A Personal Take on the iPad
There is opinionated conflict between iPad lovers, skeptics, and whiney know-it-all wannabe tech junkies regarding this: can the iPad replace your laptop? I pulled the trigger about a month ago now to purchase my shiny new old generation iPad. (It was cheaper ok! Who wants the iPad 2?) I want to bring to you my personal take on how it has worked out for me so far.
iPad versus Laptop
The first thing I said during day 1 with the iPad: “Yes I can finally keep up with my neglected blog feeds and twitter account!” Try to read tweets and blog postings on a small iPhone screen; I will schedule your laser eye surgery in advance for you. The most useful social media apps I have discovered so far are Flipboard, Twitter for iPad, Facepad, and HootSuite. If you are a social media addict like me, these apps will save your life. Beautiful interfaces and layouts allow me to go through my social media feeds in ¼ of the time! Keep in mind that I am a student and am not constantly on a computer to check social media and email, so now I am able to turn to my iPad.
Funny but I disagree!
Not only will this device prevent you from going to facebook.com and twitter.com 20 times a day on your laptop, the battery will last for 3 days without charging! That is about 30 times longer than your two year old laptop we all know you have. Along with battery life, internet anywhere access and the $600 price tag make this device very appealing.
Some will argue that the iPad cannot replace your laptop in terms of word processing and spreadsheet management. I have been using Pages to write all my Finance notes and that is without an external Bluetooth keyboard attached! This blog post is also entirely written from my iPad just to prove my point. I have been using the apple iOS interface for 2 years now so I am used to the sensitive touch keyboard. All it takes is some practice so complainers hush up and try it.
Destroyed!
Basically all I can say is this: if you are doing heavy statistical analysis or writing a novel, I would recommend supplementing your iPad use with a computer. Other than that, forget putting your laptop in your backpack and tuck the iPad under your arm instead. Your back will thank you.
I think you should be more careful about how you debate around this topic. Do I believe that the iPad can replace a netbook? Yes in many ways. Content consumption is like you said, much quicker with an iPad with its specific task-focused apps.
What it does not do though is replace a true laptop experience. A laptop provides me the desktop experience I need for on the go work. When I am writing a report, I use Excel to create my graphs, then insert those graphs into Word. My browser window is open at the same time while I do research and insert citations back into Word. I then save the file as a PDF to submit online to an online assignment tracker. The iPad is unable to replicate this workflow which is why I use a laptop.
Ultimately, the iPad still remains a luxury item for most, a presentation tool for some (Hyatt hotels) or a great gift to parents who need an easier way to look at pictures or e-mail you back. When you need to get real work done, you use a laptop or a desktop.
For now, I will continue to use my iPhone for small bits of content consumption and my laptop/desktop for real work.
great post kev
Thanks for the comments guys. Cleve: Good point but my rebuttal is that we are not always writing reports and needing heavy multitasking abilities. I now am only taking my laptop to school once a week instead of every day just in case I need to look up something on the internet. All I am saying is that it replaces 80%-90% of the tasks I ask from a portable device. I still use my desktop but that is when I am at home.
Thanks for your write-up. I too expect that laptop computers have fully grown to be much and much popular today, and now will often be the only kind of computer found in a household. The justification state at the same time that they’re seemly more and more somewhat priced, their computing power is growing to the point where they are as strong as desktop coming from just a few years back.