Discussion on:

I discovered a third use for the iPad

Link to original post:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hiner/i-discovered-a-third-use-for-the-ipad/8328

I think the real question here is whether the tablet hardware and software provides better options than a traditional laptop or an iPad. If I were a civil engineer inspecting a bridge, I could use the web camera in my tablet to take a snapshot of the bridge, fold my screen flat, use OneNote to record specific notes on areas of concern directly on the image, and add tags to compile information regarding critical areas. From OneNote I can create tasks in Outlook, assign work, and more. The outcome of this capability is safer bridges. Do you think that's valuable? I think we all know the answer to that question.

I thought the webcam on the new ipad was low res and without a flash, limits it's use for engineers. They can't even take a photo on their non apple phone, which will probably be hires and have a flash, and bluetooth it to the ipad

No but you could use a better camera with an SD card and use the SD card adapter that is available for the 30pin connector. I use it for proofing pictures with clients all the time and it is great. (I am a part time photographer) Under 40 bucks and any engineer should be using something beter than a phone for taking picks that are going to be usable anyway.

Worth the extra $400 over an inexpensive smart phone that can do the same thing? My take on it is that the iPad is just an oversized phone that won't fit in your pocket.

I'm addicted to high-end smartphones, so if I could use a good smartphone rather than my iPad I certainly would. iPad is considerably larger than a smartphone and doesn't fit in a pocket, for sure. It's not that my recent smartphones were underperformers, I've recently carried Blackberry Curve, iPhone, Palm Pre, Blackberry Tour, HTC EVO 4G, and Nexus S. All arguably top-of-the line at the time. Before that I had a long succession of Palm Treos and carried a Palm handheld for 10 years as well. But you know what? There are times when a 10" display is absolutely necessary. The huge 4" display on my EVO or Nexus S (Sammy's OLED displays, like on my Nexus S, are absolutely STUNNING) is certainly a good deal better than on my old Treos, but it's still tiny for middle-aged eyes for more than a quick peek at something.

So, yes, it's worth the extra $400 over even a NOT INEXPENSIVE smartphone--my recent smartphones, the EVO and Nexus S, have retailed at $600 when I purchased them. I do use a wifi ONLY version of the iPad. I see no reason to pay for it to have it's own internet connection when I can use the hotspot on the phone for quick and easy access.

for a smartphone either. I usually do the 2 year contract thing which levels the playing field. Had I been presented with paying the actual cost of any smartphone, I would currently be using a garbage freebee phone (like the razor).

Smartphone=smart-people
iPhone=genius
razor= dumb

It's Razr, Genius!

Smartphones have their place and so does the iPad, strive as we might to find it, there isn't a one-size-fits-all product on the market yet and until one can behave like Dr Who's Tardis there won't be. Everything will be a compromise in some respects, so we use whatever is best for our circumstances. hostgator coupon

We don't care what you have in your pocket! The way I see it, you'll buy a Xoom (249.1 x 167.8 x 12.9 mm) and TRY to get it into your pocket, good luck with that!

But that doesn't make any more sense than your Apple fashion statement, or your man-purse chihuahua.

And I quote:

"One my biggest complaints with the iPad is that there isn???t a decent word processing app for taking notes, writing letters/memos, building basic documents, etc. Apple???s Pages app is a little too complicated than it needs to be and apps like iA Writer are nice but almost a little too bare bones. "

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hiner/blackberry-playbook-review-the-perfect-tablet-for-two-kinds-of-people/8213?tag=mantle_skin;landing

This was what you said in the article you wrote about the Playbook just a few days ago, so what made you change your mind on the iPad?

I still prefer the PlayBook's word processing app to anything on the iPad. For local documents, it is superior. However, the PlayBook also doesn't have Evernote or Dropbox (or a word processing app that can sync to Dropbox like iA Writer). That's the difference.

I don't own an IPAD. But after seeing the *free* version of Nuance/Dragon/Naturally Speaking app in action on the IPAD v1, and a handwriting/note taking app, I thought that the IPAD would be a huge help to those who lose post-its, etc. The clincher is how well it can sync with other tools.

You're still forgetting "Paperweight"
And that's OS-independent, any tablet will do.

just saying... we should be paperless by now and save the forests

The senseless misuse of electrons...

I read somewhere that there's a shortage of electrons now. I'm absolutely positive.

You're just being negative!

It's absolutely, positively the best kind out there!

Too funny!
Going back to OneNote... just another option for note-taking. I use my android tablet for not taking much the same way Chip describes. One other way I use it is for remoting.

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You get to hang out with the positive people at the centre of things.

pine forests are planted for harvesting, much like wheat. they are a crop and perform their function in harmony with nature. fast growing soft wood is good for the planet and helps to eat up that excess CO2 we're all worried about.

It's not that "we all are worried about" CO2??? I'm not worried about it in the least. Do some research of your own and you'll see there are LOTS of people (and yes, a lot of scientists too) who aren't buying into the whole "man-made" global warming cr@p, but that's another subject all together.

On the subject of planted trees, I'm right there with ya. There are no forests that are being cut down for paper, or boxes, etc (at least not due to America's consumption of Paper). The's an industry which is on it's way out thanks to the "let's go green" movement. Funny how going green is actually doing the opposite, at least in this case.

Don't get me wrong, I love me some iPad and I use it all the time. But it has nothing to do with ACTUALLY being "green" (which isn't actually green, but I digress).

How much does it cost to make paper and a pen in comparison to an iPad? Keeping in mind pen & paper isn't upgraded year on year, doesn't require power to operate it, and doesn't need to be shipped to a dozen places in order to manufacture it. Probably the accessories for an iPad produces more CO2 than pen & paper... sure costs less too.

It's like all those silly celebrates boasting they are doing their bit for the environment who buy brand new Toyota Prius's... only to realise it produces far more CO2 to manufacture and run than used 4x4!

Your point would make much more since if replacing a pen & paper were all the iPad (or any other tablet for that matter) was used for, but in fact that's not the case. And while "note taking" may be a major use (for some), odds are it's an add-on use where, already having the iPad/tablet affords the ability to not use pen & paper. The costs associated with the manufacture and use of the iPad/tablet was already there regardless of whether it eliminated the pen and paper, therefore the elimination of P&P is a net gain. That's an entirely different situation.

How about the elimination computers and tablets have had on the reduction of newspapers (and now magazines and books thanks to the iPad/Kindle/Nook/etc). How much does it cost to produce and deliver one Sunday newspaper? A lot more than you think. They only cost $1.50 (or so) because of advertisers. Think of how much less electricity, paper, fuel, etc are used to produce newspapers alone these days because of computers and tablets. And, even more so now with books and magazines thanks to tablets.

Let's not forget about movies. I use to spend a couple of bucks in gas just to run to the video store to rent a movie (and back to return it) plus the cost of the movie. Now I don't have to go anywhere and I can watch a movie right on my iPad (which I actually do a lot when I travel). How much less is being spent on fuel, tires, wear and tear on vehicles, etc. now thanks to technology (and again more so because of tablets)?

How about mailing letters (email), developing of film (digital camera), maps, long distance (Skype/iChat/etc) those are just some of the things that technologies have reduce the overall "costs" of, and the iPad is making those reductions even greater every time someone new puts one into use. What about increased productivity. Doing more and doing it quickly makes the costs associated with tables even less of a factor as well.

Oh, and I beg to differ on whether or not pen and paper have to be "upgraded". Pens run out of ink so they do get "upgraded" every now and agin, and they get lost so there is a "replacement" factor to figure in. And paper.. paper is more or less a single use item so it's constantly being replaced. Not to mention, try writing at night without the use of power (lights out please), but then in the case of power odds are the lights would be on regardless so we are back to a nullification of that cost.

The argument against the iPad and other tablets due to their "costs" is as full of wholes as a block of baby swiss cheese.

Not all pens get upgraded. I only use fountain pens. Other than a pencil, i do not write with any other kind of pen.

The only thing I have to buy is ink (it's bulletproof, meaning it can not be erased from paper). One bottle costs me $13 and lasts for over 2 years.

You're recommending fountain pens with "bulletproof" ink rather than tablets? Good luck with that.

This is not an ad, but I've recently been using EverNote instead of OneNote. EverNote still needs some polish, but is serving my needs pretty well with the "free" edition. I've tried OneNote's sync feature but have found it to be less reliable than EverNote. Unless I've missed something withOneNote I find the EverNote Blackberry applet indespensible. Now I can take my notes anywhere my phone goes! It is also easier to get to the BB camera and Voice Recorder via EverNote. As long as my data is kept availble, private, and backed up, I'm ready for "Cloud computing". The iPad and other tablets may have their niche, but I believe that phones will eventually be all a person needs and wants to carry.

I use OneNote extensively on my laptop and use MobileNoter on both the iPad and the iPhone.
It allows me to use the OneNote notebooks in a manner which is consistent with the PC look and feel. MobileNoter is an indispensible tool for OneNote users.

Ed Leffler
http://www.lefflerlabs.com

but a 4x4 is a just a senseless waste of space generally.

and specifically, you seem to be a victim of advertainment. Factor in the design and development costs, plus manufacturing, plus financing, plus maintenance, plus insurance, plus - what else ya got? ... finally, factor in your fuel cost. Now, figure your miles per dollar. My twelve-year-old 4x4 Suburban kicks the dogshit out of your Prius. Oh, and unless yout Prius can fly, you're gonna have a tough time getting from the highway to my house - you might make it if you can get your ground clearance up to around 12" or so. My iPad says keep the Suburban awhile yet - it's only got 250,000 miles on it.

Well, since even a 4-door Jeep Wrangler takes up less space than a Prius and is significantly more maneuverable, I could argue that statement. A good driver can even get decent gas mileage out of it, which is the only advantage a Prius has.

And your pens last forever?

I agree that many "green" routes aren't really, but really...

The whole "anthropomorphic climate change" movement is simply a way to get us to buy into "cap and trade" again but that doesn't make a used 4x4 a better idea than a Prius for everyday driving.

... then send it in for recycling.

The climate change thing is pretty much a scientifically accepted fact that was clearly emphasized back in 2001 during the week that civil aircraft were grounded in the US which disrupted weather forecasts across the country. Temperatures were as much as 5 degrees below forecast in many areas and certain weekly rain patterns failed due to lack of 'seeding'.

That said, a 4x4 can still be a better idea since it's far less expensive to purchase and maintain. The gas savings currently is negligible when compared to our country's overall gas usage--the few thousand Priuses on the road simply can't make that much of a difference and they certainly don't save money on purchase or service, so they're really not effective for the owner either. Until EVERY new vehicle is electric--and I mean fully electric--we really won't see that much of a savings on a national basis.

And that brings up my final point: A tablet is more like that 4x4 than a Prius. It's more capable in many ways that the tiny smart phone because it offers not only the mobility of the smart phone but unlike the smart phone is usable for productive purposes due to its larger size which makes annotating documents and marking checklists on the move much easier. There are many, many ways a tablet can be more useful than a clamshell device, with the right software.

Readable ??? Usable ??? Recyclable ??? Sustainable ??? Biodegradable!

Do you know that your tablet costs you more than an half-ton of water to produce and deliver it, that despite of the promisses made by manufacturers, almost nothing is recycled as all finishes in disposal areas that will be permanently polluted, contaminating waters, that will create unstable soils, that will be rapidly ruined by erosion, filling the beds of rivers, killing fishes or making them toxic to eat.

Don't believe in this urban legend. Computers, whatever their forms, have never saved trees or helped reduce the consumption of paper, water and energy. They have instead increased the activities in advertizing and long-distance worldwide commerce, rarefaction of resources, reduction of cultivable soils worldwide, and desertification. In fact computers have only created one thing : more administration, isolation of individuals, virtualization of relationships so that you now never know who you are talking too, and you are never liable of what you or your contacts are doing, because you will almost never meet him again.

Well, don't say that I don't like computers, but I will never pretend that it is ecological. Writing on a paper notebook or agenda certainly uses MUCH less paper than using any kind of computer with a printer that can only use free new sheets of papers and wastes most of the inks you buy for it (especially ink jet printers). And whatever you do on computers, you still need printing, because no computer is reliable enough to preserve the data stored on it, and the way they work is by contantly needing you to replicate the data, and having difficulties to recollect and manage this anonymous data, or secure it against unwanted eyes.

In addition all computers are born to live not more than 3 years. And each time you change your device, you loose part of your data or access to it, or ability to fully interoperate with it as you did before. So not only you constantly loose data, but you can't avoid it from being leaked and never know later where it will be used (and only very large companies, that are highly connected to lots of people and network through the internet, constantly profit of this data, only to propose you "customized" products that in fact don't match your current demand or changing way of life).

Good grief, Philippe. You may be right in some respects, but do you have to sound quite so fatalist?

Oh, and if you want your new PC to "interpolate" more like your old one, invest a few bucks in a copy of Symantec's Backup Exec System Recovery and use the "Restore Anywhere" feature. I'm sure you'll find that moving to a new PC becomes MUCH less painful when all you have to do is install the drivers (assuming OS compatibility from place to place). Otherwise use the free Transwiz software. I move workstations from XP to Win7 all the time, despite having to install all your software again, your user profile moves almost seamlessly.

what's wrong with fatalism? I rather like it.

How can you say that "...almost nothing is recyclable..."?
I'll grant that in the past water was wasted the way you describe and may, in some places, still be used that way. However, most modern manufacturing facilities are much, much cleaner with water use, even painting enamels are recycled out of the water and either re-used or sent elsewhere for a different purpose. That "... half ton of water..." you mentioned is used for far more than one single device today.

Computers do, however, save on many consumables, reducing the need to travel (many people now telecommute rather than driving to work while cross-country meetings can now be held in 'virtual' conference rooms rather than forcing people to drive of fly hundreds or thousands of miles for a face-to-face discussion.) I will grant that paper use is up, but what you may be unaware of is the fact that most paper mills use pulpwood from groves specifically grown for that purpose while these big logging operations you see taking out old-growth forests or swamp logging or whatever are after specific kinds of wood for construction purposes. Our houses are using more forests than paper does.

I will argue your third statement, too: "Writing on a paper notebook or agenda certainly uses MUCH less paper than using any kind of computer..." because I can guarantee you're not going to print out the statements you just made here, which immediately saves a minimum of one sheet of paper (assuming two-sided printing) and quite honestly the majority of the work done on a computer never sees paper until the project is finished or is needed at a location where computer access is limited. I personally have been working on a series of novels that, despite numerous editing and re-writings have in most cases met paper only a single time if that often. The computer itself may not be as reliable as it could be, but that data can be saved to other media than paper which won't force you to waste all your time re-entering the data when you repair/replace that computer. With OS X Lion, even the document backups will be fully automated, not relying on any particular application or your own fallible memory to do it or not.

Finally, not all computers are as limited as you say. One brand in particular builds their computers for a lifespan of a minimum of three years and very frequently last far longer. In my own case I operate 3 desktop computers that range from 4 years to 7 years old and two laptops that range from 6 years to 10 years old. Interestingly, I don't have to constantly fiddle with registries or other frequent maintenance and they all function just as well today as they did when new--even the 10-year-old laptop. It takes almost nothing to back up your data to optical disk which, for now, is the standard archiving medium and when that medium changes then it will be easy enough to transfer it to that new medium before the old one disappears from disuse. The concept of moving your data into the 'cloud' may even eliminate the need for physical backups at all, though for the moment I don't plan to trust it all that much.

My point is that your arguments have very little real truth to them--you're fear-mongering is falling on deaf ears, or rather more informed minds.

What I was thinking the moment I clicked the link.

Most genius, if I do say so.

I can't imagine using one of those. I've got an ipad with bluetooth keyboard, but carrying both things into the room seems a nuisance. I could see using a stylus (especially if they'd train the thing to read Gregg Shorthand!) but I can't get happy about the on-screen keyboards.

A keyboard case is probably your best bet. I've got a Logitech ZAGGmate, but there are a few of them on the market now.

aren't you then back to a laptop configuration?

I certainly can see how some people have a problem with virtual keyboards, but I find typing with the iPad's keyboard to be pretty close to the same (speed-wise) as using a standard keyboard on my laptop. At least it is for me. The reason is that the auto-correct is so good with the iPad that even though I type slower and do make more mistakes, the auto-correct makes up a lot for the slowdown due to the virtual keyboard. You do have to watch out for the words that auto-correct choses though, it can get embarrassing if you're not careful.