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iPad 2 vs. PC

ffrcoupe

ffrcoupe

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 11, 2011
22
0
I have a friend, really I do, and I'm trying to convince her to buy an iPad 2 to replace her Sony laptop. She mainly does e-mail, FB, surf the web, IM's, watch videos, listen to music, etc. She does not really do much business stuff (spreadsheets, accounting, etc.) nor does she do any networking stuff.

She said she would consider getting an iPad if it does everything her laptop will do. I think given her uses, she would love an iPad and it will be much easier for her to do the things she wants to do with it.

Are there any drawbacks to having an iPad vs. a PC given her typical uses? The only snag that I can think of is that an iPad does not do flash. (Or does it?) What happens when you try to load a flash web page on an iPad? I'm not trying to stir the pot, I truly don't know. I do not own an iOS device yet.

I think the things that she would gain using an iPad would heavily outweigh any disadvantages.

Comments, advice, opinions?

TIA. :)
 
I personally believe that if that's ALL she does then an iPad is fine. As for flash, you can download apps/different browsers to view flash, so it's not as bad as some people make it to be.
 
At spring cleaning time I can haul all the junk to the dump in my Mini. But a pickup is far more convenient.

If your friend is content with a single window in whatever she's doing; her "business stuff" consists of nothing more than answering a few emails, writing a short memo, and editing a simple spreadsheet; and when she watches movies she wants nothing more than an 9" screen, she'll be fine.
 
jbud72 said:
I personally believe that if that's ALL she does then an iPad is fine. As for flash, you can download apps/different browsers to view flash, so it's not as bad as some people make it to be.
Click to expand...

I was playing around with Safari on my PC and it seems to load flash pages ok but then again, I have flash installed on my PC.

jsh1120 said:
At spring cleaning time I can haul all the junk to the dump in my Mini. But a pickup is far more convenient.

If your friend is content with a single window in whatever she's doing; her "business stuff" consists of nothing more than answering a few emails, writing a short memo, and editing a simple spreadsheet; and when she watches movies she wants nothing more than an 9" screen, she'll be fine.
Click to expand...

Point taken. I was going to set her up with an Apple TV as well so she’ll have Airplay for her LCD. I didn’t think about multiple windows. Can’t you have multiple apps open at the same time and tile them on the screen? Honestly, I have a 24” Widescreen LCD for my PC and I rarely have apps tiled. I’m just single window kinda person.
shrug3.gif
 
There's no reason she couldn't hold on to her laptop as well is there?

The iPad 2 and Apple TV sound like a great solution for what she does, but keeping the laptop around just in case it's needed is a nice security solution. She'll likely feel better about it as a just in case kind of thing, but for what she's doing the iPad will be far more convenient.

As for the lack of flash... To me it's a non issue. Many flash websites have been redone to support iOS, the only things that don't really work are flash games (though many have iOS ports) and some video content. That said, there's almost always a way to view the video in a friendly format, you just have to look.

With iOS 5 she'll have tabbed web browsing, AirPlay Mirroring to Apple TV and a bunch of other improvements too. If you set her up with it I'm sure she'll be happy.
 
ffrcoupe said:
... I didn’t think about multiple windows. Can’t you have multiple apps open at the same time and tile them on the screen? Honestly, I have a 24” Widescreen LCD for my PC and I rarely have apps tiled. I’m just single window kinda person.
Click to expand...

It's a limitation that's rarely mentioned because lots of folks don't need/want the distraction of multiple windows, especially if they're used to working on a small laptop.

I'm sitting in front of three large monitors and a 15" laptop screen in addition to my iPad. Obviously, folks like me can't substitute an iPad for their other computing resources. But even those who are used to a 15" laptop and keep a couple of windows open may find an iPad very constraining once the novelty wears off.

Different strokes for different folks and there's no question that an iPad can be a viable alternative for many, many people. But I usually recommend keeping one's laptop for at least awhile after getting a tablet and then evaluate the usage patterns.
 
I don't think the lack of flash will be too much of an issue:

•The iPad has a YouTube app, so she can still watch YouTube.

•The need for flash games will be non-existant, because she will be able to get more and better games from the App Store.

•iOS is getting more and more popular to browse the web with, so many sites have been optimized for mobile/tablet viewing.

Is she selling her current Windows laptop BTW?
 
Thanks for all the comments all.
cheers.gif


While she is not computer illiterate, she does not know how to configure a PC. I think the iOS GUI is easier for most people to understand. Hell, I might try to show my mom how to use my iPhone when I get it. LOL

I told her to give her laptop to her kids so it'll still be around. LOL
 
iPad2 vs laptop

I had a netbook running osx for a couple of years, so I already knew why I wanted the iPad2 as a replacement for the ultraportable. It's a YMMV thing, but this is my list:

pros:
1. starts up instantaneously, and it's the size of a book. I can pull it out anywhere: the subway, bus, coffeeshop, gym, the hallway before class...
2. 10 hours of battery life. word!
3. you *can* multitask. it took me all of 5 minutes to figure out gestures and realize I could return to another program like *that* I was working the touch screen like a pro after the first day and I don't own an iphone.
4. It's pretty and uncluttered and sound/video is high quality, esp. in comparison to my netbook. Unless she has the best laptop on the market, I don't think she'll complain.
5. books, the New Yorker, all the pdfs, lecture notes, images I use for class. For class stuff, I copy files to goodreader via iTunes and I'm done.
6. Netflix and youtube
7. you can pick up a $30 BT HP Touch wireless keyboard (if you want to go cheaper than Apple's nice kb) and use it for long typing.

The only thing that'll bug your pc-using friend will probably be Apple's proprietary ecosystem.
 
Ok, tell me how you would be able to do following

You are surfing the web. Your IM client is on the side. Someone sent you IM. On PC (Mac, Linux, etc), simply click on IM and respond, all while you are watching a youtube video, completing reading the article, etc.

Now, how do you envision this on iPad?

iPads are awesome in a way that you do not need to lug your laptop around with you, or that you can still sit on a couch and browse the web.
 
Meanee said:
Ok, tell me how you would be able to do following

You are surfing the web. Your IM client is on the side. Someone sent you IM. On PC (Mac, Linux, etc), simply click on IM and respond, all while you are watching a youtube video, completing reading the article, etc.

Now, how do you envision this on iPad?

iPads are awesome in a way that you do not need to lug your laptop around with you, or that you can still sit on a couch and browse the web.
Click to expand...

Since I don't own one I'm just guessing here but the notification center would tell me there is an IM and I would either ignore it and continue watching my movie or I would pause my movie and answer the message.

Sound about right?
 
Meanee said:
Ok, tell me how you would be able to do following

You are surfing the web. Your IM client is on the side. Someone sent you IM. On PC (Mac, Linux, etc), simply click on IM and respond, all while you are watching a youtube video, completing reading the article, etc.

Now, how do you envision this on iPad?

iPads are awesome in a way that you do not need to lug your laptop around with you, or that you can still sit on a couch and browse the web.
Click to expand...
You're watching video, banner notification pops down for a couple seconds with preview of message, often the preview is enough to even see entire message. It vanishes in a couple of seconds, your video continues the entire time.

If it can wait, continue video.

If it is important.
1. Pull your phone from your pocket (Beejive syncs all IM protocols) and respond.
or
2. Tap the banner, respond, swap back to video and continue where you left off.
 
jbud72 said:
I personally believe that if that's ALL she does then an iPad is fine. As for flash, you can download apps/different browsers to view flash, so it's not as bad as some people make it to be.
Click to expand...

Unless you want to watch pron :p
 
Another thing that completely ticks me off is the need for Safari to reload every page I have open if I need to go back to it. And the fact that with all extra browsers out there, the same problem exists (maybe thanks to them using Safari's engine)
 
Do you have an iPad or iPad 2 Meanee?

Also, with the Facebook app, Zuckerburg is trying to get Facebook apps (the ones inside facebook like the crappy games) to be nearly all html5.
 
Meanee said:
I have iPad 2.
Click to expand...

In that case, either something is wrong with your iPad or you're exaggerating to try to make your point. On my iPad, I can have the maximum number of "windows" open to different pages and have each pop up instantly when I switch to it. Now, to be sure, if I go and use a bunch of other apps such that the iPad needs to reallocate memory, of course it will kick some or even all of those pages out of memory, so they'd need to reload when you visit them. However,nthe vast majority of the time, pages are right there waiting for me when I come back to them.

The reason the 1/2 question came up is because with the iPad 1, which had much less memory, this problem came up much more often, and frequently just switching between two pages in Safari would cause those pages to need to reload. Not so with the iPad 2.
 
Meanee said:
Another thing that completely ticks me off is the need for Safari to reload every page I have open if I need to go back to it. And the fact that with all extra browsers out there, the same problem exists (maybe thanks to them using Safari's engine)
Click to expand...

Yep Mobile Safari does that... Personally, I don't find it too annoying but I can understand people getting impatient about it.

To OP: one thing that can be a problem for an iPad v. PC is that you can't upload files via the web browser (for example a CV into a job-seeker website).

Otherwise, the iPad is infinitely cooler to use than any PC.
 
Bernard SG said:
Yep Mobile Safari does that... Personally, I don't find it too annoying but I can understand people getting impatient about it.
Click to expand...

It's a huge annoyance in the areas of slow wifi. For example, cruise ship, Amtrak train, some city to city buses. A lot of times I wish I can open up a tab, setup a page to load up while I am on a different tab doing other things. No such luck.

And thanks to non existent multitasking on iPad, same problem comes up with YouTube. I want to load up a video while doing something else (web, iBooks, etc), and hat is not possible either.

I do travel often, and find these to be very annoying on the road. At home, with fast wifi, it doesn't matter much.
 
Bernard SG said:
...To OP: one thing that can be a problem for an iPad v. PC is that you can't upload files via the web browser (for example a CV into a job-seeker website)...
Click to expand...

While it doesn't work with all uploaders, you can use the iCab web browser that does allow for file uploads. You can, for example, open a PDF file (like a resume) into iCab using "open in..." Then, when you click the upload button on the web page you can choose the PDF. It works great, except on sites that have chosen to use fancy scripting or Flash for their uploader.

As to the other issue, I'm really quite puzzled by this. On my iPad, if a page is loading slowly, or reloading slowly, as the case may be, I can switch to another tab and that page will load in the background. Read the other page for a minute or two, then switch back and the page is fully loaded. Same thing with YouTube videos (though they do seem to load more slowly when in the background than when I just sit and stare at them, but the do keep loading). Is my iPad 2 just magically better than average, or what?
 
ffrcoupe said:
Since I don't own one I'm just guessing here but the notification center would tell me there is an IM and I would either ignore it and continue watching my movie or I would pause my movie and answer the message.

Sound about right?
Click to expand...

Yes, which is much worse than being able to do both at once, which you can do on a full mac or PC.

I love all the things that my ipad2 is but that doesn't make me lose sight of all the things it is not. It is a wonderful supplement to a "main" PC or Mac for most people, not a replacement.

Why are you suggesting your friend buy an ipad2 when you don't even have one of your own? And apparently little idea of how they actually work. Suggesting a friend buys an expensive product you know very little about sounds to me like a great way to really annoy your friends.
 
bartzilla said:
Yes, which is much worse than being able to do both at once, which you can do on a full mac or PC.

I love all the things that my ipad2 is but that doesn't make me lose sight of all the things it is not. It is a wonderful supplement to a "main" PC or Mac for most people, not a replacement.

Why are you suggesting your friend buy an ipad2 when you don't even have one of your own? And apparently little idea of how they actually work. Suggesting a friend buys an expensive product you know very little about sounds to me like a great way to really annoy your friends.
Click to expand...

Well, I may not know much about an iPad because I don't own any iOS devices, but I do know more than she does about Info. Tech.

We are going to look at them at the stores and see if that's what she wants but I believe it will suit her needs nicely as described above.

----------

So. OK. With iOS 5 iPads & iPhones do or do not multitask?

From what I have seen, they appear to multitask just like a PC would. You can have multiple windows/tasks/whatever open at the same time and switch between them. From what you all are telling me what you can't do is tile the open tasks so you can see them all at once. Correct?
 
ffrcoupe said:
Well, I may not know much about an iPad because I don't own any iOS devices, but I do know more than she does about Info. Tech.

We are going to look at them at the stores and see if that's what she wants but I believe it will suit her needs nicely as described above.

----------

So. OK. With iOS 5 iPads & iPhones do or do not multitask?

From what I have seen, they appear to multitask just like a PC would. You can have multiple windows/tasks/whatever open at the same time and switch between them. From what you all are telling me what you can't do is tile the open tasks so you can see them all at once. Correct?
Click to expand...


They really do not multitask in a pc sense of it. Apps are simply suspended and do not do any work on background. Basically, resuming an app will bring it back to exact state you left it. For example, download, or YouTube video loading. Resuming YouTube app will not give you a fully loaded video. Chances are you will have to Redownload the entire thing.
 
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