iPad My #1 reason the iPad is greater than MacBook Air

[palpatine]

Really, if you could get by with just an ipad, you probably didn't need a laptop in the first place anyway.

The ipad is next to useless for heavy technical work. It's brilliant for consumption and light tasks though. Sort of reminds me of how a fridge is great at keeping things cool and a toaster is great at toasting bread. Not sure how well my fridge would toast my bread.

Oh yeah, and tethering works pretty well these days.

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Actually you've 2 other major problems. Ridiculously small physical screen real estate, and lack of precise pointing device such as mouse or trackpad.

This all but assures that the standard form factor tablet will never be a viable solution for heavy work, even if you could natively run a desktop OS at full speed.

The old tale of content consumption, not content creation

The iPad works great for heavy work (I have no idea what you mean by technical); it actually has almost the same amount of screen real estate as my 11" MBA, and more screen real estate than a 13" Macbook Pro IF you use it in portrait mode, and IF you use Pages to write something; and navigation of documents is quite easy with the keyboard commands on a bluetooth keyboard.

Never say never. For your work, the iPad may be a poor fit, but for mine, it is perfect. As for OSX, I rarely need it, as the iPad covers most of my work tasks. The remote login option is a nice fallback to have.

 

[macingman]

Every time I see someone with a tablet in the stands (usually taking a damn picture) I quietly picture a ball smashing it.

I see that at the Australian open whenever I am there for the last two years. I have no idea why people take photos with an iPad. The quality is rubbish and an iPhone or $200 camera is way more portable and cheaper.

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The old tale of content consumption, not content creation

The iPad works great for heavy work (I have no idea what you mean by technical); it actually has almost the same amount of screen real estate as my 11" MBA, and more screen real estate than a 13" Macbook Pro IF you use it in portrait mode, and IF you use Pages to write something; and navigation of documents is quite easy with the keyboard commands on a bluetooth keyboard.

Never say never. For your work, the iPad may be a poor fit, but for mine, it is perfect. As for OSX, I rarely need it, as the iPad covers most of my work tasks. The remote login option is a nice fallback to have.

Agree. I've written essays and reports over 1000 words on my iPad mini. Not any slower than my MBA 11".

 

[QCassidy352]

It just comes down to different use cases, for some the Air is always going to be superior, for others the iPad. There's never gonna be a universal answer to "which is better iPad or Macbook Air?" other than it depends.

Agree with this. Neither is a replacement for the other in all cases. Different strengths and weaknesses.

 

[marioman38]

iPhone has LTE tethering. Use wifi sharing. BAM! MBA has LTE

 

[palpatine]

iPhone has LTE tethering. Use wifi sharing. BAM! MBA has LTE

Verizon unlimited plan. As far as I know, no tethering

The carriers will get you, one way or another...

 

[rowspaxe]

Can't understand this "either or" thinking. Ipad and mba/mbp are complementary products with some functional overlap. Ipad for reading, sofa surfing, matress movie watching--perfect. Mbp/mba for all typical laptop desktop things. Why do people pursue ipad only work flows with such zeal?

Because they see the ipad as revolutionary and cool? Do they see themselves as some sort of vanguard of mobile professionals. Could be.

Tim Cook basically got it right about hybrids. But he didn't stress that the post pc world is a multi-device world. The only device falling out of the mix is the desktop pc, which laptops have supplanted for 95% of users. Hence the frequeent Mac Pro updates.

 

[temna]

Can't understand this "either or" thinking. Ipad and mba/mbp are complementary products with some functional overlap. Ipad for reading, sofa surfing, matress movie watching--perfect. Mbp/mba for all typical laptop desktop things. Why do people pursue ipad only work flows with such zeal?

Because they see the ipad as revolutionary and cool? Do they see themselves as some sort of vanguard of mobile professionals. Could be.

Tim Cook basically got it right about hybrids. But he didn't stress that the post pc world is a multi-device world. The only device falling out of the mix is the desktop pc, which laptops have supplanted for 95% of users. Hence the frequeent Mac Pro updates.

I look at a Mac Mini and LTE iPad combo being much better than a MacBook Air, for about the same cost. Remote in for full OSX, use Parallels for using other OSes like Windows or Linux. I just think it's a better option until the Air gets internal LTE.

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Actually, the OP is running OSX on the iPad via remote login. I like the idea, and it is something I have done using the MBA and iPad. I take the iPad on the road, login remotely, and I can access files I may not have available on the iPad. It is a great system when paired with a bluetooth keyboard, that would probably work even better with the Mini (and its larger storage), except for one problem: lag. There is a lot of lag (in my experience) and it is just a lot easier to use the MBA than to remote login. For this reason, the remote login is just a backup for me.

As for LTE, I am probably never going to get that on my iPad, because the cost is outrageous. Besides the extra cost for the iPad, you'll easily be spending another $600 EACH year. Over the life of your iPad (let's say three years) you will spend $1800+ for data access. No thank you. I'll be fine with wifi.

I just remote into a Mac Mini at home, and I don't see much if any lag. As for LTE, since I can share the data with my phone and have a 6gb data plan, it only costs me an extra $10 a month over my phone bill each month. So that's only $240 over two years, plus any overages that I might hit, but I've never gone near my limit.

 

[ucfgrad93]

Heck, for me the advantage of the Air (or my MBP) is OSX which beyond work lets me manage my music, photos, etc. Nothing on the ipad matches iPhoto on OSX, and until I can directly edit my music's IDE tags the ipad will always be inferior to something running OSX.

Agreed. There are times when OSX is a much better option than iOS.

 

[temna]

You take your iPad camping and to sporting events? Why?

Camping because there are down times when stirring the fire is just too boring. I read on it, play a few games, whatever I want. I have even had to work from the fireside occasionally.. As for the sporting events, I don't go for the sports. I just go to support my daughter. Sporting events, concerts and movies are too damn expensive now to waste time going there when I can watch them on my TV at home...

 

[TyPod]

Agreed. There are times when OSX is a much better option than iOS.

Absolutely. The major reason why I would pick the MBA over the iPad 128GB.

 

[Medic311]

Actually you've 2 other major problems. Ridiculously small physical screen real estate, and lack of precise pointing device such as mouse or trackpad.

This all but assures that the standard form factor tablet will never be a viable solution for heavy work, even if you could natively run a desktop OS at full speed.

jailbreak solves the underlined deficiency above. works very nicely for those times when you need cursor input

 

[Nautilus007]

Wifi/hotspots/tethering makes LTE a non issue for me when it comes to purchasing

 

[Fattytail]

For me, the #1 reason I prefer the iPad over the Air is NO KEYBOARD. Because the ipad has no keyboard, it is a much more comfortable device for reading. Of course, if I have to type a long document, I use my Air. But I spend a lot more time reading on my iPad than I ever do typing documents on the Air. Also, right now I'm typing this post on my iPad in bed, using the on-screen keyboard. For short posts like this one, it is much more comfortable to do it this way than to take out the Air.

This. I don't really care for LTE - have my iPhone for that. Nothing beats the iPad as a an ebook reader though - certainly not the MBA.

 

[temna]

Wifi/hotspots/tethering makes LTE a non issue for me when it comes to purchasing

Really? There are a lot of places without hotspots that I use my iPad. I don't believe in using customers' wifi when I do onsite work. And as far as tethering, I don't find that my iphone's battery lasts the whole day even without tethering. The point is that I want a device that I can be on anywhere, without having to take extra cords, worrying about my iPhone's battery with tethering. Why is it so hard to admit that not having LTE in a MacBook Air is such a bad idea?

 

[vastoholic]

For me I need windows on my air to run my compilers for school. I still have an iPad mini but for different purposes. All my media is on a shared NAS device so I actually keep more music and movies on my iPad than my MBA (Mac mini is my main computer at home). The keyboard is much easier for me othe MBA than an iPad as well.

 

[petvas]

I think having both is great. I recently got a Macbook Pro retina and it totally changed the way I use my iPad. I have written about it on my blog site:
http://spiritofapple.com/2013/04/04/how-my-macbook-pro-changed-my-ipad-usage/
While the Macbook Pro isn't exactly the same as a Macbook Air, it runs the same OS, so that makes the article more interesting.

 

[temna]

I think having both is great. I recently got a Macbook Pro retina and it totally changed the way I use my iPad. I have written about it on my blog site:
http://spiritofapple.com/2013/04/04/how-my-macbook-pro-changed-my-ipad-usage/
While the Macbook Pro isn't exactly the same as a Macbook Air, it runs the same OS, so that makes the article more interesting.

Funny, I'm just the opposite. I find that I rarely touch my MacBook since I got the iPad, especially since I got the Logitech Slim Keyboard. If Apple allowed the use of a mouse, I think I'd never use my MacBook except to rip movies.

 

[takeshi74]

Why is it so hard to admit that not having LTE in a MacBook Air is such a bad idea?

Why is it so hard to understand that the "points" being argued are all subjective? None of them are universal matters. Some people need LTE, some don't. Some are happy with just WiFi, some are not. The examples are endless and arguing that something is universally better based on one's preferences and needs is pointless.

 

[temna]

Why is it so hard to understand that the "points" being argued are all subjective? None of them are universal matters. Some people need LTE, some don't. Some are happy with just WiFi, some are not. The examples are endless and arguing that something is universally better based on one's preferences and needs is pointless.

I am not saying everyone needs LTE on their Air any more than everyone needs it on their iPad. I just think Apple needs to offer it as an option.

 

[Mainsail]

Why is it so hard for us to understand that folks have different needs? Because if we don't post our needs as absolute requirements for everyone else, we feel diminished and concerned that we might have made the wrong choice.....and that just won't do!

Maybe the Op should have titled the post: "why the MacBook Air should offer LTE as an option" rather than iPad >Macbook Air.

 

[nefan65]

I think they're different products for different purposes. Again, not really an either/or situation. I'm trying to use the iPad as a work device, and laptop/MBP replacement. I can comfortably say that the iPad can do about 65% of the MBP, but the remaining 35% just cannot be done on a tablet, such as true Multitasking [Easy copy/pasting between apps, etc.]...

It's really a case/case scenario, and depends on the users needs...

 

[Jessica Lares]

Yeah, and you really need to think about computers with 3G/4G data connections for a minute... Like are they even selling? No.

AT&T, T-Mobile, and the lot have had a hard time selling these machines. Mostly because we all don't think buying a computer on contract is worthwhile. The computers themselves are on the low-end too.

It's not even usable on educational grounds since so many colleges and universities have campus wide wifi.

 

[BenTrovato]

I find it hard to believe that people can type 1000 words just as efficiently on the ipad as on a macbook. I would bet anyone $1000 that they lose in a competition against me on a macbook in a race to 1000 words. You can prefer the ipad, that's fine and respectable - but to make comments like you can type just as fast on an ipad as on a macbook makes you seem ridiculous, unless you don't know how to type properly in the first place, then at least say you type with two index fingers so you type the same speed on a keyboard, ipad, or iphone

 

[Cheffy Dave]

I find it hard to believe that people can type 1000 words just as efficiently on the ipad as on a macbook. I would bet anyone $1000 that they lose in a competition against me on a macbook in a race to 1000 words. You can prefer the ipad, that's fine and respectable - but to make comments like you can type just as fast on an ipad as on a macbook makes you seem ridiculous, unless you don't know how to type properly in the first place, then at least say you type with two index fingers so you type the same speed on a keyboard, ipad, or iphone

Never counted my WPM, but I can type on my iPads on screen keyboard fast with one hand while watching TV,

 

[Night Spring]

I find it hard to believe that people can type 1000 words just as efficiently on the ipad as on a macbook. I would bet anyone $1000 that they lose in a competition against me on a macbook in a race to 1000 words. You can prefer the ipad, that's fine and respectable - but to make comments like you can type just as fast on an ipad as on a macbook makes you seem ridiculous, unless you don't know how to type properly in the first place, then at least say you type with two index fingers so you type the same speed on a keyboard, ipad, or iphone

Did anyone say they can type as fast on an iPad as on the MacBook?

First, I think most people who say they are using the iPad to do a lot of writing are using a Bluetooth keyboard of some kind. In which case they could very well type as fast as on a MacBook.

Second, if you are typing on the on-screen keyboard, then you would of course be slower to type than on a physical keyboard. But typing speed isn't everything. There're other factors that make people prefer the iPad over a MacBook, such as increased portability, being able to get work done in places where you couldn't take out a MacBook, being able to concentrate better because an iPad only lets you do one thing at a time, etc.