Just thought up a good use for ipad at the office

[cualexander]

I have always hated Microsoft Outlook. It bogs my computer down, its slow, its clunky, and it generally sucks. I get my email on my iphone before it actually pops up in outlook, but the iphone is too small to compose a lot of long emails.

But with the iPad, I can just leave it docked with the keyboard on my desk and have the email client up. That way I can use the iPad's email client which is fast and efficient and forgo Outlook altogether on my desktop! iPad will do exchange mail and calendaring. That's all I use outlook for. I can also stay logged into IM on the iPad and avoid having IMs clutter up my desktop as well.

In a way, it's a secondary monitor for email, IM, calendar, notes, and heck with iWork I can even open documents on the thing and have spreadsheets open on it while I'm running another program on my desktop.

This thing is going to be awesome! It will free up my main computer for more important things.

 

[carpets]

I run my own retail business, and I can see so many uses for the iPad it's unreal!

My staff already love the Macs we introduced three years ago.

Our company is a totally "PC" free zone

If only they made Sage accounting software for Macs I have to run it under Parallels)

I think the iPad will slowly become a very useful business tool in many sectors.

 

[UCF Sam]

Why not just install thunderbird or another 3rd party client? Not to be a buzzkill, but moving back and forth between two keyboards at your desk seems inconvenient. If you really want to be productive you should fix your computer and get a second display. Much faster to answer your IMs and respond to your emails when you dont have to keep switching between computers.

 

[AdamA9]

That's an expensive email client

 

[markosb]

I have always hated Microsoft Outlook. It bogs my computer down, its slow, its clunky, and it generally sucks. I get my email on my iphone before it actually pops up in outlook, but the iphone is too small to compose a lot of long emails.

You running Outlook on a Mac or PC. I have never had issues with Outlook being slow on a PC, I know Office in general runs like a dog on Macs though, although I think that is fixed in the latest version.

I actually use my ipod for more than 90% of my emailing, the ipad will replace the ipod for that task. I still run Outlook on my desktop, but prefer ipod/ipad email better. I do wish there was a way to control junk mail though.

 

[UCF Sam]

You running Outlook on a Mac or PC. I have never had issues with Outlook being slow on a PC, I know Office in general runs like a dog on Macs though, although I think that is fixed in the latest version.

I actually use my ipod for more than 90% of my emailing, the ipad will replace the ipod for that task. I still run Outlook on my desktop, but prefer ipod/ipad email better. I do wish there was a way to control junk mail though.

If you're using a pop account you're probably screwed, but if you can switch to imap, just set a filter on the desktop client and have it check/delete junkmail more often than your iphon/ipad checks. Thats how I keep undesired messages from my iphone anyway.

 

[cualexander]

Why not just install thunderbird or another 3rd party client? Not to be a buzzkill, but moving back and forth between two keyboards at your desk seems inconvenient. If you really want to be productive you should fix your computer and get a second display. Much faster to answer your IMs and respond to your emails when you dont have to keep switching between computers.

1.) Thunderbird doesn't support our exchange server setup to my knowledge. It only supports Exchange through IMAP. Our exchange server would have to be re-configured for that. Our server works on iPhone already though. I have yet to find a freeware email client that completely supports Exchange server mail and calendaring.

2.) I have a slow computer at work, so any CPU usage I can save is great. Outlook itself bogs things down tremendously.

3.) I'm not buying a second display for work because I don't like spending money for work expenses and the company won't buy me one.

4.)And I wasn't saying I was buying it exclusively for this. Just another use for it while I'm at work. I was buying an iPad already for personal reasons so if I can use it for business expenses as well, then that's just a bonus there.

5.) Using it productively gives me a reason for bringing it in the office for non productive uses.

 

[Sketh]

my name is Sketh and I approve the post above mine.

9 times out of 10 I use my iPod to check my mail.

 

[applesupergeek]

Email and calendar/filofax uses will be great on the ipad.

 

[ciaran00]

I'm sorry dude. I love my iPad, even if I don't even have one yet - but you're going to have a hard time beating outlook on a laptop.

There's just no comparison...

 

[glitch44]

I have always hated Microsoft Outlook. It bogs my computer down, its slow, its clunky, and it generally sucks. I get my email on my iphone before it actually pops up in outlook, but the iphone is too small to compose a lot of long emails.

But with the iPad, I can just leave it docked with the keyboard on my desk and have the email client up. That way I can use the iPad's email client which is fast and efficient and forgo Outlook altogether on my desktop! iPad will do exchange mail and calendaring. That's all I use outlook for. I can also stay logged into IM on the iPad and avoid having IMs clutter up my desktop as well.

In a way, it's a secondary monitor for email, IM, calendar, notes, and heck with iWork I can even open documents on the thing and have spreadsheets open on it while I'm running another program on my desktop.

This thing is going to be awesome! It will free up my main computer for more important things.

with no app multitasking, you can't have email and calendaring and IM open at the same time can you?

 

[cualexander]

with no app multitasking, you can't have email and calendaring and IM open at the same time can you?

You can't have Email and Calendar open at the same time in outlook! They are on different screens.

Email, IM, and Calendar notifications are all Push events anyways. Therefore any multitasking argument is moot. I never need to talk to someone, compose an email, and schedule an appointment all at the same exact time. I just can't do it.

 

[glitch44]

You can't have Email and Calendar open at the same time in outlook! They are on different screens.

Email, IM, and Calendar notifications are all Push events anyways. Therefore any multitasking argument is moot. I never need to talk to someone, compose an email, and schedule an appointment all at the same exact time. I just can't do it.

Read your initial post wrong. I thought you meant ipad for calendar+email+IM and computer for other work.

 

[rtabdo]

I could see the iPad also being used as a great central hub type device, like this.

http://www.voipmonitor.net/2009/01/26/Verizon+Hub+Touch+Screen+Home+Phone+Available+On+Feb+1.aspx

 

[cualexander]

Read your initial post wrong. I thought you meant ipad for calendar+email+IM and computer for other work.

No that's what I meant exactly. At my job, I mainly just connect into client's computers and help them troubleshoot little problems so I'm really watching their computer remotely and talking on the phone most of the time. So aside from IM, Email and Calendar, I don't type much on my main machine. So having to move my hands 6 inches to the left to type on the ipad to respond to an email while I'm watching something a client is doing on their computer actually works better.

My overall point was that the iPad would be a good communications hub and free up my computer of the clutter of having email and IM open. If anyone disagrees, so be it. I was just sharing my opinion

 

[Alchematron]

Our company is a totally "PC" free zone

Glory hallejuah

 

[Hankster]

My overall point was that the iPad would be a good communications hub and free up my computer of the clutter of having email and IM open. If anyone disagrees, so be it. I was just sharing my opinion

Try it out. You'll see how frustrating it is. The iPad isn't made for business and you'll realize how slow you type on the screen versus a full size physical keyboard. Also, the reason your Outlook is slow is because of your network and computer - NOT Outlook. If you can't have email, browser, 1-2 applications, and IM on at the same time then you need to upgrade your machine.

I know folks are excited about the iPad, but you're stretching it on its uses. Not only that, but for the price of an iPad ($500) you could buy an up to date PC that runs everything you need.

 

[MikhailT]

Try it out. You'll see how frustrating it is. The iPad isn't made for business and you'll realize how slow you type on the screen versus a full size physical keyboard. Also, the reason your Outlook is slow is because of your network and computer - NOT Outlook. If you can't have email, browser, 1-2 applications, and IM on at the same time then you need to upgrade your machine.

I know folks are excited about the iPad, but you're stretching it on its uses. Not only that, but for the price of an iPad ($500) you could buy an up to date PC that runs everything you need.

Majority of business emails are very short, well businesses that I was involved with. So it's not really a problem. He could easily just get the keyboard dock, and he's going to need it since he's not going to hold it with his hand all the time.

Outlook issues are often due to the large PST files, not network, certainly upgrading to a computer with faster hard drive would help but it doesn't solve the issue right away. Not to mention most businesses are not running the latest Outlook client that would work with large PST files better, especially 2010 is suppose to be much better with them.

Everybody has a different productivity style, for the OP, the iPad can increase his productivity much more than you, no matter how much you think it won't be.

 

[macduke]

Try it out. You'll see how frustrating it is. The iPad isn't made for business and you'll realize how slow you type on the screen versus a full size physical keyboard. Also, the reason your Outlook is slow is because of your network and computer - NOT Outlook. If you can't have email, browser, 1-2 applications, and IM on at the same time then you need to upgrade your machine.

I know folks are excited about the iPad, but you're stretching it on its uses. Not only that, but for the price of an iPad ($500) you could buy an up to date PC that runs everything you need.

First of all, he's not buying the iPad for work so he doesn't need your crappy PC. He's just bringing it along for the ride. How do you know that a PC will fulfill his personal needs? Because it sounds more like an iPad does which is why he bought one.

Second of all, I'm sick and tired of people saying that the keyboard sucks when they haven't even used it. Try it out? Have you tried it out? For now the jury is out, but I highly doubt that Apple would have spent so many years engineering the thing only to have the keyboard be terrible. At worst it will likely be passable for most email replies which are a paragraph or two.

Third of all, you suffered a reading comprehension fail. He said "But with the iPad, I can just leave it docked with the keyboard on my desk and have the email client up." So apparently he is planning on using a hardware keyboard with it most of the time at work. READ THE POST FIRST.

I also love how you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Outlook is NOT the cause of his system slowdown. It is so amazing that you can diagnose his system problems without any personal knowledge of the system that he is running.