Well, I'd love to use my iPad as a laptop replacement but the dumbed-down inflexible operating system makes it difficult. So I'm on team "entertainment device that can do light work".
May I suggest that those who believe a tablet is merely a toy or entertainment device simply don't know how to use it properly? I think I will anyway. I just did.
I productively employ my iPad for work and serious personal business on a daily basis. Not only can it effectively do much of what I can do with a laptop, it does things that most laptops would be incapable of or at best painfully awkward.
I don't hate that it's good for entertainment too.
@joelmw Can you describe your workflow, and the kind of tablet you use? I do have a co-worker who does lots of stuff on an iPad, but I he's also one of the most tech-savvy people in the office. If your stuff is nearly all in the cloud, tablets make a lot of sense.
@dashcloud I do a lot of meetings. I also do GIS. It's definitely all about the cloud and mobility for me. My current tablet is an iPad Air 2 128 GB, with an unlimited cellular plan (though I may have to bring that onto my personal plan's shared data). I used to use a Trent Airbender Keyboard (and it's pretty great), but I'm loving my Zagg Rugged Book. Both work great for typing but also either put the keyboard quickly out of the way and/or allow for quick disconnect (the Zagg uses an ingenious magnetic closure at the hinge). The Zagg also offers some protection, has incredible battery life and on-demand backlighting.
I also spend a fair amount of time at my desk, with spreadsheets and presentations and briefings (et al.) and doing the hardcore GIS and data and document management; I've got a powerful workstation with two biggish monitors. I try to make the most of that processing power and screen real estate (and people are generally overwhelmed by everything I've got spread across the screens and in the background). For me, there's no way that a tablet could replace that. But a laptop couldn't either.
What a tablet and the cloud do is allow me to keep my notes and thoughts together and accessible and to give me access to my critical documents (and at this point those can be in just about any form) when I'm in a meeting or in someone else's office or in the field--and to immediately have access to my notes in digital form as soon as I leave whatever context I was just in.
As for GIS, there are certain things that are really only practical at the workstation anyway. Aside from those, a tablet is arguably the preferred platform. More and more of what we do is in the cloud and there are even an increasing number of analytical tools available there too.
And all of that is in an insanely restricted environment. Virtually every cloud service is blocked in our network, including Evernote and all of the major cloud storage providers. There are occasional chinks I can exploit (sometimes Google Drive works) and I've got FTP and email. I'd be even better if I could still use Dropbox, Evernote, Cubby et al. I've been playing with Quip.
My goto text tool is Simplenote, which I use with both my phone and tablet to constantly scribble everything. We use ESRI, so it's ArcGIS Explorer and Collector and our GIS web site. I can do MS Office of course and PDFs, and routinely edit all of those types on my tablet. I still haven't settled on a drawing app, but that's another thing that's way more functional on a tablet than desktop or laptop.
The other day, I gave a presentation that I had created and edited entirely in Keynote and entirely on my iPad. And that editing continued while the earlier part of the meeting progressed. That would have been way too awkward (socially) on a laptop. And it was a good presentation, if I do say so myself. I displayed via an HDMI cable. If I could get our IT department to loosen up, I could have done it wirelessly, via AppleTV.
Another part of my job is installing and training software on people's desktops. See above about the advantages for impromptu office meetings.
Oh, and part of my vendor management (a couple of weekly meetings plus) is audio-video conferencing and desktop sharing. Again, that's way easier (and obviously mobile) on a tablet.
@dashcloud I type 99% of it. Most of that is with the Zagg keyboard, but I sometimes use the onscreen keyboard. I recently learned of a cool feature in iOS that allows a split keyboard, which is pretty handy sometimes.
I was hopeful about some of the scribble note options and I do own a few styluses, but it's never really caught on for me. Also, it turns out that I hate writing by hand and am generally way more efficient with a keyboard (even though my typing is somewhat unorthodox). I've thought about this a lot lately: even when I was in college (many years ago), my hand would always cramp up filling out a blue book. Yeah, it also had a lot to do with the fact that I always have a lot to say.
Thanks, btw, for putting up with my rambling verbosity. I just kinda dove in and didn't go back and try to structure it or even do much editing.
Love my iPhone, love my Mac Pro, but as far as tablets are concerned, I'm all over Windows. Laptops aren't really my thing, so I'm glad tablets have made it up there in processing power.
@brhfl One of our consultants was showing me his Surface tablet, and I have to say, I'm impressed. I'd be willing to use one as my primary personal non-phone device, especially given that a lot of my documents are in Microsoft format.
Love my Galaxy Note 8.0, Just replaced the battery in fact. not as full functional as a laptop but still a strong more easily portable Laptop alternative. I like it so much that I want a smartphone sized note and a 10 inch one.
That reminds me. Anyone here got a galaxy note smartphone that they aren't using and don't want any more? Pretty Pretty Please?
@narfcake When I spec'ed iPads for my department at work, I made sure that we all have the standard Apple keyboard. I don't think it counts as mechanical, but it's a much nicer, more-like-a-desktop feel and is great for continuous typing. Of course the reality is that I don't use it often, certainly wouldn't carry it around and wouldn't use it away from my desk other than in the most exceptional circumstances.
I used a motion slate pc all through school. I ran matlab and autocad and design suite, had a java an python sdk on it. Took great note an ran my hp emulator on the screen (had to get bifocals so I could see the board and my screen. Imagine my suprise when they killed the damn things and the boat anchor ipads came out and the useless hum major and business wastrels embraced it.
for the fifteen, TEN, Ten commandments!
@eVil
saran-wrap!
Well, I'd love to use my iPad as a laptop replacement but the dumbed-down inflexible operating system makes it difficult. So I'm on team "entertainment device that can do light work".
May I suggest that those who believe a tablet is merely a toy or entertainment device simply don't know how to use it properly? I think I will anyway. I just did.
I productively employ my iPad for work and serious personal business on a daily basis. Not only can it effectively do much of what I can do with a laptop, it does things that most laptops would be incapable of or at best painfully awkward.
I don't hate that it's good for entertainment too.
Of course it's also true that it's not the best tool for every job. But I don't expect a hammer to work well as a screwdriver. Silly me.
@joelmw
@joelmw Can you describe your workflow, and the kind of tablet you use? I do have a co-worker who does lots of stuff on an iPad, but I he's also one of the most tech-savvy people in the office.
If your stuff is nearly all in the cloud, tablets make a lot of sense.
@thismyusername Touche.
@dashcloud I do a lot of meetings. I also do GIS. It's definitely all about the cloud and mobility for me. My current tablet is an iPad Air 2 128 GB, with an unlimited cellular plan (though I may have to bring that onto my personal plan's shared data). I used to use a Trent Airbender Keyboard (and it's pretty great), but I'm loving my Zagg Rugged Book. Both work great for typing but also either put the keyboard quickly out of the way and/or allow for quick disconnect (the Zagg uses an ingenious magnetic closure at the hinge). The Zagg also offers some protection, has incredible battery life and on-demand backlighting.
I also spend a fair amount of time at my desk, with spreadsheets and presentations and briefings (et al.) and doing the hardcore GIS and data and document management; I've got a powerful workstation with two biggish monitors. I try to make the most of that processing power and screen real estate (and people are generally overwhelmed by everything I've got spread across the screens and in the background). For me, there's no way that a tablet could replace that. But a laptop couldn't either.
What a tablet and the cloud do is allow me to keep my notes and thoughts together and accessible and to give me access to my critical documents (and at this point those can be in just about any form) when I'm in a meeting or in someone else's office or in the field--and to immediately have access to my notes in digital form as soon as I leave whatever context I was just in.
As for GIS, there are certain things that are really only practical at the workstation anyway. Aside from those, a tablet is arguably the preferred platform. More and more of what we do is in the cloud and there are even an increasing number of analytical tools available there too.
And all of that is in an insanely restricted environment. Virtually every cloud service is blocked in our network, including Evernote and all of the major cloud storage providers. There are occasional chinks I can exploit (sometimes Google Drive works) and I've got FTP and email. I'd be even better if I could still use Dropbox, Evernote, Cubby et al. I've been playing with Quip.
My goto text tool is Simplenote, which I use with both my phone and tablet to constantly scribble everything. We use ESRI, so it's ArcGIS Explorer and Collector and our GIS web site. I can do MS Office of course and PDFs, and routinely edit all of those types on my tablet. I still haven't settled on a drawing app, but that's another thing that's way more functional on a tablet than desktop or laptop.
The other day, I gave a presentation that I had created and edited entirely in Keynote and entirely on my iPad. And that editing continued while the earlier part of the meeting progressed. That would have been way too awkward (socially) on a laptop. And it was a good presentation, if I do say so myself. I displayed via an HDMI cable. If I could get our IT department to loosen up, I could have done it wirelessly, via AppleTV.
Another part of my job is installing and training software on people's desktops. See above about the advantages for impromptu office meetings.
Oh, and part of my vendor management (a couple of weekly meetings plus) is audio-video conferencing and desktop sharing. Again, that's way easier (and obviously mobile) on a tablet.
@joelmw Thanks for sharing that. For your note-taking, do you type in all of the notes, or do you use a stylus and write in all the notes?
@dashcloud I type 99% of it. Most of that is with the Zagg keyboard, but I sometimes use the onscreen keyboard. I recently learned of a cool feature in iOS that allows a split keyboard, which is pretty handy sometimes.
I was hopeful about some of the scribble note options and I do own a few styluses, but it's never really caught on for me. Also, it turns out that I hate writing by hand and am generally way more efficient with a keyboard (even though my typing is somewhat unorthodox). I've thought about this a lot lately: even when I was in college (many years ago), my hand would always cramp up filling out a blue book. Yeah, it also had a lot to do with the fact that I always have a lot to say.
Thanks, btw, for putting up with my rambling verbosity. I just kinda dove in and didn't go back and try to structure it or even do much editing.
My hammer does..
Love my iPhone, love my Mac Pro, but as far as tablets are concerned, I'm all over Windows. Laptops aren't really my thing, so I'm glad tablets have made it up there in processing power.
@brhfl One of our consultants was showing me his Surface tablet, and I have to say, I'm impressed. I'd be willing to use one as my primary personal non-phone device, especially given that a lot of my documents are in Microsoft format.
@brhfl I still love my iPad though.
Love my Galaxy Note 8.0, Just replaced the battery in fact. not as full functional as a laptop but still a strong more easily portable Laptop alternative. I like it so much that I want a smartphone sized note and a 10 inch one.
That reminds me. Anyone here got a galaxy note smartphone that they aren't using and don't want any more? Pretty Pretty Please?
@Foxborn Sorry, you will have to pry my Note 3
Light work vote here; none of these keyboards have been as good as a desktop keyboard when it comes to continuous typing.
(Are there any mechanical BT keyboards, even?)
@narfcake When I spec'ed iPads for my department at work, I made sure that we all have the standard Apple keyboard. I don't think it counts as mechanical, but it's a much nicer, more-like-a-desktop feel and is great for continuous typing. Of course the reality is that I don't use it often, certainly wouldn't carry it around and wouldn't use it away from my desk other than in the most exceptional circumstances.
I used a motion slate pc all through school. I ran matlab and autocad and design suite, had a java an python sdk on it. Took great note an ran my hp emulator on the screen (had to get bifocals so I could see the board and my screen. Imagine my suprise when they killed the damn things and the boat anchor ipads came out and the useless hum major and business wastrels embraced it.