Unified Technology Solutions

Living with an iPad – First Month

I have had my iPad for over a month now, and I have found myself using it more and more for certain tasks. My favorite aspect by far is the instantaneous start-up means no more waiting for my PC to boot when I have a few minutes to do something. I rarely boot up my laptop anymore, and I feel safe saying for a casual user it would be a great replacement for a full laptop provided you have access to a full PC at home. Remember the iPad is still young (6 months) and a major update to the software is coming in November so I expect it will improve with new upgrades as time progresses.

News – Here the iPad has far overtaken every other way I check in on the news. The freedom to sit on my couch, or dining room table, or even sometimes the bathroom and catch up on the news has become my favorite feature. Many of the major news outlets have built apps to view their sites. For those that have not created an app there are generic apps like Flipbook that can view a wide range of news sites, and you can always just go to their web page.

Research – doing research is one place the iPad shines, the web browser is fast, and integrated google search makes finding things on the web easy.

Movies – Ok, this one was completely unexpected but I find myself streaming movies from Netflix to my iPad more then watching regular TV. My DirectTV receiver died over a month ago and I haven’t even installed the replacement yet because I barely use it anymore.

E-mail – While not a complete replacement for my Blackberry or PC I do often use my iPad to type out E-mail replies when it is nearby. The larger screen is nicer then my Blackberry, but I don’t think I will ever like an onscreen keyboard over a physical one.

Notes – This is what i wanted the iPad to replace more then anything, and so far I have to say I’m disappointed. It may be I just have not found the proper software yet, but I find taking notes to be a pain and I only use it when forced to. Unfortunately the design of the iPad does not allow you to rest your wrist on the screen and if you do it senses it as a touch and will leave marks in the area of the page, this makes hand writing notes awkward. The onscreen keyboard for typing notes is simply too slow.

Manuals – I store some of my most common PDF manuals on the iPad, makes looking up something a snap.

Reading – Apple, Amazon, and Barnes & Nobel all have apps to purchase and read books on the iPad, and all have a decent selection of both pay and free books available. I have started rereading many of the classics (free) as well as some newer (paid) books. As of this time I have not purchased any digital magazine subscriptions but many are available.

While I have been enjoying my iPad you will notice that it seems to be much better at play then at work. I am not saying it does not have benefits as a tool for work only that the current apps aimed towards entertainment are more refined, while work tools seem to be in the early stages of development. I fully believe that the iPad will mature to be a powerful tool for work as well as play, but with competitors already springing up and the announcement of the Blackberry Playbook this week it looks like Apple will need to work fast to establish itself in the business market or risk losing it to a competitor that is well established in that area.