I'm extremely new, didn't even realize there was such a things as internet tablets. My wife is working on her dr. degree in Ssocial work. She constantly carries papers, etc. with her to read, correct, refine, etc.

Someone she worked with suggested tht she could get a tablet to avoid carrying the papers or having her laptop with her all the time.

In researching the possibilities I stumbled into the 'Internet tablet'. While the functionality is far beyond what I was looking for it does appear, on the surface, to meet her needs. A lightwieght portable device which can hold we work (Word docs, pdf files, etc.)

Can anyone tell me if this seems like e fit for the internet tablet arena. Any watchouts, suggestions, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Old mainframe computer biggot!

Pdf files, yes, word docs, no.

You can convert Word docs to PDFs or text for viewing/notation on the tablet using Antiword. Antiword + Xournal would take care of being able to put handwritten notes on Word docs and PDFs. I'd definitely recommend Evince for non-editing viewing of PDFs.

I love my N800 and it's great for everything I use it for, but it might be a bit small for your wife's needs, so see if you can find one for her to try out first. I still prefer hard copies of academic papers (physics) over reading them on my N800. (Now that I think of it though, I prefer hard copies over reading them on my computer monitor too, so it must be something other than the screen size that makes me prefer a hard copy. hmmmm.)

My N800 has the nicest screen of any pocket device I've ever seen, but it's still very small. It might be adequate for a quick check of a reference, but papers formatted for print won't work well for extended reading. And editing and writing documents will be awkward.

A netbook might be a better choice. All the software she's comfortable with will run on a netbook. Nokia's internet tablets can't run Windows software, and standard Linux software needs to be adapted to the specific variant of Linux that the tablets run.

If she's currently doing it with papers, I suspect the idea is not to edit the documents so much as to mark them up; for that a touchscreen is essential. (In fact, I'm persuaded a touchscreen is essential for mobile computing ion general, and I don't think I'm ever going back...) Most netbooks don't have that, and many offer no more pixels than the N8x0.

I routinely (and comfortably) read and take notes on print-formatted PDFs, so I guess that's subjective. Trying one would definitely be good before deciding.

To me, the obvious competitors for this task are UMPCs (fit the task perfectly, but are quite spendy) and convertible tablet PCs like the HP tx2000; more muscle than the UMPCs at less cost, but big, heavy, and short battery life. For me, the tx2000 is right at the upper edge of what I can reasonably carry around on one arm clipboard-style and take notes on.

I would also recommend a "tablet pc" if you want to mark up papers. Internet tablets are for having something in your pocket, and are too small and under powered for this task.

Yep, a netbook sounds lke the ticket for your wife. Look for the Asus eee pc 1000h, for example. It's the one I'm considering buying. Newegg is a good place to read various user reviews and to buy from.