Comments on Open Reasoning: A road warrior’s experience with the iPad

Thanks Miya - really good alternative perspective....

2011-04-22T09:18:28.432+01:00

Thanks Miya - really good alternative perspective. It reinforces a couple of main points for me. Firstly, that that someone's perception of what's good and not so good about the iPad depends on their job and lifestyle, and secondly, that most people trying to use an iPad for business purposes should probably be prepared to put up with a few constraints and workarounds.

On a couple of specific points, it's interesting to hear that you have had a good experience with the Zaggmate keyboard. I spotted it after using the standard Apple Bluetooth keyboard for a while, which seemed like a lot of fuss as I said in the blog, so was a bit suspicious of whether it would work. I might try one, though, after your feedback.

In terms of requirements, I think the way you and I would differ the most is around our degree of reliance on MS Office tools other than Word, and perhaps the complexity of the Word (or equivalent) documents we work with - you know how we analysts like our charts and graphics :-)

This MS Office dependency, BTW, is also one of the big reasons why I have not been able to make OSX work for me as a business tool. Office 2011 for the Mac is now getting close to the Windows version, but it is still different enough to cause irritating interop problems with Windows and other frustrations for a sad power user like me.

Some of the other productivity tools I use are also significantly behind on the Mac compared to Windows - Nuance Dictation, MindManager, and a collection of little utilities. It's therefore with some sadness that I am handing my very nice (hardware-wise) MacBook Pro i7 to Andy Buss, and going back to a Windows notebook. I had been booting the MBP into Windows for the last few months, which was not only a waste, but brought with it the practical problem that Apple basically cripples Windows battery life on MacBook Pros. This is because it forces continuous use of the power-hungry discrete graphics card, hiding the much more efficient integrated graphics (that OSX switches to when on battery) from Windows.

Coming back to the iPad, I guess another difference between us is the amount of Apple kit in our lives. Nothing right or wrong in that - just different.

Anyway, thanks again for your comment.

Thanks also to Colin for the shrewd razor blade analogy :-)

2011-04-22T09:10:20.837+01:00

This comment has been removed by the author.

Enjoyed reading your review as a fellow first-gene...

2011-04-21T19:09:30.151+01:00

Enjoyed reading your review as a fellow first-generation iPad user, Dale. (Mine's WiFi only.) Forgive the long response, but it really touched on some things I've been meaning to share myself.

On the whole, I'd agree with most of the points you make - the lack of Flash and document compatibility issues are a pain. I rely on Pages on the iPad and find it wholly inadequate for editing purposes. Give me Word any day!

Like you, I've tried using my iPad as a laptop replacement. But where you've persevered with the onscreen keyboard, the nature of my work - where I have to type up stories and copy pretty quickly - pushed me to buy a Zaggmate keyboard for it in January, which has been great. The only shortfall now is using content management systems (CMS) with it, which I increasingly have to do when freelancing for the news wires. I can't remember who said it, but the "curse of cursor" really lays bare the problems you alluded to when cutting & pasting using the touchscreen. Given the option, I'd use my desktop every time.

But I get 'round this while out & about if I have to by doing the drafting on the iPad, dropping the file into the cloud using iDisk and uploading it to the CMS on a public internet PC. However, I'm sure this will improve if & when the Wordpresses of this world optimise their platforms for touchscreen devices.

To Colin's point, I do think the fact that iProducts work together so well is as much a virtue as it is a source for those detractors of Apple. As I said, I get over the doc. compatibility issue by using iDisk. I own (potentially too much!) Apple stuff. But it does mean my email, contacts, calendar and any documents I store in the cloud on my iDisk can be easily shared and viewed on my desktop, tablet and smartphone - a definite boon and just as slick as the Whispersync Kindle feature you mention.

So, rather than having to rely on a combo of smartphone, laptop AND iPad, I've been more or less successfully been able to ditch the laptop - having been reliant on less that satisfactory netbooks for a few years previously. And, ironically, I think it's down to the keyboard. It makes me wonder whether Acer's tablets with the optional keyboard will be more of a winner with road warriors like you and me? And I thoroughly recommend giving the Zaggmate a go - it may just allow you to ditch the BlackBerry for more productivity tasks.

Excellent review, Dale, many thanks for sharing yo...

2011-04-21T11:24:26.864+01:00

Excellent review, Dale, many thanks for sharing your experience.

You illustrate what I consider to be the fundamental iPad paradox: a phenomenally successful product that will always disappoint and delight users in varying degrees.

At the end of the day, though, the iProducts are just the high-tech equivalent of razors - designed to sell razorblades, or apps in modern parlance.