If apple asked you...

[Kaykaykay]

I would love the iPad to be my one-stop solution for tablets. Someone asked where the practicality in owning two tablets was, and I'll tell you exactly why I would own two tablets. The devices cannot actually "do everything" I need. The iPad is limited on storage space, but has tremendous selection in applications. The iPad cannot install other software, but it has tremendous battery life (comparative to my laptop).

In some ways, the iPad I have replaces my laptop, and in others I can't stomach doing certain tasks on my iPad (I do not jailbreak my devices) like online banking, and secure transactions. I would never do my taxes on my iPad, I don't feel like word processing and document creation, file browsing is something made for the iPad's interface. All of these things I require the use of a PC for. In Feb 2013, I will be replacing my laptop with the Microsoft Surface Pro for those reasons, because a one-stop solution for tablets these days does not exist. The iPad for me will always be a tremendously powerful and beautiful multimedia device, but I don't feel like I'll ever be comfortable with doing EVERYTHING from my iPad.

If Apple could find a way to actually turn the iPad into the likes of their Macbook Pro's, etc. that'd be amazing.

I'm not clear on why you think that banking transactions would be any more secure on any other device than on an iPad. The key thing is the security of your online connection, and that applies to any computer, including tablets, unless you have a virus.

For me, a tablet -- no matter how powerful -- would not replace a PC, simply because I use multiple monitors to do my work, and need a real keyboard unless I'm just messing around.

It would be great to have more computing power on tablets, but we're still a long ways away from that technically and in a way that most users could afford. We'll get there, though.

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[scifan57]

I would love the iPad to be my one-stop solution for tablets. Someone asked where the practicality in owning two tablets was, and I'll tell you exactly why I would own two tablets. The devices cannot actually "do everything" I need. The iPad is limited on storage space, but has tremendous selection in applications. The iPad cannot install other software, but it has tremendous battery life (comparative to my laptop).

In some ways, the iPad I have replaces my laptop, and in others I can't stomach doing certain tasks on my iPad (I do not jailbreak my devices) like online banking, and secure transactions. I would never do my taxes on my iPad, I don't feel like word processing and document creation, file browsing is something made for the iPad's interface. All of these things I require the use of a PC for. In Feb 2013, I will be replacing my laptop with the Microsoft Surface Pro for those reasons, because a one-stop solution for tablets these days does not exist. The iPad for me will always be a tremendously powerful and beautiful multimedia device, but I don't feel like I'll ever be comfortable with doing EVERYTHING from my iPad.

If Apple could find a way to actually turn the iPad into the likes of their Macbook Pro's, etc. that'd be amazing.

Are you prepared for the very real possibility of viruses on your forthcoming Surface tablet? The great advantage of the iPad is that there have, so far, been no known viruses able to infect a stock iPad.

[iZach]

The viruses are just one more thing that enforced my decision to get the iPad. It's been great for me. I work in retail and see smaller brand tablets come back after only a couple days, but I'm never getting rid of this baby.. Until I want the new model, of course. I just can't resist them!

Sent from my iPad 3 using iPF

[Kaykaykay]

Are you prepared for the very real possibility of viruses on your forthcoming Surface tablet? The great advantage of the iPad is that there have, so far, been no known viruses able to infect a stock iPad.

There has been at least one iPad virus that I know of, which Apple patched for. If I remember right, it was when I had only my iPad 1s (had two then), so it was back in the day, lol. And it was on stock iPads.

[iZach]

There has been at least one iPad virus that I know of, which Apple patched for. If I remember right, it was when I had only my iPad 1s (had two then), so it was back in the day, lol. And it was on stock iPads.

This is news to me. Was it only on the first generation?

Sent from my iPad 3 using iPF

[Kaykaykay]

This is news to me. Was it only on the first generation?

Sent from my iPad 3 using iPF

Well, there was only gen 1 then, and I'd imagine that once they patched it, it would fix the hole for every other generation following.

[scifan57]

There has been at least one iPad virus that I know of, which Apple patched for. If I remember right, it was when I had only my iPad 1s (had two then), so it was back in the day, lol. And it was on stock iPads.

Was this the malware scare from last year?

[Kaykaykay]

Was this the malware scare from last year?

No last year would've been gen 2 at least. Remember, iPad 1 has been out for more than 2.5 years.

[Nemesis]

I'm not clear on why you think that banking transactions would be any more secure on any other device than on an iPad. The key thing is the security of your online connection, and that applies to any computer, including tablets, unless you have a virus.

For me, a tablet -- no matter how powerful -- would not replace a PC, simply because I use multiple monitors to do my work, and need a real keyboard unless I'm just messing around.

It would be great to have more computing power on tablets, but we're still a long ways away from that technically and in a way that most users could afford. We'll get there, though.

That's an interesting point, I guess it's more of a paranoia versus "what I'm used to". I'm always leery about giving my information to apps that are running, because they aren't really tied down like they are on a PC. For example, the Facebook app pushes notifications to my device (which is fine) even if the Facebook app itself isn't running. With a Windows PC, I know if I close down the application which handles Facebook pushing (if one existed), there's no way that could happen if I didn't want it to. The argument can surely be made that I could always disable these features, sure. But I like the freedom of being able to see what the OS is doing which the iPad doesn't give me for that extra sense of security.

(Not to turn the conversation, but have you seen the keyboard covers for the Surface? They snap on magnetically, and you can get a physical keyboard type if you want. Pretty slick.)

I think another limitation that my iPad has versus a PC is the fact that I simply can't download files, browse to them and interact with them using the appropriate programs. Say for example I wanted to import transaction history from my bank into Quicken. Can't do that with the iPad (not only because there isn't a Quicken app (that I know of), and we can't really "browse" to files on the iPad. It's also a bit unfortunate that most of the time attempting to multi-task between apps isn't as seamless as it is on other tablets. Basically from a usability standpoint, I would have a really hard time doing tasks which are made pretty simple on a PC. Until the iPad can bridge that gap, I'll have the need to own multiple devices.

[Kaykaykay]

That's an interesting point, I guess it's more of a paranoia versus "what I'm used to". I'm always leery about giving my information to apps that are running, because they aren't really tied down like they are on a PC. For example, the Facebook app pushes notifications to my device (which is fine) even if the Facebook app itself isn't running. With a Windows PC, I know if I close down the application which handles Facebook pushing (if one existed), there's no way that could happen if I didn't want it to. The argument can surely be made that I could always disable these features, sure. But I like the freedom of being able to see what the OS is doing which the iPad doesn't give me for that extra sense of security.

(Not to turn the conversation, but have you seen the keyboard covers for the Surface? They snap on magnetically, and you can get a physical keyboard type if you want. Pretty slick.)

I think another limitation that my iPad has versus a PC is the fact that I simply can't download files, browse to them and interact with them using the appropriate programs. Say for example I wanted to import transaction history from my bank into Quicken. Can't do that with the iPad (not only because there isn't a Quicken app (that I know of), and we can't really "browse" to files on the iPad. It's also a bit unfortunate that most of the time attempting to multi-task between apps isn't as seamless as it is on other tablets. Basically from a usability standpoint, I would have a really hard time doing tasks which are made pretty simple on a PC. Until the iPad can bridge that gap, I'll have the need to own multiple devices.

Up to you to choose what you're comfortable doing financially on any device, of course.

The MS Surface keyboards look interesting, but I'm not a big user of tablet keyboards partly for the reasons you mentioned -- there's still a lot of stuff that tablets can't do, so I do them on laptop or PC. Besides, I like to sit at a desk and have a screen at eye level and a keyboard at desk level, with full-size monitors, when I do any computer work for extended periods. It's just more ergonomic.

I also know there are workarounds to get certain things done on iPad, but they're often more of a pain than just using a laptop or PC. I use the best tool for whatever the task is; I like tablets a lot, but there's no reason I have to force everything onto a tablet. I still find my laptop pretty nifty, too.

I plan to use a variety of computers, including tablets, indefinitely.

As for doing the books and taxes, I'll keep using my accountant, lol. I just need him to stay nice and healthy!