Concerns buying iPad for paperless office work

My most used app is GoodReader for viewing PDFs and giving talks. I also use my iPad for reading papers from journals and reviewing papers for journals. I keep manuals for my car, my electronics gear, blood work scans, etc. in there. It is great for that. Plus, it links into Dropbox so I can get to that material from any place.

Then, I use magic piano probably every day too....more for stress relief. I use the YouTube app a lot to follow tech vlogs and reviews. I have a lot of apps, too, from games (I'm not much of a gamer but I keep several around), to recipe apps, to kindle books, to magazines (computer stuff), comics, and movies. I only really watch movies on an iPad when I travel, though. I probably have 300 apps on iPad. I have a 3rd gen and a mini, as well as two other android tablets. I have several pcs and laptops, so I use the best tool for the job and hand. Sometimes I will take my iPad and keyboard out some place to get some words down when equations aren't needed.

Yes, it sounds like you have some other motivations beyond just work. As I mentioned more than once, you can do what you want on an iPad. The apps are there. Things won't be as optimal in the work department, but maybe an iPad will serve your overall needs better. It is a very powerful general purpose device, once you learn all the various details to get what you need from it. It is certainly a lot more fun than any windows machine I have ever owned.

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Originally Posted by col.bris

I have clients using pens with the iPad 4 and they work fine. I suggest trying one to see the results

There are many apps that support drawing and using the pens

I am happy to provide the names when I get home later today

Cheers Colin

Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk in Australia

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I can not find a stylus that acts and feels like an ink pen. Suggestions?

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Originally Posted by SystemsEngineer

Hi AQ
I watched your videos and yes they look better for stylus work than a couple of iPad/notesplus videos I watched. Thank you for your links, very helpful.

My next step now is really to find out what the people on this forum use their tablets for, and whether or not the iPad is doing those things better than other brands. So what are your favourite apps? What are you using this thing for? And why Apple and not Galaxy or vice versa? I know there are 10s of thousands of apps but just add your top 5 here below. By doing so I can see what you do with it, complete my CRS and start the trade off.
Please do take in account that I have young children who may like to play games or get educated on a tablet.
Thanks!

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My ipad: media consumption, movies, Internet, news. My Asus, editing what I have written without having to waste ink and paper. I type my manuscripts, then edit by hand, which helps me catch more errors. Then I can go back in, make the changes in type and delete the handwritten notes. I have not found a stylus that acts like a real ink pen that would allow me to do that on an ipad.

This is most helpful, thank you for your shortlists. I have learned from experience that I am a much happier computer user since I made the switch from PC to Mac back in 2007. I just get more productive and I like the philosophy behind the OS. But, as Simon Sinek says, it's the "why" or the "vision" that contributes most to making companies successful, not their products and he uses Apple as an example. I don't think I will ever go back to Windows for my private computer stuff, because I like it this way. However, for tablets I don't know if there's much difference between iOS, Android and Windows. They all seem to work the same (from a distance). But like I said, I haven't ever used a tablet in my life. So I'm going to ask:

AQ, I am wondering if you can describe why the iPad is more fun to you than a Windows equivalent. Is it just the fact that it's from Apple, with its almost presumtuous ways to do things and their stylish presentation, or are there really distinctive differences that would - for me - tip the balance to iPad?

You may or may not have missed what I wrote as #7 in my Requirements Specification:
#7. The total amount of paperless content produced (text, drawings and pictures) is estimated at 15~25 pages (letter/A4 format) a week.
I should add to this that my current amount of (handwritten-on-paper) pages is far less than this: I have used a smaller notebook (about 6"x8" size) for a year now and it's about half full. That comes down to about 3 pages a week. I think I will produce more pages once I can have it all digitally, but really I won't be using the iPad all day for entering text-drawings-pictures. It is essential that I can do it when needed, but it's not core business.

So based on all of this I think I should weigh the personal benefits of having a tablet just as much as the business reasons.

I look forward to your replies. And this still can go different ways for me. I have not yet made up my mind.

Thank you so much for your efforts. Very much appreciated!!

Peter

Peter,

I'm convinced now that the iPad will be what you are wanting. Now, there are some big differences between Windows, iOS, and Android. iOS is app-centric, while Windows and Android are file-centric. On iOS, files are a bit harder to interact with than on the other two. Even OS X is file-centric compared to iOS. So you may need to be aware of this and plan to deal with the fact that things will be different on iOS that what you may be used to. Some people fight the different way of thinking and we here spend a lot of time trying to help them through it. I admit for me it was a bit of a shock at first, but once I thought about it I found it much eaiser to adapt myself.

Now why do I found iOS & iPad more fun? I've been Windows user since it came out...used DOS before that..and VMS before that. Windows used to be fun....but the lack of competion as all but killed program development for Windows, comparatively speaking (there continues to be app development, but nothing like how it was). App development is alive and well on iOS. New apps to do new things in new ways. I think that's why I find it more fun. Truth be told, you can get done as much on a PC, but it just isn't as enjoyable. Plus, you can't sit on the couch and half-watch TV while fiddling with a PC they way you can with an iPad or Android tablet. :)

I think its time to turn this to figuring out the best set of apps are to get done what you need to do. I have a few notions, but I don't have exhaustive knowledge of all of the many apps out there. Maybe Colin friends can offer some input on this too.

Handwriting apps: I have UPAD, Penultimate, Notability. There are many others. I don't consider myself any kind of expert on these, but I like Notability the best. It takes notes (obviously), lets you annotate PDFs, draw pictures, use dropbox, etc. You can read in .doc, ppt, and xls files, as well as PDFs. And it is currently on sale, too.

Drawing: Several of these too. I have this one called iDraw which seems very powerful. This is a vector based drawing app, so you might not need this one as it is not mainly for free hand drawing. But something to keep in mind as a systems engineer.

You will also need a good stylus. There is the Adonit Jot Pro. It has a fine tip on the end, but I'm a little afraid of it. Reviewers on Amazon claim this one has scratched up theei iPad screen. I don't know what to think of that. I have found that if the tip is made of microfiber rather than rubber it works better. New Trent seems to have some models with fine tips on them which I find work better for me.

That's all for now.

I'm learning with every post. Ironically, my first computer experience was with Apple. It was in 1985, I was 16 years old and our school had a room full of Apple II's. Off white box with keyboard built in, no hard drive, external 5.25" floppy drive that needed to hold a system disk to boot from, amber or green CRT monitor on top. After that I was thrilled with the first PC I saw that had a hard drive built in. At university, 4 years later, I had my own PC and I did a lot of pascal programming. There were MacII's in those days but they were quite unaffordable. After that i kept upgrading to 386, 486, Pentium and that's where it ended in 2007. I got my first Mac, a Macbook Pro 17" 2006 model with a 30" HD Cinema Display. I still use it weekly, although it has been complemented by a Mac Pro 5,1 and a 13" Macbook to take on the commuter train with me. The PC is in the attic gathering dust. Anyway this is my computer experience.

I looked up the meaning of app-centric and file-centric. I wasn't aware that the former existed and quite frankly I'm not thrilled by the prospect of using such a system. Then again if you say you can adapt I certainly should be able to adapt too. Anyway a friend of mine owns an iPad 3rd gen. I don't get to see him very often but the next time I do I will try his one, knowing what I've learned in this topic will give me ample opportunity to determine if it will meet my needs and wishes. I may even get a stylus thing to test it properly.

Thank you all for your efforts in educating me and for your analyses and advice. I really appreciate that, as I've mentioned before. It may take a while before I write again, because I need to do some testing first. I'm not in a hurry. I want to make a good choice that I won't regret, I don't want to end up getting a Galaxy or other after I get an iPad. :)

Peter