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iPad at college

virginblue4

virginblue4

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 15, 2012
2,036
727
United Kingdom
Hello everyone,

I have decided that I'm going to take my iPad into college to replace my pen and paper (I'll still have backup just in case). I am going to buy a shock absorbent sleeve and also one of those waterproof sleeves which can be submerged up to 3m deep, these will be for carrying my iPad to and from college. Will this be sufficient? The iPad itself will have a Belkin snap shield case and a smart cover.

I don't particularly like styluses, but I will need one for the drawing of diagrams etc. I have been looking at the Adonit Jot Pro and have read some good reviews on it. Are there any other suggestions?

I have downloaded good notes, dropbox, and Evernote. Are there any other apps that may be useful?

Does anyone else have any other tips for me taking my iPad to college?

Thanks for your help :)
 
Back cover + smart cover inside a protective sleeve, of some sort, should be sufficient enough to protect your iPad from most minor accidents. I think the waterproof bag is a little overkill but whatever gives you peace of mind, go for it. I wouldn't be too worried about major damage if you had that kind of setup on your iPad.

Pad & Quill, Ghost writer and SkectchBook Pro are nice apps to have as well. I prefer Box instead of Dropbox due to the larger storage capacity but whatever works best for you is good.

Perhaps some of the iWork apps would be beneficial as well. I'm kinda waiting to see if Office will come out on the iPad.
 
virginblue4 said:
Hello everyone,

I have decided that I'm going to take my iPad into college to replace my pen and paper (I'll still have backup just in case). I am going to buy a shock absorbent sleeve and also one of those waterproof sleeves which can be submerged up to 3m deep, these will be for carrying my iPad to and from college. Will this be sufficient? The iPad itself will have a Belkin snap shield case and a smart cover.

I don't particularly like styluses, but I will need one for the drawing of diagrams etc. I have been looking at the Adonit Jot Pro and have read some good reviews on it. Are there any other suggestions?

I have downloaded good notes, dropbox, and Evernote. Are there any other apps that may be useful?

Does anyone else have any other tips for me taking my iPad to college?

Thanks for your help :)
Click to expand...

I used my iPad last semester for the first time, and I loved it. The only class it wasn't great for was Math, but even then I used WolframAlpha to do some calculations on homework when I was too lazy to figure them out myself.

As a note taking device, I think it's phenomenal. I use Pages and now with Mountain Lion when I get home the documents will sync up to my desktop and I can continue working on them.

I only used my Smart Cover and my iPad was perfectly fine. I have a backpack with a laptop slot but I just put my iPad in it.

Also make sure your school has a decent Wi-Fi connection or else you won't be able to do much except take notes. :)
 
h1r0ll3r said:
Perhaps some of the iWork apps would be beneficial as well. I'm kinda waiting to see if Office will come out on the iPad.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah forgot to mention those, I have pages already. I'm also waiting for Office, hopefully it does turn out to be true. Thanks :)

gmanist1000 said:
I used my iPad last semester for the first time, and I loved it. The only class it wasn't great for was Math, but even then I used WolframAlpha to do some calculations on homework when I was too lazy to figure them out myself.

As a note taking device, I think it's phenomenal. I use Pages and now with Mountain Lion when I get home the documents will sync up to my desktop and I can continue working on them.

I only used my Smart Cover and my iPad was perfectly fine. I have a backpack with a laptop slot but I just put my iPad in it.

Also make sure your school has a decent Wi-Fi connection or else you won't be able to do much except take notes. :)
Click to expand...

Glad to hear you've had a good experience with yours. I'm quite excited about moving it all over to the iPad :) Thank you :)

----------
djharris said:
Buy goodreader, it works with dropbox and can read pretty much any document you throw at it.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll have a look :)
 
You should check out gform for shock/water-proof sleeve.
I just bought one like a minute ago, and guess what the shop owner did! He put my iPad, a brand NEW IPAD inside, and threw it from my height! (182-ish)
It came out absolutely fine. I was both shocked and laughing at the same time lol.
Anyways, good luck with your college stuff. Try out PDF expert or Notability. Both of them are good apps :)
 
seong said:
You should check out gform for shock/water-proof sleeve.
I just bought one like a minute ago, and guess what the shop owner did! He put my iPad, a brand NEW IPAD inside, and threw it from my height! (182-ish)
It came out absolutely fine. I was both shocked and laughing at the same time lol.
Click to expand...

I was looking at getting this after I saw a video of a bowling ball being dropped on it, and the iPad being perfect still. It's just pretty expensive so I don't think I'll be buying it. Thanks though :)
 
I just started doing the same for my classes, also. Notability is a pretty good note-taking app, as well. I don't use anything else.
 
BizRunner said:
Get the app iStudiez pro. Great organization app
Click to expand...

I looked at this before and didn't think I'd want it, but it's on sale at the moment, so I bought it anyway. I've played around with it and I will find it handy, thanks! :)

markthrash said:
I just started doing the same for my classes, also. Notability is a pretty good note-taking app, as well. I don't use anything else.
Click to expand...

This app was also on sale, so I have bought it to go along with good notes, I think I'll find them both very useful, especially the fact that I can export documents between the two. Thanks :)
 
I've used my iPad on and off for my first 2 years of university. I really liked Penultimate for notes, NoteTaker HD looks very nice and I might try that when I'm back in lectures. The reason I use penultimate is I do Engineering so I need to be able to quickly draw little diagrams and use some strange symbols so typing on a keyboard isn't great for me.
 
GoodReader is a must. Maybe iTunes U and Ted if you want to do some extra curricular learning. I purchased the Hand Stylus from kickstarter reviewers have been raving about it. I haven't received mine yet.
 
iPad is great for reading and such, but I take notes with a $0.99 spiral bound notebook and mechanical pencil. iPad is just too fussy for fast note taking.

I feel exactly the same about laptops--they're just too much of a hassle to take notes efficiently.

However, I do prefer my iPad over my laptop for general essay writing (e.g., outside of class).
 
virginblue4 said:
I was looking at getting this after I saw a video of a bowling ball being dropped on it, and the iPad being perfect still. It's just pretty expensive so I don't think I'll be buying it. Thanks though :)
Click to expand...

Haha, I see. No problemo! :D
 
I made a long post about all the apps I used at college. Have a look under my name.
 
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