iPhone v iPad ??

littlepanther

Agreed, it is a bit pricey.

But, I threw my back out a couple of weeks ago, and taking the iPad was easier than the laptop and on this occasion it did the trick, it wont always be a good substitute for the laptop but fortunately this week it was.

humfer

littlepanther wrote: »

The iPad has certainly reduced the amount of time I've spent using my MacBook pro as some things it does are just as good. It is not meant to be a big iPhone and it's not.

You have to use one to see how good it is.

I have written documents on it and emailed in Word and produced spreadsheets and saved in Excel.

I've read a book, not so user friendly on a computer. Used it to demo my work and got two jobs from it.

It also enjoyed using the internet which has worked faster than my Macbook pro, using email which is better than the iPhone, I use the calendar which is better than the iPhone (but synced with it) and it is fast.

I have also used Skype. The maps are bigger and better to use.

There are things I can do only with my laptop but they both compliment each other.

I wish people who have not used one properly, that is not at all or just in store would stop criticising it. Everyone who has used mine loves it.

Didn't take much interest in it until I saw the TV advert the other week and instantly decided its a must have. Have a desktop PC but quite like the idea of having something smaller to do the occasional internet browsing/email plus looking at photos/etc whilst downstairs watching the tv etc... One thing that you mentioned also interested me and its to do with what you can view and edit. Lots of stuff on the internet regarding lack of capability with things like pdf, excel documents. You seem to suggest you can use these? How - do you need a special version of Office?

Of to US in August so at $499 this works out at about £346 which makes it even more of a definate pressy for myself. Will check nearer the time but think UK import tax/duty limit is £390 so should be ok

littlepanther

I downloaded Pages and Numbers both made by Apple, they are part of iWork. They cost £5.99 each and they are both very capable for doing word processing and spreadsheets. I can save in their format, Word, Excel and PDF. I can also edit documents. The other day I had an email with a Word attachment and tapped on Open in Pages whilst viewing the document and I was then able to open it, save and also email as a Word or PDF.

I think they haven't plugged this enough.

It doesn't do macros or mail merge but have been surprised at what you can do, add tables, images, styles, there are lots of templates, I was surprised.

Numbers has loads of functions like you'd find in Excel.

I have been very productive.

I actually think the Internet loads faster than my computer.

All my posts here have been done on the iPad. The keyboard is more than adequate but thinking of getting Bluetooth keyboard as I can now see how useful it is.

Let me know if you need to know more.

RussWWFC

Like anything from Apple, the iPad is very nice to use but for me it is just too expensive for what it is. The lack of flash on websites is my main bugbear (my iPhone would be perfect with that and a camera) and it's pretty locked down in terms of expansion

littlepanther

It is a different experience to the iPhone.

I haven't really been hampered by the lack of flash as lots of websites are accommodating this and using HTML 5.

I'm glad someone if finally taking on Flash as their video was always poorer quality than flash and personally never taken in by flash animation. I like websites that work and relatively simple but with functionality.

Camera not necessary as you wouldn't use something this size to take photos and video calling on mobile devices has never really taken off people see to be ok with it at their desks but not out and about. If you want you can connect iPhone camera via Bluetooth. They'll probably see the iPhone as more of a communication device. But I'd like to see text messaging. I reckon though they will add a camera or accessory for it at some point and add iChat. Possibly on the soon to be announced iPhone.

As far as limitations on what you can install this may stop viruses and poor quality apps getting through, no guarantee but if Apple are applying some quality control then good. There are also loads of apps available and I'm sure more will follow for productivity like publishing to websites etc. I really believe this is just the beginning and a new way of working. We have used menus and mice for a long time and this is so much more intuitive, like the iPhone.

I'd like to see the iPad have multiple accounts for different users.

They also left off the stocks app and calculator but I'm using bloomberg and jumbo calculator which were both free.

I'm happy with it as it is but I think there is more to come and they have fired up the market. The netbook which is rubbish will be long gone soon.

DCFC79

Marty_J wrote: »

One is a mobile telephone, the other is a tablet computer.

If you want something to make phone calls with, don't buy an iPad.

otherwise you would end up like dom joly from trigger happy tv

humfer

littlepanther wrote: »

I downloaded Pages and Numbers both made by Apple, they are part of iWork. They cost £5.99 each and they are both very capable for doing word processing and spreadsheets. I can save in their format, Word, Excel and PDF. I can also edit documents. The other day I had an email with a Word attachment and tapped on Open in Pages whilst viewing the document and I was then able to open it, save and also email as a Word or PDF.

I think they haven't plugged this enough.

It doesn't do macros or mail merge but have been surprised at what you can do, add tables, images, styles, there are lots of templates, I was surprised.

Numbers has loads of functions like you'd find in Excel.

I have been very productive.

I actually think the Internet loads faster than my computer.

All my posts here have been done on the iPad. The keyboard is more than adequate but thinking of getting Bluetooth keyboard as I can now see how useful it is.

Let me know if you need to know more.

Thanks for the update. Can I just check one thing? Can you definately save a file in .xls format? The app store (and all the comments) on itunes seems to state that yes you can import an excel format to view, but you cannot then resave it in an excel format - rather you have to save it in a numbers or pdf format. Not the end of the world if you cannot save in .xls format but would have been nice

littlepanther

Apologies you are correct, I had transferred it to laptop and saved as xls using Numbers in iWork 09. Let's hope they update to do same on iPad.

I'm going to try keynote soon.

There are a number of free apps that have been upgraded to iPad which work so much better like imdb, bloomberg, flixster and wikipanion.