Ipad vs. Laptop

Community General Discussions
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1

   A few days ago my trusty laptop died.  This laptop was my main computer for years and it was always great for what I needed it to do.  I used it for browsing the net, programming, music, itunes, etc. and it was used hard and a lot.  I went threw many chargers for it and currently the battery holds no charge at all so it was getting close to the time to start shopping again. Then it died, so I set up a desktop that I am currently using that someone gave me because it needed the power supply replaced.  This desktop I am planning to use for itunes, music, and programming (along with web browseing once in a while) once I get a new internet device.

   So this leads me to the question of should I get an iPad or a laptop?  I know about what laptops can do and mine was great but I have only played with an iPad a few times, so I have a few questions about them.  I have heard a lot of good things about them and there around the same price as a laptop so here are a few of my questions.

1st.Can I upload pictures from an iPad directly to LMR?

2nd.Can I upload videos directly from an iPad to youtube?

3rd.Have you or could you make a post on LMR with it?

And final do you know or have any comments about it or cons/positives about it.

Thanks for any advice,

Joe

2

This is comparing apples

This is comparing apples (the fruit) to oranges. With that said…

I have an Ipad 2 and it is really about what you want to do with it whether or not it is better than a laptop. It is light and easy to bring places. It is great for web browsing, sending email, watching videos, reading books, and some other basic stuff. You can do a little more advanced stuff like video editing, creating documents and presentations. But do not expect it to replace your laptop. Instead of getting a new laptop when mine got old, I got a netbook. I found that I used my laptop mainly as a desktop. (i.e. it sat on my desk plugged in and I used a wireless mouse.) A desktop I think is much better for doing any sort of work on. Really the only reason I just had to have a netbook is for that one occasion when I needed a computer somewhere else but home. So far I have only used it on the chess robot since it is in another room. 

Though I also do not have a smart phone, so I think if you do then what your phone and what the Ipad does will probably overlap in many places. 

So I think if you found that you never really moved your laptop around much to do work then you may not miss it. I find a desktop + Ipad to work for just about everything I do. It is that rare occasion that keeps me from saying the the desktop + Ipad setup can do everything you need. We might as well be saying “tablet” instead of Ipad. Which tablet you want is probably up to personal preference. 

Finally to answer your questions with what I believe to be correct:

1. No

2. Yes

3. Basic comments work. I would not make a post from it. (Some posts simply are not possible)

 

Hope that helps and be prepared for any Apple bashing comments that may follow.

3

I second.

I think Pat covered pretty much everything but I want to hit one point again --One that I didn’t really understand myself. The Ipad is NOT a little computer, it is a big iPhone. It does not run software, it runs apps. Again, it is a big iphone and/or a big iPod Touch. We are a mixed household, PC’s (full size), a PC netbook, a laptop Mac, iPad and iPods so I can safely say I have used pretty much everything. The iPad is an amazing machine, powered by actual magic. The screen works faster than you can move your fingers --faster than you can think about moving your fingers. Video playback is flawless, audio is great, it is awesome at twice the price. That being said, for me, it is just a TV. My wife Kari (who owns it) uses it a LOT for taking notes in class, entering and keeping her clients’ files, all of her business bookkeeping etc. but all of those functions come from the fact that Apps exist to allow her to do these things.

My vote would be for the netbook. I do everything from a MSI Wind netbook and I love it. For 300 bucks you get a fine computer, fast enough for 95% of what you want to do, it lasts 6 hours, is 2lbs and actually fits in your bag. Spend $79.95 on a cheapie LCD monitor to plug in when you get home and you are all set. I don’t think I will ever use another full size machine again.

4

Thanks for the advice guys.

A lot of the time I did use my laptop as a desktop so know I am kind of leaning toward a tablet or netbook.  On an iPad how do you get pictures off it?  I heard you have to upload them to a photo sharing site, is that true?  If I were to get an iPad I would probally use it for a camra for taking pictures of things around my house and of projects and would just leave my real camra for trips.  Also I liked the idea that they’re small.  With my last laptop, when I moved it, my hands would be full with the charger and with the laptop itself.  Also if I brought it any were it was a pain because its cas was like the size of a briefcase.  Now soon I will be heading over to walmart to check’em out.  Thanks again for the advice.

5

Why not get the best of the

Why not get the best of the 2 devices? Take a look at the Samsung 7 convertible tablet… Runs Win7, with touch, has a built in hidden keyboard, it can run as a tablet or a netbook. With this one you can do all you asked, including programming a Picaxe or an Arduino. Can’t do that on an iPad or an Android (yet, as far as I know). To me, I would realy love to have a smaller 7" tablet with Android 3 Honeycomb and be capable to run the Arduino IDE on it. There are leather cases with USB keyboards for them, so I could use it as a netbook too. 

6

I never thought of that…

Wow.  That thing is cool.  I am going to research that.  Thanks.  And its about the same price as a iPad 2 32gb. =)

7

You cannot compare a

You cannot compare a multimedia entertainment device to a laptop. I have both a tablet (acer iconia 500) and a laptop, and Although the tablet is nice, I do miss 99% of the functionality of a real OS. Just wait for a windows 7 or 8 tablet.

8

I’m replying to this review

I’m replying to this review using an Acer Iconia W500 Windows 7 (touch) tablet.  This thing is awesome at 500 bucks, and can be used like a regular PC and includes a detachable keyboard.  It will run Python GUI programs I’ve made for robotics, etc, where an Ipad would be much more of a closed box.  I can also take pictures directly from the device and upload to LMR. This Win7 tablet weighs in a 2 pounds, has a 4-6 hour battery life, and a solid state hard-drive.

Also note that krumlink has a different ACER Iconia tablet, the A500 which runs android and has different hardware.

9

Just to throw out another option.

There is the AlwaysInnovating line of products that include a ‘tablet’ and a keyboard that is removable. The tablet is $299 and if you add a keyboard it is $399. It is capable of running Android, Ubuntu, or their custom distro, along with other linux distros.

10

Experinece the Tablet

Experinece the Tablet feeling on the cheap:

http://www.myefox.com/categories_name-c-1291_890_967_1110?disp_order=1

and have a look at the leather cases with keyboard:

http://www.myefox.com/categories_name-c-1291_890_967_1110?disp_order=1

My point of view:

Although the cheap tablets are nice and work OK, I do not like the fact that you need to plug in that big adapter to get to the USB ports to plug in a Bluetooth or keyboard.

If I were to choose, I would choose a tablet with a built in USB 2.0 port and a separate USB Mini port (device) so you can connect it to the PC and update your OS. For instance, this one:

http://www.myefox.com/android-2-2-7-tablet-cortex-a9-ddr-518mb-800-480-wifi-3g-hdmisensor-p-267261

 

I used to own the 10" ZT180 tablet and I can say that I was happy with the way it worked. I only sold it to get an Android phone (that I lost after 2 months). Now there is version 2 of the tablet with a faster processor and built in webcam. If it also had 2 point touch screen, that would have been great. The differences between a tablet and a phone are:

- phone has built in Bluetooth, tablet not, but a dongle can be used

- phone has built in GPS, most tablets do not

- screen size matters, the bigger, the easier to read

- tablet has faster processor

- phone can make calls, tablet usually not, but can use a 3G modem for internet

 

There are also smaller tablets, 4.3",  that I think might be used as robot brains…

11

That is a cool one.

I just started looking at that one and that is what I have the most interest in at the moment.  I have to research it a little more but so far that is the one at the top of my lists.  Is there anything you dislike about it?

12

I made the mistake of
I made the mistake of getting an iPad. It’s great for the things mentioned above, but just doesn’t allow me to use the complete functionality of the device. I recommend android.

13

Well it doesn’t have a large

Well it doesn’t have a large hard drive or a powerful processor, so stuff like solidworks is probably out of the question.  That being said it has a card reader so its easy to upgrade at least 32GB of storage for media, and although the SSD is only 32GB it will get you by for a ton of basic stuff including holding all of my code, plus its fast, lightweight, and has good battery life due to the SSD.  It also has a better battery life as it uses a dual core 1GHz processor, which seems like a decent compromise between power consumption (battery life) and computing power.

The touchscreen is also a nice feature and works well (capacitive screens work well compared to resistive).  The front and rear video cameras are not great quality but good enough for basic skyping… they may not be great for computer vision but its better than no vision I suppose.  I bought the one for my Mother and I’m thinking about getting two more for myself and my wife, so its not too bad.  I really dig the HDMI mini output for watching hulu, netflix, etc as the graphics card is decent enough to play basic HD video very smooth (but I haven’t tried 1080P yet).

I think the one thing I’ll use it for the most is as an ereader as it has a long battery life and I can read PDFs in portrait mode, which can be set using accelerometers.  I havent tried using accessing the accelerometers for programming it but I’m sure it could be done  if you wanted to, and since it has built in Bluetooth it could be used as a robot controller fairly easy.

14

Thanks everyone for the advice.

Currently I am most interested in a Acer Iconia W500 Windows 7 tablet which doubles as a laptop also.  So far the only negative thing I heard about it is “Its not an iPad.”