recently brought my wifes ipad to a conference and was really stoked to have it versus laptop. got lots of little things done, bu didnt totally zoneout which is easy with the laptop and miss the event, very nice balance, but also a pretty specific use case.
I spend part of last week at a conference (TNW), and it's the first time I really loved my iPad: It's the perfect conference device for some browsing, tweeting, quick emails, etc. Way lighter to carry than a laptop, faster to 'start', and using it for a full day only took some 30% off the battery. It's quite easy to use without a table as well.
Last year I brought my laptop, which was way heavier, and lasted only for a few hours.
I bought an iPad Pro 2 this september and it immediately replace my laptop for meetings. Light computing when I need it, but primarily a note-taking advice. Really great.
I've seen iPads in meetings and I think it's not much more than conspicuous consumption. I enter minutes very efficiently in my iPhone with Workflowy (which basically instantly syncs to a Workflowy instance on my desktop). I find entering with my iPhone - ie the input method I use to send texts 20 times a day - a lot more natural than acclimating to the iPad's keyboard and bringing a jumbo screen to a meeting.
There are times when I'm traveling ultra light and just have an iPad and my phone. This is usually what I do when attending conferences, or when I'm traveling and I don't expect to do much coding or writing. But stuff comes up even when I don't intend on doing work, and the ability to make small fixes from my iPad would be a big help.
I'm switching to a 13.3-inch Macbook Air as my main computer (with a 27-inch external display). We'll see if this changes my view on not bringing my laptop places. Still, the iPad is much lighter than an Air and gets incredible battery life.
I might even be out at a coffee shop on the weekend and realize that there is something I want to fix on a website. If I'm out at a coffee shop, relaxing, reading some stuff, I almost never have a laptop with me.
When I’m travelling, I don’t necessarily want “so many more uses.” Being constrained to e-mail and simple editing, together with the iPad’s small form factor and extreme mobility, can be more productive than lugging around a laptop. (I use a laptop most of the time. But depending on one’s workflow, an iPad + Bluetooth keyboard at the hotel room can be a productivity boost.)
Very good point, was talking about that with a friend of mine a few weeks ago as well. He was telling me the exact same thing, when dealing with people an iPad is much less intrusive and creates a more relaxed setting than a laptop would.
I use my iPad as a second display for the laptop when portable, it's surprisingly useful.
It's also kind of nice for keeping a game of baseball or something going on while sharing audio output with the main laptop, there's almost no display lag.
Software dev here, use my new iPad Pro in work all the time.
I originally bought one for home use, so I would stop using my laptop to watch Netflix/YouTube/Prime and then get distracted by work (too easy to flick over to an IDE or GitHub when an idea would pop into my head when at home).
The iPad works really well for this but I now find myself using it in work too for almost the same reason. Rather than bringing my laptop to meetings and then getting distracted (same as watching Netflix at home) I now just bring the iPad to take notes or look up stats/analytics online(most of the platforms we use have pretty good iPad UI support).
It's been great at properly focusing on meetings, now if I have an idea on a problem I just write it in a note and get on with the meeting rather than finding myself jumping to VS code and trying to work.
The thing I wish the iPad had was a keyboard and trackpad it locked into securely. When traveling I use my laptop on my, well, lap all the time. I usually travel with a tablet but it’s for entertainment. If I could turn it into something closer to a laptop, I’d ditch the laptop more often.
- iPad Mini with Cellular. I avoided an iPad for a long, long time, and now exclusively as my communicator to dial into meetings. It reduced my phone and laptop usage significantly in some cases. Rarely run into video issues with lag, slow downs, and can present with a whiteboard if needed. Can take a minute to unplug, and walk away with the meeting at anytime into a car. Cellular is handy in a pinch if the personal hotspot isn't going to the phone. Big enough to see the screen and presentations, mic/camera/speakers are well tuned, good battery life.
Tablets are smaller than laptops. It makes a huge difference when traveling and sitting in tight spaces. Further, the iPad is “always on” so it’s very easy to use quickly.
It’s really great for media consumption because of it.
Anecdotal evidence: the iPad has completely replaced the laptop for my girlfriend. She hasn't opened up her laptop in months. She uses it mostly for email, for editing and sending presentations and documents via Keynote/Numbers/Pages/Dropbox, and for interacting with the numerous websites which she needs to deal with.
Since she spends a lot of her days on the move and doesn't like to work at a desk, the iPad has been a godsend for her. Before, she used to have to carry her craptop around and plug it in all the time to get power. Now, she just carries her iPad, and usually doesn't even bother to take the power supply with her, because the battery lasts so long. And she can use it on the bus, on the tube, etc.
I use my iPad for work as a collaboration device - it works great for audio and video meetings. In fact, as I type this on PC my iPad is sitting next to the monitor. All of that is most definitely "getting work done" to me.
I also find it useful if there is something I want to research or a document to read to go and sit away from my desk - I much prefer an iPad to a laptop for that kind of thing.
Indeed, I find the combination of a full sized PC and an iPad to be preferable to a laptop - which is neither as powerful and ergonomic as a full sized PC or as portable as a iPad.
edit: In fact I do have a work laptop, but I left it in the office in March and have never been back... I don't miss it!
Thanks! Separate device is used so your flow is not interrupted. And since iPad sits beside your main computer it really feels like you are sitting at the same desk with your team.
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