best tablet or netbook for my traveling purposes

"You'll only have service on the new ipad if you pay an extra subscription for a global signal"

WIFI is universal and worldwide

You may be mistaken.

Wifi is indeed worldwide, but not everywhere. Also, it's not always free either. Have you ever tried getting wifi on the top of a mountain or out of range of a wifin hub? My point is, if you want the internet pretty much everywhere 24 hours a day, it costs money.

The OP didn't mention mountaineering just

+'Cyprus (Turkish) for a month and Spain, Italy, Portugal,
until my funds dry up'.+

True that there will or may be costs for wifi unless Starbucks
or McDonalds are there already.

+1 that wifi is far from worldwide.

On the budget travel circuit, wifi is often so overused by other travelers, or the establishment is using such a cheap speed package, that it's unusable.

There are plenty of places where wifi is just about impossible to find. For instance, in Thailand, wifi is everywhere but you have to pay for it, and its not cheap! Some hotels have free wifi but only for 30 minutes a day and you have to log in and the like.

3G is often the way to go, though it has its own issues. 3G also gets you maps and navigation which I don't think I could live without anymore.

There is nothing like standing on top of a mountain and snapping a photo and sending it out right away :)

"There is nothing like standing on top of a mountain and snapping a photo and sending it out right away :)"

If you have budget to pay for the service....
.. or parents who will ;-) ;-)