How Do You Use Your iPad At Work?

[phyrexia]

I sell musical instruments and equipment, and I repair stringed instruments.

I use iTap RDP to log into the store's POS system (via win server 2003).
Safari for looking up products, pricematching, etc.
GoodReader for price lists, product manuals, wiring diagrams and schematics, rebate forms, etc.
SimpleNote to keep track of parts, messages, phone calls.
Netflix to entertain me while I perform the more mundane repair tasks.
Various music programs for music, of course.
Emailing vendors for pricing, availability, ordering
Virtuoso for tuning instruments by ear and to show customers basic stuff.
I still don't have a guitar tuner app, but the $200 rack tuner I use for setups is probably better than any iTuner.

Now, I also am a sound engineer at a local club, and I use XA1P more to look cool than to analyze frequencies, but it has proven useful several times I also check out bands while I'm waiting for them to arrive. If the band is good, my job is usually pretty easy and once I get the mix where it needs to be I will check out a web page for a bit.

The iPad is every bit as useful as a laptop would be, but it is lighter, and the battery lasts from open to close. I've a wireless router in the middle of the store so I have access everywhere.

 

[lilo777]

I sell musical instruments and equipment, and I repair stringed instruments.

I use iTap RDP to log into the store's POS system (via win server 2003).
Safari for looking up products, pricematching, etc.
GoodReader for price lists, product manuals, wiring diagrams and schematics, rebate forms, etc.
SimpleNote to keep track of parts, messages, phone calls.
Netflix to entertain me while I perform the more mundane repair tasks.
Various music programs for music, of course.
Emailing vendors for pricing, availability, ordering
Virtuoso for tuning instruments by ear and to show customers basic stuff.
I still don't have a guitar tuner app, but the $200 rack tuner I use for setups is probably better than any iTuner.

Now, I also am a sound engineer at a local club, and I use XA1P more to look cool than to analyze frequencies, but it has proven useful several times I also check out bands while I'm waiting for them to arrive. If the band is good, my job is usually pretty easy and once I get the mix where it needs to be I will check out a web page for a bit.

The iPad is every bit as useful as a laptop would be, but it is lighter, and the battery lasts from open to close. I've a wireless router in the middle of the store so I have access everywhere.

Don't you have a desk and a power outlet in your store? Why go in all thee troubles? Laptop would seem to be a better fit.

 

[peapody]

I gave away my ipad to my mom but on hospital rounds my friend updates patient profiles using documents to go, and uses it for drug references and medical references on the fly. I am quite jealous because even though I carry my air around, it is still no where near as convenient as his ipad. The only thing is that he has to carry his macbook pro around too. In comparison, I am REALLY travelling light.

 

[thelookingglass]

I gave away my ipad to my mom but on hospital rounds my friend updates patient profiles using documents to go, and uses it for drug references and medical references on the fly. I am quite jealous because even though I carry my air around, it is still no where near as convenient as his ipad. The only thing is that he has to carry his macbook pro around too. In comparison, I am REALLY travelling light.

Why would he still have to carry around his MBP?

 

[phyrexia]

Don't you have a desk and a power outlet in your store? Why go in all thee troubles? Laptop would seem to be a better fit.

There are 10 computers or dummy terminals throughout the store that I could use instead of an ipad or a laptop but I don't always want to wait for a five or seven year old machine to load up a PDF. Nor do I always want to wait for coworkers to finish up their business on them. There is not a computer in my repair shop, and I think a computer with a fan would be asking for trouble in that dusty environment.

The iPad is lighter than my laptop, and I would venture to bet it does what it does faster than my laptop too. A coworker brings his Macbook in and kensington locks it to a table, and it stays there the whole day. My iPad is smaller than the three ring binder it replaced. I have to run back and forth a lot at my job and it would be more difficult to carry a laptop around than to tuck my iPad under my arm.

And of course I have desks and power outlets at work. Silly question. However, I like that I am not tethered to a table, and I walk around too much to use a laptop like I use the iPad. I don't have to charge it at all.

I don't understand the reasoning behind your question. Of course I could use a laptop. Hell, I could bring the PowerMac into work if I wanted. Or I could just use real paper to keep track of prices and customers, and look at physical copies of product catalogs. I could do all the sales math in my head or on a pencil and paper instead of using a calculator (or my iPad). But this thread is about how we use our iPads for work, not about the things we could do on laptops instead of iPads.

 

[pagansoul]

My iPad sits right next to my PC. We have periods when our machines slow down to a crawl and I read or play cards between those times. I also have work PDFs in Goodreader. I'm always going over our Policy Manual and Comp Plans. We also are not allowed to use itunes or surf on our machines but we do have WiFi in the building so I use my pad to do things that our IT would frown upon.

 

[Pecator]

I am a pastor. I use it for many things

But the reason I bought it:

I do a lot of outdoor weddings. No more pages being blown by the wind.

No more printing service after service on paper. Getting totally paperless.

I preach from notes. The iPad allows much more mobility than reading them off my MacBook.

In general it is small enough to carry and big enough to read from



Okay, I also enjoy people pointing and going "Look the pastor is using an iPad."—a small indulgence.

 

[Dhelsdon]

I use mine for in-flight note taking and for report generation aft-flight.
Although my only gripe is my company's system is mainly Javascript so I can't view a PDF report, after it's been generated due to the way they have it setup (java pop up of pdf view) so then I need to switch to my MBP to view report before sending off for review.