So... do you like the Nexus 7...?

[Icyculyr]

That was the Etch-a-sketch.

Haha no, this was much bigger and black with a thin bezel. Essentially an iPad the size of a newspaper page, but with a smaller bezel.

I disagree. The early tablets were all sold with the idea that you could write on it like you would on paper. Every one of them talked about that like it was a great thing. They all foundered because that was actually a fantastically stupid idea. Nobody who can type has any desire to write, because they can type FAR faster than they can write (and they can read what they wrote, too). What that means is that they were being sold on being used for creation, but that's not what they are good at. These days, tablets are all about consumption. While there are a few apps that allow masochists to create on a tablet, the vast majority of uses for tablets are for consumption exclusively. Content creation on a tablet is minimal, at best, which is why the early tablets missed the mark. Content creation was the point of early PCs, but content consumption has become the predominant use, with few people doing any significant creation.

Oh I agree with that, but even if they were sold as such they could still be used for other purposes such as content consumption and light use, but the hardware just wasn't there to support any of it. And the software wasn't either -- it's not practical to use apps designed for a keyboard and mouse on a small touch screen.

Back to Nexus 7. I like what I see and will probably be getting one.

Yep. It's the only Android slate I've ever seen that I'd actually buy in a heart beat. Great display, SoC, weight, battery life, price, it's almost perfect.