Best i-Pad (1 Viewer)

A quick scan is showing that Currys is doing the 16gb model for £40 off. Only available for a short time - Black Friday or something.

I use a Kindle Fire HD and I like it. I got it as an upgrade for the old Kindle and I've been pleasantly surprised as to it's capabilities. I still mainly use it for reading though.

I'm using it to send this.

I have been listening in to conversations around the office the last couple of days...
One chap has bought his wife an ipad: She loves it, because it is easy to use, she can browse the web and have facetime with a friend across the world who also has an apple product.
However, the chap hates it! because of what he sees as limitations.. basically the ipad is a peripheral device to the home apple infrastructure (which he doesn't have), so standalone, the ipad is struggling to print to their printer, plus it has no usb etc.

Another chap just bought the asus transformer which he is happy with, as it is "a PC".

You need to be sure you know what you want.. then choose the best device for your needs. What's so good about a tablet?

Me, I don't see a use for a tablet at all.. I like keyboard/mouse and monitor at home for photo editing, typing and the web. I got a TV for watching movies and youtube, a PS3 for games, plus a small smartphone for on the go internet (which I can use with one hand!)

Have to agree with the comments above. The iPad is great for browsing, emails etc and gaming on it is good but it is not a replacement for a laptop. Having said that I will probably only take my iPad on holiday with me as with the camera adapter kit I can transfer and sort my photos, I don't see the need for my netbook as well.
I've downloaded a few apps and the quality varies quite a bit although the birding apps are all pretty useful.

Which birding apps have you downloaded Alex? I think you were lucky to get the refurb when you did as I don't think they've been in stock since then.

Rich

The I-Pad can do most things a laptop can do if you have the right Apps. My wife and daughter both have I-Pads and laptops and the laptops are rarely switched on. If you actually take the time and research it you will find it is much quicker and easier, assuming you have a windows laptop, to use the pad. Ours are all hooked up wirelessly to our printer we have numbers and pages which takes care of the work, I have birding software for ID and record keeping. The only thing is flash support but the format is so buggy and unreliable that it will not be long before it is scrapped completly. They have even just released a scanner attachment so what on earth would you need a laptop for?

ClarkWGriswold said:

Which birding apps have you downloaded Alex? I think you were lucky to get the refurb when you did as I don't think they've been in stock since then.

Rich

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Rich,

The only full birding app I've downloaded is the Peterson one with trials of a couple of others. The Birdguides apps seem to get very mixed reviews and aren't cheap so I've held off from buying them.
It appears I was lucky, £369 for the 32gb version of the iPad 3. I think I'll need to invest in a bluetooth keyboard, I'm finding the inbuilt version a bit annoying at times

Alex

wolfphotos said:

The I-Pad can do most things a laptop can do if you have the right Apps. My wife and daughter both have I-Pads and laptops and the laptops are rarely switched on. If you actually take the time and research it you will find it is much quicker and easier, assuming you have a windows laptop, to use the pad. Ours are all hooked up wirelessly to our printer we have numbers and pages which takes care of the work, I have birding software for ID and record keeping. The only thing is flash support but the format is so buggy and unreliable that it will not be long before it is scrapped completly. They have even just released a scanner attachment so what on earth would you need a laptop for?

Click to expand...

I need a laptop for data-crunching tasks that a tablet is just not designed for.
e.g. Sound analysis of bat detector files, or overnight migration monitoring. I'm not sure some of my files would even fit on a tablet, let alone how I would transfer such files onto it. But that's a moot point because there just isn't the processing power or memory needed to analyse the files.
I suspect heavy duty video editing and photoshopping would be a challenge too?
Plus BWPi - superb software package, 11GB. Ideal on a laptop / netbook.

It's what I said earlier.. you need to ask what the device will be used for, and how you intend to use it. No use buying a tablet and trying to bend it into shape for stuff it just isn't capable of.

In the end I decided to send the iPad back, there just wasn't enough of an advantage, if any, over my netbook. I think one of the new dual tablet/laptops might end up being the best of both worlds once the market matures. My travelling kit will now remain as my netbook and Android smartphone.