Yep, I'd agree with that - which is why I got my MBA first (and got the one I wanted) before I thought about which tablet to get.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Thinking of replacing my iPad 1 with an air
- Thread starter northernbaldy
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Yep, I'd agree with that - which is why I got my MBA first (and got the one I wanted) before I thought about which tablet to get.
To me they are different tools for different purposes. The iPad is not a computer and probably never will be. It is great for reading, quick email checking, even web surfing and ordering. It is not adequate for full blown word processing, database and spreadsheet management, photo processing. My MacBooks are.
I agree completely. iPads are nice & a bit of a fad due to the way Apple hypes their latest products to drive sales. No doubt they are here to stay, but they cannot do true computing.
I personally find the 11" MBA slightly too small, but with Macbook Pros at your disposal, I don't think that's an issue for you.
Sorry, how immature of me.yourtoys7 said:
I use my iPad for reading magazines with Zinio, and editing photos I've taken on my iPhone.
For everything else, my Air is better, especially office work.
For everything else, my Air is better, especially office work.
I have a 2011 MBA, a Nexus 7, two iPods (4th and 5th gen) and an Apple TV, I've also used an iPad 3rd gen for a while. Get the MBA. The only real downside that you have to consider is the battery life, because the Mac's isn't nearly as good as an iPad. The Nexus 7's lasts just about as long as my iPods do, which is disappointing considering that the iPad's is so good, it also has backlight bleed, and Google Play and android in general just feel like the kmart of mobile OS, nothing works quite as well as with iOS.
The Apple TV is a great companion to anything running a newer version of iOS, or OS X. I have it 3M command stripped to the back of a 27" monitor (that's been unused since I bought the MBA and lent out my Windows 7 Tower) and now it's a great larger screen for the MBA and the iPods, it's also my stereo, and my TV.
So I guess get the MBA, and an Apple TV + decent monitor or TV and speakers, and then save up for the iPad mini 2nd gen (whenever that comes out), and most of your bases will be well covered, You do have an iPhone right?
The Apple TV is a great companion to anything running a newer version of iOS, or OS X. I have it 3M command stripped to the back of a 27" monitor (that's been unused since I bought the MBA and lent out my Windows 7 Tower) and now it's a great larger screen for the MBA and the iPods, it's also my stereo, and my TV.
So I guess get the MBA, and an Apple TV + decent monitor or TV and speakers, and then save up for the iPad mini 2nd gen (whenever that comes out), and most of your bases will be well covered, You do have an iPhone right?
I'm still thinking what would be the best set up for me. Nowadays we have a lot of options: smartphone/phablet, 7" tablet, 10" tablet, 11", 13" and 15" notebooks, desktop. And we can also choose a Windows 8 tablet or convertible notebook. So many devices.
I had that combo until about 3 weeks ago when I lost my MacBook Air at an airport.Fortunately it was insured and I had Find My Mac turned on so it erased itself (and all my personal data) the first time whoever found it at the airport 2 days later (and didn't turn it in
I do agree, I am going with the next 11" MBA, and the next iPad 2Mini
update
so this is what mountain lion is all about!!!
my old macbook pro is snow leopard, the server and mac pro have graphics tablets.
This is my first device with full gesture control and wow, its so much better!
I think I'm starting to see the whole point of back to mac now
so this is what mountain lion is all about!!!
my old macbook pro is snow leopard, the server and mac pro have graphics tablets.
This is my first device with full gesture control and wow, its so much better!
I think I'm starting to see the whole point of back to mac now
I've never had my iPad sit idle because I bought an Air ... as others have noted, they are two different machines and built for different purposes.
The iPad excels at media consumption; it's the last device I use before I go to sleep and I find myself checking early-morning email on it before I ever go near my desk.
The Air, on the other hand, is sheer delight for on-the-go productivity. I have a 2012 11" - admittedly, better-speced than most - which has capably handled everything I've ever thrown at it.
My affinity for this machine is so great that I'm wondering why I don't replace my desktop with it.
I think you've made a prudent choice. Let us know if there are any regrets!
The iPad excels at media consumption; it's the last device I use before I go to sleep and I find myself checking early-morning email on it before I ever go near my desk.
The Air, on the other hand, is sheer delight for on-the-go productivity. I have a 2012 11" - admittedly, better-speced than most - which has capably handled everything I've ever thrown at it.
My affinity for this machine is so great that I'm wondering why I don't replace my desktop with it.
I think you've made a prudent choice. Let us know if there are any regrets!
I've pretty much had only an iPad since the day iPad 1 came out. Have a desktop machine at work, but that's just for work (programming), occasionally used for those few things I need to do which the iPad can't. There is a PC at home, but it's so decrepit it serves little purpose beyond iTunes host and storage for old files. I take the iPad everywhere. Got an iPhone just a month ago. iPad is very capable, but its limits are real: while we're getting away from managing files per se, there are still an awful lot of them around (in need of transition to the "no apparent file system" paradigm); the refusal to allow on-tablet software development is a critical limitation (yeah it's not meant for it, but the capability is entirely there stifled only by policy).
Finally gonna break down and get a "real" computer. Been eager to get a 27" loaded iMac for a year, but the money just isn't coming together fast enough and I'm pretty much at the "must buy now" point. Looking at a refurbished low-end 13" MBA now: cheap (as far as Macs go), bigger screen won't compete with iPad's 10", SD card slot makes upgrading storage easy (64GB microSD in a flush-mount adapter), runs Xcode, light, tough.
The key in asking "iPad and/or MBA?" is recognizing they are, in fact, different. iPad is "anywhere, anytime", as small as sanely possible (iPhone too small) yet still a good-sized screen and has always-on cellular data; it's limited, but what it does is about 80% of what many/most use a computer for. MBA takes that, expands the screen a bit more, has faster input, supports file systems, and allows coding ... but loses the extreme portability and "always connected" ability.
With a little adjustment, the iPad can handle about 80% of all tasks. I've pushed that almost as far as I can, but it just doesn't cover the remaining 20% - much of which is more a matter of legacy (file systems) than capability.
What specifically about file systems?
I had no problem transferring files to the iPad when I owned it (3rd gen.), mainly wireless through ftp/http transfer on my desktop, and once I JB'd it I had complete access to the file system.
File systems are at the center of my cross platform environment. That's one very big reason I'm so impressed with my Nexus Trio.
Comprised of the N4 Smartphone, N7 & N10 Tablets, without rooting or any such extra mods they "just work great" right out of the box.
Thanks Google !
i would somehow hope Apple makes the 11" Air like the Microsoft surface, just better. This would give you both worls in one device. Unfortunately the Surface is not done well, too heavy, too short battery life. But I'm not going to upgrade my iPad1. I'll most likely use my Nexus7 and buy a 11" MBA with the next release if it gets a good screen and some other improvements. The iPad is just to limiting for my travels and my MBP is too heavy since I have to bring my work Laptop already.
I've had Android tablets too (Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10, Asus Transformer & Prime), but the market place was too limited and missed many of the great apps.
Having used both, I've very curious what a true file system is needed for. On the iPad, the file management apps allowed transferring (I mainly used ftp/http wireless transfer), organization, and folder management. Unless you're trying to install older DOS games (I installed old PC games on Android using Dosbox, but performance was laggy), or trying to gain root access for whatever reason (in that case - JB!) - I don't see the advantage over current file management apps.
Ay, there's the rub. Some of us don't jailbreak our devices.
And now that I'm writing apps, I understand why
is disinclined to let users in there.Ay, there's the rub. Some of us don't jailbreak our devices.
And now that I'm writing apps, I understand why
As I said - you don't have to JB.
file management/storage and organization is already do-able with a stock iPad. There are plenty of very good apps that act as a hub, somewhat similar to a "my computer."
From there, you could transfer/download to/rename/organize your files...worked very well when I used it.
JB isn't required for any of that..
The advantage is speed & native access just like using my computer.
Android ver: 4.2.x as on my Nexus 4 performs with great speed & accuracy. In fairness looking back & talking about Android lag is irrelevant. My current crop of Android phones being a: Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II & Nexus 4 all operate lag free. They are as smooth & fast as my iPhone 5.
Remember iOS has had quite a head start over Android, yet Google has made swift & excellent progress with it. Running both my Nexus 4 & iPhone 5 side by side, in real world usage they are nearly identical in performance.
At the end of the day, it's the user that wins big, since the choices have never been better. Now one can choose from either Android or iOS and enjoy an excellent experience.
Lag as in while running dosbox installed older pc games. That was the only time file system access came in handy for me.
It was something cool and potentially useful, but the hardware and lack of optimization made it impossible.
I'm just trying to brainstorm when having file system access was useful for me.
Everything else file management apps worked spectacularly for. I even preferred them over directly JBing.
I have the gs3 too, great phone. I wouldn't go apple for a phone...
The beauty of what we are discussing revolves around choices. In that context it's a win, win outcome once the decision is made.
can you built up a sytem where you have ppt's, word files, images, excel files, pics of various formats sorted in folders and subfolders to organize your projects and share entire folders via USB with several other computers? I know that Goodreader comes close for reading most of those files but you can't edit/work with them.
Keep in mind that you are not allowed to use email or cloud servises for IP reasons and the computers you are connecting to are for obvious reasons locked down and only allow connection via USB cable. Also the file structure is predefined by the needs of other users on the projects.
The only way I see to do this is with an open file system.
Also a very simple thing the iPad can't do: I want to quickly transfer a few ppt's and a few pdf's to my iPad to read on a plane. Impossible task since the computer is locked down and does not allow the installation of iTunes, the iPad is not capable USB transfer and emailing the files is not allowed nor really an option if it were allowed since we talk about a few hundred megabytes and the files are in a hierarchical file structure that I need to keep intact.
I can do all this on a Nexus but I can't do it on an iPad. That's the main reason I did never upgrade my iPad and why I think of getting a MBA.
I did all my transferring via wireless http/ftp remote access. Or I downloaded directly what I needed from online (like power points). If there was something I wanted on my iPad, I just connected to the IP from my main PC and directly transferred it. pretty seamless and simple.
Or I would upload to dropbox.
I'm not saying it's without limits, just telling how I used it.
If you're going to have a locked PC only accessible via USB then either you need to invest in an AirStash drive (a USB flashdrive that creates it's own network, accessible to transfer files wirelessly to the iPad), or Android tab/phone. However, you're still stuck with not being able to access those PC/Mac files...
If accessing/editing PC/Mac programs is your goal, then clearly the laptop wins. But that's a different argument..