Hi and welcome to the forum Jane.
I have been through quite a number of MP3 players in the past including both Sony and Apple so the toss up has been interesting.
Now from your needs, it sounds like you have an idea on what you want now here is the dilemma. The iPad/2 vs the Sony Tablet S.
Both do everything well such as photos, google etc but the main thing here is music. Im coming from a comparison of my iPad 1 and Tablet S here and if you want to look at sound quality, the Sony really comes into its own when using a good pair of headphones since it is far more refined in my opinion. The fact is has an equaliser that you can set yourself makes it handy. The downside is due to the speaker design, depending on what you listen to, it can distort through the speakers at maxiumum volume but seems to be fine for movies.
The iPad does well also but the music just seems loud and tends to drown out vital parts of audio at times and with no direct adjustments on the equaliser, I wasn't too keen.
Now both devices can download music direct however with the Sony, at the moment, there is no music download store which is dedicated like iTunes which is good in a way so you are not limited but on the flip side, can be more difficult finding a site worth using but I suppose since most people are going to have their music on the computer, transferring is not a big deal for the Tablet. I prefer that so I know I always have a copy of the music for other devices also.
The good thing what I enjoy about using the Tablet is photos, when you use it in conjunction with the cradle, when it is seated in it, you can automatically use it as a clock or even as a photo frame which will cycle through the photos you have stored.
In honesty, I would not say you SHOULD go for the Sony Tablet S but consider all your options but all in all, I found the whole user experience on the Tablet more pleasing than the iPad. Both are great products so I would encourage you to try them both out if you can.
