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iPad good for college students?

Ruahrc said:
I'm not so convinced that e-book textbooks are all that either.
...
Next, I think it is going to be very hard to find things in the textbook. Unless you know exactly the word or phrase you're looking for, I think it will be faster and easier to search through a physical textbook vs. an electronic one. You'll have to finger scroll through a ton of pages vs. just flipping through a real book. I often remembered where things in my textbooks were according to what was around them. For example, I know a paragraph I want to find. I see a diagram in the text and know the paragraph was after that. Flip some more, see another diagram- oops too far. I think this process flows a lot more naturally and more quickly with a physical book than an e-book. Plus you can scan two entire pages of text at the same time. The iPad does not have sufficient resolution or screen area to do this effectively.
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The iPad uses the ePub format for digital books, which is "unsuitable for publications which require precise layout or contain advanced formatting. Examples of such publications are comic books and technical books."

Modern textbooks have complicated formatting. They have detailed sections headings that can include line art, indentation, and blocks of color. They have pictures and complicated diagrams inline with the text. They often have supplemental material along the margins, including figure captions, definitions, tables, graphics, and charts. Sometimes there is an independent portion within a section that is differentiated with it's own heading and color background.

One strength eBooks have over traditional books is that links in the text can be used to reference other parts of the book. If you come across a concept from a previous section that you don't remember, you can just tap a link instead of looking it up in the index or table of contents. Unfortunately, the ePub format is poor at this too.

Another criticism of EPUB revolves around the specification's lack of detail on linking into, between, or within an EPUB book, as well as its lack of a specification for annotation. Such linking is hindered by the use of a ZIP file as the container for EPUB. Furthermore, it is unclear if it would be better to link by using EPUB's internal structural markup (the OPF specification mentioned above) or directly to files through the ZIP's file structure.[18] No standardized way to annotate EPUB books could lead to difficulty sharing and transferring annotations
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Textbooks in the ePub format in the iBookstore will make for terrible textbooks.
 
I'm both a student and a teacher, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt:

I think the iPad (first-gen at that) will be absolutely fantastic. Mostly for presentations, or for grade tracking. Sure, I do that with my MBP, but every time I have a student ask "What grade did I make on X again?" or "How can I improve on Y?" I'll be able to pull up the spread sheet, or the rubric without having to walk away and open my laptop (which is especially annoying if you already have a teaching station, which is again typically Windows-based.)

I'll definitely hook up the iPad to the projector with Keynote. I loathe PowerPoint, and this is just a killer feature for me.

Note taking is a concern to me... which is why I'm really hoping for a folio to be released that can take a notepad opposite the iPad. And for the love of God, let it be ambidextrous. I'm left handed.
 
Is iPad your new best friend in college?

iPad has Pages. If your going to college and you only need a computer for email, word processing, music, photos, and web browsing. Is iPad your new solution? As of right now, I'm trying to find reasons why it wouldn't work for basic college tasks. What do you guys think? Obviously it doesn't have a physical keyboard and it can't multi-task, but Apple seems to have come up with a clever solution for that...

For example, often when I'm writing a paper I have the web browser open so I can quickly view my resources, and usually I'll have Dictionary open as well. So that's three programs open and running at the same time. But, Apple built a fast dictionary into Pages for the iPad so they essentially took two programs and made them one. Very clever indeed. What do you guys think?
 
thatguysmells said:
iPad has Pages. If your going to college and you only need a computer for email, word processing, music, photos, and web browsing. Is iPad your new solution? As of right now, I'm trying to find reasons why it wouldn't work for basic college tasks. What do you guys think? Obviously it doesn't have a physical keyboard and it can't multi-task, but Apple seems to have come up with a clever solution for that...

For example, often when I'm writing a paper I have the web browser open so I can quickly view my resources, and usually I'll have Dictionary open as well. So that's three programs open and running at the same time. But, Apple built a fast dictionary into Pages for the iPad so they essentially took two programs and made them one. Very clever indeed. What do you guys think?
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I think you need to have a regular computer as well. How you gonna sync it? How you going to update it? How are you going to print? As of right now, no word on printing :-(.
 
DougFNJ said:
So you could synch or email the doc to your computer to print it
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If iPad has wireless you could print using Apples airport system. But here's the other problem I see. How often are you studying and have multiple books open? For me, it's all the time. There's no way I could use iPad as my only system for college text books either. Unless they had a really good way at switching between books.
 
Coming from a college student, the iPad is definitely appealing. I plan on buying one soon after launch. However, I couldn't see using this without another computer, and specifically a Mac. I own a MBP and I'm buying the iPad to take around campus, travel, etc., yet another computer is necessary to synch it and use it at all. I don't see this product as replacing a main computer, but rather complimenting it instead.
 
JohnnyQuest said:
Coming from a college student, the iPad is definitely appealing. I plan on buying one soon after launch. However, I couldn't see using this without another computer, and specifically a Mac. I own a MBP and I'm buying the iPad to take around campus, travel, etc., yet another computer is necessary to synch it and use it at all. I don't see this product as replacing a main computer, but rather complimenting it instead.
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Still having trouble figuring out why it's better than my MacBook Pro. :confused:
 
as a college student, this is exactly what i've done. i previously had a 17" mbp with a 24" ACD for use on my desk. when the ipad was announced, i decided to get a 27" I7 iMac for home and a 32gb ipad for school and travel. for what i need it at school, internet, email, and taking notes, it does the job perfectly.
 
As an engineering major I have various software I have to use for any given class, none of these will work on the iPad. So no I don't see the iPad as my new best friend, but yes I am looking forward to integrating it into my school work.
 
I'm going to bring my iPad to class every day. It will be my companion when I'm away from my apartment. I'll also use it in my living room quite often as a casual computer and for games. I'll still have a Mac for intensive research papers and graphic design. But for the routine stuff, iPad all the way!

As for multitasking, 4.0 will likely address these concerns come later in July.

iPad will have print services. I remember reading about some devs that were diving deep into the SDK and found some support for it. I have the SDK, but am not quite sure where to find it. A little birdie gave it to me, and I've been pouring over it the last few days. So far I've only been able to crack open some hidden settings in the preferences.app file.
 
I'm in college. For me, the main reason why I have a MBP is to be able to use it anywhere in my apartment -- less so to be able to use it everywhere else, since I really only bring out to use it in class.

But the MBP still adds a heck of a lot of weight to my bag after all the other stuff I carry in it. That's why I'm getting the iPad. It's a lot lighter and even easier to just stick in my bag and bring it to class.

I suppose if you have a laptop that you do bring to lots of other places other than just class, the iPad might make less sense since you'll have your laptop anyway. But for me, if I'm out but not going to class, I generally just have my iPhone. Now I'll have something that's a lot more powerful but still very easy to "grab and go."
 
rorschach said:
But the MBP still adds a heck of a lot of weight to my bag after all the other stuff I carry in it. That's why I'm getting the iPad. It's a lot lighter and even easier to just stick in my bag and bring it to class.
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Agreed. I hate bringing my MBP to class because along with all my books is a pain. I also have to unhook it from all the USB, Firewire, stereo, power, and DVI cables when I leave and hook it all back up when I get home. I pretty much use it as a desktop that I can transport places when I need to, like when I travel or go home. An iPad with all my books in digital form sounds like a dream. Also won't need to bring a sketchbook to most of my design classes as I will have Brushes.app (and hopefully eventually Sketchbook Mobile by Autodesk). Taking notes on the virtual keyboard should be at least as fast as the iPhone, which I average 35-40 wpm on (using it right now in bed). It's at least going to be faster than taking notes by hand.
 
rorschach said:
I'm in college. For me, the main reason why I have a MBP is to be able to use it anywhere in my apartment -- less so to be able to use it everywhere else, since I really only bring out to use it in class.

But the MBP still adds a heck of a lot of weight to my bag after all the other stuff I carry in it. That's why I'm getting the iPad. It's a lot lighter and even easier to just stick in my bag and bring it to class.

I suppose if you have a laptop that you do bring to lots of other places other than just class, the iPad might make less sense since you'll have your laptop anyway. But for me, if I'm out but not going to class, I generally just have my iPhone. Now I'll have something that's a lot more powerful but still very easy to "grab and go."
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I lugged around my 17" and 4 books freshman year. It was the worst thing ever.
 
Until it can at the very least do Hulu and Netflix Streaming, and stand alone without having to by synced to a computer it won't replace my laptop.
 
NJMetsHero said:
Until it can at the very least do Hulu and Netflix Streaming, and stand alone without having to by synced to a computer it won't replace my laptop.
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I wish they'd release a Hulu app. Weren't there rumors of that a little while ago?
 
rorschach said:
I wish they'd release a Hulu app. Weren't there rumors of that a little while ago?
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That is correct, though likely as a paid option. Apparently the entire site is going to be moving to a paid format before too long.

In addition, Netflix was surveying customers about the possibility of an iPad / iPhone app to stream video.

These two apps need to happen now!
 
macduke said:
Agreed. I hate bringing my MBP to class because along with all my books is a pain. I also have to unhook it from all the USB, Firewire, stereo, power, and DVI cables when I leave and hook it all back up when I get home. I pretty much use it as a desktop that I can transport places when I need to, like when I travel or go home. An iPad with all my books in digital form sounds like a dream. Also won't need to bring a sketchbook to most of my design classes as I will have Brushes.app (and hopefully eventually Sketchbook Mobile by Autodesk). Taking notes on the virtual keyboard should be at least as fast as the iPhone, which I average 35-40 wpm on (using it right now in bed). It's at least going to be faster than taking notes by hand.
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wingnut8 said:
I lugged around my 17" and 4 books freshman year. It was the worst thing ever.
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You guys bring your books to class? I rarely bring a book to any of my classes.
 
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