cathrugg--my DH is in IT as well. He helped to some degree with set-up, but not all that much. Not only doesn't/hasn't he used Apple devices, he has been super, super busy lately, so I've been figuring out a lot of this on my own (some trial and error, some via internet queries and searches). I might have email set to manual already, have to check. My Push notifications might be on though, so that might override the ability to set email settings? Brightness set to auto, I believe (automatically dims in lower light situations). Have to check maps setting. I have iPad locator "on", but I think my other locator settings are off. Running down the battery, and then fully charging it (leaving it on the charger an add'l 20-30 min past reaching 100%), helped a great deal. Now if it's 100% when I go to bed, it's either still 100% when I get up, or it's only down 1% or 2%. It also stopped dropping by 10% or more by the afternoon when it's sitting unused all day. Made a big difference. I'll take a look at the things you mentioned and report back! I really am enjoying mine. Would love to have the 4G of the newly unveiled iPad (I'm spoiled with the speed of our home Wi-Fi, so using my iPad on 3G when I have to, does seem a little slow to me at times). When I get a 4G phone and use that as my "hot spot" though, it shouldn't really matter. Not sure how much diff the A5X chip/quad core processor will make vs the A5 chip in the iPad 2, though the demo at the big unveiling yesterday supposedly showed a big diff in speed. Would love to compare the screen resolutions (iPad 2 vs new iPad) side-by-side, to see how visible the difference really is to my eyes. Would not be happy with the increase in weight and thickness, so all in all, I don't feel too bad about getting an iPad 2 instead of waiting for the new one. Mine's 32 GB, which won't be available in the iPad 2 with the release of the new one, so I guess mine will be a collector's item soon! LOL

None of these things is essential to me. There's also such constant marketing of 'newer, better, faster', whatever. But then, I'm so old I remember when IBM touted its PC's by saying I could store my recipes on one. LOL How much do you spend per month on contracts for all your gizmo's? How many devices have you junked? How would your life change if your hand-held devices ceased to function tomorrow? Are any of them 'essential' and why? I might be interested in an e-book with a cell phone feature. I don't want to play games or take pictures. I would like to eliminate the paper and transportation waste of books, magazines and newspapers. It's scary to think of Third World workers being poisoned as they scavenge metals from discarded devices -- and of the mountains of plastic 'remains' buried or dumped in the ocean.

Outlook email program used to be attached to whatever version of Windows you had...in other words, if you had a problem with outlook you could not uninstall it. You could not uninstall it without uninstalling Windows as well. Course, it was outlook express not outlook... outlook was the program used professionally, in the workplace.... I'd guess in your companies intranet. eta: Windows no longer comes with an email client/app. Out of all the email programs out there, I prefer outlook....it's clean, it's not full of ads, targeted or otherwise, or junk. Click on the MENU icon and COMPARE from the dropdown and it will list everything it does and does not do. Oh, all this can be synced across platforms/devices... your phone, tablet, pc etc Office and all those other apps/programs come with outlook.com. When you open your email, at the top is a task bar and all the way over to the left just beside where it says outlook.com you'll see the Windows icon of 9 window panes.... if you click on it you'll see all those programs listed, plus OneNote, Sway (which is new and getting good reviews... lets you do slideshows very easily and other things) anyway, here is a link to the outlook.com page where you'll see an approximation of the listed programs I see in my email box....I don't know why they are different... the one at outlook.com lists skype, my inbox taskbar does not, and mine lists sway and that one doesn't. Mine are listed, in order, from left to right top row Outlook.com People (which is your address book and this is also where you access Skype) Calendar OneDrive (Windows version of Drop Box, synced to all other programs listed) Word Online All these are synced and can be shared bottom row Excel Online PowerPoint Online OneNote Online Sway Office Online eta: when I open Windows I sign in to my microsoft account....this is how these things are all synced..it is password protected, you can also use a pin....if I'm remembering correctly, you need to do this PW or PIN to sync all your microsoft/windows apps/programs... When I recently upgraded to Windows 10 this stuff (my MS account and settings) was already set up as a default because that's how it was when i was using Windows 8.1 Outlook

You have several options: Get an ipad with built in LTE Have a phone with LTE capabilities already and use this as hotspot I personally have an iPad with built in LTE/4G. It works wonderfully. In reality, you can make your smartphone a hotspot and share the mobile signal when you are in an area where wifi is not available. Although the iPad with LTE is about $100 more expensive than the same iPad without, the cell providers like AT&T make it just as expensive to use your smart phone as a hotspot as to activate the LTE service on your ipad. If you want two units that allow you to browse the internet anywhere, get an iPad with LTE. You should be able to add service to the unit from the cell phone carrier that you only pay for when you use it. Mine is part of the mobile share plan for my cell phone so apart from the activation fee, it does not cost me more to use. The iPad with LTE does have an addition functionality which is the upgraded GPS capability so that you can use it as a GPS more accurately. Regarding Android versus Apple, Android is more susceptible to virus because of its open source nature and the fact its Android app store is more prevalent. There are more android users than apple users. Having said that, I think you should go to a best buy or somewhere like that where you can look at both machines and determine which ones work for you. Usability is a huge factor for me. Let money be a secondary consideration. I agree with Rococogurl about the future compatibility of the tablet you pick. Androids don't update much of the Operating System where Apple products are compatible, based on previous history, for about 4 major releases of the OS. This translates to about 3years of support on the existing hardware. I work in IT and implement technologies that use both Android and Apple ecosystems. Good luck!