It doesn't work for you, and that is ok. But it works for a lot of other people who aren't all soccer moms.
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I love my iPad but.........
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It doesn't work for you, and that is ok. But it works for a lot of other people who aren't all soccer moms.
Right...which brings us back to the iOS.
Yes, great for soccer moms, the PM of Norway, New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson, Diane Sawyer of ABC News, film mogul Harvey Weinstein, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, etc. All iPad users.
Just not for something like...you.
iBooks will get PDF compatibility with note-taking soon, and try Dropbox for file syncing between the iPad and desktop.
I've come to terms with this, sadly. It's an entertainment device, and as much as I want to believe the few diehards on these forums who claim they've completely replaced their laptop with the iPad, I just can't. I've tried, and I'm just so much less efficient and productive using the iPad (versus MBP).
I use it for fun and only in a pinch do I use it for work (and most of that work I'm performing with Jump Desktop connected to a "real" computer).
For entertainment it's incredible!
I guess so, but you wouldn't think this is the case after reading some of the posts around here or seeing Apple's own productivity app suite.
Anyway, I keep hearing "it fills the space between a phone and a laptop" without any definition for what that really means. It's a nice conceptual thing to say, but I'm not sure if anyone actually understands what that means. For me I guess it's just an entertainment device that can also do some "work" in a pinch. Kind of like a Touch, but bigger and better.
From the video it's not clear if you can highlight, annotate and bookmark also pdf files. Steve Jobs shows the new features only on Winnie The Pooh ebook, but just browses the pdf file without modifying it. Do you think that ibooks will allow the same functionality on both formats?
Does anybody know if there is an app that allows to handwrite over a pdf? That would be a killer app for all people that have to read and annotate a lot of articles.
Of course people understand what it means. That you don't merely points to the fact you don't have an application for such a device in a work (ie, non-fun) environment, but it doesn't mean that plenty of other people have no such use for it.
It's rather like looking at the first desktop computer and asking what on earth it's for. The answer is that it can do virtually anything, with the right software.
I bet you that soon after the release of iOS4 you'll be able to jailbreak your iPad and gain some of the functionality that you're looking for.
It takes time...
The ONLY thing I miss is a dang forward delete key and arrow keys on my keyboard.
Otherwise, the iPad is an EXCELLENT replacement for a laptop for MOST everything I would want to use a laptop for. There are a few things that some people try to use laptops for that are best suited on a desktop anyway...so I have realigned my usage...and it is working out very well and the laptop has gotten almost NO usage.
But I do think it takes some getting organized...and that takes time. It's like putting on your ToDo list "get organized". It shouldn't be like that, but it always is...at least for me.
Think of a computer and how useless it is out of the box. First thing I do is start downloading things like Live Mail, Picasa, Firefox, then I start installing extensions into Firefox, etc.
Same for any handheld device I have owned, which have been a bunch...a bunch of Newtons, a bunch of different Palms and now iPouch to iPad.
The problem is for me having switched every few years to a new platform. I didn't go down easy on the Newton...and finally switched to Palm. It has really come along well as I have gotten down what apps I need, etc. My current Palm Centro is pretty well maxed out...but there are still tweaks and things that I am figuring out now, two years later, that I wish I had known initially.
I say give it time. I know for me...I am committed to not being tied down to a laptop any more...and will work out or deal with any challenges.
The ONLY thing I miss is a dang forward delete key and arrow keys on my keyboard.
Otherwise, the iPad is an EXCELLENT replacement for a laptop for MOST everything I would want to use a laptop for. There are a few things that some people try to use laptops for that are best suited on a desktop anyway...so I have realigned my usage...and it is working out very well and the laptop has gotten almost NO usage.
But I do think it takes some getting organized...and that takes time. It's like putting on your ToDo list "get organized". It shouldn't be like that, but it always is...at least for me.
Think of a computer and how useless it is out of the box. First thing I do is start downloading things like Live Mail, Picasa, Firefox, then I start installing extensions into Firefox, etc.
Same for any handheld device I have owned, which have been a bunch...a bunch of Newtons, a bunch of different Palms and now iPouch to iPad.
The problem is for me having switched every few years to a new platform. I didn't go down easy on the Newton...and finally switched to Palm. It has really come along well as I have gotten down what apps I need, etc. My current Palm Centro is pretty well maxed out...but there are still tweaks and things that I am figuring out now, two years later, that I wish I had known initially.
I say give it time. I know for me...I am committed to not being tied down to a laptop any more...and will work out or deal with any challenges.
There are a couple of options, at least. The one I use is iAnnotate PDF. It lets you bookmark, highlight, and attach notes to a PDF file, though you do the annotation via little sticky-note type windows that open and close so as not to cover up the text of the PDF. I haven't used it extensively, but I've used it now and then for marking up documents for the high school Lit class I teach.
A quick search for "annotate PDF" in the App Store also yields smartNote and Noterize. Both of them look like they're worth checking out, especially Noterize. It apparently has a built-in browser so you can import PDFs directly from company or university web sites, and it supports Dropbox. Also it allows both typed or freehand annotation. Hope this is helpful.
Your PDF problem...simple fix, if you're willing to spend $11.
GoodReader ($1) for viewing/importing/managing files and PDFs (God I love this app)...and from there, you can send PDFs into iAnnotate ($10) for extensive marking, highlighting, noting.
I'm going paperless for college next semester, books gonna get scanned (yes, it will be a pain) using OCR software...handouts will be downloaded from college server to GoodReader, notes taken on there using BT keyboard with Pages and syncing to my desktop with PadSync (pwns the **** out of iTunes file sharing).
Term papers might still be done on my iMac, though, because of screen space and better Pages functionality (markings, references...)
GoodReader ($1) for viewing/importing/managing files and PDFs (God I love this app)...and from there, you can send PDFs into iAnnotate ($10) for extensive marking, highlighting, noting.
I'm going paperless for college next semester, books gonna get scanned (yes, it will be a pain) using OCR software...handouts will be downloaded from college server to GoodReader, notes taken on there using BT keyboard with Pages and syncing to my desktop with PadSync (pwns the **** out of iTunes file sharing).
Term papers might still be done on my iMac, though, because of screen space and better Pages functionality (markings, references...)
Your PDF problem...simple fix, if you're willing to spend $11.
GoodReader ($1) for viewing/importing/managing files and PDFs (God I love this app)...and from there, you can send PDFs into iAnnotate ($10) for extensive marking, highlighting, noting.
Sorry if this info is readily available somewhere else...but how do you get the PDF to your iPad if it is really large? I have one that is about 16mb. Hotmail wouldn't take it. Gmail did it, but it wont show up in Apple Mail, so I use another program to get to ALL MAIL...like MultiG...then when I attempt to open it in Safari, I can't get to to.
This is crazy...surely there is an easier way to get a PDF on to the iPad?!?!
Thanks!
I don't need multitasking . . just give me application stacking. As it stands, if I'm in one app, click a link that launches safari, then the only way to get back to that app is hit the home button and relaunch the original app--and hope it at least remembers its state. On my Android phone (1.6 . . an older version), I simply hit the return button. So I can go back to the app I was looking at before, without losing any state.
Frustrating indeed.
An ok workaround, is to click and hold on the link and copy the link...then go to Atomic Browser or iCab and paste. If you JB your phone, you can install circuitous which will allow you to swap over to the other program a lot easier.
Actually, what I have ended up doing is simply using iCab for my Hotmail since Apple email is such a turd when it comes to hotmail anyway. With hotmail in iCab (or Atomic), when you click on a link, it automatically opens in a new tab.
So, in essence, with one of hte tabbed browers, you are getting a sort of multitasking without JBing your phone, etc.
It wouldn't be that easy. The iPad's A4 processor is a completely different beast from the Intel CPUs used in normal Macs. You'd have to have specially-compiled versions of OS X apps, optimized for the iPad, or you'd have to have an intel chip in the iPad -- kind of like the MacBook Air. Judging by how much the Air costs, the intel iPad would be pretty expensive.
As for the use for the iPad -- it has now totally replaced my netbook. I'm selling the netbook next week. Sure, it's not for everybody, but I looked carefully at what I needed and the iPad does pretty much everything I want.
Earlier tablets (UMPCs) failed because they relied on brand new ULV technology that was underdeveloped and very expensive. They still used too much power relative to their batteries and the $2000 price tags were far too high for consumers. By the time VIA caught up to capability (at lower power; mind you AMD's Geode was essentially a no-show), the consensus was that the platform was too niche for profitability. The Atom processor opened the door again, but very few wanted to try marketing a tablet device even with the power savings afforded by the Silverthornes (Z500 series).
I have a 2-year old Atom-based tablet that runs a custom UI over Windows XP. The iPad still has it beat for interfacing, no surprise considering that it has a capacitive touchscreen and an OS built around touch input, but the XP tablet is a much more open environment (doesn't rely on a single source for content) that supports a wide range of software, plug-ins like Flash and JRE, peripherals via USB and BT, and had roughly 8 hours of battery life. The 1.33GHz, 32GB SSD version with 802.11g, BT, GPS, 3G (quad-band GSM), was $700. For it's age, it is still quite a capable travel companion. Had it been available alongside the other UMPCs, it would have been a much different market.
yep
best dollar I ever spent...I even use the browser within Goodreader to surf the web...
Your PDF problem...simple fix, if you're willing to spend $11.
GoodReader ($1) for viewing/importing/managing files and PDFs (God I love this app)...and from there, you can send PDFs into iAnnotate ($10) for extensive marking, highlighting, noting.
I'm going paperless for college next semester, books gonna get scanned (yes, it will be a pain) using OCR software...handouts will be downloaded from college server to GoodReader, notes taken on there using BT keyboard with Pages and syncing to my desktop with PadSync (pwns the **** out of iTunes file sharing).
Term papers might still be done on my iMac, though, because of screen space and better Pages functionality (markings, references...)
best dollar I ever spent...I even use the browser within Goodreader to surf the web...
The OP is completely right. Apple put a lot of work in the iWork apps but they are rendered next to useless by the lack of simple file system and printing.
Apple clearly intended the iPad to useful for iWork and thus far these few issues mean the iPad for work is totally useless.
I had planned to buy an iPad for each of our salespeople and field techs but had to give up with these glaring limitations.
Apple clearly intended the iPad to useful for iWork and thus far these few issues mean the iPad for work is totally useless.
I had planned to buy an iPad for each of our salespeople and field techs but had to give up with these glaring limitations.
There are three ways I do it using GoodReader:
1. If the PDF is on a url http://... you can make the url ghttp://... and GoodReader picks it up.
2. I have an iDisk from mobile me, GoodReader can connect to the me.com webdav share and download files.
3. Using the GoodReader inbuilt webdav server, detailed here http://www.goodiware.com/gr-man-tr-wifi.html
I tend to use 2 and 3 the most but 1 is useful to have as well.