MBA 11 owner : Thinking over a "medical" iPad

[omniatlas]

I'm personally not a fan of Android and like I said the 10-hour battery life of the iPad is one of the main reasons why I am choosing it. I honestly don't know how long other tablets last. I played around with a white iPad2 and I just love the colour. Obviously I will not pay double the price just for a color preference. Generally, I like all my Apple products in white.

I need something quick and efficient. If I had to choose some full-OS tablet I'd just stick with my 11Air.
Also I don't want to "waste time" with rooting/jailbreaking/tweeking, etc. I just want a product that works. Because of this I changed my phone with a K850i Sony Ericsson which doesn't even have WiFi, so no tethering.

Barnes and nobles will be releasing android 2.2 for Nook in a few weeks. It has built in e-mail, web browsing with flash support, and an app store. A $250 7" android device back up by B&N seems like a good deal. They also have a good selection of magazines.

I'm not too sure how good it will be in reading pdfs -- larger screen real estate of the ipad should be better, but is it worth double the price? The ipad 2 is also heavier, and not as portable. If you can scroll the document by touch, I don't think it should be much of a problem?

If any of you have a nook color, or happen to stop by a B&N, I would appreciate if you could voice your opinions of the device after playing around with it. I don't live in the US, and so will have to get a family member to ship it to me if I intend to buy it.

 

[kellen]

Are all med books released in doc format, so you can use them on your iPad or have you scanned all the med books yourself

You can buy a lot of them online. I haven't done that due to the cost. Seems to only save you like 20-30%, but then you can't return the book later if you would like. There are websites where people have uploaded books. Mostly in PDF format. They work well and are not scanned. Good enough to look at something on a rotation and to leave the books at home.

I dont think an iPad is worth it during the didactic years. During the clinical years I would definitely recommend it, as it is perfect for using as a reference material. The apps, books and notes features make it perfect to have on rotation.

There is an iPad for medicine thread on the iPad forum here where people discuss how they use the iPad.

It replaced my mbp, but I still have my Mac pro.

 

[gdeputy]

I'm a firm believer (and honestly, when iPad 1 was announced I thought it was garbage compared to my expectations, but I ended up buying one on a whim) that everyone if they can afford one comfortably should own an iPad. It REALLY is a magical device that sort of has to be toyed with for awhile to understand it.

Even after owning an iPhone for 2 years prior to iPad's launch it just felt like a whole new experience. If you can get it, get it.

 

[Penquin-007]

I'm a senior resident in Nephrology. I use the app "Papers" from Mekentosj to sync all my PDF library between the Ipad/Iphone/MBP. I find the ipad very useful to read medical papers and having all my medical library with me all the time. IMO, the Ipad is better than a MBA 11 to read articles from journals and textbooks in PDF format. But, to do real work, I still prefer working on a laptop with better multitasking... My ideal portable setup would be a MBA 11 + Ipad