Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

All iPads Does anyone use their iPad to make money? Or to do work?

In my daily job (university teacher), as many here, it's a companion device to my laptop. When I work at home it's used to display PDF and Powerpoint in 4:3 next to my laptop. Also for annotating documents from my students (but I use my Surface Book for that more often)
When I give classes at University I use it as a second monitor to my laptop during the class.

But I have another business which works on iPad only. It's a dance school (it's been closed for most of the last 12 months but now we have reopened)
There the iPad has replaced pen and paper and music players.
I have 2 iPads dedicated to that.
A mini 2 on IOS 10 which has a great 32 bit app to play music that was never updated (or rather the updated version does not work with Bluetooth, so I need the 32 bit version to use my Bluetooth speakers)
A 9.7 pro that replaces pen an paper to take payments, notes, etc.
Now this is not the kind of job where you typically use computer anyway... so while yes it's necessary, it did not replace a computer but a stereo set and pen and paper....
 
  • Like
Reactions: sfrangu, haruhiko, LibbyLA and 1 other person
I used it everyday to have meeting in Ms Teams. Much better than in iPhone (screen too small), MacBook (temp increased quickly) or windows laptop (too many antivirus and heat easily).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ghost31 and sfrangu
I use mine to remote into my main work computer whenever I’m troubleshooting PLC’s either on site or remotely when they call me in the middle of the night with an issue. Don’t tell my wife that this wasn’t a work issued ipad lol
 
I use mine for work calls, video calls and e-mails but generally i use mine for forum browsing, videos and overall social media/YouTube.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sfrangu
The iPad is generally designed as a consumption device, not a creation device. That being said, I have a 2018 12.9” iPad Pro, and it has become my main everything device. I remote in when i need to do something i can’t on the iPad. PS5 and XSX both locally stream, and VLC takes care of any SMB needs.

At this point, I don’t think there is anything i can’t do with my iPad Pro, and with a native 120hz display; it is hard to find another decently mobile machine, that lets me code without as much eye strain.
 
I have a small business as an independent LSAT Tutor (for U.S. and Canadian law school admissions) (95 percent online, with occasional in-person students). For a couple years, I was iPad-only, with an Air 2 and a 2017 12.9. As I write on an online whiteboard a lot, and I also travel a lot, this was a huge improvement over traveling with MBP plus Wacom tablet plus iPad Air 2 plus books, as I used to.

I've been traveling less, both because of COVID and because I'm no longer dating someone in Europe, and about a year or so ago, I decided I wanted a Mac mini with a nice big monitor, so I could put my various reference materials, etc. all up next to each other on the screen. I use my 2018 11 inch in side car for even more screen space, and I use my 2018 12.9 for drawing on the whiteboard.

And then when I do travel, it is my previous practice of using my 12.9 as my main interface for Zoom, drawing on the whiteboard, etc. and my 11 inch for reference materials.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sfrangu, iPadified and tgara
To do work? Sure. I use it as a 3rd screen/second device at work. I have managed to go virtually paperless using a combination of Noteshelf for notes and OneDrive.
To make money? Kind of. I sell photography, and the iPad screen is my final quality check on edited images. Also, I use it in the field for quick image proofing and basic editing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sfrangu
Another freelance artist (traditional and digital) here. I replaced my old laptop with an iPad Air which I now use for planning my commissions queue in Things & Craft, mocking up new work in Affinity Designer, getting scans ready for print in Affinity Photo, and more recently creating purely digital illustrations in Procreate. The only thing it can’t do for me is linking to my flatbed scanner to scan my physical artwork, still have to get the kid’s laptop out for that bit 🙃
 
  • Like
Reactions: sfrangu, leperry, pollaxe and 3 others
I actually got mine from work, and I do use it for work when I can. In the field it helps because there is an app we use to track issues with the customer and use it to upload pictures and statuses. But the iPad does have limitations for my entire job. I occasionally do need to use SOLIDWORKS (which is a windows only software) and we still have a network drive on our servers that requires special vpn access, which i dont think we have capabilities currently to allow access via iPad. But i do what I can on it, and wish it could be the only device i needed for work. Especially since its the cellular version and its super convenient to be able to literally work from anywhere without having to worry about wifi or hotspots.
 
I use both my iPad Pro 11 2018 and my Mini 5 for accessing work email, learning management system, some for MS Teams (although for video chats, I use my Surface Go 2). The big workflow that I moved to iPads from paper when we switched to online learning was grading assignments. Students submit a PDF of their output, program log, and program to Moodle. I download their files to OneDrive.

I display my annotated copy of the desired printouts on my iPP 10.5, their printouts on my iPP 11, and the rubric (where I mark the points) on the Mini 5. I use a Logitech Crayon to mark up their printouts and record the points on the rubric. OneDrive has a good pencil markup feature.

I use my Windows desktop and Acrobat Pro to save their marked up printouts with the rubric at the beginning and upload that back to the learning management system.

It works well for me and the students really seem to like it. I can set the deadline to turn papers in later in several cases and still have time to grade the papers and return them and stay on schedule. That’s definitely beneficial for the students and a nice change from when we were using paper. I had not had good luck marking up PDFs when I tried it in the past so I’d avoided it until I was forced to do it. I won’t be going back to the old way.

For my side hustle, I answer tech support questions, share pics and videos from my cellular trail cameras, etc.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sfrangu
Yes, I buy them and then immediately drop, bend, or smash them for YouTuber enjoyment.

Kind of iPad torture porn, I guess.
 
prospervic said:
That’s awesome! But unfortunately, the people who don’t consider the iPad to be a “real computer“ also don’t consider art and design to be “real work.“
Click to expand...
I don't know if it's they don't consider it real work.

I think it's more like how some can only see the iPad as a consumption tool, compared to the tools they themselves use for work. It's just not something some people can imagine or wrap their heads around. They see work done in a few ways including their own, so ALL work must be done in similar ways. If they can only see the iPad as consumption tool, they can't imagine that others can find a way to get professional work out of it & perhaps prefer it.

That's often the case with creative arts. Some people imagine a piece of illustrated art just started in that pose or background whole cloth, and not the dozens of sketches that went into it before it. All the color tests. Or even what layers are that can alter the piece by making it warmer, colder, brighter, whatever, or what even any of that means to how a piece is perceived by a viewer. Some may think a DJ just steps up & starts spinning records, not considering the hours that goes into listening to find the right segue from one song to the other, or picking the choice of songs & sequence in a set to get a feeling or mood.

Things that take incredible time, and iPads can be used to create with.

When I see some producing music knowing what the tools used to look like that filled a room, and it now can be done in a car while traveling. It makes you realize that what WAS a way to do something is that way for some. Because some can't imagine with creativity, drive, and flexibility, there are new tools to allow many to do things in new & different ways.
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: jchap, sfrangu and leperry
prospervic said:
That’s awesome! But unfortunately, the people who don’t consider the iPad to be a “real computer“ also don’t consider art and design to be “real work.“
Click to expand...
Which is high key aggravating, because the same people will rabidly consume products created by and with art and design. You couldn't have TV, movies, product packaging, any consumer or commercial product, without artists and designers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ignatius345, sfrangu, leperry and 6 others
I am a financial advisor/planner. I use my iPad pro often and always when I run meetings. It's great for taking notes, presenting performance reports, financial plans, etc. I don't always run meetings in my office, so the mobility and connectivity is perfect. The broker/dealer I work through has most of the systems optimized for iOS, and its easier to access alot of things via the iPad rather than my Windows machine issued by the broker/dealer (no VPN to sign into, LTE built in, etc). Its been invaluable, and I usually buy the latest model when it is available. I haven't purchased the newest iPad Pro yet because at this point the only thing that could improve for my needs is battery life. I would love it if Apple could get the iPad Pro anywhere near the new M1 Macbook Air battery life. I bought one for my wife to use for her work, and she easily gets north of 15-16 hours on one charge.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sfrangu and loganmac
Restaurant I went to for lunch used an iPad Mini for taking outdoor roaming card payment. Only issue is if customer wants a printed receipt the convenience is lost since waitor/waitress has to go back inside restaurant to do it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back