Using Tablets Becoming Popular Bathroom Activity 348
alphadogg says "With the market flush with hot-selling tablet computers, it shouldn't bowl anyone over to learn that many users are taking the plunge and bringing their devices to the bathroom. According to a new survey published by Staples Advantage, the business-to-business division of Staples Inc., 35% of tablet users copped to using their iPad or other tablets while in the bathroom, while a whopping 78% of tablet users said they used their tablets while lying in bed. And in a data point sure to further damage techies' reputation for social skills, Staples Advantage also reported that 30% of tablet users said they used their tablets while at restaurants."
I heard someone say the other day... (Score:5, Funny)
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.... as people go to the bathroom like they were cast from the sling?
Probably because they procrastinate "loo break" while playing?
Laptops (Score:2)
So what's the % of people using laptops and smartphones in the bathroom? Didn't we have portable devices before the iPad?
Sent from my bathroom. (Really).
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You can count me in the group using smart phones in the bathroom, ever since I first discovered an ebook reader... back on CE 5 or 6. Now my news reader is on my phone too :-)
Re:Laptops (Score:5, Funny)
You people need to eat more fiber.
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You people need to eat more fiber.
Agreed, I think. At least, I buy only wholegrain pretty-much-everything (bread, pasta, rice, wraps, muesli). I often take my phone with my to the toilet at work (I don't like leaving it out on my desk, so I pick it up as I walk away). It's generally still in my hand when I open the cubicle, but experience tells me I have time to read about half a short email.
TMI?
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I leave the door open so I can hear voice chat while raiding. Occasionally someone asks for heals and I shout out "lag!"
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You know, I'm fine with using a smartphone to check email or read the news in the bathroom. But do people really have to answer calls and talk in the stall??
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That is fucking disgusting x_x think about what you're getting on your devices by using them on the toilet.
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Why would I waOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I see what you did there.
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Who discovered America? Steve Jobs
Who invented gunpowder? Steve Jobs
Who discovered fire? Steve Jobs
Perfect marketing (Score:2, Funny)
iPooed
sit different (Score:2)
You mean like iNax - Sit Different [seanet.com] ?
"Using tablets" also now popular euphemism! (Score:4, Funny)
Obvious (Score:3, Insightful)
2) I can't name anyone who bought a tablet who did not envision using it as an eReader. Isn't reading still the most popular bedtime activity?
3) Tablets are great in restaurants. You can show things to your friends and family. It's the douchebags who use tablets instead of conversing at the table that give only themselves a bad name. No different than whipping out a smartphone.
Re:Obvious (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't reading still the most popular bedtime activity?
I though it was sleeping. I'm way out of touch these days..
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1) Tablets are replacing paper media, not surprised to hear that magazines and other reading materials are disappearing from bathrooms.
Yeah, but in a bathroom there's still some other use of paper media in an emergency...
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There's finally one application where newspaper beats iPad!
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I dunno. The nice thing about traditional bathroom reading material is the fact that it is disposable. It doesn't matter if it gets wet. It doesn't matter if it's contaminated. It's not something that's going to be dragged out of the bathroom and then through an airport and then hang around your mother's coffee table.
More people should find the idea of a tablet in the bathroom just plain disgusting.
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You know, all your body is in the bathroom. And I don't know about you, but most people don't take a shower every time they go to the toilet.
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yeah, hey everyone , lets touch my tablet I used in the bathroom just before we eat.
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...I would also not associate this sort of behavior with "techies".
The techies are the ones sneering at the whole tablet thing in general. They're not the "target audience" and therefore less likely to be the ones pulling it out at inappropriate times.
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No, it's watching TV.
Now fucking might be the most enjoyable pastime. but that's different. Far more hours are spent watching TV from bed then fucking.
I suggest you learn to think about definition and statistics.
If you are watching ESPN and having sex at the same time you are having LOUSY sex..so lousy in fact, why bother?
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What percentage (Score:2)
Re:What percentage (Score:5, Informative)
About the same percentage that disinfect and wash their clothing, which also accompanied them on the little trip to the bathroom. Oh and your napkin goes on your lap, on your pants - yeah, those same pants that were pulled down and touched the dirty toilet bowl/floor. Yeah, now wipe your mouth with that napkin.
Attention Germ freaks: A LITTLE GRIME WILL NEVER KILL YOU. You just think it will.
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Care to provide any citations for that bullshit? Bacteria are small and have a hard time traveling around. Chances are good that they're not going to be able to move the several inches that it would take for that scenario to play out before drying out or dieing.
Your hand, the same one that you use to wipe your ass is also the same one that you use to carry your iPad. Any guesses as to what proportion of the folks that are using those devices in the can are washing their hands between wiping their ass and us
Crap Puns (Score:2)
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Crap Puns
I see what you did there...
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Yeah, it's pretty shitty.
What's weird at a restaurant? (Score:5, Insightful)
If I'm at a restaurant alone, what should I do while waiting for my food to come? If I have a tablet, why not?
Re:What's weird at a restaurant? (Score:5, Insightful)
If you are there with a group of friends and you're trying to decide what movie to see after, or describe directions to the bar you're heading to next, why not use your tablet. The dig against geeks social skills is idiotic and shows the writer's lack of social skills.
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If I'm at a restaurant alone, what should I do while waiting for my food to come?
Find some friends to eat with you.
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Or are you one of those obsessive control freaks who
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Ha ha, you're at a restaurant alone. Nerd!
Well it was either that or hang out with you. I think I made the right call.
News? (Score:2)
I use my iPad in all of those locations and I really don't see a problem with it. My iPad is where I read my books now, and people take those to the bathroom or restaurants as well.
Also this isn't particularly new either. I have been taking devices to the bathroom since my first Palm device. I have a very specific routine (not really by thinking about, it just developed naturally) I have developed to ensure the device never gets dropped in!
Techies? (Score:2)
And in a data point sure to further damage techies' reputation for social skills
Wait, "techies" wouldn't be caught dead using a tablet. After all, they know notebooks have far more features and power and do everything so much better than silly tablets. Tablets are just for Apple cultists and hipsters following the latest fad! As soon as the novelty wears off, people will buy notebooks again... I know they will...
(cradles my HP EliteBook and cries)
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By the end of my first day with an iPad, I thought to myself, "You know what would be great? A nice, protective folding case with a keyboard attached to the inside of D'OH!"
I just tapped out a fairly long email with it, but man... keyboards... they sure are good for typing.
One advantage I didn't really think about before the pad: a (non-Apple) charger + cable is like, 10 bucks, so I just have three dedicated chargers for different locations around the house. Not having to m
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A corollary to this is that while I agree an attached keyboard is a nice thing, when I'm using my netbook instead of my iPad, I get an urge to touch the screen to click on icons, links, and such.
you might be interested in this: (Score:2)
http://store.fastmac.com/product_info.php?products_id=458 [fastmac.com]
Tablets are for finger flicking. Anything else is missing the point.
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Bluetooth keyboards make it all ok. And you don't always have to carry them.
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LOL, my thoughts exactly.
Someone using an iPad at a restaurant, is categorically NOT a techie on 2 counts.
Eh? (Score:3)
I'm not sure that the techies will be atypically hard hit by this one. Back in the day, when obsessive computer use required an obsessive interest in gaming and/or some techie esoterica, and it was cost-prohibitive to compute on the move(much less get internet access...), the techie social skills reputation was not exactly bolstered by the tendency to stay inside and play with their computers.
Then came the mass adoption of laptops and blackberries by practically every 'road warrior' type suit with a salary high enough that paying for the ability to bug him while he was away from the office made sense. This certainly did include some techies; but the population of management/sales types brandishing their blackberries and monopolizing flat surfaces absolutely exploded.
Now, with cellphones falling well into affordable for all but the most squalid, and Apple having WAFed the hell out of portable computing, it sure isn't techies who I see logging the most socially inappropriate screen time... Not being able to finish a single bloody meal without ignoring the present company to text frantically about nothing is now a mainstream behavior. If anything, the more 'social' people do it more because they have more people to text, and derive greater satisfaction from group-affirming social chatter...
Too many puns... (Score:2)
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Returns? (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, but can you return them after they've been in the bathroom?
(Jerry and George are at Brentano's. George is trying to return the book)
GEORGE: Yes, I, uh, I need to return this book.
CASHIER: (Puts the book's code into the computer) I'm sorry, we can't take this book back.
GEORGE: Why not?
CASHIER: It's been flagged.
GEORGE: (Confused) Flagged?
CASHIER: It's been in the bathroom.
GEORGE: It says that on the computer?
CASHIER: Please take it home. We don't want it near the other books.
GEORGE: (Outraged. Leaving) Well, you just lost a lot of business! Because I love to read!
Squirt proof,.. er Spill proof keyboards (Score:2)
Nope. (Score:2)
Nothing new (Score:2)
Supposedly nineteen percent of people have dropped their phone into a toilet [cnet.com]. I'm still trying to figure out how, exactly, since it would seem you'd be holding the phone somewhat in front of the bowl - but I'm not sure I really want to know.
Also, anecdotally speaking, in my experience it's not uncommon to hear people talking on the phone from bathroom stalls. BTW if that's you... yeah, I'm the guy who walks around flushing all the toilets during your phone call. I feel it's important the person at the other
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I guess a lot of people turn around and face the toilet to flush. They could fumble it then, when they pull up their pants and it falls out of a pocket or off the belt, or if they bend over to flush after putting it in a front shirt pocket
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My wife dropped 2 phones in the toilet over a span of 2 weeks. How? She was putting it in the big front pocket of a hooded sweatshirt because she didn't like packing it in her jeans pocket. After phone number 2 I bought a bluetooth enabled house phone (pretty clever actually, syncs 2 phones and they then ring throughout the house). Now she just leaves her phone in her purse in the kitchen. Problem solved!
That makes perfect sense. I've never dropped anything into a toilet from a hoodie's pocket, fortunately; but those big "hand-warmer" pockets on hooded pullovers don't contain things very well.
Chlorine safe? (Score:2)
Paper media replacement but NOT .... (Score:2)
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To quote Jimmy Fallon (Score:2)
But I am surprised he hasn't yet added an iPad to his desktop Apple store.
Tablets Used to Access the Internet (Score:2)
The Cholera epidemic of 2012 (Score:2)
I'm just waiting for a massive Cholera epidemic to break-out, spread by the fecal coliform carried on iPads and iPhones. Please wash your hands and iDevice before leaving the lavatory.
Fast food (Score:2)
Fast food restaurants and coffeeshops offer free wifi as a reason.
I'm honestly surprised that the intersection of 'starbucks goers' and 'tablet users' isn't larger.
Excellent for doctors' waiting rooms (Score:2)
The iPad has solved this problem once and for all. (Not that I go to the doctor's office all that often, but at least now I carry my entertainment with me.) And I'm solving all of the Expert level sudoku puzz
But my tablet has a stylus! (Score:2)
I will not, will not point and click ...
I will not, will not use my
when I was a parents basement dweller (Score:2)
When I was a parents basement dweller, I had a serial green screen terminal in near the toilet in my personal bathroom. I was using lynx, mutt and bitchX, on the toilet. If I was using a net connected terminal in the bathroom in 1994, the 2011 tablet usage pattern is totally unsurprising, however, back then lynx was surprisingly usable on the web .... now it is a nightmare almost everywhere except maybe http://www.gutenberg.org/ [gutenberg.org] .
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Never mind all that reasonably safe stuff - it's the airline pilots who should be of more concern.
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Honestly I'd feel much safer with the pilots using a backlit, indexed, hyperlinked document over a huge pile of paper. ... so long as a paper copy was still around just in case!
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the ipad is a killer cook book. i have hundreds of recipes including video of how to do some things on mine
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the ipad is a killer cook book. i have hundreds of recipes including video of how to do some things on mine
That's the one time I think I prefer a netbook (though I don't own a tablet). The netbook screen is propped up from the counter, and stays that way while I have dirty fingers.
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the ipad is a killer cook book. i have hundreds of recipes including video of how to do some things on mine
You cook on the toilet?!? I guess it cuts out the middle man.
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there are these things called cases for ipads and they prop it up just fine
Re:What about driving? (Score:4, Insightful)
there are these things called cases for ipads and they prop it up just fine.
Why is it that every Apple device requires that you spend at least an extra 20% beyond the purchase price of the device to get the accessories that are required to make the device functional in the real world?
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there are these things called cases for ipads and they prop it up just fine.
Why is it that every Apple device requires that you spend at least an extra 20% beyond the purchase price of the device to get the accessories that are required to make the device functional in the real world?
I ended up making my own stand out of one of two metal bookends I somehow ended up with a few of, and some of those little rubber sticky feet they always include with low end rack-mount computer gear that could also be used sitting on a table.
Stick two on the outside edge of the bottom to keep it from sliding off, and I also put two on the very top of the back so the fairly sharp (to plastic anyway) metal doesn't cut groves into the back of my tablet.
http://oi53.tinypic.com/2aanadl.jpg [tinypic.com]
Works great on the sid
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So is using an iPad as a cookbook "content creation" or "content consumption"?
Texting (Score:2)
I was fine with it till the guy at the urinal next to me was texting as he was pissing.
Really man, I know some of us have more than others, but keep a hand on that thing, I don't want to catch your erant spray while you're too busy tweeting to bother keeping your junk pointed in the right direction.
-Rick
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I don't know about you, but my junk doesn't whip around like a firehose when I'm doing my business...
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How about while in the bathroom -- that being the room with the bath in, according to Proper English. Some people read in the bath...
(I didn't realise the article was talking about using the tablet while on the toilet at first. Silly language!)
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And in which languages does the word for that particular location translate into "place to take a shit?"
NB:
"Toilet" is a fixture within that room
"Lavatory" is a place for washing
"Bathroom," as you pointed out, is a room with/for a bath
Spanish "bano[0]," French "salle de bain," and Italian "(stanza da) bagno" all also refer to bathing, not pooping.
This conversation actually came up in one of my foreign language classes one year. To date, I've still not gotten anyone who knows one.
I do, however, like the non-
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You forgot "privy"
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If you're dining alone, hell yes bring a tablet. Or in my case a Neo Geo Pocket Color. Not every meal is a social situation.
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I never get drunk at restaurants if I'm dining alone. Why pay restaurant prices if you're not trying to impress anyone?
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Because taking it in the bathroom is a great way to spread you fecal matter around.
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My solution is simply to not go to restaurants where I would expect kids. Why would I give my iPad to a child?
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Because you've got huge mounds of cash and nothing better to spend it on than replacement iPads, duh.
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In my experience, having huge mounds of cash and nothing better to spend it on is usually directly related to not having any kids, so it kinda makes little sense...
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Helps if the kid in question and the associated parents are not big duffusses.
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Can't be any worse than have the same discussion with a Tea Party member XD
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God forbid you tailor the conversation to the people present, whether they be 4 or 94, engineers or farmers, kids or politicians.
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The GP wasn't suggesting that this is ALWAYS the appropriate response, but that it's a good tool. I've done this with my kids too. Maybe one out of every 15-20 times I take the kids to a restaurant. I would venture to say that most people would consider this to be reasonable.
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If the kid hasn't yet mastered civilized table manners, they shouldn't be put in the position to act out in the first place.
If you need some sort of electronic pacification device you have failed at some level.
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Maybe you should educate your child and allow him / her to contribute positively to your conversations social life rather than expecting them to play dumb games and keep quiet
Let me guess ... you don't have any kids?
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Maybe you should educate your child and allow him / her to contribute positively to your conversations social life rather than expecting them to play dumb games and keep quiet?
How old do they need to be for this?
My housemate's friend + wife + 18 month old daughter visited recently. I very rarely get to talk to babies/children, so I hung around for half an hour. I didn't really approve of how they were caring for her -- strapped in a carry cot in a garden on a sunny day -- but I wasn't going to interfere. She was pretty boring, but I decided it was probably because she was stuck with nothing much to do.
(So, the baby couldn't talk, which prevents conversation, but it doesn't preve
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18 mo olds can't really talk much. But they can learn plenty of sign language. My kids both knew about 50 signs before they could physically speak. It was really surprising how much they were aware of the world around them.
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yeah, you're an idiot, aren't you? DO you even have kids?
Sometime, the conversation id outside there experience or interest.
Do you expect a 3 year old to stay interested in a conversation about the newly adopted C+ standards?
And why do you assume dumb games? How about playing sttlers of catan? or ticket to ride? or many opther thinking games?
Even angry birds teaches a lesson about physics.
Daily conversation about current events? yeah my kids are involved. Hell my kids ar more involved in conversation with a
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Computers are even better if you have a screen on a wall mount so you can pull it over your head. Typing gets a bit inconvenient after a while, I didn't find a good solution for that yet, but there is no better way of lazy computing. I mean, you just can't beat lying on your back without even having to lift your head.
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*shrug* Tablet is tablet.