Staples: 1 in 3 people use tablets while in the bathroom

Tablets are rising in popularity among consumers for their ability to "bridge the worlds of both home and office," according to a new survey from Staples Advantage.

Certainly, notebook computers have been around for awhile to fulfill these needs, but the lightness and thinness of tablets really amps things up a few notches when it comes to mobility. In fact, Staples found that portability was the top motivator for buying at tablet.

Easy mobility could be a good or bad thing depending on how you want to look at it. For example, Staples reported that more than 60 percent of tablet owners used their tablets during vacation to check in with the office and/or do work. If you have a big project going on and want to check in from time to time, perhaps that's a good thing. But it also makes it much harder for someone to disconnect and have an actual vacation.

But consumers are bringing tablets where many other gadgets might not have gone before. It's not terribly surprising that 78 percent of consumers bring tablets to bed and another 30 percent to a restaurant. Certainly many people are already doing the same things with their laptops.

But at least 35 percent of survey respondents admitted to bringing their tablets to the bathroom. Well, then perhaps digital publishing really is replacing newspapers and magazines once and for all.

However, there are a few points that owners need to be wary about when toting their tablets around, primarily security. Mobile malware is on the rise, and Staples found that "less than 15 percent of those surveyed have installed encryption or anti-virus software on their tablets."

Additionally, there's always the possibility of losing information or the device altogether. Although it shouldn't be difficult to sync a tablet with a desktop or laptop computer and there is more readily-available access to cloud computing, at least two-thirds of tablet owners don't regularly back up data from their devices.

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