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How I use it, so far...

S

stockcerts

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 29, 2007
1,308
31
Pensacola, FL
I got my iPad a week ago Friday. I didn't have the first one, so it took me a while to figure out how it was going to fit into my life. I have discovered that I enjoy using it for everyday use more than my iMac.

I love reading the news, checking Facebook, watching Hulu, and checking e-mails on it. I don't think I'm going to be about the games and some of the other apps. I often take off to San Francisco on weekends and it's so much fun having coffee in one of their trendy coffee shops and reading the news on my iPad.

I've also discovered that it really compliments my iPhone and iMac in many ways. Using DropBox is an example of that. I've created some folders in DropBox and have moved some files over that are nice to have access to no mater where I am.

So as time goes on I'm sure I'll figure out more uses for my new iPad, and I think new apps will come along that will also impact how I use it.

I'd be interested in how some of you use your iPad....:cool:
 
Here's how I use my iPad for branding/marketing/video production work I do, and in our industry, gadgets are always 'needed' to show that we are 'in trend' with the time...

- take notes at meetings with SoundNote (it can record audio as well)
- web browsing
- emailing
- presentations
- showcasing our work (design, video, etc)
- visualization work during film shoot
- script and storyboard display during shoot
- play network games :)
- read craiglist and news app :)
- tethered to my iphone 4 (jailbroken) on road when need to pull info
- synching with dropbox

I went with the ipad since it's portable and small enough (and cheaper than the MacBook Air) that I can carry my PC Laptop (I'm tired of carrying a backpack full of stuff, now just a 10" ipad bag is all I carry around with).

Johnny
 
It's funny because I had stopped using my iPad 1 altogether when I got my 11" MBA this past November. It just seemed like there was too much overlap between my iPad and my iPhone. No need to carry around three devices, two of which basically do the same thing. But, being the gadget freak I am, I went through a period of experimentation with various devices during which I realized that I really missed the iPad for a few key things:

Ebook reading: I'm a big ebook reader, so I thought I could make do with just a Kindle 3. Turns out I hated e-ink and how backwards the Kindle felt compared to the iPad. Pages took forever to turn, going to the table of contents was more cumbersome than it needed to be, I couldn't easily flip through the entire book. To read in the dark, I had to use a case with a silly little light that didn't even light the entire screen evenly. So I tried going back to my iPhone as my primary reader, but the screen was too small. Finally, I picked up a Samsung Galaxy Tab thinking that the 7" screen would be a good solution. Turns out that the aspect ratio of Android devices means that there are fewer words per line in portrait mode than an iPad. The screen was bigger than the iPhone's, but not big enough to make reading considerably comfortable. I then switched to reading on my MBA, but I quickly remembered why I never previously tried long-form reading on laptops. The form factor just isn't suitable for it and there's too much happening on a PC that distracts one from reading (including, among other things, worrying about fan heat and limited battery life).

Watching movies/TV shows: Nothing beats watching video in bed with an iPad. The MBA works well, too, but it's a laptop with a keyboard after all. It can't adapt to whatever snug position I find myself in. I have to worry about blocking the air vents. The battery is half as long as the iPad's (and maybe not even that long for watching video). Yes, it's a nice little machine but just nowhere near as comfortable as curling up with my iPad. So maybe the Galaxy Tab was a nice solution, I thought. Nope. First off, there's no iTunes store equivalent for Android devices. No one-click ease to download the latest and greatest media. And, to add insult to injury, although the device had Flash, it was so choppy and slurped up so much juice that I didn't even want to watch Flash videos on it. Ironic eh? So no, I realized that the Tab wasn't going to work for someone who's already plugged into the iTunes ecosystem.

Casual web surfing: Again, the MBA is a fine little machine. But, I can't just forget about the battery life like I can with the iPad. The difference between 5 and 10 hours is huge. The form factor of the MBA, being the full-fledged laptop that it is, is also much more cumbersome, so all of the issues I had reading ebooks on the MBA applied to web surfing as well.


So it's back to the iPad I go for one more try. I have no doubt that the day will come when this little guy replaces my MBA completely and all I need is this and a BT keyboard to hit the road (and a little LogMeIn action when necessary). I give it until 2015 max.
 
Top uses for me in order of time spent (everything is done on my couch when my wife is watching TV or reading):

1. RSS Feeds - The iPad is basically DESIGNED for RSS viewing - in which I surf tech news, read medical literature, check cooking blogs, etc etc
2. Surfing the web (including reading macrumors forums)
3. Facetime with family
4. Email/Calendar/Work on Documents with Quickoffice, etc.
5. Read the NY Times and NPR
6. MLB at Bat
7. Surf Zagat app (yes, I just created this activity)
8. Order food from menupages
9. Read magazines on Zinio, Flipboard or Zite
10. Facebook
11. E-reading
12. iTunes
13. Maps
14. Weather
15. Games every now and then
 
Here's my general run down thus far (first ipad, but I have an iphone)

- 2do - a pretty nifty task manager that I think is close enough to my old paper planning notebook to replace it
- email - yeah I could check email on iphone but it's soo much nicer on a larger screen
- simplenote (have evernote but don't think I've yet opened it)
- pdf reader - mainly using dropbox's pdf reader although I've messed with ibooks as a pdf reader as well.
- rss reader although still trying to find a good interface to google reader, plus I need to trim down my rss feeds to something manageable
- cursing at all the apps that don't take advantage of ipad screen (I should be able to view the retina sized graphics on ipad, not a horribly pixelated version of a standard iphone app)
- facetime a couple times with brother (only other facetime-able person I know)

So far I'm still debating if I'll get the hdmi adapter. Don't think I'd really use it that much. Camera kit was going to be one of my main reasons but I guess a recent ios update limited the power that goes to usb connected devices so none of the cf to usb readers work now.
 
I have used iMovie on my macbook a few times, but never bothered to create a full video on it.

Now that the iPad has iMovie too, I'm pretty excited to sit on the couch and start editing. :D
 
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