Tuesday 31 January 2012

Tech Tuesday - iPad - Consuming versus Producing....

An interesting question via the iPad mailing list hosted at Yahoo.
  1. Consuming versus Producing - Do you spend time merely dealing with emails, social media or producing whilst using your iPad?
  2. Is there likely to be a difference between what you use your iPad for today compared to the future.
I have had my iPad since about April. I had pondered for quite a while before buying. Unsure whether I could really justify the expense. Would I use it enough? What size should I get? All the usual thoughts that whizz through our minds as we contemplate a large or expensive purchase.

I made the decision eventually that if I was going to spend that kind of money then I should get the most that I could and went for the 3G + WiFi version and 64GB. It arrived. I spent a few hours organising and setting it out as I wanted it - preloaded applications, social media, books and reading applications, games, genealogy, blog applications and miscellaneous. I am not especially a gamer, but I do like scrabble type games!

Initially, I didn't really use it that much and wondered whether I had not made the right decision, but find that now that I am using for emails mainly and browsing. I am not overly sure about posting to my blog using the iPad, and need to experiment a bit more with this. I do tend to use the notes facility quite a lot, posting ideas or thoughts and then I tweak with my laptop later, after a climb to the third floor of the house where my study is. 

Next purchase is a WiFi printer, scanner and copier that we can print from our iPads. So, currently I am in the browsing and social media phase, but as I get more use to it and we purchase the new printer I am sure that I will produce more. I also use my iPad to read Kindle books. I do have a Kindle, but sometimes find the iPad easier if the book has photos or pictures in the case of cookbooks. 

Currently, I use my iPad and laptop 50:50. Having seen my iPad, my husband purchased his own and we share a keyboard, which was a useful purchase. My husband uses his iPad a great deal more than me for everything, so his ratio is around 70:30. 

With a big overseas trip coming up later in the year I am sure that the iPad will come into its own. If anyone has any tips, please share! One thing I do find especially irritating is the browser - Safari has an irritating habit of closing suddenly. Debate on the iPad mailing list seemed to think that this was indicating the clearing of the history and cookies, but I am not so sure. If anyone has any thoughts please let me know!

4 comments:

  1. I used my Ipad for a trip to Europe and loved it. I did purchase an adaptor that let me upload my photos from my Iphone and also from the SD chip in my camera. I also setup a dropbox account so that when I was at a location with Wifi I could upload my photos incase the Ipad was damaged or stolen.

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  2. Hi Julie. I really enjoyed this post. We have a regular computer and my online phone, and need to buy something new soon. I think for us we will get a laptop because I can do everything with it and it is still portable. My husband has been enjoying the sports chat-rooms about college ball lately, and has upped his time on the computer. We both have books to write, so I think that a good laptop would be the best. Still, if there were any money left over, I think that he would really enjoy an iPad and we could share. I can't read other peoples blogs easily with the tiny print on my phone, but am enjoying checking out my FB and blog comments on it. I hadn't even gotten as far as a wireless printer yet.

    Take care,

    Kathy M.

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  3. My husband got his own iPad, after he saw how much fun I got out of mine! As I bought mine way back he has the newer, thinner, lighter iPad2 - ah well. I don’t have that trouble with Safari, but there are some other irritating things since upgrading to iOs5.

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  4. Interesting questions Julie. I bought my husband a special birthday present of the ipad last year -he so rarely expresses a wish for anything. He does use it but I must admit I commandeer it more than my fair share. I think I'm much more of a consumer than producer with it. I mainly use it for blog reading and books with some emails, and notes thrown in. I have a very lightweight laptop so prefer to use that for serious stuff...but if my study was on the 3rd floor I think the ipad would be very appealing. If we were to get a second tablet I think I"d go an Android....perhaps if we had an ipad 2 that might be less of a difference. I wonder what adaptor AK John was using to upload photos. I'm no lover of i-tunes.

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