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iPad has totally changed my computing habits

6

62tele

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 11, 2010
739
674
I was using my MBA for some casual web browsing and started thinking how odd it seemed and how clumsy it was to use. *Now don't get me wrong, I Iove the MBA and I use it at work but, at home, I do nearly everything with my iPad. It's an iPad 1, purchased on launch day in 2010.
I also have an i5 quad core iMac which I use almost exclusively for home recording with Logic.
I actually feel that, if I didn't do the home recording bit, I could live quite easily with only the iPad. *I prefer it in every way.
I will hopefully retire in 2 to 3 years (assuming the GOP doesn't totally screw me on healthcare issues). *I could very well be PC/Mac free.
I am comfortable with the cloud for data storage.
No doubt, the iPad functionality will expand via native and 3rd party apps.
The iPad is revolutionary, regardless of folks who mock it or simply don't get it.
 
I got me an iPad 2 this Thursday and have not used my main computer, a 17 inch Dell Studio laptop, since then except for activating the iPad. I have also owned a ten inch netbook in the past. The iPad is sensational. The net is so more more pleasurable on the iPad. And I feel no desire to use my main machine. Everything just works and with ten hours of battery life and instant on, I don't need to worry about squat. On Friday I spoke to a college at work. Interestingly she owns an iPad 1 but have foregone owning laptop or computer at all.

However I freelance and thus need a proper computer and cannot see myself abandoning a full fledged laptop anytime soon. But for adults who neither freelance or are students I concede the iPad to be a sufficient computer replacement.
 
You're not alone. Ever since I received my iPad 2 in the mail, I've barely touched my 17" MacBook Pro except to back-up my iPad. This is an amazing device and it supplies all my basic computing needs.
 
I enjoy the iPad however I much prefer a real email client, full fledge browser, tabbed browsing, and the ergonomics of a desktop set up.
I enjoy the casual surfing and gaming.
 
The iPad has brought us to the transition stage of the post PC era. You still need a PC for major applications and mass storage, but the iPad has taken away the need for a laptop or PC for simple things like word docs, games, watching videos, reading books/magazines, online surfing, etc...

As soon as the iCloud matures and we can reliably and readily access it with a tablet (be it an iPad or non-iPad), we will be at a post-pc era for the 'average' consumer.
 
fhall1 said:
There are several tabbed browsers out there....I'm liking Mercury browser the most at the moment.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will definitely look into that. The closing then opening windows thing drives me nuts.
 
fhall1 said:
There are several tabbed browsers out there....I'm liking Mercury browser the most at the moment.
Click to expand...

bruinsrme said:
Thanks, I will definitely look into that. The closing then opening windows thing drives me nuts.
Click to expand...

I've been using Mercury for the past few days as an alternative to Safari. In most respects it is far better and comes closest to a fully fledged desk top browser on the iPad. However there are a couple of issues I've come across that they need to sort out. Firstly it seems quite sluggish compared to other iOS browsers. This may be because it's more complex. Secondly there are certain embedded videos and images that work in Safari but don't in Mercury.
 
bruinsrme said:
Thanks, I will definitely look into that. The closing then opening windows thing drives me nuts.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that was driving me nuts too on the iPad.

In iOS 5.0, it's totally different. iOS 5.0 has tabbed browsing and open links in the background. You just hold the link for a second and then select "open in new tab" and then a new tab pops up behind your current one with the link open. You don't have to wait for it to open then switch back to your original tab or anything. It's freaking smooth. It completely made the web browsing experience transform from painful to ********** smooth :)
 
Macalicious2011 said:
I got me an iPad 2 this Thursday and have not used my main computer, a 17 inch Dell Studio laptop, since then except for activating the iPad. I have also owned a ten inch netbook in the past. The iPad is sensational. The net is so more more pleasurable on the iPad. And I feel no desire to use my main machine. Everything just works and with ten hours of battery life and instant on, I don't need to worry about squat. On Friday I spoke to a college at work. Interestingly she owns an iPad 1 but have foregone owning laptop or computer at all.

However I freelance and thus need a proper computer and cannot see myself abandoning a full fledged laptop anytime soon. But for adults who neither freelance or are students I concede the iPad to be a sufficient computer replacement.
Click to expand...


you sound like King Steve!!
 
62tele said:
I was using my MBA for some casual web browsing and started thinking how odd it seemed and how clumsy it was to use. *Now don't get me wrong, I Iove the MBA and I use it at work but, at home, I do nearly everything with my iPad. It's an iPad 1, purchased on launch day in 2010.
I also have an i5 quad core iMac which I use almost exclusively for home recording with Logic.
I actually feel that, if I didn't do the home recording bit, I could live quite easily with only the iPad. *I prefer it in every way.
I will hopefully retire in 2 to 3 years (assuming the GOP doesn't totally screw me on healthcare issues). *I could very well be PC/Mac free.
I am comfortable with the cloud for data storage.
No doubt, the iPad functionality will expand via native and 3rd party apps.
The iPad is revolutionary, regardless of folks who mock it or simply don't get it.
Click to expand...

Good for you.

I bought my iPad1 on launch, same as my iPad2. I've had MacBook Air's since inception and upgraded over the years to the current model.

Let's not mislead people here. iPad is good for some things and not for others, it's all good for absorbing/watching content until you get to a website want to view something and can't.

For example try looking at houses for sale on mls.com, configure a car online, just surf around for an hour and you'll quickly see the iPad limitations, let's be honest there are many. If you are fine with that, great, many including myself aren't.

Next, type an email or a note it's faster on a physical keyboard bring in a trackpad or mouse as you can with a notebook and it's faster again and more convenient and less aggravating.

I've read many posts similar to yours and tried it. It's not a good suggestion or idea for the average computer user in my opinion so don't go shunning a MacBook Air because you read in a Forum an iPad can do it all - it can't.
 
iRobby said:
you sound like King Steve!!
Click to expand...

Sorry about that :)

I never thought I would quote one of Steve's lines. But the iPad is much more enjoyable than the Atom powered HP Mini netbook I owned. Although the iPad 2 rocks a mobile ARM CPU it does like a rocket to browse on. For consumption it's great. In the coming weeks I will have to do some deep thinking into productivity. Whether not to buy a blue tooth keyboard. Once I did the unthinkable on my netbook, typed a 3,000 word long university assignment, but it worked and I came to terms with the screen size.

It will be challenge to make the iPad a productive tool but I'll wait for iOS5 while reading about what apps and accessories other people are using for the few times that they want to get something really productive down on the iPad.
 
62tele said:
I was using my MBA for some casual web browsing and started thinking how odd it seemed and how clumsy it was to use. *Now don't get me wrong, I Iove the MBA and I use it at work but, at home, I do nearly everything with my iPad. It's an iPad 1, purchased on launch day in 2010.
I also have an i5 quad core iMac which I use almost exclusively for home recording with Logic.
I actually feel that, if I didn't do the home recording bit, I could live quite easily with only the iPad. *I prefer it in every way.
I will hopefully retire in 2 to 3 years (assuming the GOP doesn't totally screw me on healthcare issues). *I could very well be PC/Mac free.
I am comfortable with the cloud for data storage.
No doubt, the iPad functionality will expand via native and 3rd party apps.
The iPad is revolutionary, regardless of folks who mock it or simply don't get it.
Click to expand...
I'm sure everyone gets it, it just that some choose not to admit it in public, for reasons best kept to themselves. :D
 
I've have both versions of the iPad and some I've purchased for my business (I own a small restaurant in Northern California) so I can say that for casual browsing and light specific work they're great. (my servers use them for ordering and can show photos of desserts (orders print directly to the printers in back)
But for any editing, photo shop, menu designs the lil beastie does fall a little short, so it is a tool and while great for the casual user it does need to be tied to PC or somesuch in it's current incarnation.
 
I have only used my Macbook Pro a handful of times since getting my iPad 2. The only reason I have kept my Macbook Pro is for my University work as I need it to run programs such as Forensic Toolkit and Netbeans for Java development etc other than that if I'm not using it to do University work then it doesn't get turned on and the iPad is my main device for web browsing etc.
 
I now do 50% of my browsing on the iPad. The only down site to using it is it's woefully slow compared to a desktop browser. Especially complex pages.
 
radiogoober said:
Yeah, that was driving me nuts too on the iPad.

In iOS 5.0, it's totally different. iOS 5.0 has tabbed browsing and open links in the background. You just hold the link for a second and then select "open in new tab" and then a new tab pops up behind your current one with the link open. You don't have to wait for it to open then switch back to your original tab or anything. It's freaking smooth. It completely made the web browsing experience transform from painful to ********** smooth :)
Click to expand...

Wish there was more info like this on this site. Usually a thread starts off great then 15 to 20 posts in the insult and garbage start to fly.

With improvements like this the iPad will surely take away from sitting in front of a screen. A multipart unit would be nice, dock portrait or landscape cleanly.
iOS 5 will be put on the 3 iPads but more than likely not the iPhones. I think the next step may be drop the smart phones and set up data plans for the iPads.
Hopefully something like sbsettings will be incorporated.
 
entatlrg said:
Good for you.

I bought my iPad1 on launch, same as my iPad2. I've had MacBook Air's since inception and upgraded over the years to the current model.

Let's not mislead people here. iPad is good for some things and not for others, it's all good for absorbing/watching content until you get to a website want to view something and can't.

For example try looking at houses for sale on mls.com, configure a car online, just surf around for an hour and you'll quickly see the iPad limitations, let's be honest there are many. If you are fine with that, great, many including myself aren't.

Next, type an email or a note it's faster on a physical keyboard bring in a trackpad or mouse as you can with a notebook and it's faster again and more convenient and less aggravating.

I've read many posts similar to yours and tried it. It's not a good suggestion or idea for the average computer user in my opinion so don't go shunning a MacBook Air because you read in a Forum an iPad can do it all - it can't.
Click to expand...

But you can goto car websites and configure autos online. Which one didn't work for you? Same thing with house shopping. MLS even works (I didn't send them my information, but even if MLS doesn't fully work, there are 10 other sites that do.) Flash is dying. It's becoming less and less of an issue every day.

I am laying on the couch waiting for the wife to wake up. What's quicker, typing this on the iPad, or booting up the computer ? Same thing with 90% of emails.

Sure there are plenty of things that an iPad can't do. No one said there wasn't. But what was said is that it can do most things that home users want it to do. I personally rarely use the desktop or laptop at home. It will never (not until it runs OS? and Win8) replace my laptop and workstation at the office.

As YOU stated, "Let not mislead people here."
 
Marli said:
I now do 50% of my browsing on the iPad. The only down site to using it is it's woefully slow compared to a desktop browser. Especially complex pages.
Click to expand...

You also end up with typos like down site. :D

MrWillie said:
I am laying on the couch waiting for the wife to wake up. What's quicker, typing this on the iPad, or booting up the computer ? Same thing with 90% of emails.
Click to expand...

I never shut my laptop down so it's just as quick to turn both on. At least I have a junk filter on my MBP and can organize emails into folders.
 
entatlrg said:
Good for you.

I bought my iPad1 on launch, same as my iPad2. I've had MacBook Air's since inception and upgraded over the years to the current model.

Let's not mislead people here. iPad is good for some things and not for others, it's all good for absorbing/watching content until you get to a website want to view something and can't.

For example try looking at houses for sale on mls.com, configure a car online, just surf around for an hour and you'll quickly see the iPad limitations, let's be honest there are many. If you are fine with that, great, many including myself aren't.

Next, type an email or a note it's faster on a physical keyboard bring in a trackpad or mouse as you can with a notebook and it's faster again and more convenient and less aggravating.

I've read many posts similar to yours and tried it. It's not a good suggestion or idea for the average computer user in my opinion so don't go shunning a MacBook Air because you read in a Forum an iPad can do it all - it can't.
Click to expand...

I highly recommend that you use the puffin browser . It is fast and it has flash and the scrolling is smooth. This is my main browser. It is hard to go back to anything else.
 
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