It's iPad apps that are distinct from iPhone ones, yes, however there will typically be an iPhone version with a simpler interface. Skype, for example--nothing stops you using Skype for iPhone on an iPad, but there is something stopping you from going the other way. And the iPad version of Skype is better suited to the iPad's screen (including the Mini) with its popovers and larger tab bars. The iPad also goes to 128GB in capacity. Other than that, the functionality is more or less on par, and if I had to pick just one, it would be the iPhone since that's the only supported device for sending text messages and making phone calls (but shouldn't be).

If you run an app that is not so-called "Universal", then an iPhone-shaped hole appears in the middle of the iPad screen, with a full-screen control at the bottom which when pressed zooms out to iPad scale. This is normally what you want and works quite well to instantly improve the available screen space, which is great for my fingers. I don't know if Apple is going to introduce a so-called "Phablet", but if it did it seems like that it would continue to use a custom iPhone interface drawn for the larger screen, rather than a tablet UI.

I have both and I think both form factors have their place. After some time with a Mini I resolved to have just one iPhone and one iPad, the latter for sit-down sessions and the former for, well, everything else. To be honest, I find the phone function of an iPhone to be a distraction more than a help and would sooner do without it, but the iPod is now way too underpowered, so the iPad has taken its place as my kind of casual iOS entertainment device. I don't say this will be the right choice for everybody, but I do love both.

Well if Apple does produce a phone with tablet screen I'll probably do that sinse it sounds like a good option.

other than the obvious screen size and associated interface fixes, are there any real advantages to the Ipad? I don't exactly know what you mean by "phone as destraction" particularly either, unless your concerned about getting phoned while in the middle of something else, and there I actually like the fact that my Iphone will pause if I'm reading an audio book while my phone rings rather than me having to pause what I'm reading manually.

Oh and btw, Phablet? Worst! name! ever! If it weren't already made up of very obviously made up words, it sounds like some sort of small annoying rodent cutesy cartoon character who's so sweet they're obesity waiting to happen.

I can see it now, the adventures of Fablet the fluffy fuzzy squirrel in snuggle huggle land!"

and to anyone who has heard the big finish special the ratings war, the thought of that is  more than enough to make me become one of Beep's friends after all! .

All this is fairly subjective indeed,  and I will agree I definitely see the advantage to having a big enough screen to touch type, though I don't think I'd personally bother with multiple devices just for that reason.

I'm with Dark; consolidation is key here.  What is the point of having more than one device to accomplish the same thing for the most part.  The reality is that tablets have not been as widely accepted as companies primarily hoped they would be, but the idea of larger screens is an easy one to gauge by the overall response generated by the countless models of smartphones that have grown over the past couple of years.  many tablets are sitting around forgotten for the most part, only coming out when there is an application not properly supported on the preferred smart phone as has been the case with the iPhone iPad discussion.  Beyond that they simply collect dust and add yet another price tag to look at and consider for amusement's sake.  If we can consolidate devices and wrap them into one, perhaps two as opposed to 3 or 4 by simply increasing the size of the screen and maybe even space capacity, the need to produce massive numbers of multiple kinds of devices is eliminated.

Perhaps this was Microsoft's original idea with windows 8 and its desire to win back the smartphone and tablet users they felt they had lost; I wouldn't truly know.  What I do know is that it makes sense from many standpoints and that I give them credit for trying even though they seriously failed, since as far as I can tell they never really lost anyone who had misgivings about the differences between every day PC verses smartphone usage, resulting in a redesign that didn't truly suit the windows power users.  I didn't buy into the smartphone hype because I truly felt I needed a smartphone, as most of my every day needs are still taken care of by a desktop computer.  Laptops are a risky business with me, since ultimately charging and recharging batteries reduces how effectively they work, though I do keep one around for special occasions, mainly live musical performances and the like.  I bought a smartphone because I knew that in all reality it would probably be the fastest and easiest thing to use on top of providing me with a box of tools and concepts that might later become essentials in a world where technology grows every hour of every day.  It made no sense not to get at the very least acquainted with the touchscreen world since most devices seem to be heading in that direction, which is why even on my laptop I will experiment from time to time with the touch functionality provided by NVDA.  I can't say I find it very useful, though I can see where a sighted person might.

I've said it once and I'll probably say it again many more times as long as I deal with the blind community; the longer you hold back and don't jump into the waters as it were, the less time you really have to familiarize yourself with the concepts before they evolve into something else that'll leave you far behind the rest of the crowd.  The reason windows 7 wasn't a probem for me as it was for many XP users is that Vista, as dreaded an operating system as it might have been, provided the practice I required to get up to speed on 7 early on.  Windows 8 was certainly a bit of a surprise, though no less difficult than learning new concepts as was the case with the transition from XP to Vista.  The same holds true with smartphones and the like; perhaps they'll grow, and perhaps they'll change shape.  Our job as peple who are blind and visually impaired is to adapt to those changes and learn how to use them to our advantage, as Dark has pointed out in post 22 by showing that larger screens mean we can probably reach more icons with voice over rather than continuously performing tedious flicking gestures.  Tech will continue to evolve with or without our permission because that is the nature of tech, and we must continue to keep up with it.

I personally disagree on technological progress or on needing to stay uptodate just to stay uptodate irrispective of bennifits Nocturnus. FAr too often so called new devices and technologies are not so much inovations as whims of fashion, or of some company trying to dress something old up in new clothing or making the previous obsolete just  extra sales , with little practical bennifit.
That however is a point I've mentioned elsewhere so I won't go on about it here.

In the case of touch screens however I think there are some very good arguements that if the access side of the technnology, ie, the screen reading is adequate at providing the access, there are some distinct bennifits touch screens have for Vi users.

One for example is being able to learn the placing of controls and displays and having instant access.

If I want to read the time or battery life on an xp machine, I need to alt tab out of the window I'm currently on, activate the virtual curser in supernova and hit ctrl end to go to the bottom of the task bar on the desktop and look. I'm fairly sure if I were bothered enough I could probably work out a couple of key strokes to shorten this process, maybe even a single one to have the time read out loud.

In ios however I simply poke the top right corner of the screen. That information is there, and can be accessed easily and quickly by simply knowing the area.

another example is analogue movement. A game like sixth sense would be very uninteresting on windows, just another boppit style hit key when hear sound. On ios however sinse you need to add directions to your key slidings via the touch screen it adds an element of coordination to the arcade game that would not be present.

Then there is the idea of games like robo e or stem stumper, that use the movements of your finger and speaking what is under it to show a specific layout in audio (another thing which would be much aided by aa bigger screen).

Supernova doesn't tend to go in for specific  keystrokes that read set  information sinse it usually goes by   default tools rather than specifically built map files. For example, there is no key to tell when a page is loaded,but you can do that by using read status bar.

I could set one up relatively easily, however my point was more that the information  is there, available on a touch  screen with just the one poke. Ditto with notifications, battery life, signal etc.