fire.

If you want to use Skype and video chat with friends and family you need a tablet that has a camera facing you so they can see you. Either the Apple iPad 2 or the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will fit the bill. If you want to take pictures and video, it’s nice to have two cameras, with one of the cameras facing forward.

And if you want the power of a laptop, you might want to wait for the Asus Transformer Prime, which will use Android and Windows 8.

For more information about this and other Tech Tip articles, please contact Brad at (702) 294-1392 or visit his web site at www.applebyarts.com.