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sigmadog

macrumors 6502a
Feb 11, 2009
835
753
just west of Idaho
No. Vice Versa.

I second that. I've become disenchanted with the iPad as a productivity tool. It's obviously got a lot going for it as an entertainment device, and certainly some have even found uses for it in business, even in my industry of graphic design.

But it never quite worked for me. I need full OSX capabilities, and I don't like the limitations imposed on the iPad by Apple. I understand them, but it's aggravating to work under them.

That's why I'm awaiting delivery of my refurbished 13" MacBook Pro (2.8/16/512). IOS is fine for my phone, but for content creation, I'm OSX all the way.

Still undecided if I'm going to keep my iPad3.
 
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MaulRx

Suspended
Aug 27, 2012
578
646
I have to admit I've been wondering lately if I even need a tablet in my life. Probably just buyers remorse as I'm only a week into a new 64GB iPad Air 2 but still...
 

Mliii

macrumors 65816
Jan 28, 2006
1,126
5
Southern California
I have to admit I've been wondering lately if I even need a tablet in my life. Probably just buyers remorse as I'm only a week into a new 64GB iPad Air 2 but still...

Again, as has been stated a bunch of times on multiple threads by many people, it genuinely depends on what you do for a living, how you use a computer, and what your needs are.
Some people can't make a tablet work as a replacement for their laptop because the ecosystem just isn't robust enough. Others have no problem doing so because of the nature of what it is they do with their laptop.
Do I NEED a tablet in my life? No.
But I really love my Air 2, and for me, it serves as a pretty good replacement for a laptop based on my particular needs.
I think you have to do a pretty honest assessment of what your needs are to decide whether a tablet, ANY tablet will suffice. And if not, then you need to decide what you want the iPad to do and whether it can do it.
 

Daysight

macrumors regular
Dec 15, 2011
192
1
Yes, except for rare situations where I need full laptop capability away from my work or home office, typically when I set up a remote office. MS Office is excellent now on the iPad. Logitech's Ultra Thin keyboard made a world of difference. The cloud services free me from USB drives and SD cards. Those three things moved my iPad from a social networking device to a business tool. I took only my iPhone and IPad on a long trip recently and did not miss the laptop or my big old SLR camera. Brilliant stuff.
 

cdf3

macrumors newbie
Jun 21, 2012
12
0
I tried using my iPad as my main go to device, but was unable to because I'm unable to print to usb printers at work. Ended up getting a Surface Pro for the ability to connect usb devices.
 

Traverse

macrumors 604
Mar 11, 2013
7,711
4,491
Here
Um, kind of...I suppose. For my last semester of undergrads I wanted to optimize my workflow and try to go as light and paperless as possible. Below is a quote from another thread describing my new system.

Basically, my iPad has become my laptop and my MacBook as become my desktop. If you're asking whether the iPad has replaced my Mac, no. I still need a full computer (OS X or Windows) for certain tasks that aren't compatible with the iPad, but I've transferred much of my computing work over to it and I now gladly take my iPad with me when I need an on-the-go computer instead of my MacBook.

You know, I've really turned my iPad in quite the productive little machine.

My 15" MacBook stays docked to a large external monitor at home and I take my iPad 3 with a Logitech Ultrathin Smart Cover to school. I use Word (and occasionally OneNote) to take notes during lectures or annotate professor supplied power points as they talk. I use Excel for iOS for some (very light) spreadsheet organization. I'm using PDF expert to read and annotate over 400 pages of PDFs for this terms classes. I've stopped printing PowerPoint slides and notes and simply consolidate them all into one large (50 to 200 page) PDF to study for exams. All my files stay in sync via Dropbox. I use Calendar and various Reminders lists to stay onto of my tasks and I stay on top of my emails throughout the day instead of letting them pile up until I'm home.

When I get home I pick up where I left off on my Mac to finish papers, work on my online class presentations, and work on my thesis (but I read the thesis PDFs and data on the iPad).

Together they make a pretty good team. My Mac is excellent for my heavy lifting tasks and my iPad works perfect as a light on-the-go device. The ability to use a keyboard in a more traditional laptop fashion when taking notes, but detach it into a more "book" like form factor for reading and annotating PDFs is a big help especially since some of my PDFs are rendered as one image so I can't highlight individual text on my Mac, but I can draw or freeform highlight on my iPad.
 

Septembersrain

Cancelled
Dec 14, 2013
4,347
5,451
I still have a laptop for certain tasks but really, I use my iPad a lot. It's not a full replacement but it's definitely easier to use for reading things, watching videos, etc.
 

rowspaxe

macrumors 68020
Jan 29, 2010
2,214
1,009
I have to admit I've been wondering lately if I even need a tablet in my life. Probably just buyers remorse as I'm only a week into a new 64GB iPad Air 2 but still...

Isn't reading in bed worth the price of admission?

----------

This is such a boring thread and repeats constantly. Just buy both--ipads and laptops last forever and dont cost that much.
 

baypharm

macrumors 68000
Nov 15, 2007
1,951
973
No I will not replace my MBP with iPad. I am spoiled by the larger 17" anti-glare screen of my laptop. I can take looking at my iPad only for so long before fatigue sets in. If anything, iPad has reduced my need for a cellular phone - since I can do Skype calls anywhere there is a Verizon signal. FaceTime and Skype have been a boon for conducting business meetings. While I love my Motorola Droid Turbo more than an iPhone, I won't give it up completely because I am on an unlimited data plan.
 

powerbook911

macrumors 601
Mar 15, 2005
4,003
383
If you have a desktop computer and you don't need to create content on the go in different places, sure the iPad can replace your notebook.

Honestly, I love my desktop computer. I prefer it over iPad or my notebook (Air).

However, when you don't want to be tied to your desk, the iPad has worked great for me as a consumption and browsing device. If I had to create content on the go, or have to take my own machine to work, sure I would prefer a notebook.
 

ackmondual

macrumors 68020
Dec 23, 2014
2,446
1,151
U.S.A., Earth
However, when you don't want to be tied to your desk, the iPad has worked great for me as a consumption and browsing device. If I had to create content on the go, or have to take my own machine to work, sure I would prefer a notebook.
Some value being able to read on the toilet, couch, bed, whatever and I can see that. However, sticking with my desktop and being tethered to my desk, I get the tradeoff of a 26" screen.

On a related note, I can't figure out what some commenters mean by "real work". All work is real work. Preparing discussion notes/lectures, grading student work, managing discussion forums, etc. is the real work of a college professor and, as I've mentioned, I can accomplish all of it on my iPad. I use my iPhone for attendance. I use Dropbox to access files. All of this is real, actual work. None of it requires a desktop or laptop to perform. So, I think that what some folks mean is not accurately stated as "real work" but should instead be referred to as "the kind of work I have to do". So, for the OP, what kind of work do you have to do? If it doesn't require the horsepower, or whatever, of a laptop or desktop, and you are willing to learn a different workflow, and you value mobility, then you can certainly ditch your laptop for an iPad.

Different strokes for different folks is all. If you can take notes, pics, internet browse, get cloud files, edit, office docs, whatever on an Ipad and that's work to you, then go figure why you'd find an Ipad to be a good match.

I know others can't use a tablet for "real work" b/c to them "real work" involves programming/development, implementing webpages, games, other software, graphics editing, etc. that either can't be done with an Ipad, or is too cumbersome to do it that way.
 

s2mikey

Suspended
Sep 23, 2013
2,490
4,255
Upstate, NY
I'm getting closer every day it seems. The trusty ASUS laptop only gets used very sparingly and gaming is one of the the reasons. Just can't live without Age of Empires.... :D

Seriously though, I'm so close to being a full blown tablet user only.
 

iPadDad

macrumors 6502
Sep 8, 2014
313
156
I'm getting closer every day it seems. The trusty ASUS laptop only gets used very sparingly and gaming is one of the the reasons. Just can't live without Age of Empires.... :D

Seriously though, I'm so close to being a full blown tablet user only.

Myself and my brothers work in a family business and opperate solely off of iPad and we love it but we are serious power users. Content creation, collaboration is just excellent and iOS now is super powerful and fast to opperate!
 

sigmadog

macrumors 6502a
Feb 11, 2009
835
753
just west of Idaho
Myself and my brothers work in a family business and opperate solely off of iPad and we love it but we are serious power users. Content creation, collaboration is just excellent and iOS now is super powerful and fast to opperate!

If I may ask, what sort of content creation?
 

iPadDad

macrumors 6502
Sep 8, 2014
313
156
If I may ask, what sort of content creation?


- Adverts - using Pixelmator, Adobe lightroom and pages
- Presentations - using Keynote
- Numours types of Spreadsheets utilising different graphs, pictures etc in Numbers
- Brochures using, PDF Editor, PDF Office, Pixelmator
- Business letters using Pages
- Customer profiles, distributor notes etc - Notability

To name just a few of many!
 

sigmadog

macrumors 6502a
Feb 11, 2009
835
753
just west of Idaho
- Adverts - using Pixelmator, Adobe lightroom and pages
- Presentations - using Keynote
- Numours types of Spreadsheets utilising different graphs, pictures etc in Numbers
- Brochures using, PDF Editor, PDF Office, Pixelmator
- Business letters using Pages
- Customer profiles, distributor notes etc - Notability

To name just a few of many!

That's great!

I never had much success using my iPad for graphic content creation. It always seemed too cumbersome and imprecise compared to Illustrator and Photoshop (the software I've been using for over 20 years - I guess I'm too much of an old dog and can't handle new tricks), so I've given my iPad to my wife and am awaiting delivery of a MacBook Pro to complement my Mac Pro.

I know there are many people finding innovative uses for the iPad in business, so I'm not saying it's a useless product, but for my workflow the magic just wasn't there.
 

Jessica Lares

macrumors G3
Oct 31, 2009
9,612
1,057
Near Dallas, Texas, USA
Yeah, Pixelmator and iDraw are pretty good for things other than graphics and photos. I was hoping that Photoshop Touch was going to be as flexible as I used to open PDFs in it all the time. Argue all you want about using photo editors for things they're not meant for, but Fireworks is no longer developed because Photoshop was perfectly fine to do the same editing in.
 

IpadSC400

macrumors 6502a
Feb 7, 2013
641
6
A mile high
Please don't mention that...I'm recovering from using a windows and its hard enough to transfer from vista to OS X. I'll tell you what though, vista is a big ol bucket of suck.
 

Mivo

macrumors regular
Jan 23, 2015
206
77
Germany
Please don't mention that...I'm recovering from using a windows and its hard enough to transfer from vista to OS X. I'll tell you what though, vista is a big ol bucket of suck.

It's also an eight years old operating system (released when Tiger was current) that saw its last build six years ago, and that even most Windows fans will agree sucked as bad as ME did. Vista is a "bucket of suck" compared to the newer (7, 8.1) and older (XP) Windows versions, too.
 

DiCaprioAngel

macrumors 6502a
Jul 12, 2013
589
422
New York
I own a rMBP and an rMini 2. As much as I love my iPad, I couldn't imagine using it (or ANY tablet for that matter) as my sole use of a computer. Both my laptop and my iPad have two different uses and I love both devices, so I couldn't imagine having one without the other. My laptop helps me with my papers for school (it's so much easier to type with a physical keyboard and it doesn't make sense of me to purchase a wireless keyboard for the iPad, might as well just use my rMBP), plus I use my rMBP for watching Netflix and movies (Netflix and movies are watched on the iPad when I'm on the go). I'm a heavy laptop user, so I couldn't use a tablet of any kind as my only source for computing.
 

940272

Suspended
Dec 27, 2014
87
43
Your comment is very true! I'm an iPad owner and I wish I had the functionality of a SP3! The iPad indeed feels like a toy! So much so that I have been considering giving my iPads to my young children and purchasing a real device for myself such as the SP3! I would rather an Apple tablet with OS X and a usb 3.0 port etc but I feel it's never going to happen as greedy Apple don't want to loose laptop sales, they want people to buy both!
I'm the other way around lol. I want a cheap MacBook (MacBook C?) made of plastic and running either a limited OS X or iOS :p
 

s2mikey

Suspended
Sep 23, 2013
2,490
4,255
Upstate, NY
Myself and my brothers work in a family business and opperate solely off of iPad and we love it but we are serious power users. Content creation, collaboration is just excellent and iOS now is super powerful and fast to opperate!

Wow, that's terrific. This proves that it can be done, depending on what the. Us ones actually needs and does. I bet you guys appreciate saving money on computing power and all of that too. ;)
 
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