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Ipad, yay or nay?


Gerrardfan

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I've been thinking about purchasing an ipad, wondering how the anatomy book on the ipad is. Good graphics? Think this is a worthwhile purchase? I'm not a gamer but I love to read books, currently have a Kobo that I would still use to take to work etc. Also I LOVE electronics, so I really want an ipad just because it seems so neat, let me know if you think your ipad was worth it:)

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My brother won an ipad at his job and brought it home yesterday. I was excited about it for maybe an hour, and then I found out it's lacking a lot of things...there are not usb slots, no microsoft office suite, things that are really helpful to students...I mean, it just looks like an oversized ipod Touch, which is pretty useless imo. If you have the money to buy an ipad, I would buy a laptop instead.

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There are advantages and disadvantages to an ipad, so it depends on what you plan on using it for. True there is no usb port and no office suit, but I use my laptop for that. What I use my ipad for is reading books. I can read for hours on it without eye strain, whereas with my laptop that was simply not possible. Yes there are cheaper devices for book reading like a kobo, but the ipad can read every book format and it is colour. I would not part with mine.

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Big YAY. I had a macbook pro but decided to get an ipad2 last month. Since, I've been using my ipad for everything I used to use my macbook for. If your university and your home have wifi, there is no need for USB. I do everything on the ipad anyway, and the rest I use email or wifi to transfer to a laptop or desktop.

 

Here's the breakdown of what I use my ipad for:

-Record my lectures using ClearRecord (capable of 1.25,1.5X play, noise cancellation, transfer of file over wifi very quickly)

-take notes using Note Taker HD(This app is just plain awesome! You can write with a stylus and type notes in textbox directly onto pdf, add pictures from camera or internet, add shapes, create new pages within pdf lecture slides...I haven't had any problem taking notes with this program and I do it faster than most who write notes on paper)

-read pdf/doc/html/excel/ppt/rar with Good Reader(This app is a must have if you own an ipad.) It is very versatile and can read most files.

-Edit office files using Office HD (there are probably a few better app for this one). But this one is sufficient for basic office file editing. I bring my laptop to school if I need to work on a paper.

 

Some other tools i use:

-Zagg keyboard which I use to type and carry my ipad. I type equally fast if not faster on the Zagg keyboard.

-a rubber stylus, pick a good one. Forgot the brand I had but do a quick review on google if you are buying one.

 

Advantages:

-The weight is much less than my mac.

-I feel the ipad battery last a bit longer compared to the laptop.

-You can read and study anywhere from ipad. Just a lot more accessible than a laptop (you can hold it and read from it even when you are standing on a moving bus)

-The icloud system do daily backup. I also manually backup after every lecture. Little risk of losing all your notes the week before the exam. Even if you lose your ipad, you can track it online, send messages to it to claim it back or just get another ipad from the store and backup all your files.

-you can write on the screen with stylus

-apps that are only designed for touch screen ipad

-cheaper than a mac pro even if you add in the money you spend for above apps, keyboard, stylus...

 

Disadvantages:

-the stylus does not write very accurately, so it is very important to buy a good stylus.

-office app still need more development

-no flash animation on web browser

 

RE: humanmacbook,

gmail works very well on my ipad. I check it on safari directly.

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I don't actually own one, but I'll post what I know :P.

 

When I was considering getting one, I was told that it's important to understand that an IPad is not a computer. As mentioned above, no USB ports. You are also limited to apps. You won't be able to download normal computer programs and there is also no flash for navigating the web. Things like BitTorrent don't work, if that's your thing. It is really like a gigantic Itouch. It's amazing for things like on-the-go reading or watching and perhaps taking notes (if you're ok with a screen keyboard) though. It is extremely nifty and cool, just know what it is before you go and get one :).

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First off, I completely agree with Frozen. I absolutely love my iPad. I use it for everything and barely use my laptop. I haven't taken my laptop to school yet this semester! And I have an apple wireless keyboard which is amazing, as the on screen keyboard is annoying if you type fast.

 

Great for the commute if you want to watch movies or read articles. Good for taking brief notes, and sharing diagram/slides with prof. But there are disadvantages, such as the lack of USB slots mentioned above and sometimes gmail on mine doesn't respond as well retrieving. You have to close one application to open another one.

 

Gmail and all my other emails included in the mail up work great, I always get them instantly. And another thing, you don't have to close one application to open another? You simply swipe over to the next screen with your whole hand. Yes, you can't have things open side by side like on laptops, but being able to swipe from one app to the next, while having them open is really nice.

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  • 4 weeks later...

iPad was part of the Christmas spoils this year and after a lot of tinkering have figured a couple things out, I used frozenarbitrators advice for a lot and must say thanks!

 

At Ottawa, nearly everything comes to us by way of powerpoint.

The simplest way to take notes it seems is by buying iAnnotate. It seems no one ipad app has every feature needed, but iAnnotate covers the most.

 

From safari I can open the powerpoint by choosing iAnnotate which will automatically convert it to a pdf. They list this as an experimental feature but it seems to work very well so far with the caveat that it can be a bit slow at times.

From there I can very easily write on the pdf with a stylus, type annotations, add highlighting etc. This is going to completely improve my rad/patho notes that require multiple arrows and notes that powerpoint on my laptop was dropping the ball for without me needing to buy a tablet laptop.

 

I haven't really attempted to figure out the compisition part of things (creating word/ppt's) seems to be a few apps out there with pros and cons. Or I could use my old laptop for something lol.

 

Good stylus is key.... wacom bamboo stylus is regarded very highly by most and is on sale at amazon.ca right now for 19.49 regularly $30.

 

Also the Zagg keyboard is great so far.

That's all I got so far, I found this thread useful in getting start so just figured I should add what I've found.

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