My old laptop crashed and burned the other day. As I was researching replacements, I realized that for what I do with a computer, the ipad2 was the best choice.
I've been dealing with Microsoft frustration for years and have been reluctant to tackle the entirely different apple os. Then it hit me.....DW and I are preparing to full time in our new fiver. Learning a new os shouldn't be scary at all.
Long story short, this device is,IMHO, the greatest thing since sliced bread. We can surf, write, e-read, navigate, play games, calculate, bank, pay bills, buy, sell, listen to music, watch tv and movies, and more. And with os5due out next week, iit will do even more and no longer require interaction with another computer.
now if I could only figure out how to get it to cook breakfast
bjoyce said
08:19 AM Oct 7, 2011
It is funny, there are people who find that a tablet is all they need and others who find it only does some of the job. It is good you had another computer to set it up with since a friend flew out to Oregon and bought one to save the sales tax thinking it would do everything. Her husband had to FedEx her notebook computer out to her so she could get the iPad2 working and after a week she found she would have needed the notebook anyway since the iPad only did about 75% of what she needed. She loves it anyway but she won't be saving weight in her suitcase. I think there will be people who find the Kindle Fire is all they need.
crafter32034 said
08:31 AM Oct 7, 2011
Good point. I did have to use Mary Kay's laptop to get started, but now everything is apps.
OS5 will be the game changer. No reliance at all on any other machine. Everything will be in the cloud.
Terry and Jo said
09:00 AM Oct 7, 2011
(Trying to be facetious here:)
In my opionion, I worry about the "cloud" thing...
....airplanes with propellors fly through them.
(OK. Back to sort of serious.)
I'm of the "old" category, both in age and technology, and thus I find that I am comfortable with Microsoft. After all, I've had little problems with them. I can remember the old Apple (original) computers and have watched the development of both systems, and don't really see the need to change.
Terry
RVPAINTER said
09:06 AM Oct 7, 2011
I await the day that I can get away for Micro-SLOP as I call it. Their software is totally UNTESTED when they bring it to marketplace. I will be buying a new computer-laptop soon and I intend of taking a bite of the APPLE!!!!
Trabuco said
12:01 PM Oct 7, 2011
I have had an ipad2 for approx. 6 months and love it. The one and only downside for me is the lack of a flash player. Although a laptop will be going with me when we travel. Just about everything you can think has an app for the ipad. It's much quicker for me to do banking on the ipad. I feel a bit more secure using apple system as well.
crafter32034 said
03:01 PM Oct 7, 2011
Terry and Jo wrote:
(Trying to be facetious here:)
In my opionion, I worry about the "cloud" thing...
....airplanes with propellors fly through them.
(OK. Back to sort of serious.)
I'm of the "old" category, both in age and technology, and thus I find that I am comfortable with Microsoft. After all, I've had little problems with them. I can remember the old Apple (original) computers and have watched the development of both systems, and don't really see the need to change.
Terry
Terry, to me it's like "which is the better truck, ford or chevy?". There is no right or wrong answer, just personal preference. But I am so done with microsoft.
crafter32034 said
03:05 PM Oct 7, 2011
Trabuco wrote:
I have had an ipad2 for approx. 6 months and love it. The one and only downside for me is the lack of a flash player. Although a laptop will be going with me when we travel. Just about everything you can think has an app for the ipad. It's much quicker for me to do banking on the ipad. I feel a bit more secure using apple system as well.
Lack of flash is an issue. As I understand it, Apple shot themselves in the foot by refusing to come to an agreement with adobe. Oh well.
bjoyce said
05:49 PM Oct 7, 2011
Knowing many people at Microsoft I can assure you there is tons of testing going on. But when you buy a PC you do not get just software from Microsoft, you get a whole lot that was slapped together by the PC manufacturer and lots of those pieces were not tested well. Especially the device drivers, the hardware people don't value their software people highly so many drivers are junk. Then there is all the "bloatware" that is loaded up to reduce the price that is often quite buggy. In the end most still blame Microsoft, but that is the nature of the beast. With a Mac you are paying to get an all-in-one solution since Apple controls what goes in so strongly and also charges more money for it. But we are talking iPad here and that is actually a quite different beast than a Mac. I know Mac people running Android tablets to get Flash. I know PC people with iPads. I know people who won't get an iPhone but they love their Macs. You don't have to go fully Apple or fully not-Apple.
Waggin Tails said
08:05 PM Oct 7, 2011
Being a googler, I just have to pipe in here. I live in the cloud. Bill summarized it well. Terry - Photobucket is in the cloud.
Here are some interesting links about Google's cloud
Before we started FT we needed a new laptop. My DH was a software engineer and was fed up with Microsoft products after our last computer came with Vista loaded on it and a year later when they released Windows 7 they didn't offer an upgrade, you had to buy it at full price, and Vista was a nightmare. Our kids had MACs so we decided to give it a try. We now have both a PowerMAC laptop and an iPad. It is nice to have both and we are very happy we switched to Apple. Hubby said it would be nice to have Flash on it since it is used so widely but he agrees with Steve Jobs that Flash is an inferior product. But even though that is our opinion Rick is right, there is no right or wrong answer and it is great that we have all these choices out there. Laptops, iPads, iPods, iPhones, Smartphones, GPS, e-book readers they all have made the life of a full timer a little easier. In this house hold you can take away our TV and though we'd miss it we would be ok but please don't take away my computer. :)
rclvnv said
11:07 PM Oct 10, 2011
I am so low-tech that it can be frustrating,but I've learned to get over that and ask the questions,no matter how basic. Our six-year old laptop is starting to act up,so it is time to replace it. We full-time and use an ATT Aircard for internet. While I realize a lot of these things are preference,I use ATT because I've never been without service,even above the arctic circle in Alaska,and I've never had even one customer service issue. The I-Pad might make sense for us,but can I use my ATT Aircard with it? As obvious as that might seem to some,I can't seem to get that answer. I see an I-Pad model with ATT 3-G capability. Do I use my SIM card in that device?(if anyone knows). I am an expert witness and forensic consultant,a career I plan to take with me on the road, once our locally based business is over,in June.Internet access is crucial. I get a lot of depositions,pleadings,exhibits,etc from various attorneys I work for.Increasingly,this comes electronically. By and large these are word based or other PC derivative documents. Am I likely to have too much trouble,especially being low-tech,if I go to Apple(either I-Pad or Pro Book)? I find it perplexing,after being one of the first in my peer group all those years ago to have an Apple \\C computer,with the teeny green screen,to have fallen so far behind in technology. I also understand that if I want to stay on top of my consulting career, I have to keep up,so any advice or experience any of you wish to share is very welcome. For example,if I stay with PC,what do I look for (given that we are full-timers)? I see a wide range of prices at various screen sizes and storage capacities. Again, your thoughts will be welcome.
As always,thanks in advance.Richard
NorCal Dan said
03:29 AM Oct 11, 2011
I don't have an iPad so I will let someone else answer those questions. I have an iMac and find that most software written for the PC is also available for the Mac. The Microsoft Office suite, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, are all available for the Mac.
But some programs are not available, so for that I run Parallels. Parallels is a program that allows me to install and run WinXP on my Mac. Both OS's, Mac and PC, are running at the same time, and I can drag'n'drop files from one OS to the other. Any external device connected to either OS can be "seen" by the other OS. When I plug in a USB device I can select which OS it should be connected. It is very handy to have both OS's available.
I was tired of fighting my PC everytime I changed printer or other device, trying to find the latest drivers, etc. So a few years ago I made the switch to Mac and moved on. Now when I buy a device, if it says it's Mac compatible, I know when I plug it in to the Mac it will work.
-- Edited by NorCal Dan on Tuesday 11th of October 2011 03:32:12 AM
bjoyce said
09:14 AM Oct 11, 2011
The iPad is a completely different system than a Mac and does not use the same software, plus it does not have that much "disk" space. If you are going to deal with documents you need a PC or Mac, an iPad is mostly for reading and such, "consuming" as Jack Mayer likes to say. It has only a touch screen so the keyboard is on screen, though you can get external keyboards. You can't put a USB aircard in an iPad, but it can use wifi if you end up getting a 3G router that supports the aircard. You will need a USB aircard for anything new in Macs, PCs or 3G routers, if your old one is PCMCIA you will have to get a new one. Check with your work if a Mac will do the job, it probably will but they are about twice the price or more as a PC (you can get usable PC notebooks for $300 sometimes on deals and we saw one for $400 at Sams Club yesterday).
BTW: My first computer was an Apple IIe. I added a lot of stuff on to that computer including Z80 and M68000 cards so I could run CP/M and learn Pascal, C, 6502, Z80 and M68000 assembler.
crafter32034 said
10:24 AM Oct 11, 2011
Richard. With the professional requirements you describe, I think a Mac would be a better device for your needs. While you can purchase the ipad2with wifi and 3G (no air card needed), it is not a productivity machine yet.
There is some really good advice here from some tech oriented folks.
Trabuco said
12:55 PM Oct 11, 2011
I use my ipad2 for email, web surfing, music and pictures. With the 3G option it's nice to take it along to the store, park, beach or wherever. It's great for taking trips on the mtorocycle, fits almost anywhere.
bjoyce said
07:45 PM Oct 11, 2011
I guess I was not clear. If a six year old computer is fast enough about any new PC or Mac will be fast enough, even the notebook specials we see close to Christmas. Last year my sister-in-law bought a netbook (10" notebook) at Wal-Mart for $199 at an after Christmas sale and it is working fine for her. We are now at the point where what most people want to do with a computer is easily doable on any new machine since computers have continued to get faster with more memory and hard drive space. I do expect tablet computers like the iPad, Android, whatever Amazon comes up with eventually, to do what most people want. But right now they are mostly being built to interact with the internet and play games, the companies are only now starting to look at making them useful as more general purpose computers. That touch screen and using solid state memory instead of mechanical hard drive does drive up the price, but it will come down. As John Dvorak says in a few years you will get what is today a tablet computer rolled up like a piece of paper in your breakfast cereal. Technology marches on.
rclvnv said
04:56 PM Oct 12, 2011
I get just what Bill is saying.We're looking at two PC's that Costco has,both in store and online,which should do the trick.Price is right,too! Many thanks
Waggin Tails said
09:44 PM Oct 13, 2011
The main reason we have an IPAD and Verizon MiFi (3G/4G) is so we can read the display when we are searching Google maps for places to stop. As an example, as we approach an unfamiliar town, we may want to stop at Starbucks. My phone can find a Starbucks faster than Obama can spend money but the problem is reading the map on small display on the phone. Our iPad solves that problem. Also, the iPad is smaller than a laptop so we use it when we are walking though towns. In essence, I consider the iPad as an extension of our computers not a replacement.
Trabuco said
03:36 PM Oct 14, 2011
Well said Jerry.......that's what I was trying to say!
Jack Mayer said
06:08 AM Oct 15, 2011
All the tablets are best viewed as an extension of your main computing device - whether you use an Android or iOS tablet. They simply can not replace a laptop for most people. Maybe some day, but not right now. At least IMO.
I'm holding out hope that Google will get it right in the next release. There has been improvement for the tablets, but they have a ways to go before they equal an iPad. Although the underlying OS seems to have more potential than iOS in its current form. We will see. The handsets are just "killing" the iPhone in the market - but not the tablets.
kb0zke said
08:27 PM Oct 21, 2011
That's why we don't have an iPad yet. When we go FT, we'll probably be able to get along with a pair of iPads. By then they will probably be able to as much, if not more, than our MacBook or Mac Mini can do now.
This summer we experimented with both a 3G stick plugged into the laptop and a GPS on a cell phone. The two of them, working together, seemed to be the best for us, but that gets pretty expensive. Being able to zoom in on an interchange using Mapquest or Google Maps while having the GPS tell us what was coming was very nice. Having the GPS "complain" when we pulled off the highway for fuel was not so nice. We quickly learned to shut it off before we went looking for the gas station.
I think there will be people who find the Kindle Fire is all they need.
(Trying to be facetious here:)
In my opionion, I worry about the "cloud" thing...
....airplanes with propellors fly through them.
(OK. Back to sort of serious.)
I'm of the "old" category, both in age and technology, and thus I find that I am comfortable with Microsoft. After all, I've had little problems with them. I can remember the old Apple (original) computers and have watched the development of both systems, and don't really see the need to change.
Terry
But we are talking iPad here and that is actually a quite different beast than a Mac. I know Mac people running Android tablets to get Flash. I know PC people with iPads. I know people who won't get an iPhone but they love their Macs. You don't have to go fully Apple or fully not-Apple.
Being a googler, I just have to pipe in here. I live in the cloud.
Bill summarized it well.
Terry - Photobucket is in the cloud.
Here are some interesting links about Google's cloud
Google container data center tour
Google Server Farm
I am so low-tech that it can be frustrating,but I've learned to get over that and ask the questions,no matter how basic. Our six-year old laptop is starting to act up,so it is time to replace it. We full-time and use an ATT Aircard for internet. While I realize a lot of these things are preference,I use ATT because I've never been without service,even above the arctic circle in Alaska,and I've never had even one customer service issue. The I-Pad might make sense for us,but can I use my ATT Aircard with it? As obvious as that might seem to some,I can't seem to get that answer. I see an I-Pad model with ATT 3-G capability. Do I use my SIM card in that device?(if anyone knows). I am an expert witness and forensic consultant,a career I plan to take with me on the road, once our locally based business is over,in June.Internet access is crucial. I get a lot of depositions,pleadings,exhibits,etc from various attorneys I work for.Increasingly,this comes electronically. By and large these are word based or other PC derivative documents. Am I likely to have too much trouble,especially being low-tech,if I go to Apple(either I-Pad or Pro Book)? I find it perplexing,after being one of the first in my peer group all those years ago to have an Apple \\C computer,with the teeny green screen,to have fallen so far behind in technology. I also understand that if I want to stay on top of my consulting career, I have to keep up,so any advice or experience any of you wish to share is very welcome. For example,if I stay with PC,what do I look for (given that we are full-timers)? I see a wide range of prices at various screen sizes and storage capacities. Again, your thoughts will be welcome.
As always,thanks in advance.Richard
I don't have an iPad so I will let someone else answer those questions. I have an iMac and find that most software written for the PC is also available for the Mac. The Microsoft Office suite, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, are all available for the Mac.
But some programs are not available, so for that I run Parallels. Parallels is a program that allows me to install and run WinXP on my Mac. Both OS's, Mac and PC, are running at the same time, and I can drag'n'drop files from one OS to the other. Any external device connected to either OS can be "seen" by the other OS. When I plug in a USB device I can select which OS it should be connected. It is very handy to have both OS's available.
I was tired of fighting my PC everytime I changed printer or other device, trying to find the latest drivers, etc. So a few years ago I made the switch to Mac and moved on. Now when I buy a device, if it says it's Mac compatible, I know when I plug it in to the Mac it will work.
-- Edited by NorCal Dan on Tuesday 11th of October 2011 03:32:12 AM
BTW: My first computer was an Apple IIe. I added a lot of stuff on to that computer including Z80 and M68000 cards so I could run CP/M and learn Pascal, C, 6502, Z80 and M68000 assembler.
I get just what Bill is saying.We're looking at two PC's that Costco has,both in store and online,which should do the trick.Price is right,too! Many thanks
In essence, I consider the iPad as an extension of our computers not a replacement.
I'm holding out hope that Google will get it right in the next release. There has been improvement for the tablets, but they have a ways to go before they equal an iPad. Although the underlying OS seems to have more potential than iOS in its current form. We will see. The handsets are just "killing" the iPhone in the market - but not the tablets.
This summer we experimented with both a 3G stick plugged into the laptop and a GPS on a cell phone. The two of them, working together, seemed to be the best for us, but that gets pretty expensive. Being able to zoom in on an interchange using Mapquest or Google Maps while having the GPS tell us what was coming was very nice. Having the GPS "complain" when we pulled off the highway for fuel was not so nice. We quickly learned to shut it off before we went looking for the gas station.