Ipad

[gibbo88]

Hi playgrounders, I wanted some input from people about the ipad. Basically my laptop is turning into more of a desktop because of its whopping battery life, and I am considering getting an ipad. All I generally use my computer for at the moment is internet, email and some very very occasional text documents. Oh, and obviously d'n'd :smalltongue:

Does anyone use one frequently, how do you find it to use, etc etc.

I'd like to avoid people just flaming macs, so can we just skip that too.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

I can't say anything about the Ipad (seeing as I don't have one). But, if it's safe to assume by saying whopping is that your battery life is rather short. If that is indeed the case, do you have the option to just go buy a new laptop battery.

[gibbo88]

That is a safe assumption. It is one of the options I'm looking at, but it has never been that good, I think the best I got out of it was about 3 hours when it was brand new.

[IonDragon]

Netbooks are cheaper and IMO more for your money. Not to mention compatibility (you don't have to get all your apps from the app store, etc.)

[The White Lyre]

That is a safe assumption. It is one of the options I'm looking at, but it has never been that good, I think the best I got out of it was about 3 hours when it was brand new.

Are you sure that you bought your laptop brand new? Or did you save some money by purchasing the display model? Because unless your computer is incredibly old, most new batteries should be able to exceed three hours easily (I think). I'm saying this because I use an iBook for my daily browsing, etc, and it's battery last approximately three hours from start to finish. Consider that iBooks are like, five or six years old.

Anyways, regarding the iPad, I'm using one right now in a relatively remote location with the Internet connect accessed through the sim card. It's pretty cool, and if you have e money to spare I'd totally suggest buying one. But the laptop should come first. The technology that it provided by the iPad is simply not at the level of a personal computer, yet.

In case you didn't know, the iPad does not show flash video.

I left what spelling mistakes I made using this screen so that you could see it's relatively easy to use...and I find it no more difficult to type that on a normal keyboard.

[Don Julio Anejo]

I considered getting one. Keyboard is kinda annoying since I need to feel the physical keys to type. Then I found out it doesn't do Flash, which was a dealbreaker for me.

If you can get past those two, it's a great little piece of hardware.

If you can't, you can get a netbook for cheaper with like 7-10 hour battery life. The downside is that it'll be twice as heavy.

[Erloas]

Considering that your primary uses seem to involve typing, I would opt for something with a real keyboard.

A netbook will be much more practical for what you say you want to do, it will give you good battery life and it will be cheaper.

And even though I absolutely hate Apple and everything they do, I would give the same recommendation for any tablet product at this point in time. There is a reason people think tablets are new, despite the fact that they've been on the market for 10 years, and that is because people forgot about them because there are very few tasks they can do that couldn't be done as well or better on other hardware.

[factotum]

Yes, I agree there--the iPad is what, the third coming of tablets? Or is it even more than that? I owned a Compaq Concerto tablet laptop some fifteen years ago, and at least that had the decency to be fairly usable as a conventional laptop...

[Ichneumon]

*I have an Ipad, I'm using it now, and it really turned into my primary computing device. Typing is much easier then I thought it would be. It takes some time getting used to and you still make some mistakes after a while, but after half a month I'm almost able to *blind type on the keyboard. You should also consider the fact that the onscreen keyboard is almost as big as real laptop keyboards and bigger than those of certain netbooks. Typing short to medium things, like e-mails or forum posts or college notes is very doable and I would only need a real keyboard if I'd start writing whole papers (and honestly, I wouldn't want to do that on a netbook either, I'd want to use a bigger laptop/desktop for that).

I know I run the risk here of sounding like an Apple fanboy, but I really find the Ipad a very great device and much superior to netbooks in usability in almost every way. Using a netbook in bed or lying on a couch is very clumsy, but with the Ipad, it isn't. You can basically sit and hold the device in any position you like. Typing really gets rather easy after a while and I find typing on it easier than on a netbook. The battery life of the Ipad is amazing, although I haven't counted it, the advertised 10 hour battery life might actually be true. I never run out of battery on a day and I've taken my Ipad on a small midweek holiday and used it all the time and still had like 30% of the battery left at the end without charging it ever in between.*

Of course, the fact that you can only use app from itunes sounds a bit limiting, but when you look around there are some great apps. There are great office apps, great chess apps and when you're anything like me, when browsing the web is like 80% of what you do on the computer, the Ipad is ideal. Be warned that there isn't any Flash support and it will likely never come, this might be a problem for you if any of the regular sites you visit uses a lot of Flash, but personally I've only seen a google search result once that I couldn't use because it uses Flash, once in the two months that I have an Ipad now. Also, most advertisements are in Flash, so they don't work either.:smalltongue: I've only really started using social networking sites like facebook and twitteqr, after I got my Ipad and still prefer using them on my Ipad. The screen is big enough so that you don't really need special apps, the regular site is good enough.

My advise, don't compare it to a netbook. The Ipad is way more portable and easier to use and less clumsy to type on. If you want to get a good idea of how much the keyboard would be an issue for you, go to an Apple store and play around with the Ipad for a while. Keep in mind that any new keyboard with a different size gets time to get used to. In fact that is my advise in general. Go see the actual devise in use. Many people have different ideas on it, so it's best to just watch and experience it for yourself and then make up your might. Even tough IMO the Ipad is the better buy.

Good luck!

Also, I made like 5 spelling/typing mistakes while typing this post on the Ipad.

[Arcwell]

If you have the money to spare the iPad isn't too bad an option so long as you realize you will still be dependent on connecting it to a PC should anything go wrong.
However the things are quite reliable. I've never really heard of an issue with the iPad so far thats warranted the need for a repair/replacement, most problems that come in are related to connecting to WiFi, 3G or setting up email for secure exchange servers.

[gibbo88]

That's some awesome advice guys. I wasn't planning on doing away with the laptop but more keeping it at the computer desk (which lives in the lounge room) and using the Ipad for more relaxed entertainment.

How does it go with pdf files? Having several open at once or what not?

[Ichneumon]

That's some awesome advice guys. I wasn't planning on doing away with the laptop but more keeping it at the computer desk (which lives in the lounge room) and using the Ipad for more relaxed entertainment.

How does it go with pdf files? Having several open at once or what not?

Well, you can't multitask yet on the Ipad, it's Not as much a problem as you might think, as the e-mail app and browser remember where youvwere and the browser can have many tabs. However, it is a bit of a problem when you want to do certain other things at the same time, such as making notes while reading an ebook. Multitasking is said to come in a future update before the end of the year though, so I'm hopeful.

Anyway, about pdfs, there are some really good pdf-apps. There is Ibooks, an apple made app thst is primary ment to be a app for ebooks, but it supports pdfs as well. The advantage of this is that it allows you to simply upload the pdfs through Itunes.

I use an app called GoodReader though, as I th ink it works faster. it's a very good pdf reader and it allows you to upload pdfs on it through the interne, e-mail, google documents and other online content sites like dropbox. I'm quite happy about dropbox, it is quite nice reading pdfs and the screen is big enough to read most pages without having to zoom in.

[Superglucose]

The iPad is a big iPhone. I don't know why people think it's so great... it's the opppostie trend of technology, going bigger instead of smaller. Sure there are some cool games on it (this one tower defense game comes to mind as the only one) but other than that... you're better off with an iPhone until IBM releases that thing that projects onto any surface.

[Ichneumon]

The iPad is a big iPhone. I don't know why people think it's so great... it's the opppostie trend of technology, going bigger instead of smaller. Sure there are some cool games on it (this one tower defense game comes to mind as the only one) but other than that... you're better off with an iPhone until IBM releases that thing that projects onto any surface.

I agree and disagree. The Ipad is indeed an Ipod Touch, but bigger, but that's not bad, that's good. Smaller is not always better, just look at how much people love big computer/television screens and how not everybody prefers a 13" laptop screen over a 15" screen. The bigger screen on the Ipad allows for more utilitly, you can more easily read things on it and browse the web than something as small as an iphone and drawing stuff is much easier, for instance, and typing on it is actually almost as easy as on a real keyboard. All thanks to the fact that itis bigger.

[Ichneumon]

That's some awesome advice guys. I wasn't planning on doing away with the laptop but more keeping it at the computer desk (which lives in the lounge room) and using the Ipad for more relaxed entertainment.

How does it go with pdf files? Having several open at once or what not?

I'm doing exactly the same, using my laptop (15") as a desktop and I use it only for stuff I can't use my Ipad for, the thing now stays off usually for days.

Things you should look into to inscrease the utility of your ipad.

dropbox.com, an easy way to share file
Evernote, an easy way to sync notes between devices, including desktops. The dream of every college student.
reeder, makes reading rss-feeds funm and easy.
encyclopedia, an app that stores the content of wikipedia on your ipad for offline viewing.

[Reinboom]

you're better off with an iPhone until IBM releases that thing that projects onto any surface.

The "Everywhere Displays" cameras?
Those were marketed mostly to retailers, cost $15,000 for a single installation, is 10 year old technology that didn't catch on in that time, don't look very nice and are difficult to read in high lighted conditions, usually require to be mounted somewhere...
And are not at all the same sort of thing the iPad is except share the same vague space in computing technology and human interaction.
:smallconfused:

[Mando Knight]

The Ipad is indeed an Ipod Touch, but bigger, but that's not bad, that's good.

On the other hand, that's almost all it is. If the reason you're not getting the iPod Touch is because it's not versatile enough rather than because it's too small, then the iPad isn't the answer, either. Both are heavily dependent on the App Store in order to do anything. If Steve Jobs and his cronies telling you exactly what apps you can or can't have on your system isn't your thing, then go with a netbook instead.

[Flickerdart]

If you want a slate form-factor device, then go get a real tablet PC. You should be able to pick up a Fujitsu Lifebook t2010 or t2020 for somewhere around an iPad's price, since the devices are a few years old, but the stock battery easily lasts 7 or so hours (up to 11 with the expanded one), and it also functions like a real computer, meaning you could run stuff like MapTool or Gametable on it, which is handy if you use your computer for D&D.

[tehjohnli]

I used an iPad before (a friend had it, I wanted to see it and whatnot), and it pretty much is a giant iPod touch. I mean, it's great and really cool, but it just seems so unnecessary. For an extra couple hundred dollars, you can get a larger screen, flash, and a couple of other features. Its also pretty inconvenient because of its size.

[Mando Knight]

For an extra couple hundred dollars, you can get a larger screen, flash, and a couple of other features.

The iPad doesn't have Flash.

[Ichneumon]

I used an iPad before (a friend had it, I wanted to see it and whatnot), and it pretty much is a giant iPod touch. I mean, it's great and really cool, but it just seems so unnecessary. For an extra couple hundred dollars, you can get a larger screen, flash, and a couple of other features. Its also pretty inconvenient because of its size.

Inconvenient? Sure, you can't put in in your pocket like a phone, but neither can you with a netbook or laptop. It's way more convenient than a netbook or laptop and that's what he's considering buying as an alternative.


The iPad doesn't have Flash.

I think his point was that with a bit more money you can buy a computer that has.

Anyway, like others have said, it is basically a big ipod touch which can fulfill some/many of the tasks you'd do on a computer quite well because of it's new form/shape/size. At some things it is better and at some things it is worse. I can't stress enough that you should look for yourself whether or not it can replace a small laptop/netbook for you or not. For me it fulfills that job perfectly and I feel it is a better buy a netbook, but for others it doesn't and they feel it is a waste of money. You should really take a look at it for yourself.

[IonDragon]

Inconvenient? Sure, you can't put in in your pocket like a phone, but neither can you with a netbook or laptop. It's way more convenient than a netbook or laptop and that's what he's considering buying as an alternative.

I did once put a netbook in my pocket. Since iPads are about the same size, I could probably do the same with that. http://captionsearch.com/pix/vvss9ximab.jpgPS: I wouldn't go to the parent site for that image, it was just the first one that came up on Google...

[Flickerdart]

I did once put a netbook in my pocket. Since iPads are about the same size, I could probably do the same with that. http://captionsearch.com/pix/vvss9ximab.jpgPS: I wouldn't go to the parent site for that image, it was just the first one that came up on Google...
Is there a netbook in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me? :smalltongue: