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Where do tablets belong?

Last night, I had a sudden thought: where does my tablet belong in my tech life? I have always loved the thought of having a need and purpose for every piece of technology I own. For instance, my computer does all of my heavy lifting (photo and video editing) while my phone does all of communicating and daily living tasks. My Chromecast? That is for tossing music and videos to my TV. Google Home Mini? What a great little assistant for quick information and getting my day started. I use my Xbox for gaming while my Huawei Watch gives me quick updates and almost-hands-free communication. So, where does my Kindle come in?

I originally bought my Kindle Fire to be a consumption device and makeshift pseudo-laptop as mine is not very portable. I thought I would use it for all of Netflix watching as I moved about the house as well as for reading plenty of books; I even intended it to be useful to bang out a quick blog post or article. We probably had a great relationship at first...and then some upgrades left it out in the cold.

It started with my discovery that I am not a significant fan of digital books. That is not to say that I hate reading on my Kindle, but there is just nothing better than that feel of turning a page with that fresh paper under my fingers. Not long after, I found an old, slightly beaten Acer laptop at my mom's house that no one was using (for good reason). An hour or so fixing a hinge, a $20 replacement battery, a 320GB HDD I had laying around, and a fresh install of CloudReady, I had a dirt cheap Chromebookish device that handles my typing needs pretty well. The final nail in the coffin of my Kindle: my purchase of a Pixel 2 XL. I could not watch Netflix and listen to my music/podcasts on a beautiful looking and sounding device that was even more mobile.

Does my Kindle still get some use? Absolutely. I watch movies on it while I am also playing Xbox on the TV, and my fiancee uses it when she is out of lives on her phone, but not ready to quit playing Candy Crush yet. This made me think: are tablets on the way out, or could they be possibly evolving? 2-in-1 devices are on the rise even as tablet sales are down, and judging by Apple's commercial, they see the iPad moving up in to the realm of actual computing. Could this be where we are headed?

My experience may vary from the next person, but it seems like the age of tablets may be coming to an end. If I am being honest, I do not know if it ever even started. I will keep trying to find a use for my trusty friend because I love having a use for everything, but it seems his days may be getting shorted. Enjoy your partial retirement my good buddy.

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