How I use the iPad

It’s been close to a year since I purchased my iPad, so I thought I’d post a short piece reflecting upon how I have ended up using it.

Things I tried that didn’t really work:

1. Word processing. – The keyboard is OK for typing short little things but it is just too cumbersome to try to write anything substantial. I think that even if I had the bluetooth keyboard it still wouldn’t be a good solution for word processing. Selecting text, copying and pasting, and even just trying to insert text at a different position in the document is just too difficult at this time.

2. Note taking – I tried taking the iPad to a few meetings for the purpose of note taking. It was a novelty but ultimately it is just easier to take notes on paper and then transcribe them on the laptop later.

Things I tried that really work:

  1. Reading the news paper. I use the Pressreader app which gives me access to 1700 newspapers from around the world for $30 per month. I generally read through the Vancouver Sun, Province, and 24 H, and the Washington Post every morning before I go to work.
  2. Reading books. (on the Kindle app – not iBooks)
  3. Watching Movies in bed. I use Web Lite TV to be able to stream my entire iTunes movie collection to my iPad. This effectively turns the iPad into my bedroom TV. I also use the Netflix app which works quite well when I want to watch a movie or TV show that I don’t currently have in my personal collection.
  4. Facebook in bed. Rather than use a Facebook App, I just added the Facebook site to my home screen (so it gets an icon and all and acts like an app). I much prefer checking facebook on my iPad to logging in on my computer.
  5. Reading Email in bed – I check my email from bed on the iPad. This allows me to make a mental inventory of things that I need to reply to. Short replies I will make on the iPad directly, but generally I’ll go to a computer to write more detailed replies.
  6. Browsing the web in bed. It’s just easier to use an iPad than a laptop in bed. And it’s pretty damn easy to browse the web on the iPad.

The iPad has secured a permanent place in my life – though it hasn’t threatened to replace the laptop in the foreseeable future. Of course, this is what Apple intended when they designed it.

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