iPad as only computer.. Is it possible

while some can and others try to, I would have a hard time limiting myself to an ipad

imo, it is not quite ready for that state

fjs08 said:

iPad as only computer.. Is it possible.
I can see there are keyboards available for the iPad.
Guess Apple hasn't come out with a Lenovo Yoga or MS Surface type iPad ..yet.
My biggest quandry would be using spreadsheets, Word files, scanning in documents, etc. and printing.
Pardon my stupidity on this but can you print from an iPad, and/or scan docs to a scanner, print to .pdf files, etc??
Thx.
Frank

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no, the ipad can not 100% replace a computer. it's just impossible as of right now.

however, it can manage your daily life probably pretty well to the point where you won't need to use a computer but merely 1% of the time.

i have a MBP and ever since i got the iPad, i've only used my MBP to upload a resume on job sites. other than that, my iPad has managed everything else i want out of a computing device.

If you are just going to be doing office documents and PDF, then the iPad is capable of handling those tasks pretty much easily. There are tons of apps in the apps store for doing anything and everything with PDF files including putting your signature on a PDF files. The iPad doesn't have a scanner to scan in document except capturing the document using the iPad camera however with an accurate precision. Your captured PDF file can then be uploaded to a PDF app in your iPad for working with. DropBox is available and also integrated with most of the PDF apps so that you can easily share docs with whoever easily. The new iPad is really optimized for office and business but only and only if you can afford the right applications it require.

As a teacher, my ipad has completely replaced my school-issued laptop for in-class teaching. I still need my imac at home for prepping my ipad to be school-ready though (mostly transferring of files like digitised textbooks and the like).

WhySoSerious said:

no, the ipad can not 100% replace a computer. it's just impossible as of right now.

however, it can manage your daily life probably pretty well to the point where you won't need to use a computer but merely 1% of the time.

i have a MBP and ever since i got the iPad, i've only used my MBP to upload a resume on job sites. other than that, my iPad has managed everything else i want out of a computing device.

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its not impossible.
thats more subjective to your own needs...


it couldnt replace mine either, but people who just browse the net, email, word processing, etc it most certainly can.

dukebound85 said:

while some can and others try to, I would have a hard time limiting myself to an ipad

imo, it is not quite ready for that state

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Agreed. For me it is not possible. However, my in-laws, who are in their 80's, have an iPad as their only computer.

I've replaced my computer with my iPad for 99% of my computer needs- I finished my whole last year of law school with the iPad. But, I did still need to turn on my macbook at times. I needed it when I needed to do some heavy formatting for documents, I found Pages and the like difficult to use for things like that. Anytime I needed to have my class notes up and be typing in another word file I had to get on the computer.
You can print from the iPad though, works well in my experience.

The ipad could never completely replace my desktop. I work a lot with spreadsheets. I cannot work with complicated spreadsheets on the ipad. I can only look them up.

There are printers that work from the iPad. There are also scanning apps but I would hate to have to scan a document of more than a couple of pages.

List your needs to find out

Web surfing = yes
Photo storage/editing = yes
Emails = Yes
Music/video = yes
Internet banking = yes
eBay = yes
Skype/FaceTime = yes
Reading ebook = yes
Typing/twitting = yes
Note taking = yes
Playing games = yes

Most if not all modern tasks can be done on an iPad. The adverage home computer user can make do with a large storage iPad, some tasks are much better on an iPad and some tasks are a bit painful. Hope this helps.

Sure an iPad could be your only computer IF all the apps you need are IOS apps. There are only two apps that I run on my Mac mini that can not run on my iPad - Quicken and Tax Cut. If I didn't need those two apps, I could easily get a long with just my iPad.

As much as I'd like it to be true that an iPad is all I need for everything, it's just not true. I can 100% honestly say that I don't need a laptop anymore and sold my laptop without shedding a tear. But I still need my tower (or hopefully a new Mac Mini pretty soon).

I don't sync my iPad to iTunes locally anymore--I do all my syncing and backing up on iCloud. But what about all those MPEG files that I home share? What about all those years worth of photos, home movies, etc. that I need to save? What about all the MP3s I didn't get on iTunes? Yes I have iTunes Match, but I would still not want to get rid of my local MP3 library.

My current situation is that I use my iPad/iPhone for absolutely ALL of my day to day stuff. The tower downstairs is like a media hub for my house, and the 3 TB hard drive I have attached to it is a backup drive that I run an automated back up to every night. In other words, I don't need to actively USE that computer, but I still need it to be there. It almost just acts like a server now.

EDIT: There is also one application I use that is absolutely NOT available for iOS--only a full blown Windows or Mac machine.

A friend of mine was wondering this. How do you get music into the music app apart from the iTunes Store? If you have some mp3s in Dropbox, you can't "open in Music" can you? Any solutions?

I've been using it for nearly 2 months now as my primary computer. I have a Mac Mini that I fire up for the occasional site that won't display properly on iPad or when I am doing some serious writing, printing, label making, eBay listing, etc. I guess it depends on your career and usage habits. While I won't say it's impossible to use as an only computer, it comes close to being impossible for most. I will say it is quite possible to use as your primary computer, however.

jacg said:

A friend of mine was wondering this. How do you get music into the music app apart from the iTunes Store? If you have some mp3s in Dropbox, you can't "open in Music" can you? Any solutions?

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i dont think its possible unless his device is jailbroken..

For the printer part, apple has a pretty great print interface. your going to need a air print compatible printer, i prefer HP. HP has apps that allow you to scan to your ipad and ive found that they work great

jacg said:

A friend of mine was wondering this. How do you get music into the music app apart from the iTunes Store? If you have some mp3s in Dropbox, you can't "open in Music" can you? Any solutions?

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I have google music and just stream my whole music collection (11k+ songs) whenever I want something not in my iPhone or tablet and it's free.


and to answers the OP: only if you are not a heavy user and like to just surf the web, make some docs and talk on skype. Heavy multitasking is possible on the iPad, but cumbersome for day to day.

Could it be done? Probably but it wouldn't be ideal. When I went on vacation I used my iPad exclusively and it worked out great. But if I didn't have a regular computer to use when I got home for the organization of photos it would have been a nightmare. Music and movie encoding are my other issues.

I sold my Macbook Pro a couple of weeks ago and I've been using my iPad for just about all of my day to day computer tasks. The only time I touch my iMac is to do work on Photoshop and Xcode. I actually prefer to read webpages on the iPad.

I tried it for a year and a half to avoid spending the extra $$ on the Air. Well, I sold the iPad last month and can't express in words how much happier I am with the Air! The iPad can do a lot, but I found I would have to download apps, or find workarounds for things that "just work" with the air. Scanning documents is probably best left to ViewScan on OS X or Win7. Looks like it is possible on iPad though...

This is like asking if you could eat every meal with a fork. Of course you "could" do it, but sometimes it might be a self-inflicted nuisance because the right utensil is a spoon.

My point is, you can but why would you. Also, metaphors are stupid.

urkel said:

This is like asking if you could eat every meal with a fork. Of course you "could" do it, but sometimes it might be a self-inflicted nuisance because the right utensil is a spoon.

My point is, you can but why would you. Also, metaphors are stupid.

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Why not? What makes a laptop so good when checking facebook, reading e-mails and surfing the web. Alot of people are using their mobile phones for that nowadays even.

Yeah, I know a coworker that just did a setup at home where they have a iPad keyboard dock setup so when they get home they just drop it in and continue to use it for web/email. These days not so much home use is spent with applications unless you are a gamer.

The average person would fair well this way. They have been doing this for the last year and the only gripe i have heard was banking but they went with a few apps to do it.

fjs08 said:

My biggest quandry would be using spreadsheets, Word files, scanning in documents, etc. and printing.
Frank

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The iPad can do all of that except for scanning, which I'm not sure about. Well, you can scan with the camera, but I don't know about using an external scanner.

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urkel said:

This is like asking if you could eat every meal with a fork. Of course you "could" do it, but sometimes it might be a self-inflicted nuisance because the right utensil is a spoon.

My point is, you can but why would you. Also, metaphors are stupid.

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It's a simile, not a metaphor.

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jacg said:

A friend of mine was wondering this. How do you get music into the music app apart from the iTunes Store? If you have some mp3s in Dropbox, you can't "open in Music" can you? Any solutions?

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You can buy songs in iTunes, but music from CDs is impossible without a PC, even if you already have the files ready elsewhere.

Well, you could actually do all of this with minimal knowledge about UNIX and a Terminal app from Cydia. I'd rather just buy an el cheapo PC and use that to import the music, though.

I have a 30GB iPhoto library, a 100GB iTunes library of music and movies. Both are way too big for iPad.

I shoot video on AVCHD camcorder, create home movies and do projects for kids school and sports and many of these are still burned to DVD.

I scan all important files into Devonthink, trying to get to paperless.

For me these are the biggest tasks that still require a traditional computer.