<Anecdote>In January, I woke up in the middle of the night with intense chest pains. I made an emergency appointment at my doctor the next morning out of concern that I might be having sudden issues with my heart. He did a cursory examination then asked if I’d received a new tablet for Christmas. In fact I had. We figured out that I had strained myself by holding the tablet in my left hand to read it. Told me to change my posture, start working out, or buy a smaller tablet.
Eh, they’re cute toys for surfing the web. With a bluetooth keyboard and jailbreaking they can do a bunch of stuff.
Problem is, when (not "if) some little problem arises, you’re going to have to buy or improvise specialized tools to crack the housing open.
Also, you’ll need to buy the extra for docking cables that don’t break every few minutes.
But if you’re up for it, they’re fine. Just handy for, adding a bluetooth keyboard and getting some professional software for reading “books” – I like them, but it’s like buying a used car. Budget some $ for repairs and stuff.
And you best hope your main PC doesn’t balk at the way you choose to organize your “library” of books and so forth.
All in all I love my iPad, but it’s like buying a boat I guess – be ready to sink a bunch of money for routine proprietary "repairs. You can do whatever you want ad hoc if you have time, but it’s IMHO a PITA to open the case, requiring some special tools to do it right.
They’re great for surfing, light presentation stuff, integration of graphics, but it’s not a laptop. It’s a fun little toy.
And not being dismissive – it’s great at what it does. Until it breaks (and it will) – me, a PC guy since forever, I’d rather just fix it myself or pop in a new connector.
Puh-leeze - like they’re that fragile. I’m no Apple fan, but I haven’t had any trouble with mine and they can see somewhat hard use. For example, there’s a thing called a tank bag people use for trips on motorcycles - it sits on your gas tank, has a clear pocket on top for a paper map for routing long trips. I put my iPad in there, and wear a bluetooth headphone so I can hear the audio instructions - that’s hours vibrating on an old Honda, without issue.
My daughter’s iPad got runover by a car. It still worked, but I had to replace the screen.
If you F with it and break it, sure you might bresk it. But if you use it vanilla-like, it’s very robust. I’ve been using mine for two years now. No problems.
My parents are in their late 50s and are not very computer savvy, but they’ve really come to love their iPad and they use it all the time. Dad got one because the IT department at his accounting firm gave them out.
Advantages:
Pretty easy to learn and use
Nice big, bright easy to read screen
Good for simple emails
Internet (through wi-fi or a mobile plan, of course) everywhere. Great to have the internet handy when you’re watching TV from the couch or travelling for business
Smaller (and therefore more portable) than a laptop
Easy Facebooking and other social media
Disadvantages:
Not really suitable for full-on work - unless you get a keyboard and mouse (at which point it’s pretty much a laptop), you really don’t want to do heavy typing or Excel work on an iPad
What in the world are you doing that you need to open the case for “some little problem”? Opening an iPad case is not like unlatching your PC case.
I’m a relatively techie person, and I hardly crack open my laptop anymore. The iPad is great for reading books, taking notes in classes, casual browsing, (very) lightweight gaming, watching videos, etc.
It’s not good for heavy word processing (although you can certainly type up things like blog posts on it), heavy research with lots of tabs open, spreadsheets, or serious gaming.
I consider a keyboard a must-have, and I get a little touchy when people bitch about text entry but don’t bother to get a keyboard. I also think it’s important to have an open mind towards paid apps. People who think nothing of buying a can of soda somehow get all crazy when they consider dropping 99 cents on an app. They really miss out on a lot. I consider apps to be a disposable expense, like junk food or gas money, and give myself permission to make reasonable app purchases.
even sven, what keyboard do you have? Link, please. Thanks.
It’s a Zagg Folio- I think they have a newer model out now than mine.
I am pretty happy with it. It has a built in case (but can be used without the case as well) that acts as a stand. 99% of the time, my iPad is set up like a little laptop. It does add some weight, but not a ton. The charge for the keyboard lasts literally for months of heavy use. It’s a small keyboard and might get on your nerves if you are picky, but it’s responsive and I can type as fast as normal with no problems.
See, I"m the opposite: buying a keyboard says you should have bought a Netbook or Airbook or something. Over the years, I’ve gotten pretty nimble with the on-screen keyboard, but if I can’t make that do I break out my laptop.
I sort of balance my devices. I cart around an iPad, but my cell phone is basic as can be. If I needed to start hauling a keyboard along, or put the iPad in a keyboard-equipped case, I’d likely just get a Macbook Air or other small laptop, but bump up to a smartphone for the quick content-related functions the iPad covers now.
MacBook Airs are wonderful, but in my case it’s a $1,000 solution to a $400 problem.
True. I always roll with the biggest 3G version, so it’s not as far a leap. My next upgrade will be a 128GB model, which is within spitting distance of an Air.
And it solves a very different problem.
I love sitting in meetings with my iPad, taking hand-written notes in one of a dozen notebooks, each one for a different project, with hundreds of pages, always with me, in one small package.
That is very different from editing spreadsheets or writing documents, and the iPad excels at this hands-on stuff.
I have it in a neat case that looks like a composition book. It fools everyone, and I often leave my iPad sitting in plain view in parked cars.
I have about four different notepad apps for my iPad and I do not find them very useful except for quick jots. I could never use it for work on a regular basis. I have a stylus, but the response time is not very good for writing or drawing. Only one of the apps includes keyboard input, and I find that useful. I am comparing this to my Gateway convertible laptop with a Wacom screen that has great pen performance.
It’s not for everyone, and even the best apps all have their quirks.
For me, writing on it like a pad of paper has been one of the most important uses of my iPad, so I bought the fastest iPad available and tried dozens of apps until I found the one I liked.
I have a folder called “Bad Notebooks” that has eight or so crappy notebook apps in it, another folder just called “Notebooks” that has a short list of not so bad ones, and I keep the two I really like on the main screen.
For pure inking perfection, the smoothest ink (IMHO) is in the free Bamboo Paper app, made by Wacom, the makers of the Bamboo Stylus.
That combination is very smooth and responsive, but it is pretty feature-light.
My day-to-day notepad is one called GoodNotes, which has much better handling of multiple notebooks, colors, line styles, syncing, and so on, while still providing pretty decent responsiveness.
Having the latest processor is important. My dad tried GoodNotes on his older iPad and it really was crappy and sluggish.
I agree with you about the quality of a good Tablet PC back in their heyday. Several years ago my work laptop was one of those flip-screen tablet ones, and I loved it, especially for the ability to mark up Word documents and draw lots of pictures of user interface stuff to send to my offshore team.
Since the OP is looking for advice, let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator