Has anyone quit their laptop and gone straight to Android?

[Heathermomster]

I hate my Toshiba laptop.  I hate the keyboard, the battery life, and the fact that somehow Windows pushed the Win 10 OS onto it in spite of the fact that I kept pressing no for Win updates.  I use the laptop mainly for Excel, Office, Evernote, and web browsing.  All of our homeschooling ebooks are on the laptop.  I started using speech to text on my Android phone and love it.  We also use mind mapping sw.  

 

I want the Mac Air Book, but DH is opposed to the costs.  Now I'm looking at a Samsung 9.7 tablet or the IPad 2 Air with a keyboard and quitting the laptop totally.  Has anyone done this, and do you have any regrets?

 

Thank-you, 
~h

Edited July 7, 2016 by Heathermomster

[StaceyinLA]

Well I am actually iOS only for the first time and it is working for me. I bought an iPad Pro and am shipping off my iMac tomorrow after not using it for nearly 2 months (I wanted to be sure nothing would come up that I couldn't do on my iPad).

 

The only thing I think will be an issue at all is when I want to do more complicated photo books on Shutterfly, but I can upload all my pics into Shutterfly from my iphone/pad and if I need to do more than I can on my iPad, I'll do that from one of my dd's computers.

 

I wanted to make the switch because we have data only for Internet and I wanted to go unlimited. To do that, I cannot use my phone as a hotspot, thereby limiting my computer's abilities tremendously. I decided to give it a shot and it is working perfectly!

 

FWIW, I have the larger pro with the Apple Smart Keyboard, which was a bit larger investment (not nearly so much if I could've gotten the wifi only version, but that's not an option for me), but I do type a lot and wanted a nice sized keyboard that was slim and easy to take with me. I do not regret the money spent as I think this is my favorite keyboard I have ever typed on. My suggestion though, if you were to do a 9.7" iPad Air 2 or pro would be to get a larger keyboard than the Apple one if you do a reasonable amount of typing.

Edited July 7, 2016 by StaceyinLA

[Slache]

I prefer a Chromebook to a laptop. I would have a Samsung desktop if I could, but my husband likes certain programs that would not run on a Samsung. I use Google drive and chrome so I'm good with Android.

[Pawz4me]

I bought an Acer Chromebook a little over a month ago to replace my ancient HP laptop. I've been using it long enough now to say that it was the perfect choice for me. I really wanted to get away from Windows but my needs are so simple I couldn't justify the cost of an iOS laptop. I have an iPad Air 2 and I considered adding a keyboard and using it as my primary device, but opted instead to go with a Chromebook and continue using the iPad as I had been (in bed or sitting on the porch, when traveling, etc.). No regrets.

[aaplank]

StaceyinLA

 

Did you transfer your files from your iMac to your iPad? That is the only thing that is keeping me from making the switch. I don't know what to do with all my photos and documents that are stored in my hard drive.

 

Thanks for any help with that.

Edited July 7, 2016 by aaplank

[Lanny]

aaplank  You can upload your files to the Cloud (DropBox, Google Drive, etc.) but if there are huge files, it will take a long time for you to upload them the first time. However, that's a one time operation that you shouldn't need to repeat with a large number of files.. After the initial upload, then when you have new photos and other new files, upload them to the Cloud.  I have laptops, and am religious about uploading files to my Dropbox account.

[Lanny]

aaplank  This is a faster way to store your files. Buy an External USB hard disk drive. I bought 2 of them, one year ago, made by Western Digital. The first has 1 GB capacity (we ended up giving that to my Stepson for his birthday before I began using it last July) and a 2 GB one that I use   for storing "System Images" of the hard disk drives.  Get one with as much capacity as you can, so you can store videos, photos, etc.   It is always a good plan to have one backup copy off site (in the Cloud, etc.) in case of a fire or tornado or something destroying ones house or office.  

[aaplank]

aaplank  This is a faster way to store your files. Buy an External USB hard disk drive. I bought 2 of them, one year ago, made by Western Digital. The first has 1 GB capacity (we ended up giving that to my Stepson for his birthday before I began using it last July) and a 2 GB one that I use   for storing "System Images" of the hard disk drives.  Get one with as much capacity as you can, so you can store videos, photos, etc.   It is always a good plan to have one backup copy off site (in the Cloud, etc.) in case of a fire or tornado or something destroying ones house or office.  

 

Thank you so much, Lanny, for helping me.  Technology is not my thing.  I have a My Passport hooked up to my iMac as a backup for all my files and photos.  Can I download its contents to the cloud?

 

And I apologize to the OP for high-jacking the thread.  Forgive me.

[StaceyinLA]

StaceyinLA

 

Did you transfer your files from your iMac to your iPad? That is the only thing that is keeping me from making the switch. I don't know what to do with all my photos and documents that are stored in my hard drive.

 

Thanks for any help with that.

Sorry I'm just now responding. I backed up my pages docs to the cloud, and could have done so with photos, but I had a lot of old stuff I really needed to make myself organize and deal with (we tend to take SO many pics of the same thing with digital photos), so I purged all of the excess photos then organized and uploaded to Shutterfly, where I will make books and prints of what I want to keep then either keep on there or delete.

 

I can now upload anything else straight to Shutterfly from my pad or phone. I also bought a video plan from Shutterfly, so I'm uploading the videos to that tomorrow, and also putting all the videos I have of the grandkids on memory sticks to give to my daughters so we will have "hard copies."

 

So much is going digital and having the ability to be stored elsewhere, so I'm just getting my stuff organized and set up for that.

 

The photos/videos were my main issue, and I'm pleased with how it's working out.

 

I do think there is a Bluetooth storage option for iPad as well, but I haven't purchased that. Some guys on MacRumors forum mentioned it though and I'm considering that.

[SparklyUnicorn]

My absolute preference are full size PCs.  Next would probably be the tablet/keyboard option.  I hate laptops.  I find the keyboards uncomfortable to use. What I wonder though is what kind of keyboards can you hook up to a tablet?  I don't like weird keyboards.

 

 

 

 

[PeterPan]

You would be a candidate for an ipad pro.

[Heathermomster]

My absolute preference are full size PCs.  Next would probably be the tablet/keyboard option.  I hate laptops.  I find the keyboards uncomfortable to use. What I wonder though is what kind of keyboards can you hook up to a tablet?  I don't like weird keyboards.

Your can use a Bluetooth keyboard to work with tablets, and the keyboards come in all sizes.  Here is an example of a compact one.  I cannot handle weird keyboards either.

 

My issues right now with Apple are the cost and the fact that DH hates them.  He really doesn't want me to purchase a Mac product.  

Edited July 8, 2016 by Heathermomster

[SparklyUnicorn]

Your can use a Bluetooth keyboard to work with tablets, and the keyboards come in all sizes.  Here is an example of a compact one.  I cannot handle weird keyboards either.

 

My issues right now with Apple are the cost and the fact that DH hates them.  He really doesn't want me to purchase a Mac product.  

 

The keys look much shorter than regular keyboards though.  Stuff like that drives me nuts.

 

I hate laptop keyboards so much that when I have to use my laptop I hook up a regular keyboard to it.  I use it for certain stuff for school (video instruction courses, for example).  Otherwise, I avoid using it.

 

And how on earth do people type on those tiny phones?  I have a Kindle Fire and I had an Android tablet (that broke recently).  I can barely stand typing on those things and they are even larger than phones. 

[Heathermomster]

I use speech to text on my Android phone.  Speech to text is awesome.  

There are larger Bluetooth keyboards than the one I linked above.  My DS carried a Samsung Netbook and loved the tiny keyboard.  My difficulty is the weird function key placement.

[aaplank]

Sorry I'm just now responding. I backed up my pages docs to the cloud, and could have done so with photos, but I had a lot of old stuff I really needed to make myself organize and deal with (we tend to take SO many pics of the same thing with digital photos), so I purged all of the excess photos then organized and uploaded to Shutterfly, where I will make books and prints of what I want to keep then either keep on there or delete.

 

I can now upload anything else straight to Shutterfly from my pad or phone. I also bought a video plan from Shutterfly, so I'm uploading the videos to that tomorrow, and also putting all the videos I have of the grandkids on memory sticks to give to my daughters so we will have "hard copies."

 

So much is going digital and having the ability to be stored elsewhere, so I'm just getting my stuff organized and set up for that.

 

The photos/videos were my main issue, and I'm pleased with how it's working out.

 

I do think there is a Bluetooth storage option for iPad as well, but I haven't purchased that. Some guys on MacRumors forum mentioned it though and I'm considering that.

 

 

Thanks, Stacy! I never even thought of Shutterfly. That's a great idea. I love the idea of forcing myself to go through all my old photos and documents and organizing them. Would be so nice to have a fresh clean start!

[Lady Florida.]

I absolutely love my Samsung 9.7 tablet but it doesn't replace my laptop (I haven't had a desktop in years). Just the other day I wanted to move my Evernote notebooks to OneNote after Evernote announced their changes. I tried it on my tablet and Microsoft told me that the process wasn't available for tablets, that it needed to be done from a computer. I'm sure I could have done it manually with a little work, but that's just one example. There are a number of things not yet available on tablets that would prevent me from giving up a PC completely.

[StaceyinLA]

Thanks, Stacy! I never even thought of Shutterfly. That's a great idea. I love the idea of forcing myself to go through all my old photos and documents and organizing them. Would be so nice to have a fresh clean start!

This was motivation for me to do that; this and the fact that in order to get some reasonable Internet, I had to lose the access from my computer. It was definite motivation for me. I was never one of those people who kept all my printed photos; I put my faves in albums/scrapbooks and moved on. Now I'm going to put my favorites in Shutterfly books and move on. I just can't see a need for 20,000 photos lingering somewhere to never be looked at.

[StaceyinLA]

I absolutely love my Samsung 9.7 tablet but it doesn't replace my laptop (I haven't had a desktop in years). Just the other day I wanted to move my Evernote notebooks to OneNote after Evernote announced their changes. I tried it on my tablet and Microsoft told me that the process wasn't available for tablets, that it needed to be done from a computer. I'm sure I could have done it manually with a little work, but that's just one example. There are a number of things not yet available on tablets that would prevent me from giving up a PC completely.

I think the Dropbox app helps with things like that. I haven't needed it because I mostly use pages and had the cloud backup option. I'm not sure how any of that works with Android because I'm on an iPad, but I know it can be done with the iPad.