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ipad owners... should I dump my MBP?

L

Learjet035

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 24, 2005
326
0
S. Floriduh
I bought a top of the line MBP a few years ago that I used as my primary computer and roadie.

Just bought a 27" imac for home and have found that with an iphone/ imac combo I hardly even open my MBP anymore.

I don't really need any heavy computing power on the road.

Feel guilty selling my mint MBP for 800 bucks (was 2300$) on ebay but feel like I'd get more use out of an iPad.

I know there's no comparison of the two for heavy computing needs, but I find I do most of that at home now on my iMac.

Just look'n for some pros/ cons that I'm missing.

Thanks for the input.
 
I did.
Sold my loaded unibody + 24" Apple Cinema and moved to a 27" iMac.
The iPad handles my portable/casual computing needs quite nicely.
 
iMac/iPad combo for most people sounds like a pretty good deal. Especially if you weren't getting any use out of the iPad. I'm sure you made the right decision.
 
I would dump my mbp too but I need bootcamp for work so it stays for the time being. You should be able to get more than 800 bucks for it though, is it a unibody one?
 
If you really feel that you could trade down in computing power while on the road and the iPad would be able to handle your needs then go ahead. Just carefully consider any standard thing you do while traveling and determine if there is an equivalency in the iPad.

If you do go ahead with the purchase you can always fall back on the iMac while on the road by using Logmein Ignition or a similar app/service. That will give you the ability to use your iMac with your iPad and have all of the functions of your home computer (except local printing) on the road.

The Logmein Ignition app will cost you $30 but you can tie it to a Logmein Free account and have no additional expense beyond the original app purchase. Additionally, since you will have purchased the app you can also use it on your iPhone as well. So, you're covered on all platforms. You can even stop and use any browser on any computer to access your iMac using Logmein and have an equivalent feel of using your computer on a desktop or notebook computer. Have you figured out that I use Logmein a lot and i just utilize the free service?
 
The log me in app really works nicely on the iPad. If I could get log me in to work with vista business edition then I could use my iPad at work and remote Into it but that has yet to work out.
 
avaloncourt said:
If you really feel that you could trade down in computing power while on the road and the iPad would be able to handle your needs then go ahead. Just carefully consider any standard thing you do while traveling and determine if there is an equivalency in the iPad.

If you do go ahead with the purchase you can always fall back on the iMac while on the road by using Logmein Ignition or a similar app/service. That will give you the ability to use your iMac with your iPad and have all of the functions of your home computer (except local printing) on the road.

The Logmein Ignition app will cost you $30 but you can tie it to a Logmein Free account and have no additional expense beyond the original app purchase.
Click to expand...

Oh, awesome avalon thanks! I didn't even consider Logmein. Great idea.
Wonder how well it works? Gonna see if I can dig up an iPad demo somewhere on youtube.

No it's not a unibody, it's the previous version MBP but perfect shape and new battery. I'm getting very close to doin it. Thanks for the advice all.
 
Learjet035 said:
I bought a top of the line MBP a few years ago that I used as my primary computer and roadie.

Just bought a 27" imac for home and have found that with an iphone/ imac combo I hardly even open my MBP anymore.

I don't really need any heavy computing power on the road.

Feel guilty selling my mint MBP for 800 bucks (was 2300$) on ebay but feel like I'd get more use out of an iPad.

I know there's no comparison of the two for heavy computing needs, but I find I do most of that at home now on my iMac.

Just look'n for some pros/ cons that I'm missing.

Thanks for the input.
Click to expand...

Only you can answer that and I think you more or less did when you said you have hardly used it. Only you know if you have use for an iPad or not.
I think most agree it's a sort of cross between a iPhone/iPod Touch and a MBP. Leaning more to the iPhone side of things. $800 to sell you MBP seems a bit harsh. If your not in a mad rush might be wise to choose your moment to sell it. I would have expected more than that for it.
 
Curious, how much control does logmein have?

Could I login remotely and run photoshop and do basic edits or is it just like file viewing and DLing?
 
Learjet035 said:
Curious, how much control does logmein have?

Could I login remotely and run photoshop and do basic edits or is it just like file viewing and DLing?
Click to expand...

You have full control of mouse and keyboard with log me in. And full access to the system. So yes essentially you could do that. Would it be easy? Not too sure.
 
I have a Macbook and a Mac Mini. I think I'll replace the Macbook with a Macbook pro one of these days. I like the idea of being able to take the "powerful computer" with me when I need to. I find the iPad to be too limiting to do "real work" but I do like it for taking notes at meetings, provided I can get used to touch typing on the thing. As a touch typist who would rather type than write, I find I rest my fingers on the keys and the iPad makes this a disaster. I tried logmein and didn't like the way the app behaved, in particular it put an icon in my status bar without asking and I couldn't get rid of the icon or shut it off. When I went to uninstall it, it was a moderate hassle. I'm running remote tap (in 2x) right now and while they promise an iPad version, it isn't ready yet. Since Logmein is free, I guess I could try it again, I just don't look forward to the quirky uninstall procedure should I once again decide I don't like it.

In any event, I think the iPad becomes the "portable machine" of choice and the "other machine" can be either an iMac, Mac Mini or a Macbook. Having a bluetooth keyboard makes the iPad a lot more useful as a portable machine, especially around the house. Then if I want to sit in the back yard, I don't mind dealing with the touchscreen keyboard as much as I would mind sitting erect and typing on a laptop. Nothing is quite as uncomfortable as trying to use a laptop in a car but using the ipad in a car it is easy to find a comfortable position. The only down side is glare.

If I get a chance to try logmein again, I will post my results but for now I'm sticking with remotetap which is more "Mac like" despite having to look at it in 2x (iPhone app) mode.
 
I'm one of the people with the iMac/iPad combos and I love it. But why sell your MBP for what you'll almost pay for an iPad?? Use your MBP until it dies out and then get an iPad in a couple of years. If it's in perfect condition I'll trade you my 32 GB. :)
 
I dumped my MacBook a while ago have been using this as my primary Mac and all has be great.
It really depends what your needs are ,only you can answear if you will need the MBP.
 
It really depends on what you need/want to do on the road. If all you need to do on the road is to read books, surf web, watch some movies and play civilization, then you get rid of your MBP for sure. If you need to do some software development in Mac/Windows/Linux, then you still need your MBP.
 
Learjet035 said:
Curious, how much control does logmein have?

Could I login remotely and run photoshop and do basic edits or is it just like file viewing and DLing?
Click to expand...

I use Logmein frequently to control my work computer. For instance, I'm taking today off but I just checked in a while ago to make sure certain services on my computer were running (it's a Windows 7 computer) and accessible to the rest of my coworkers. I also use it to get into a computer here at the house that runs some electronic control systems.

Photoshop would be a disappointment. The refresh time would be so laggy on such intensive work that it just wouldn't be a pleasant experience. I also run into issues at times where I bring up a website on the work computer and it will have fast moving Flash on it and Logmein's attempt at keeping up with the screen movement really bogs down the connection.

Keep in mind too that it will only be as good as your iPad connection and your home upstream bandwidth. If it's slow in either direction you're going to lag significantly. You have the option of dropping your connection back in a couple of ways to speed things up like limiting the number of displayed colors or even making it black and white. You can also alter your resolution rather than matching the resolution of the computer you're connecting to.

If you're on a wifi network the experience is quite good. Over 3G it will lag.
 
I tried to not carry my MacBook Pro for a couple of days but then I ran into a few different problems and realized it's going to be tough, until we get multitasking to get rid of it. I regularly need to do two or three things at once on my machine so the iPad just wasn't cutting it. I'm excited for the fall though as those few days that I didn't have the MacBook Pro in my bag I could definitely feel the weight difference!
 
Thanks a lot!!!

Now I have to go post in the "waiting for 3G iPad" post.

Bit the bullet, ordered 32gb-3G

I knew it wouldn't take much so thanks for putting me over the top. I'll spend the next couple days taking pics of my MBP for ebay.

If I miss my MBP I guess I'll have to deal with it.
I know I won't miss the 3rd degree burns on my legs =)
 
is logmein any different from other VNC apps? I have iteleport on my ipod touch which I use to admin my mac mini (which is otherwise a dedicated server/HTPC).

On that video for logmein that was linked to, the zooming/panning looks very fast and high quality - is it just VNC or are they doing some smart caching/transmitting the screen in a different way?

I don't want to spend $30 only to find out its exactly the same as iteleport, which I really like (haven't tried the HD version yet, my ipad won't arrive until later on this week)
 
Learjet035 said:
Thanks a lot!!!

Now I have to go post in the "waiting for 3G iPad" post.

Bit the bullet, ordered 32gb-3G

I knew it wouldn't take much so thanks for putting me over the top. I'll spend the next couple days taking pics of my MBP for ebay.

If I miss my MBP I guess I'll have to deal with it.
I know I won't miss the 3rd degree burns on my legs =)
Click to expand...

I have a similar situation going on, I have a brand new 21.5 iMac in my home office as well as a 17" uMBP that I purchased 2 months ago, since purchasing the iPad I have literally used the uMBP one time... the iMac/iPad combo seems to be the right combination for me.. I still have a few insecurities about completely replacing the uMBP with the iPad so I'm not quite ready to sell uMBP but I'm certainly getting to that point...
 
I'm still firm on: If an iPad can replace your MBP to the point where you sell it, you seriously wasted a ton of money in the first place.

I mean seriously, you know what each does, and you know what your average day is like more than we do.

You know the iPad is good for consuming, Macs are good for producing. If you don't produce, you didn't need a MBP in the first place.

Nuts, I tell you...
 
nStyle said:
I'm still firm on: If an iPad can replace your MBP to the point where you sell it, you seriously wasted a ton of money in the first place.

I mean seriously, you know what each does, and you know what your average day is like more than we do.

You know the iPad is good for consuming, Macs are good for producing. If you don't produce, you didn't need a MBP in the first place.

Nuts, I tell you...
Click to expand...

Or MAYBE the person bought their MBP before Apple offered anything like the iPad for mobile computing.
 
I agree

H00513R said:
I'm one of the people with the iMac/iPad combos and I love it. But why sell your MBP for what you'll almost pay for an iPad?? Use your MBP until it dies out and then get an iPad in a couple of years. If it's in perfect condition I'll trade you my 32 GB. :)
Click to expand...

Use the MBP until it dies, and then go buy a version 10 iPad that is if it still exsist in 2020.
 
Dump the MBP

I was in the same predicament. I bought the most expensive 17" Macbook Pro in the Apple Store a few years ago. Ive had it hooked up to a 24" LCD with the lid closed. I may have traveled with it maybe 5 times over the past few years. When the iPad was announced I decided the Macbook Pro wasnt being used as a laptop and was just was wasting half of its functionality. So I bought a refurbed 24" iMac with better specs and sold the MBP on ebay for a $500 profit. Guess what I bought with the $500 profit? Being a freelance graphic designer, I was always in my office and I am not the type to go to Starbucks to "do work." So having a powerful laptop was pointless. Whenever I wasnt at my desk I was browsing on my iPhone. So the iPad is THE perfect companion I have been waiting a long time for.

Sell the Macbook Pro, especially since you have the iMac. Contrary to popular belief, the iPad can do alot. If not, like the commercials say, there's an app for that.
 
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