If you wanna play the better you can get an handheld, if you want do something else and play sometimes get a tablet.

Mario Kart, Mario 3D Land, etc - that's why

i Sold my PsVita and brought a iPad.

i love my iPad and miss the Vita... in short. if you need the Tablet for work/practicality then buy that. if you don't need to do all the stuff you stated and just want to play games buy a Vita/3DS.

i will buy a new Vita when they come down to £150 with a game + card and a 3DS when we get a 3DSlite at £100 with a game.

Go back to my original post.  If I had a bunch of money I would be getting a tablet and a gaming handheld (or both of them).  It would seem obvious to me to get a tablet, but the reason for my post ends up asking people, to rationalize my purchasing gaming handheld, if they do enough of what I would want on the practical side, to justify getting one.  In short, it was a last call for me.  If I had my info wrong regarding what the gaming handhelds could do to access the Internet, or maybe even PDFs reading, then it would of tipped it more into the favor.

These requirements aren't like I have to get this, or I will die, just that what would be preferred.  At least a minimum upgrade would be to have a device that would be easy and quick to start up and access the Internet sufficiently, better than my DSi.  Like, getting the ability to watch YouTube on it.

At worse, you can my post(s) a minor rant against the game consoles, wanting them seriously to be better devices to access the Internet so I can also get cool gaming in.  I do try to nail down info though, so I don't think wrong about it.  I know one Nintendo fanboy who does a video blong, who actually did one entry that was like, "Yeah sure, the 3DS will will be able to access Youtube and show vidoes, because it uses browser X, and browser X was on the PSP and it showed Youtube so it should be able to".  

The worst kicker is that I decide to get a tablet and then find a gaming handheld would do almost a good enogh job for my wants and needs, that I end up making a mistake.

Try to borrow one from a friend and try. I can tell you the 3DS will not satisfy your youtube and browser needs, without a hint of a doubt. It can do Netflix, but it's much slower than an iPad for example, and iPads love netflix, it's a perfect mix.

As for gaming, you have games on the iPad, board games, indy games. But the most important thing I want to tell you is this.

1) You're short on cash, so you shouldn't really buy a dedicated portable if it doesn't fill your most important needs (internet surfing).

2) Making games at times can be 100x more fun than playing games.

However, if you're making tablet games, you absolutely need a computer. You couldn't code iPad apps on an iPad seriously, I don't think there are any Objective C compilers that run on iPads really. But you could research that and see, maybe you could! With a good keyboard dock, you could type your Objective C on your ipad, with some kind of tabbed SDK. But then where will you have irc open? Will you be able to have irc and the SDK open? And the net?

For all purposes, developping content for a tablet is best done with a computer and an iPad. Do you own a computer at all?

Also, I believe there is a creative suite for the iPad if you're really that short and don't own a computer. There may even be an SDK for Objective C as an iPad app. I know the iPad has irc apps, and when you need to use it you just hit the "back" button and jump back to irc, then back to whatever you were doing, so that's okay, but as for the SDK and word processing + art generation, I'm not sure. I know the iPad has sound recording though so that's a plus.

No you are talking impossibilities.

Everything you say you want is not capable on a gaming machine.

Either get a 3ds or vita for the games, or get a pad for 99 percent of the things you want a pad for.

He doesn't know, he doesn't own either. Gee cut the guy some slack.

i heard the Vita has a decent browser, and it surfs the web pretty fast. the only thing i'm in doubt of, is you being able to house your game designs, unless they're in design phase only.

as for 3DS, i hear the browser really isn't that good, but for either device, i'd recommend asking friends and seeing for yourself if either fit your needs. i'm sure you have friends with a Vita or 3DS.

All comes down to the games at the end of the day. The 3DS browser is alright, but far from brilliant. It is quite quick, but videos tend to be quite choppy. Alright for browsing the internet, checking emails etc., or other light stuff (around 50% of the posts I've made in the past few months on this site have been from the 3DS, for example). But, it's only Wi-Fi.

The Vita is the same, unless you get the 3G version (which I do not have, so I can't speak about it, but I've heard it's quite expensive for no real gain). But the browser is better in some ways, and worse in others. Personally, I prefer that on the 3DS, as you can use it easily mid-game, but both are acceptable. However, neither are anywhere near as good as a tablets.

The real advantage is the games. I've played many a classic game on the 3DS (currently going through Rhythm Thief), and there's a few good games on the Vita, though the library isn't appealing to me much lately. However, the quality of games you will get on these handhelds are far superior to those on tablets.

As I say, and as have others, it's which you'd rather have.

He wants to know if he can have the cake and eat it, that's what he wants to know, and the answer is:
No. The handhelds will limit him given his needs.