Ipad as computer replacement?

[guyritchie]

I have not had a laptop for 8 months now and only have a iPad and whilst it took some getting used to it is now so much more convenient Especially for photo editing! iPhoto is just awesome. I love how you can paint the effects on. A very intuitive way of working. Pages and Keynote are just fantastic too.

 

[s2mikey]

I have not had a laptop for 8 months now and only have a iPad and whilst it took some getting used to it is now so much more convenient Especially for photo editing! iPhoto is just awesome. I love how you can paint the effects on. A very intuitive way of working. Pages and Keynote are just fantastic too.

Wow, looks like you have replaced your PC with the iPad. I just can't quite do it myself burn its not that far off. There just always seems to be a few things that I just can't do on the iPad or enjoy doing them more on my laptops. Maybe in a few years?

 

[AdmiralAdama]

I forget how to log on to my desktop at home.

AA

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[Roy Rob]

I forget how to log on to my desktop at home.

AA

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When I use my laptop, which is quite rare, it takes a while to make the transition. The finger marks on the screen are the evidence of my difficulty.

 

[J. A.]

No, not really. Some things I have to do on my notebook. Last week I had an online course with Hot Potatoes. HotPot doesn't work on my iPad. :-(

 

[tlbaker]

I need my computer as a hub for music and photos. Can't do everything in the iPad.

Sent from my WiFi Black 64GB iPad with Retina Display in NYC using iPF

 

[mannyberrios]

My iPad does everything. Web, TV, I just don't need a TV anymore

 

[pcmotorhed]

For the most part, I can do most of what my iMac does with my iPad 3. Certain websites may not work right with Safari (minus) Flash can be an issue at times. I resolved this issue by using the Photon browser which emulates a browser when a flash video player. Otherwise, I could do everything I need with my iPad. It's a feeling of a safety net to have an iMac to sync my apps, contacts and songs etc... I suppose you could iCloud the data. Is anyone iClouding all their data and was able to (after an issue) recovered all their data successfully? I'm old school so I'm wary of trying this. Thank you.

 

[sen_ovung]

Depends on what you use your PC for. In general terms, I don't think it's a good idea to replace PC with iPad. Each of them has it's on specific usage and speciality. However, if you are not a heavy PC user and mostly watch videos or play simple games it might do be fine. But you will end up abusing the iPad. Ipad is more like a 'sidekick' to accompany PC/Laptops. IPad has very rich app environment but it is confined to that only. Whereas for a PC you have endlesss posibilities.

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[Fn1889m]

I posted in June of last year, and said that I thought that my iPad 3 was about 90% capable of functioning as a sole computer in an office setting. I think that is even more true after 9 months. Primarily, Dropbox is now iPad friendly. That was a major problem which was solved since I last posted. Second, printing from an iPad has become easier.

The main problem is transitioning between an iPad and a PC. Some MS Word docs cannot transfer complex formatting between platforms. But I am convinced that I could use the iPad without a PC, with a wireless printer and cloud storage, if I worked alone. The problem is that my part time secretary uses the PC. I have to conform to her PC format. If the PC died and I worked alone, I would probably just get another iPad. But Dropbox is essential.

A friend has the MS Surface tablet. Its ability to use solid state memory (thumb drives) to transfer documents and music via a USB drive is the one advantage it has over the iPad. When Apple wakes up to that improvement, they will pick up a bigger share of the professional market. I am going to hold off on my purchase of another iPod until they add a USB port that really works.

While I am pretty good with the on-screen keyboard, I have purchased the Apple blue tooth keyboard since last posting. It is superior to the Logitech boards that I bought and discarded. If you become familiar with the short cuts, it is worth the time to learn it. I was wrong about that.

But I only deal with text, including .pdfs, and a few photos. I can imagine other formats that would not work on an iPad. But the biggest problem is compatibility with a PC.

Oh, the other problem is that it bugs people when I take notes during interviews on the iPad faster than I can do so by hand. I usually don't, because it seems distracting to them.

 

[s2mikey]

I posted in June of last year, and said that I thought that my iPad 3 was about 90% capable of functioning as a sole computer in an office setting. I think that is even more true after 9 months. Primarily, Dropbox is now iPad friendly. That was a major problem which was solved since I last posted. Second, printing from an iPad has become easier.

The main problem is transitioning between an iPad and a PC. Some MS Word docs cannot transfer complex formatting between platforms. But I am convinced that I could use the iPad without a PC, with a wireless printer and cloud storage, if I worked alone. The problem is that my part time secretary uses the PC. I have to conform to her PC format. If the PC died and I worked alone, I would probably just get another iPad. But Dropbox is essential.

A friend has the MS Surface tablet. Its ability to use solid state memory (thumb drives) to transfer documents and music via a USB drive is the one advantage it has over the iPad. When Apple wakes up to that improvement, they will pick up a bigger share of the professional market. I am going to hold off on my purchase of another iPod until they add a USB port that really works.

While I am pretty good with the on-screen keyboard, I have purchased the Apple blue tooth keyboard since last posting. It is superior to the Logitech boards that I bought and discarded. If you become familiar with the short cuts, it is worth the time to learn it. I was wrong about that.

But I only deal with text, including .pdfs, and a few photos. I can imagine other formats that would not work on an iPad. But the biggest problem is compatibility with a PC.

Oh, the other problem is that it bugs people when I take notes during interviews on the iPad faster than I can do so by hand. I usually don't, because it seems distracting to them.

I agree that lack of removable storage is an issue for having the iPad totally replace the PC. Using dropbox and clouds for file transfers just isn't always feasible and does pose some risks/hassles that thumb drive storage does not. It's doubtful that apple would ever do it though because they don't expose file managers or folders so it'd be tough to implement such a thing and get it to follow apples walled garden approach. Still, NO reason why an iPad can't have an SD card slot. It wouldn't add weight or thickness. Oh well.

 

[Icarus75]

In the four months since my iPad arrived, I have hardly ever used my family's laptop. I find the iPad so much faster and more convenient to use.

 

[lampunhenri]

I've had an iPad mini for a couple of months now and I find this a neat device indeed. Earlier I used to have a lot of equipment; smartphone, three or four computers, gaming console and all that... Nowadays I have only my good old pal laptop and this tablet and I think I'm quite well. The main problem with studying computer science and trying to rely only on a tablet comes from the inability to run codes. I can write Java or C for example but the compiling and running them becomes a pain in the ass. I even tried some JB-business to get terminal access and some console stuff but still the problem remained so I put the device in jail again. Other big problem for me is my own inability to draw nicely with this as I should design layouts and user interfaces but it's all good! At least I got rid of all the other gadgets and devices. And I love this size, I've tried the bigger one with Retina but it's too big and heavy and gets hot.

 

[Gabriel1]

I've had an iPad mini for a couple of months now and I find this a neat device indeed. Earlier I used to have a lot of equipment; smartphone, three or four computers, gaming console and all that... Nowadays I have only my good old pal laptop and this tablet and I think I'm quite well. The main problem with studying computer science and trying tonrely only on a tablet comes from the inability to run codes. I can write Java or C for example but the compiling and running them becomes a pain in the ass. I even tried some JB-business to get terminal access and some console stuff but still the problem remained so I put the device in jail again. Other big problem for me is my own inability to draw nicely with this as I should design layouts and user interfaces but it's all good! At least I got rid of all the other gadgets and devices. And I love this size, I've tried the bigger one with Retina but it's too big and heavy and gets hot.

Really good points there. As a desktop or laptop replacement it's always going to depend on what you use your existing computer for. My MBA gathers dust most of the time but recently has been put to good use again for some tasks which can't, as yet, be done on the iPad.

Whilst I try to do everything on my iPad I still think that for the time being, a desk/lap top is a great complimentary device and if nothing else, should the worst happen, it provides a great fallback option.

I have recently acquired a Mini, I really didn't realise just how big my iPad 2 was until I picked it up again!!

The Archangel

 

[Fn1889m]

I use the iPad and iPod almost exclusively at this point. My iPod and Skype are my cell phone.

When the PC dies I am think I will not replace it.