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What do you realistically use your iPad for?
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All kinds of stuff. Surfing, reading, streaming, gaming, some light productivity, etc.
Its basically my main day to day device for general "stuff".
Its basically my main day to day device for general "stuff".
I’m at a point where my iPad Pro 10.5 serves the majority of my computing needs. For work I use it for email, productivity software, collaboration tools like Trello, video conferencing, chat via Skype/Slack/HipChat, etc. At home it’s email, web browsing, TV/movies, podcasts, and other consumption things. My MacBook Pro only comes out for RAW photo editing, and that’s only because iOS and MacOS don’t support my particular camera’s RAW image format. Yet. I could easily see not having a laptop at home in a few years.
Teacher here at a small liberal arts college. I use my iPad + pencil for keeping my speeches and lecture notes, taking notes during class, and write on my iPad to project the image up on a smartboard (like a chalkboard but without any chalk dust allergens!).
This semester, I've taken to having all students submit their papers electronically as PDFs, and I've been grading all their essays using an Apple Pencil, then emailing them back with marks and comments. It's like a whole new world for convenience.
Without the pencil, I track attendance and participation points with it after each class lecture using TeacherKit and I have the class textbooks as ebooks/ Kindle App books to avoid lugging books around.
This semester, I've taken to having all students submit their papers electronically as PDFs, and I've been grading all their essays using an Apple Pencil, then emailing them back with marks and comments. It's like a whole new world for convenience.
Without the pencil, I track attendance and participation points with it after each class lecture using TeacherKit and I have the class textbooks as ebooks/ Kindle App books to avoid lugging books around.
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Reading stuff, streaming music through AirPlay to speakers around the apartment. Also makes a good place to keep recipes. Basically stuff that's a bit too cramped to do on my iPhone. Anything that requires actual typing or anything remotely productive, I do on a Mac.
Traveling overseas, small business trips, vacations, when I don’t need to do any content creation and don’t need to lug around my MBP.
Reading books. Browsing the web while on the couch. Anything I want to do when I can’t be bothered putting MacBook Pro in my lap and don’t want stare at a small iPhone screen. Nice middle ground.
Reading books. Browsing the web while on the couch. Anything I want to do when I can’t be bothered putting MacBook Pro in my lap and don’t want stare at a small iPhone screen. Nice middle ground.
Catching dust tbh.
It's used on flights and in airports, that's about it.
Such occasions I still have my laptop on me anyway so any work related things it's laptop time.
It's used on flights and in airports, that's about it.
Such occasions I still have my laptop on me anyway so any work related things it's laptop time.
My is currently my homekit hub and is sitting in a utility cupboard in my front closet. Gonna get an Apple TV so I can use it for work again.
Thats where I think this could end up, yeah. No more laptop. We still have a few laptops at home for various things but its getting close where we probably could live without them. But not yet! There are some legacy games that I simply cannot play anywhere other than a Windows based system. Microsoft Office and its required use for school/work is also critical and doesnt really work as well on the iPad. Yet
I use a mini 4 all day every day like most people use a phone. Skype is my phone service, podcasts play constantly as my radio, notability is a go-to for quick note-taking and sketching, I'm on spreadsheets constantly, and will occasionally pull up MeshLab or biiCADo to pull up a drawing with someone, & back at my desk use Graphic to tweak my sketch library. I use Maps for my GPS, which still doesn't work reliably even after all the drama over it.
It's permanently on 10.3.3, since iOS 11 broke gestures, podcasts, and ran like it was drunk. A more powerful iPad Pro does all of it better, but since the mini fits in a back pants pocket or coat pocket, it goes everywhere and gets used, whereas when I'm in my office where I'd actually use an iPad Pro, I'd rather use that time on the desktop and do the real work in CAD/CAM programs.
If they update the mini with a more powerful chipset and antennae, I'll upgrade, but otherwise if they've truly killed it and are not offering a model in this form factor, I'll just make the switch to an android.
It's permanently on 10.3.3, since iOS 11 broke gestures, podcasts, and ran like it was drunk. A more powerful iPad Pro does all of it better, but since the mini fits in a back pants pocket or coat pocket, it goes everywhere and gets used, whereas when I'm in my office where I'd actually use an iPad Pro, I'd rather use that time on the desktop and do the real work in CAD/CAM programs.
If they update the mini with a more powerful chipset and antennae, I'll upgrade, but otherwise if they've truly killed it and are not offering a model in this form factor, I'll just make the switch to an android.
Thats where I think this could end up, yeah. No more laptop. We still have a few laptops at home for various things but its getting close where we probably could live without them. But not yet! There are some legacy games that I simply cannot play anywhere other than a Windows based system. Microsoft Office and its required use for school/work is also critical and doesnt really work as well on the iPad. Yet
MS Office will soon be web based and Google & Facebook are making Hugh steps to peel off that market also. I know a couple of people who have been using Beta Facebook as an alternative to MS Office. So down the road tables will be the prime tool. Schools, Restaurants, Service Industry, Medical, Supply tracking. I think Apple is well placed with a very polished device. Soon the world will be Apple, Walmarts and Amazon while we all sit & charge are cars at Starbuck Stations (inside Walmarts).
Q. What do you realistically use your iPad for?
A. Up until recently, I had been progressively switching more and more of my workflows to parallel what I would do on my iMac and Macbook Air. Even with the inherent limitations of iOS and the iPad platform I was forging ahead and making slow progress.
That pretty much came to a screeching halt with the release of iOS 11. Although the dock and additional tweaks to multi-window support were helpful, there was very little added beyond that to significantly improve my experience with it.
Simultaneously with that was the proliferation of convertible chromebooks that can run Android apps. I've been experimenting with the Acer R11 chromebook and the Lenovo Yoga Book and am discovering that both of these devices may very well serve my needs better than my iPad Pro.
A. Up until recently, I had been progressively switching more and more of my workflows to parallel what I would do on my iMac and Macbook Air. Even with the inherent limitations of iOS and the iPad platform I was forging ahead and making slow progress.
That pretty much came to a screeching halt with the release of iOS 11. Although the dock and additional tweaks to multi-window support were helpful, there was very little added beyond that to significantly improve my experience with it.
Simultaneously with that was the proliferation of convertible chromebooks that can run Android apps. I've been experimenting with the Acer R11 chromebook and the Lenovo Yoga Book and am discovering that both of these devices may very well serve my needs better than my iPad Pro.
Everything! It is my go-to device for messages, email, music playing at home (over Bluetooth), note taking, homekit, YouTube, shopping, etc.
I use my MacBook for productivity tasks like video editing, photos and writing, but the iPad Pro is used for all other takss when I am away from my desk.
And iPhone is mostly for portability use.
I use my MacBook for productivity tasks like video editing, photos and writing, but the iPad Pro is used for all other takss when I am away from my desk.
And iPhone is mostly for portability use.
I have, but the iOS version uses the iOS RAW converter, which doesn’t support compressed Fuji RAW. One day I’m sure Apple will get to it.
I originally bought an iPad because I wanted a document reader. I had technical books in pdf or djvu format, and it didn't feel natural reading them on a laptop. I originally tried printing them out and putting them in three ring binders, but that was a pain. The original kindle e-readers weren't very good for dealing with pdf's with diagrams and equations. The original iPad mini was fantasic for this, and that's still my main reason for owning one.
I also use it for viewing the Internet or taking notes when I'm out and about and a laptop is not convenient. And I use it for GPS; the phone can do that, but it's nicer on a larger screen.
I bought the 12.9 inch pro because I'm a math instructor. I use it primarily as a virtual whiteboard with the pencil. After class I can upload the notes from that day to my web-site for student. It's also useful for handwritten mathematical notes, marking up exams, and the like.
I also use it for viewing the Internet or taking notes when I'm out and about and a laptop is not convenient. And I use it for GPS; the phone can do that, but it's nicer on a larger screen.
I bought the 12.9 inch pro because I'm a math instructor. I use it primarily as a virtual whiteboard with the pencil. After class I can upload the notes from that day to my web-site for student. It's also useful for handwritten mathematical notes, marking up exams, and the like.
Web browsing and content consumption, thats all basically. I dont even try do work on it, its frustration.
After years and years of paper "journals"--all those notes, diagrams, pasted in images, material samples--I've gone digital. Eventually, being able to FIND what I need far outweighs the tactile pleasures of paper and pen.
I do creativity research and Epstein's "Generativity Theory" says there are just four behaviors to practice if you want to be more creative. One of these is "capturing" --your thoughts, ideas, what you observe. ("Novelty is occurring all the time, but most of it passes without our recognition. We either aren’t paying attention, or we notice something but promptly forget it.")
I capture much much more now that I have an iPad (can type, handwrite, draw, capture found images, scan or photo) and now that all of my notes are shared among all of my devices.
(I do keep a paper Bullet journal--partly because its fast and frictionless to plan my day and it's a lot less intrusive in meetings with other humans to make hand-written notes--but project-related notes get scanned and added to my digital notebooks.)
I have tried to use it as a productive tool, but I just can’t.p it’s rather uncomfortable. So I just use it for web browsing , email and games and of coruse apps like cooking apps and Netflix.
Everyone will find their own personal use for it.
Everyone will find their own personal use for it.
