Technical assistance please....should I buy an iPad? page

[JBailey]

So I have an old-school stationary Dell that is a pretty spiffy machine, does everything but fit in my pocket.

I have a business (the farm) plus a day job that frowns on non-work internetting/computing on work time, but does provide fast & free wifi.

My partner is pimping the iPad as a tool that will help me do some of my business stuff in those odd moments at work....data entry, blog posts, website updates, etc. I don't want a smart phone, since my dumb phone has a ridiculously cheap plan grandfathered in.

So what is the learning curve or transition time to using an ipad comfortably? I haven't used an apple product since like 2000, except for my nano.

Will this be a good business tool, and will I be able to integrate it with my Dell?

[Lewis]

So what is the learning curve or transition time to using an ipad comfortably? I haven't used an apple product since like 2000, except for my nano.

Haven't tried one, but AFAIK, it's pretty much zero.

It's really just a giant iPhone/iPod Touch -- and in the same way, I'm told pretty much self-explanatory. You pinch, you pull, you tap. If whatever it is looks like what would be the likely thing to do it probably is. I guess it's a mixture of the sheer directness of multitouch and a company that actually puts some thought into usability. I don't think I ever opened the manual to my iPod Touch, never even looked to see if there was a quickstart quide.

Will this be a good business tool, and will I be able to integrate it with my Dell?

There's no Microsoft Office for it -- at least not yet, although there are rumors. And you wouldn't go editing video on it. But for surfing, email, and blogposting it probably feels more direct and better and faster to use. They're not that powerful in spec. terms, but that's kind of irrelevant, since it's the perception in use that matters, and people feel them to be fast. If you can run iTunes on your Dell you've got the software there it needs for set-up and updating and so forth.

I'd have thought that the biggest drawback from a Primal point of view would be that most people sit them on their laps without a moment's thought. You really don't want something that's talking to a WiFi access point -- and a phone network, too, I guess -- near your privates. In fact, you don't really want it touching any part of your body at all for extended periods of time. Sit it on a couple of thick cushions, and you're better off.

[Goldie]

What sort of business integration do you need to do? As Lewis said, the iPad doesn't support Office, so no Word or Excel documents.

I have found a very efficient software called "Evernote" that syncs everything on any 'net capable devise you own, in their cloud. You might want to check that out and see if it has the kind of integration you're looking for.

[kenn]

iPad does have apps that export files in those formats tho

It's a great buy IMHO

I'd buy one and then a dirt cheap desktop to have the best of both worlds

There are an insane number of apps for the ipad

[j3nn]

I love mine. At first I was like lol@ the giant iPhone, but it's seriously my second favorite computational device. I use it almost as much as my laptop, which is my main work computer. Highly recommended.

The only thing that takes some getting used to is the keyboard but its simple and fun to use. I'd say it's one of the best things I have ever purchased.

[Nigel]

Will this be a good business tool, and will I be able to integrate it with my Dell?

I'm an Apple FanBoy so slightly biased. The iPad is very intuitive and there are apps for virtually everything. The problem would be finding the ones you are happiest with. I have a son in law who runs his internet business on a Macbook Pro and iPad. Apple oriented software will often open PC type files and save them as such. But one can always buy Microsoft Office for Mac.

Having said all that, Google's Nexus 7 tablet is getting some good reviews.

[Metric]

I only use Apple products, so this is also very biased. I love my iPad. It's great for in the kitchen when making recipes because it takes less room than my MacBook and I don't have to print it so I save on paper and ink too. Battery life is pretty good. I watch Netflix on it. I'm not sure if it can be "integrates with your Dell". Good question for the folks at their tech desk though...

[JBailey]

Thanks for all the replies!

I did some poking around last night, and it seems the key to using an ipad for business, and being able to move between it and my desktop, is getting used to storing things in the cloud. I'm an old-school computer user, and it creeps me out for some reason, having all my stuff somewhere else instead of residing in my machine. I guess I need to visualize cloud storage as another hard drive I can access with any device.

Looks like some nice apps available for MS things like excel, which I use a lot. And would def be nice for reading/viewing in bed or on the fly....

[sbhikes]

I am an Apple fan but I would not buy an ipad. The ipad/pod/phone are designed as consuming devices. They help you consume things. It is easy to shop, easy to snap a picture, easy to write a short email, easy to buy tons of worthless apps, easy to play games. But it is very hard to write a real document, hard to use many web sites--sometimes the ones that have a different layout for ipads are worse, hard to do any real creative work. I couldn't imagine the hell it would be to attempt to put any data into a spreadsheet. That would have me flinging the thing across the room in about 5 minutes.