All iPads The "iPad trap" ...

Inability to add attachments? What kind of attachments do you want to add?

I'm no CEO, but I did find myself using my iPad instead of lugging my MBP out of it's bag when I got home, resulting in me doing nothing productive at all with my evenings. I've abandoned my iPad (Apple did too), and though my MBP is way less convenient, I actually do more than I ever could with the iPad.

I tend to agree, it's a seductive trap if you're unable to be productive on it.

Lmao you make a thread about how your have to leave the iPad behind. Classic.

As a fellow CEO (of an outsourced staffing agency) I feel your pain. I have found the best way for me to manage my iPad is to use Siri to write quick e-mail responses back when I am using it "after hours" for leisure. In fact, anything that involves typing I use siri voice recognition for.

I noticed the biggest "time suck" compared to doing something on a computer is the fact that the keyboard slows you down -- but overcome that with voice recognition and it's not so bad. Otherwise, I stick to my Macbook Pro Retina for day to day work.

CEO Pro Tip: I have also found that it is helpful to appoint someone to be your assistant and have them do all the heavy typing, number crunching, etc. Even spread it across a few people if needed. I was reluctant at first because it seemed like extra overhead but the amount of time I freed up is incredible, and I'm able to use it to focus on the bigger picture stuff I should be instead of the day to day minutia.

These days I like to spend my time strategizing with my top team members and having them delegate out the number crunching. I have found that this reduced my need for using any heavy apps other than the browser (since our systems like time clocks, invoicing, etc. are all web based) e-mail, and Skype for chat throughout most of my workflow.

If you need tips on getting a cheap assistant that can help you out let me know.

I use the tool that best fits my needs, and highly recommend the OP does as well. I have no problem using my laptop over the iPad. While the iPad has strengths in a number of areas, it also has weaknesses.

I find it a no brainer to grab my laptop when I want to create a spreadsheet, word document, or remotely access a server. While I can do all of these with the iPad, I'd rather not because the laptop is more efficient in handling these tasks

Just my $.02

Yes I can relate to this. Like you, i was turning to the ipad simply because it's often much more convient to grab and fire up, even though it was hindering productivity. It got to the point where I had to consciously limit the ipad use to only the following tasks:

- Browsing / light research
- Managing Calander and to do's in RTM
- Light emails
- Viewing documents in drop box / good reader
- Edits to various small txt files in Elements
- Banking
- Social networking / reddit / entertainment
- The occasional casual game (Kingdom rush, carcassonne etc)

Anything more heavy than this, then I will switch to desktop / laptop.

At one stage, I was editing docs and spreadsheets with heavy formatting in Docs to Go, pages, numbers etc, remoting in to my computer, playing graphic intensive games etc etc. It was all a waste of time because it could of have been done much more efficiently on the computer.

On the other hand, Tim Cook claims to use his iPad for 90% of his tasks. He may not have much typing intensive tasks to do (he would probably delegate such tasks to others, as a previous poster suggested), but surely, there's no harm in, for example, jotting a short email on the iPad -- if the email is going to be very long, then break out your laptop. It's not anything I'd spend much time thinking about, just a matter of grabbing the right tool for the job.

Night Spring said:

On the other hand, Tim Cook claims to use his iPad for 90% of his tasks. .

Click to expand...

That's because Tim Cook will tell his staff to produce the documents, spreadsheets, etc and he does the high level stuff that doesn't require intensive creation.

Why not just buy a wireless keyboard then? That's what I'm going to do.

maflynn said:

That's because Tim Cook will tell his staff to produce the documents, spreadsheets, etc and he does the high level stuff that doesn't require intensive creation.

Click to expand...

I agree. I did say "he may not have much typing intensive tasks to do..."

I'm just thinking that personally, if I discovered that a CEO of a company thought so much about which device to use to best complete his tasks, I'd be skeptical about his judgement in other areas also.

In other words, if Tim Cook had to type a ten page document, I trust he'd immmediately break out his retina MacBook Pro without pausing to consider his iPad.

Jessica Lares said:

Why not just buy a wireless keyboard then? That's what I'm going to do.

Click to expand...

This only solves about 10% of the problem though. You will still be limited to iOS (and iOS apps), touch input (rather than a pointer), and 1024x768 effective pixels (that includes the retina models). You can sort of work around 2 out the above 4 problems by remoting in to your computer, but latency issues on current wi-fi specs still prevents this from being a viable alternative for any serious use.

If all you are doing is writing a book though, then a wireless keyboard would be sufficient.

Fixed:

Night Spring said:

...if Tim Cook had to type a ten page document, I trust he'd immmediately break out his retina MacBook Pro-toting assistant without pausing to consider his iPad-toting assistant.

Click to expand...

Regards,
Tom

TJ61 said:

Fixed:

Regards,
Tom

Click to expand...

That works, too.

Oh no! Trapped by a device that's too useful to put down?

Talk about a first world problem.

All you need to do is add a keyboard (or just get a Mini because it's easy to type), link remotely to your desktop, use network drives.

I used my iPad a lot (1st gen) then slowly i went back to using my phone (android, proper sized screen) whilst out and about because i was sick of lugging the iPad around (was hoping the mini would be a "smudge" smaller so it could fit in a jacket pocket) now the iPad i just at night, in bed, to check the news, perhaps netflix a show, but thats it, rest of the time its Phone or a PC at the office or in the home office for everything.

wont be upgrading to another "tablet", perhaps a Surface Pro so i can run full blown office and iTunes, or a Macbook Air if apple have the good sense to add a touch screen in an upcoming upgrade.

Nightarchaon said:

I used my iPad a lot (1st gen) then slowly i went back to using my phone (android, proper sized screen) whilst out and about because i was sick of lugging the iPad around (was hoping the mini would be a "smudge" smaller so it could fit in a jacket pocket) now the iPad i just at night, in bed, to check the news, perhaps netflix a show, but thats it, rest of the time its Phone or a PC at the office or in the home office for everything.

wont be upgrading to another "tablet", perhaps a Surface Pro so i can run full blown office and iTunes, or a Macbook Air if apple have the good sense to add a touch screen in an upcoming upgrade.

Click to expand...

You just griped about portability and then you mentioned the surface pro.

I just want to share similar stories, but more related to ipad vs. paper notebook.

I've tried replacing my paper notebook with ipad at work. I've equipped my ipad with note taking apps, Mail+ for exchange, goodreader, pages, etc. It run well for first week. However, I found myself being non-productive and keep thinking on "how" rather than "what" (the content), such as how do I edit this, how to add attachment, how to modify xls, how etc...etc.

Finally now, I use ipad only for note taking during the meeting / vendor presentation (which requires bring bunch of ppt, print them out and put some notes on them). I also bring my paper notebook for quick drawing and jotnot new ideas. It's already 4 months, and I don't miss anything both from "iPad world" or "paper world".

For content creation task I still use notebook / PC desktop.

I honestly think it's all a matter of what our brains are accustomed to. We've had years (some of us decades) of experience with the desktop/laptop paradigm. OF COIRSE it's going to be easier than using a device which really just picked up steam in 2010.

I think tablets are increasingly going to be productivity devices for two reasons:

1) software will advance to the point where it's not only more capable, it's more intuitive to use.

2) the younger generation will grow up using tablets. These things will be second nature to them. Old fogeys like us will lag behind and yearn for our keyboards and mice.

I find it to be faster. I only use my Mac for long coding sessions now. Basic email, web browsing, multimedia (unless it's Pandora or something like that) playback, etc. is all done on my iPad. I have a MacBook Air which is about as portable and lightweight Macs can get.

100% agree. I cannot do any serious work nor serious work in a timely fashion on my iPad.

It really is primarily a play/leisure device, which in my opinion, isn't worth investing in again unless iOS 7 brings some serious new features/changes. It plays games well, and is a decent device to browse the web on, but not much else.

Typing anything remotely long on the iPad is painful.

onthecouchagain said:

100% agree. I cannot do any serious work nor serious work in a timely fashion on my iPad.

It really is primarily a play/leisure device, which in my opinion, isn't worth investing in again unless iOS 7 brings some serious new features/changes. It plays games well, and is a decent device to browse the web on, but not much else.

Typing anything remotely long on the iPad is painful.

Click to expand...

I agree that the ipad isn't the best to type on but it isn't painfull, just not enjoyable.

onthecouchagain said:

100% agree. I cannot do any serious work nor serious work in a timely fashion on my iPad.

It really is primarily a play/leisure device, which in my opinion, isn't worth investing in again unless iOS 7 brings some serious new features/changes. It plays games well, and is a decent device to browse the web on, but not much else.

Typing anything remotely long on the iPad is painful.

Click to expand...

I carry my iPad in a courier bag with a wireless keyboard and can type just as fast as on my laptop. I don't find it limiting in that fashion at all.

I don't create PowerPoint presentations with it, but I use it for 80% of my work these days with no loss in productivity. If anything I'm more productive because it is with me much more often than my laptop and I'm much more connected.

Awakener said:

Talk about a first world problem.

All you need to do is add a keyboard (or just get a Mini because it's easy to type), link remotely to your desktop, use network drives.

Click to expand...

No. Adding a keyboard and remotely connecting to your computer doesn't really solve this problem. See my earlier post in this thread.