We need another computer--should I get an iPad?

[TKDmom]

Right now we just have one laptop. We've been talking about getting a second, or maybe getting an iPad. If you have an iPad, what kinds of things do you use it for? What do you like? What bugs you about it?

Edited October 2, 2010 by bonniebeth4
clarification

[Annie]

What don't I use it for? I turn on my "real" computer every 2 or 3 weeks, and it's mostly just to transfer photos from my camera. There are a few issues with the occasional web form, but I absolutely love my iPad.

[Peela]

I use my ipad for ebooks, checking email , a menstrual calendar, and for guided meditations and audio books/ipod, as well as some sleep programs. Sometimes, for searching the internet.

I bought the separate bluetooth keyboard so that I could write easily, but the truth is I do not use it much for writing. After the novelty wore off.

I have a good computer in our living area- I tend to use that for most of my computer useage. I use my ipad either in the kitchen area when I want to check my email without turning on my computer (it is very useful for that)- or in my bedroom- and it is very handy for that too. I do love my ipad.

 

I would not substitute an ipad for a computer unless you wanted it just for a few things. If you wanted to be able to write and use a word processor, or multitask, I think a computer is better.

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

guided meditations...sleep programs

 

Oooh! Not to hijack, but I would love to know if these are apps. If so, would you mind sharing the names?

[Amira]

I would not substitute an ipad for a computer unless you wanted it just for a few things. If you wanted to be able to write and use a word processor, or multitask, I think a computer is better.

 

I agree. There's a lot an iPad can do, but there's a lot it can't do. I can't type on it for a long time, and it's a little annoying to only be able to do one thing at a time. I also miss Flash and have to figure out ways to work around it. There are still plenty of tasks that I need to do that require the laptop.

 

But there's a lot we love about our iPad. We use ours for hours everyday while we homeschool since we only use ebooks now. There's nothing (literally nothing) like an iPad for displaying color books. There are also a lot of apps we love.

 

Personally, I'd get the second laptop over an iPad, just because there really isn't anything an iPad can do that a laptop can't. But I love our iPad.

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

I agree. There's a lot an iPad can do, but there's a lot it can't do. I can't type on it for a long time, and it's a little annoying to only be able to do one thing at a time. I also miss Flash and have to figure out ways to work around it. There are still plenty of tasks that I need to do that require the laptop.

 

But there's a lot we love about our iPad. We use ours for hours everyday while we homeschool since we only use ebooks now. There's nothing (literally nothing) like an iPad for displaying color books. There are also a lot of apps we love.

 

Personally, I'd get the second laptop over an iPad, just because there really isn't anything an iPad can do that a laptop can't. But I love our iPad.

 

With e-books... Is it only old books that you can download to the iPad or can you get new stuff like you can on a Kindle?

 

Sorry OP! I love my iPhone so much (as everything but a phone :tongue_smilie:) that I've been considering an iPad too. I'm thinking about holding out for Flash and the ability to print though. I've heard they might be 'round the next bend.

[StaceyinLA]

And I think it could make a good second computer if you are talking about needing something for the basics like web browsing, light typing, etc.

 

The additional pros are the apps, music, ereader, etc. I LOVE the size. I rarely get on my iMac now. We are about to sell the kids' MacBooks and replace them with iPads.

 

Check out the Apple site. The November software update is gonna be huge!

[Peela]

Oooh! Not to hijack, but I would love to know if these are apps. If so, would you mind sharing the names?

 

 

Sleepmaker, Sleepstream, Sleepmachine, Powernap are all sleep related apps.

My guided meditations come from various websites like wildmind.org and other things on my ipod. I am not aware of any apps.

 

With e-books... Is it only old books that you can download to the iPad or can you get new stuff like you can on a Kindle?

.

 

There is a free Kindle app. I can sit in my bed and buy and download a book from Amazon through my Kindle app, in about one minute. I love it!

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

Sleepmaker, Sleepstream, Sleepmachine, Powernap are all sleep related apps.

My guided meditations come from various websites like wildmind.org and other things on my ipod. I am not aware of any apps.

 

Thanks! I'm excited about these!

 

There is a free Kindle app. I can sit in my bed and buy and download a book from Amazon through my Kindle app, in about one minute. I love it!

 

Thanks. This reminds me. I have the Kindle app and quite a few books on my iPhone. :blushing: Methinks I should get some sleep! :lol:

[Amira]

With e-books... Is it only old books that you can download to the iPad or can you get new stuff like you can on a Kindle?

 

There are several other ebook apps too, besides just the kindle app. You can also read library books on an iPad. Most of our books are ones I've scanned, since there isn't a lot of children's nonfiction available as ebooks yet. Goodreader allows you to view PDF ebooks. Personally though, I can't stand to read for very long on the iPad. I'll take eink any day.

[Spy Car]

I love our iPad. I spend far more time on it that on our Macs these days. For web-browsing or e-mail it is my "go to" device. The instant boot up, light weight, lack of heat, and true portability are all very compelling.

 

The full color display of e-books and PDFs comes in very handy. I have many educational books on the iPad as PDFs that I'd rather not print, and now I can display them perfectly in color.

 

For content creation (video editing or Photoshop) the desktop is still the tool of choice.

 

But otherwise the iPad gets the heavy use these days. You can stream television shows and videos, there are a wide array of apps (with more arriving daily), news and information from around the globe. And the interface still seems "magical" to me.

 

The only minor niggles I have are the lack of "arrow keys" in the virtual keyboard (which I like way more than I ever expected) and that I'm sometimes burned by the autofill. Its always comes out it's unless I'm really careful. But these are minor.

 

It would be cool to have a camera for video chat. I'm sure the next gen iPads will have them.

 

For general use I would rather have an iPad than a laptop. But for content creation the choice would switch.

 

Bill

 

(set from iPad)

[Spy Car]

With e-books... Is it only old books that you can download to the iPad or can you get new stuff like you can on a Kindle?

 

 

There is a Kindle app for reading Amazon books. A Barnes and Noble app for Nook books. An iBooks ap from Apple e-books (and others). There is Stanza. There is GoodReader for PDFs. There is Free Books. And there are several more I've not had time to check out yet.

 

Basically any ebook can be read on an iPad.

 

Bill

[Dana]

Personally, I'd get the second laptop over an iPad, just because there really isn't anything an iPad can do that a laptop can't. But I love our iPad.

 

:iagree: You can also get a second laptop for less than you'd pay for the iPad.

 

I surf much better on my laptop than on the iPad. I type MUCH better on the laptop. There are some things I can only do for my job on the laptop.

 

The iPad works well for eBooks. Just downloaded Five Children and It for my son to read since it wasn't checked in at the library :001_smile:

 

I can see using the iPad more as time progresses - and it's certainly more portable than the laptop - but if money were any issue and I didn't have a need for the portability, I'd go with the laptop.

[ChristusG]

An iPad could never relace a laptop/desktop for me. They are much too difficult to type quickly on (for me anyways). Plus, of course, you can't store data on them. I am a photographer and take TONS of photos. I can't edit them on there. I use Photoshop a lot and I can't put that on there. An iPad is nice for web browsing and for the apps, but it couldn't replace a regular PC for me.

[amyrjoy]

We have a laptop and an iPad. Omigosh...I looovve the iPad and use it tons! I do photography as well, but like it was said before, the iPad really won't help a photographer too much. Using it for homeschooling, Internet, kindle, and email is fantastic. Of course, there's a few great learning apps for the kids, too. Come November you'll be able to print from it, thanks to a software update!

[Jilly]

If you already have one computer, then I would get an iPad. I use my iPad all the time, and I love it. I read books on it, watch movies with the netflix app, edit my pics (with photogene), listen to music, browse the web, and download apps. There are great apps for everything.

 

My kids get on it for the games (many of them educational). My daughter listens to NPR news on it, and it is great because with the app I can make a playlist of news segments that are age appropriate.

 

My youngest son loves frogs, so I downloaded Pocket Frogs and a frog dissection app for him. How cool is that?

[Wish]

Only get an iPad if you need a toy, and not a functional machine that doesn't suck.

 

They can't multitask, they have an incredibly low amount of memory and functionality, you have to buy a real keyboard attachment for it because the 'virtual keyboard' on it sucks to the point where Apple actually made one, and everything on it you have to buy from the Apple Store.

 

If you jailbreak it (this has become recently legal in the US), it will be able to multitask and you'll be able to get non-Aple software, but you'll still be forced to buy apps instead of actual programs.

 

Plus, it can't even play flash.

 

But if you want a crippled, overpriced, all-around useless and horrible device, you can feel free to get an iPad like everyone else who went "OMG NEW APPLE PRODUCT STEVE JOBS SAYS ITS GOOD WANT".

 

And oh my gosh, do NOT buy it for photoshop or anything. It doesn't have the processing power to properly run CS5, and you're a retard if you actually buy an Apple product for photoshop anyway, considering how over-priced and horrible their machines are in general.

 

I've heard a lot of bad things about it on the e-reading front; it's heavy, and has a lot of glare when you're outside or anywhere in general that has a light source.

[StaceyinLA]

I think they are even talking about allowing Flash.

 

I edit photos on my iPad all the time.

 

And I'll pay for "overpriced" Apple products over crappy, crashing Windows products every day of the week. You get what you pay for.

[TKDmom]

Thanks everyone for the replies! That's exactly the kind of info I was looking for ( both positive and negative). Having one computer has worked just fine for us for years. But dh is now working on a PhD, and so far, he has been able to take all of his classes online (while continuing to work full-time). It means that he hogs the computer all evening. :tongue_smilie:

 

I keep telling myself that I don't need a second computer. But it sure would be nice to be able to come visit these forums sometimes when dh needs the computer. :D I'd like to be able to use HST+ for my lesson planning in the evenings, but I'm pretty sure the iPad couldn't do that.

 

I've also thought that it'd be nice to have something portable so that I could let ds play games when I drag him to places like dr. offices. My older kids can bring books, but he's not a very strong reader yet. I need to look more closely at how big it is. I have a Kindle, which fits in my purse. Would an iPad be much bigger?

 

I've borrowed a friend's iPod touch--does the iPad work like a bigger version of the iPod, or does it have a significantly different interface?

 

Thanks for taking the time to help me mull this over.

[Wish]

I think they are even talking about allowing Flash.

 

I edit photos on my iPad all the time.

 

And I'll pay for "overpriced" Apple products over crappy, crashing Windows products every day of the week. You get what you pay for.

Windows products aren't crappy; you just have to learn how to use what you've bought, and treat your product well.

 

Sure, if you have a Windows laptop, the laptop will eventually have problems if you don't use it well. You need an antivirus (which is free), and you need to do a fifteen to thirty-minute defrag every month or so.

 

The plus with a Windows computer is that you can always get it repaired. There will, 100% of the time, be people in your area who can repair whatever problem there is. You can even build your own desktop - all it takes is a bit of research and the intelligence to be able to put together a Lego set.

 

Macs are good, but, in my experience, they are either un-necessary and useless (the iPad), or they're over-priced for their specs and programs (Mac). Either that, or they break within two or three years, and they have very bad quality (iPod).

 

Steve Jobs has awful business practices that are made to screw the consumer, such as making the fourth generation iPod Touch have a worse resolution camera than the iPhone, even though it could easily be given a better one. He also purposefully made it so the iPod Touch lacked a camera for three generations of it in a row, and there are some features that are obviously not included that could be (like an FM radio tuner), that he just doesn't put in because he wants to add it in in a different generation, so people will upgrade.

 

I love my iPod, yes, but I despise Steve Jobs and his business practices. While iPods have a ton of functionality, they aren't well-made, and I dislike that a lot.

 

Plus, the Apple stores (unless this has been changed recently) can't repair a Mac if it's having hardware problems. I'm not even sure if there is an option to be able to replace hardware; they may just tell you to buy a new computer if there are any problems.

 

I do know, however, that you can't upgrade a Mac PC. You can't add more memory, a better graphics card, etc., later on - they make you buy a new Mac. This, IMO, is a shady business practice, and one of the many reasons why I refuse to buy Macs.

 

 

Thanks everyone for the replies! That's exactly the kind of info I was looking for ( both positive and negative). Having one computer has worked just fine for us for years. But dh is now working on a PhD, and so far, he has been able to take all of his classes online (while continuing to work full-time). It means that he hogs the computer all evening. :tongue_smilie:

 

I keep telling myself that I don't need a second computer. But it sure would be nice to be able to come visit these forums sometimes when dh needs the computer. :D I'd like to be able to use HST+ for my lesson planning in the evenings, but I'm pretty sure the iPad couldn't do that.

 

I've also thought that it'd be nice to have something portable so that I could let ds play games when I drag him to places like dr. offices. My older kids can bring books, but he's not a very strong reader yet. I need to look more closely at how big it is. I have a Kindle, which fits in my purse. Would an iPad be much bigger?

 

I've borrowed a friend's iPod touch--does the iPad work like a bigger version of the iPod, or does it have a significantly different interface?

 

Thanks for taking the time to help me mull this over.

The iPad is like an upgraded iPod Touch, with more memory and a lot more functionality, since you can do more on the larger screen.

 

The iPad is a really nice toy, IMO, but even Netbooks can do more. If you want an over-priced toy, get the iPad; if you want something good (again, in my opinion), a $700-or-so laptop would do you. Even a $500 refurb is better than the iPad.

 

I think the iPad is about the size of the Kindle DX, but I'm unsure. I know it's heavier, and it seems like it would be really annoying and awkward to carry around.

 

DS's are about $130 on Amazon, so it would be something good for your children over a longish period of time (birthdays, Christmases, etc.), instead of getting all of you children who are old enough to use a DS at the exact same time.

 

If you want a nice, portable device, where you can play games, use apps, web browse, etcetera, I'd just get an iPod Touch. They're cheaper than an iPad (Marginally), and seem to fit your needs pretty well.

 

I'd still recommend an actual computer, as computers are much more versatile. A laptop can play games, browse the web, watch movies, write whatever you feel like, etcetera, so it seems to me like you would be getting more for your dollar than an iPad or a Mac.

 

Of course (since you've stated you already have a laptop), you could get a netbook and carry that around with you. It wouldn't play games (I don't think; it may be able to play a gameboy advance ROM or something), but you could browse the web, plan for school, and apparently watch movies with one. They don't have disc drives, so you'd need an attachment; I'm not quite sure how annoying that would be.

 

If you want to watch DVDs or something, netbooks wouldn't be great, though. If you've got a Netflix subscription, a netbook could probably run their streaming, but I've never tried. I don't think they have optical drives, so I'm not sure about the quality of the image.

 

I hope my post helps.

[Amira]

I'd like to be able to use HST+ for my lesson planning in the evenings, but I'm pretty sure the iPad couldn't do that.

 

I've also thought that it'd be nice to have something portable so that I could let ds play games when I drag him to places like dr. offices. My older kids can bring books, but he's not a very strong reader yet. I need to look more closely at how big it is. I have a Kindle, which fits in my purse. Would an iPad be much bigger?

 

I've borrowed a friend's iPod touch--does the iPad work like a bigger version of the iPod, or does it have a significantly different interface?

 

Thanks for taking the time to help me mull this over.

 

I'd want a laptop for the lesson planning and HST. Even the employees at our Apple store make it clear that an ipad is not a replacement for a laptop, although it can be a great addition to one.

 

An iPad is about twice the size of a kindle. It's certainly portable, but not as portable or lightweight as a smaller ereader. I also think you should spend some time reading on an iPad screen because I think there is a huge difference between it and a kindle. My eyes cannot handle the iPad for a long time.

 

An iPad is more than just a big iPod touch, but it's very similar in its layout.