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How do you use your iPad ?

C

Cakester

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 1, 2009
131
0
Columbus
I'm a iPhone guy, currently on iPhone 4. I'm curious about the iPad, but not sure if it will "fill a gap" or "replace my notebook" or will I perhaps find some additional tools/uses so I can further integrate myself into this iOS craziness.

So I'm curious, how do you use your iPad. Coffee coaster ? Picture uploader ?Any apps that blow your collective minds that you just can't quite love that much on an iPhone/iPod Touch ?


Basically, how has the iPad brought value into your life, possibly in addition to your iPhone/touch/mac ?
 
I am about to start grad school, I got my ipad to be an all in one device to carry to class. I still plan to type papers on my laptop, but now I can make one device my notebook, textbooks and fun device to kill time between classes with. I also got it to replace my kindle. Added bonus is switching from the iPad to the iPhone makes you feel like a giant!
 
I'm an IT professional. I store all my documentation for various systems in my Dropbox and then use GoodReader to access them. Nothing like having all 10000 pages of various Symantec documentation searchable in the palm of your hand.

I use it to take notes in meetings. I use it to view meeting agendas or attachments that are sent with meeting invites. Basically the big stack of papers people print before going into meetings is replaced for me by my iPad. At first people looked me funny, then my CEO and one of the VPs saw the value and bought their own. Now people are asking when the company is going to start issuing them.

I also use it for remote access. With 3g and the Cisco VPN client integrated, I'm able to basic emergency troubleshooting from anywhere. I've had lightning hit a site while I was on vacation and I was able to get into the router and see which circuits were down with an SSH app. Also, the RDP apps are great for remoting into Windows servers.

Finally, I keep all my personal information on it, tasks, finances, etc.

You'll notice that everything I listed can be done on a laptop. The form factor is what makes the iPad so awesome.
 
I have a work laptop, so I don't really need another one. I bought an iPad to have a larger display for casual use and high portability. I use it for web browsing, email, news and rss apps, occassional note taking, internet radio, movies and entertainment when I travel, and games. I'm also an artist so I have just about every drawing/painting app out there. Brushes, Artrage, and Sketchbook Pro were worth the cost of the iPad alone. It's the most affordable and portable on-screen digital tablet there is. I don't read as much as I should, but when I'm in a reading mood or get really into a book, I use it as an e-reader too.

The iPad takes a lot of unnecessary **** from people who don't have one. And so long as you don't need desktop applications, it is a highly versatile device. I would never replace it for a laptop, even if I sometimes miss a few features of a full desktop os.
 
I used to have iPhone 3G. Can't say I ever liked browsing on it. I did enjoy occasionally playing games... Then I got iPad! Best Apple product I ever had. I read a lot of white papers on it, watch videos, dropbox is my best friend. At home I don't use other computer for browsing. If I ever used webpages that require flash I just stopped visiting them. I'm playing way more games on iPad as well.
My first app was originally iPad only. Then I ported it to iPhone and iPod touch. I'm using my iPad all the time.
Recently I bought iPhone4. I do like browsing on my phone again. But I'll never do it on my phone at home. I always pick up the iPad.
Getting MacBook Pro later did not change anything for me! iPad is absolute need for the gap between phone and computer (despite what the phone and computers are).
 
Great info folks. I appreciate the feedback. Sounds like if I didn't edit photos via Aperture/Photoshop.....I'd be set.

I can imagine couch browsing would become more interesting if I had the larger screen.

What I'm amazed to hear is that none of you mentioned consuming media ? No newspaper ? Videos ?
 
I've never had an Apple device before before I got my iPad for couch browsing to replace my laptop and it's been absolutely great for that, I love it, but here are a couple of ways that it went beyond what I was expecting and changed the way I access the internet.

1) RSS news feeds. I never used them on my PC. I did once play with some, set up a few in Google News Reader, but I never seemed to find the time to stay on top of them so whenever I logged into my account I'd find thousands of unread news items and just give up. With my iPad I tried again and because it's always on my couch, and it's so quick to fire up a news reader app and get straight into my news feed items (I use Reeder and it's one of the 6 apps on my dock), I now find that I keep up with most of my national, international and technology news via newsfeeds and access them multiple times a day.

2) Just the whole app thing in general has surprised me but as an iPhone user you (the OP) are probably over that shock. I see so many posts saying things like "What's the point of a <Facebook/Wikipedia/Whatever> app when you have a perfectly good web browser?". Well, I love those custom apps. If I want to look up something in Wikipedia why wouldn't I tap on a specific app and be straight into the search page or if I want to check Facebook then what could be easier than tapping on a Facebook app in my dock and being straight into my Facebook newsfeed? That method of working really works for me. (I also have Friendly in my dock for Facebook access and Articles for Wikipedia lookups.)

- Julian
 
wolfpackfan said:
I use it as my laptop. I don't have anything else.
Click to expand...
So do I now. The laptop I used to have by my couch is now never used. The only area I feel slightly lacking there for me is the office productivity apps, they're there but they're still a bit feature-poor, especially for spreadsheet work which is what I mostly do. I'm cautiously optimistic though because with Apple, QuickOffice, DataViz and others all competing with each other with very serious offerings then I'm hopeful that free market competition will cause these products to evolve considerably over the next 12 months or so.

- Julian
 
Cakester said:
Great info folks. I appreciate the feedback. Sounds like if I didn't edit photos via Aperture/Photoshop.....I'd be set.

I can imagine couch browsing would become more interesting if I had the larger screen.

What I'm amazed to hear is that none of you mentioned consuming media ? No newspaper ? Videos ?
Click to expand...

I use it for couch and commute, and that includes some magazines - Wired and The New Yorker are especially high quality, pleasing experiences, and some mags are significantly cheaper to subscribe to on iPad.

I'll use it for YouTube too (when on reliable wireless broadband) and video podcasts like TED.
 
Crosbie said:
I use it for couch and commute, and that includes some magazines - Wired and The New Yorker are especially high quality, pleasing experiences, and some mags are significantly cheaper to subscribe to on iPad.

I'll use it for YouTube too (when on reliable wireless broadband) and video podcasts like TED.
Click to expand...

Nice, I'm surprised there wasn't more of this in this thread. Interesting.
 
dtlee1974 said:
I'm an IT professional. I store all my documentation for various systems in my Dropbox and then use GoodReader to access them. Nothing like having all 10000 pages of various Symantec documentation searchable in the palm of your hand.

I use it to take notes in meetings. I use it to view meeting agendas or attachments that are sent with meeting invites. Basically the big stack of papers people print before going into meetings is replaced for me by my iPad. At first people looked me funny, then my CEO and one of the VPs saw the value and bought their own. Now people are asking when the company is going to start issuing them.

I also use it for remote access. With 3g and the Cisco VPN client integrated, I'm able to basic emergency troubleshooting from anywhere. I've had lightning hit a site while I was on vacation and I was able to get into the router and see which circuits were down with an SSH app. Also, the RDP apps are great for remoting into Windows servers.

Finally, I keep all my personal information on it, tasks, finances, etc.

You'll notice that everything I listed can be done on a laptop. The form factor is what makes the iPad so awesome.
Click to expand...


Yep IT docs all the way, I have a large portion of ciscopress and cisco documentation pdfs on my iPad.

I also have all my network diagrams which are normally 11x17. Pan and zoom work wonders.

I use it for SSH, VPN, RDP, Goodreader, movies, cbts, stocks, banking... and many more things.

If they made an RS232 serial adapter I would use it to access routers, switches, firewalls and many other network appliances.
 
I use my iPad mostly on the go or in bed. I like to surf a few forums just before bed then watch some videos or movies that I stream from my MacBook with Airvideo.

I want to use my iPad more, but I always find myself using my Macbook Pro more. Even though I am just surfing the web, I use my MacBook more. I'm trying to use my iPad more as I kinda feel 'sorry' for it.
 
You know how there used to be times when you wanted to look something up but didn't want to go to the other room to use your computer? Eventually with the iPhone you'd start looking those things up because it was right there.

Now sometimes there are things you don't feel like looking up because sometimes browsing on a small phone screen is sometimes cumbersome. iPad fills that void and now I'm looking up those things i was putting off for the next time I was in front of a computer.

This doesn't even scratch the surface for how much I use it for work (sales)
 
Mine replaced my MacBook about three months ago. This wasn't intially by choice.

A pencil got between my MacBook's screen and keyboard in my notebook bag, and it cracked the LCD screen. So, all I had left for a portable device was the iPad. I didn't want to spend anymore money on that particular MacBook since I had already dropped $$$ for a new battery, new hard drive and new power supply this year. And I didn't want to purchase a new MacBook because the 13" hasn't been updated in forever and is still a Core 2 Duo (same as the 4 year old MacBook that recently broke).

I primarily use the iPad for web surfing, music, audiobooks and podcasts and TV. In fact, I almost prefer watching TV on it since there are less distractions and I can enjoy a few of my favorite TV shows in peace. That was a surprise given its 4:3 screen ratio.

I'm not a big eBook fan though. However, I do like Instapaper for long articles on Web sites (although I wish the reader feature in Safari 5 would come to iOS instead).

There are things I hate doing on it. Composing e-mail and writing on forums like this are both pains. I'm actually faster and more accurate at typing on the iPhone virtual keyboard (why I don't know).

Filling out web forms (account name, password, etc) are also difficult for me since most Web sites aren't optimized and it's easy to click off the form box.

I personally find it bothersome for content creation (Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Omnigraffle, Photogene, etc). I would rather do that on my Mac and I don't always find the touch UI for those apps all that intuitive (iWork, I'm talking to you).

Has it replaced my MacBook? Yes. Would I rather have another MacBook and go back to using the iPad as home entertainment device? Yes, but I like the fact that if all else fails (and it has for the moment) I can use the iPad for the same purposes if I absolutely have to.

Another suggestion would be to get the 16GB Wi-fi or 3G model. I have the 64GB 3G model, and it's been a waste. I have no doubt home sharing (via Wi fi) will come to the iPad soon and you really don't need the extra GBs unless you're going away for awhile.
 
jaw04005 said:
Mine replaced my MacBook about three months ago. This wasn't intially by choice.

A pencil got between my MacBook's screen and keyboard in my notebook bag, and it cracked the LCD screen. So, all I had left for a portable device was the iPad. I didn't want to spend anymore money on that particular MacBook since I had already dropped $$$ for a new battery, new hard drive and new power supply this year. And I didn't want to purchase a new MacBook because the 13" hasn't been updated in forever and is still a Core 2 Duo (same as the 4 year old MacBook that recently broke).

I primarily use the iPad for web surfing, music, audiobooks and podcasts and TV. In fact, I almost prefer watching TV on it since there are less distractions and I can enjoy a few of my favorite TV shows in peace. That was a surprise given its 4:3 screen ratio.

I'm not a big eBook fan though. However, I do like Instapaper for long articles on Web sites (although I wish the reader feature in Safari 5 would come to iOS instead).

There are things I hate doing on it. Composing e-mail and writing on forums like this are both pains. I'm actually faster and more accurate at typing on the iPhone virtual keyboard (why I don't know).

Filling out web forms (account name, password, etc) are also difficult for me since most Web sites aren't optimized and it's easy to click off the form box.

I personally find it bothersome for content creation (Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Omnigraffle, Photogene, etc). I would rather do that on my Mac and I don't always find the touch UI for those apps all that intuitive (iWork, I'm talking to you).

Has it replaced my MacBook? Yes. Would I rather have another MacBook and go back to using the iPad as home entertainment device? Yes, but I like the fact that if all else fails (and it has for the moment) I can use the iPad for the same purposes if I absolutely have to.

Another suggestion would be to get the 16GB Wi-fi or 3G model. I have the 64GB 3G model, and it's been a waste. I have no doubt home sharing (via Wi fi) will come to the iPad soon and you really don't need the extra GBs unless you're going away for awhile.
Click to expand...

Different strokes for different folks. I can type emails and docs just fine using the ipad and do so frequently. I'm writing a recommendation letter for someone, which was drafted completely on my ipad. Also frequently use the ipad to review documents while taking calls out of the office, etc.

I also put all my docs on Dropbox, which i access through either Docs To Go or Goodreader. The implementation in Docs To Go is particularly nice because any changes I make are synced with my Dropbox account (which is in turn automatically synced with my computer at home). Very handy.

The 3G model has been indispensable. I've needed to access my data too many times to count when I've been out and about. Needless to say, having the 3G in those instances was great. But, I could see some people having no use for the 3G. It all depends on your usage patterns.
 
When I got my iPad I had an iPhone and actually thought "Why do I need this?" but...I love it! I've been using it alot more now I don't have an iPhone. I used my iPhone for browsing, gaming while out and about. I used my iPad while in the house. Wifi only, so it stayed in the house. I'd do pretty much everything on my iPhone and iPad. I'd use my macbook for just syncing, downloading off iTunes, using garageband, writing longs documents, or just if I wanted something done really fast.

It's just my iPad & Macbook now. If I don't get an iPhone next year, I'll be updating my iPad to 32GB WiFi + 3G. Need more space for apps, and I'd love to take my iPad out more. I use my iPad all the time now, except for just now :eek: when I was updating to the newest 4.2GM build :)
 
I use my iPad to watch porn while laying down at night, instead of having my heavy Macbook Pro in bed with me.

..kidding..

Anyway.. I use it as my remote for my Mac Mini in my home theater. When i'm doing work and don't want to keep playing around with iTunes, by minimizing and maximizing it, I use it to control iTunes. I use it to play all iOS games. I'm not really a fan of games on my iPhone. I use it to store little notes about various things. I use it to show clients, friends and family photo slide shows. I use it for most of my online reading (RSS, blogs, magazines, etc). I use it to read books. I use it as an alarm clock at night.

I'm not gonna list everything, because this list is getting really boring.. but I use it a HECK of a lot more than I thought I would.

At first, I was one of the people who thought it was a cool idea, but couldn't figure out why on earth i'd need it. But i'm also one of those people who will keep going back and forth between wanting it and not wanting it, until I buy it and find out for myself. So I did.. and i'm happy I did.
 
jaw04005 said:
There are things I hate doing on it. Composing e-mail and writing on forums like this are both pains. I'm actually faster and more accurate at typing on the iPhone virtual keyboard (why I don't know).
Click to expand...

If I can offer a tip that was immensely useful to me...trust your typing. Keep your eyes on the screen (the words as you type them) and not the keyboard. (assuming you type properly, ie took classes or some course)

Doing that made typing perfectly normal. Made me believe that one day we actually won't need keyboards..maybe
 
My friend uses Ipad in the plain only (games), when he has nothing to do at all, but i think this is a great device! Very helpful when you have an idea to remember but do not have a pen or mobile phone )))))))):)
 
Being a musician the ipad is perfect as a lyric sheet to fit onto my music stand. Genius
 
The longer I own mine, the more uses I find for it. Initially it was bought for portability...surfing the net, checking email, etc. Soon it replaced my Kindle for book reading, and my DVR for catching up on missed episodes of my favorite TV shows (via TV.com and ABC app). I carry it to work for browsing or reading on my lunch break and discovered a new use. I had a deaf patient come in, and I opened Pages, and used it to communicate while we were waiting on an interpreter to arrive. I think the patient actually enjoyed his triage experience.
 
Music reader. Works a treat.
 

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Funny you should ask. I got my iPad in the mail on Monday and I've been wondering how I'm going to use it exactly. It's different than using my iPhone 4. I find myself using it mostly during my commute.

So far Flipboard, VLC Media Player, Instapaper and checking RSS feed have been my go to apps. I'm look forward to integrating it with my DJ setup and also getting more reading done via ebooks and comics.

Once 4.2 comes out and I jailbreak my iphone for tethering, its going to be on! :D:D:D
 
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