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Appler8

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 14, 2011
40
0
How many of you have actually replaced your computer with an iPad. I don't want to know about how it compliments your computer or how you've thought about replacing your computer with one, like stated in previous threads, but if you've completely gone computer free, and what's the experience like?
 
I don't know how they do it. It replaced my laptop as my couch surfer, but that is it.
 
There are people out there who only do email and a little web, but they're not posting on MR ;)
 
Mine replaced my laptop in that I now use an iMac and iPad vs a MBP

Same here. Sold my Mbp and bought two new iPads for my wife and myself. We also have an iMac for the house and Mac mini hooked to our tv. Splashtop in case I need access to either but am too lazy to get up(sad but true)

However all I did with my laptop was surf the web, dl music, and photoshop. Now I have photoshop in the iMac if I want to use it. And use icab to download music to my Dropbox where I have Automator instantly move it to iTunes which wirelessly syncs to our iPhone and iPads.

It's been working great so far.
 
i use a macbook air for work in my office, but i never bring it home anymore because the iPad can replace all the consuming things like watching movies, playing games, listening to music, and browsing the web. and it really does that much better than a laptop.
 
I still use a Macbook to develop applications for the iPad.

When I can develop Apps for the iPad on the iPad I'll lay the Macbook down.
 
Sold my white MacBook and got the ipad3 am using it as my only computer,has been fine so far,there is an app for just about everything out there,even one to play flash websites,so for now it's working just fine for me.
 
I use the iPad for everything, but I do have to use my laptop to play some games like WoW and SC2. Otherwise I've switched.
 
Same here. Sold my Mbp and bought two new iPads for my wife and myself. We also have an iMac for the house and Mac mini hooked to our tv. Splashtop in case I need access to either but am too lazy to get up(sad but true)

However all I did with my laptop was surf the web, dl music, and photoshop. Now I have photoshop in the iMac if I want to use it. And use icab to download music to my Dropbox where I have Automator instantly move it to iTunes which wirelessly syncs to our iPhone and iPads.

It's been working great so far.

This is interesting. What setup do you have in Automator?
 
I did go computer free for about 4-5 months with an iPad 1. I loved it to begin with but slowly i began craving a bigger screen, the screen+keyboard on my lap & speed. To be able to switch from app to app fast was a massive miss.

Basically, i always felt constrained using just the iPad.

I have an iPad 3 now and i still use my MBA 13 as much as before. It's horses for courses.

I brought my current iPad 16Gb Wi-Fi specifically as a complimentary device for casual bursts of usage + all my reading. From the previous experience i learnt that this is what works for me.

If you have very simple needs then going iPad only is possible. But for most people i doubt it would work.
 
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I did go computer free for about 4-5 months with an iPad 1. I loved it to begin with but slowly i began craving a bigger screen, the screen+keyboard on my lap & speed. To be able to switch from app to app fast was a massive miss.

Basically, i always felt constrained using just the iPad.

I have an iPad 3 now and i still use my MBA 13 as much as before. It's horses for courses.

I brought my current iPad 16Gb Wi-Fi specifically as a complimentary device for casual bursts of usage + all my reading. From the previous experience i learnt that this is what works for me.

If you have very simple needs then going iPad only is possible. But for most people i doubt it would work.

You should try multitasking gestures if you haven't already. Makes app switching really easy, check out the first minute of this video to see how it looks.

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20122145-285/four-handy-ios-5-tricks-for-the-ipad/
 
Last year I worked on a project with a Provost of a major university with 27,000 students under him. He had replaced his laptop with a 3G iPad2.

The majority of his computer work is emailing, writing, presenting and some Office functions (excel). He had a bluetooth keyboard he would use when writing long texts, but in meetings he typed on the on-screen keyboard, constantly sending notes into the cloud for later retrieval.
 
You should try multitasking gestures if you haven't already. Makes app switching really easy, check out the first minute of this video to see how it looks.

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20122145-285/four-handy-ios-5-tricks-for-the-ipad/

I know about the multitasking features on iOS 5.1 - big improvement. But I was talking about the iPad 1 and using the home button everytime you wanted to switch apps with iOS 4.

But even now it still doesn't beat a 13 inch screen with multiple windows / apps open. There is something about the visual & mental connection for me that prefers the MBA as a main device. The iPad doesn't feel like a main device.
 
I def need both for work. My iPad has changed my leisurely life though! I take it everywhere :D
 
The iPad completely replaced my MacBook pro. Then when my iMac died, I replaced it with a Mac mini. I am so underwhelmed by the computing experience of the mini on my TV, I rarely use it outside of managing my iTunes.

But, I gave up yahoo games and a few other things. I use to love playing bones, backgammon, etc on yahoo.

So, yeah, the iPad pretty much replaced my computers. But not totally voluntarily. I do miss some things.
 
This is interesting. What setup do you have in Automator?

Something like the setup here

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/remotely-automatically-add-songs-itunes-mac/

But of course I changed the name of the folder on Dropbox to simply downloads (because I might do something for pics and other files later), and I also have the first stein Automator look for filetype=music. It works very smooth and instantaneously right now once a file is added to the Dropbox folder
 
I would think it'd be difficult not having a regular file system.

I know for some apps you don't really need it, but I couldn't get by with just that.
 
All you can do on an iPad is surf the web, watch vids, word doc, and edit videos taken with a 5mpeg camera. That's like 10% of what I do on my MBP. Well maybe 20% lol

I can't see that happening. I just simply added an iPad to the mix of my workflow. It lightens my load whenever I need to work outside the home.
 
If you used your laptop to surf the web only, you will use it a LOT less.

The iPad is a great Internet appliance but could never replace any of my computers other than for surfing
 
Could those of you just posting "it couldn't replace my computer for anything other than web surfing" be a little bit specific about how you use your computer that you cannot believe the iPad can accomplish?

I see replies like "have a file system", but what specifically do you need a file system for?

I'm also curious about the amount of times users need certain tasks like "messing with files in iTunes" and how much of their overall computer experience it really amounts to.
 
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