Superfluous tablet devices

An hour ago, I came home to find my iPad unwilling to start, charge or
give me any sign of life.

The panic that went through my mind tells me the tablets are here to
stay. How else will I consume content (mostly written) at bulk?
Magazines? Google reader on my laptop? Reading full techmeme articles
on my phone while on the metro in the morning? No way.

I must start thinking about tablet redundancy. There is some sort of
new iPad coming soon right?