My wife was assigned an iPad for a class.she is teaching. I am not impressed. It is clumsy compared to anything with a keyboard. For a phone, designed to be used one-handed, this is good, although stronger on flash than function. It is very slow compared to even a very old laptop.
UPDATE: There is one virtue to the iPad -- I am having some wrist problems (moderate arthritis in the left wrist and mild arthritis in the right wrist), and it slows me down so much that I can probably blog from something like it without aggravating my problems. This, by the way, is why I am blogging much less than I used to, and writing much less than I used to. If I could afford to only work one full-time job, I would not so afraid of writing more in the evenings.
I bought and am using:
ReplyDeleteLogitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad 2 and New iPad
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Ultrathin-Keyboard-Cover-920-004013/dp/B007PRHNHO
It makes a huge difference if you have to type a lot.
I love my iPad. You're right about the keyboard though. But you have to remember, the main interface is the touch screen. I spend hours on it browsing blogs, newspapers , books, or just surfing, taking pictures, phoning ...
ReplyDeleteTry a case with a built-in physical keyboard. I like my Zagg, makes the ipad like a little laptop.
ReplyDeleteI find that writing on a phone or tablet is troublesome enough that I don't do very much of it. Clayton - have you considered investing in Dragon Naturally Speaking (or an equivalent)? Even if it's not terribly accurate, you'd probably be able to generate more edited text for the same amount of actual typing as you are doing now.
ReplyDeleteI do have Dragon, and I was using it last year. I am about to install it again. It isn't terribly accurate, but for correcting papers online, and for working on the novel I am writing, it is still better than typing.
ReplyDeleteI was having issues with my wrists...carpal tunnel I think. Would usually really bother me when I was trying to do wood working.
ReplyDeleteI started using keyboards the let me keep my wrists straight when I typed. Using a MS one now...MS Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000.
Don't know if it would help you or not...but it made a huge difference for me.
If you're using it for things that need a keyboard (significantly, that is), it is not surprising that you're unimpressed.
ReplyDeleteWithout an external keyboard, it's not really meant as a serious text entry device (this is true of all tablets, naturally).
Novels? Correcting papers? You need a keyboard - fortunately, easily used with it.
Honestly, for correcting papers you probably want a non-tablet (if only because the annotation/selection mechanics on a touch screen are lame compared to a mouse or touchpad).
I find an iPad 2 quite reasonably fast, myself, more than a "very old laptop", in things that matter - load and display times and interaction speed; I never find myself thinking "why are you so slow?", which I DO if I'm using an ancient desktop/laptop.
I have the MS Natural Ergonomic, and it does help. I'm just typing too much.
ReplyDeleteI guess what startles me about the iPad speed is that video downloads from YouTube on the same wireless network that I use for my laptop are very, very noticeably slower. It can't be the WiFi speed.
While it is not exactly comparable, downloads from the AppStore are so slow that I literally started the download of iMovie and came back in the morning. I have a 5 Mbps connection to my ISP. This is amazingly bad.
CC,
ReplyDeleteThe issue of download speed is sometimes not what you think.
About 3 years back when I did one of the periodic updates on my iMac, wifi seemed to stop working. In reality, it was the switch to a slightly different IP stack, combined with DNS pre-fetch in the browser. These two activities combined to overwhelm the cache algorithm in my Zoom ADSL modem/router. It slowed down by a factor of about 10.
The solution was to buy a new router, and not a $39 one. It took a tremendous amount of work to track down what was going on.