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Is a tablet computer worth it

chris_tribble

By chris_tribble
in Customer Forum

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bill

bill

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Galaxy Tab 8.9 here. Android simply does the job without having to compromise. Ultimately a tablet is a personal choice and has already been said you don't know you need it until you try it. Mine is my primary business machine but also my means of web and media consumption when relaxing at home. I use it as a kindle, a browser, a source of live tv, video and music. It organises my life, holds my contacts, provides me with a seamless experience and is generally ideal - your mileage may vary.

 

Regards,

 

Bill

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flyalf

flyalf

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I understand what you are saying and couldn't disagree with you more. PDAs failed because the were not the iPad (technology was not advanced enough), I had an Android up until a couple years ago, will not be going back. It's not hype it is reality. That is what drives my enthusiasm for them, what they do for me every day. When I am hiking through the woods looking at a topographic map, or flash my boarding pass getting on a plane, see which ride at Disney world has the smallest line, find directions to a new restaurant, end an discussion of some details. Pull up a scientific paper while in the doctors waiting room, leaf through National Geographic or Photography magazine, read some of the book I am currently reading, look up a technical detail in my Leica manual, just go over the photos I took over the last year, review the three or four forums I have been following, make several approvals for work, plan our next vacation, listen to one of my 1,500 albums on line with my bluetooth. What a newbie would do, would be completely differerent, because their interests are different. I would not recommend a cheap notebook, only and iPad. I would more likely hesitate to recommend my Nikon D800 or Leica X2 way before hesitating recommending an iPad. No, I don't work for Apple and have spent most of my carreer trying to keep Apple out of the corporatation. But they finally did it. JD

 

I would have to agree on those that summarizes the pads for something you use to consume. When pads starting arriving I did see a few people bringing them to work, and in particular for meetings. Now, I prefer co-workers that produce, not consumes. Nowadays I hardly see pads at my (ICT) work premises nor meetings because most people have realized that there are better tools to produce results.

 

Pads/mobile phones might be better than nothing if you for some reasons don't want to carry a PC, but they are very poor substitutes. Thats why I read this post on my Galaxy in the airport queue, and responded from my laptop later. Even for such small production as contributing to a forum the pads are not much better than nothing for me.

 

Pads as photographic tools to produce something? Give me a break, sorry ;).

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JDFlood

JDFlood

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Generally I agree with what you say. In general, they excel at info presentation. I certainly agree that they replace nothing. While they remove much of the need to sit upright and stare at a PC. I prefer to read my email on my iPad at work and respond. Why? Because my response is usually yes or no, or OK. There are many people at work, whose primary role is not output but input... Like managers, so scheduling, email, technical manuals ( you can read before a meeting in what used to be dead time). Of course the biggest role in business is with application specific software for your industry. I have seen the iPad used as the query tool to the worlds largest database. One company just ordered 8,500 for this purpose. My point is, for business it depends on what you do and how you use them. Go to a Burberry where sales associates have them with customers profiles, full history, preferences, recommendations for complimentary products. Tens of millions will be sold for business, but not just naked without business software. But none of that is relevant here. As a personal device it can fit in in different ways. I have corresponded with some folks that use it in their workflow. I don't, I leave that to my 6 core, 16gb ram, 8 TB machine. But I do preview photos, keep a portfolio, show friends. And sometimes when i travel i do process pictures I take. Heck, sometimes I take the picture with the IPad and process it, or with my phone. They are so flexible and powerful they fit in to different people's lives very differently. JD

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elgenper

elgenper

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Now, our Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs has publicly stated that an iPad is the only working tool he needs........:confused:

 

My problem must be that I´m not a member of our Cabinet, since I´ve found that I use my iPad solely to keep up (sort of..) with my e-mail and a few Internet sites when traveling. Also, I use the Maps a lot (I´ve resisted upgrading to iOS 5, so I still have the usable version of Maps on it).

 

At home, I mostly play Sudoku on it. Photography? You´re kidding.....;)

 

And, when it reaches the end of its ´useful´ life, I´ll be sure to get a MacBook Air!

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chris_tribble

chris_tribble

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There's an interesting split here. I have a friend in Mexico who's retired and loves to have the Economist and the Guardian via his iPad ... a consumption model, but one where an electronic device allows you to do something that would be more difficult otherwise. His wife has her cookbooks on it and they manage to share...

 

Production wise, they use iPad's in the Mayfair Leica store for stocklists and for client demonstrations and I've a number of pro friends who use them for portfolio presentation and for backup on the move ... This is more how I see myself using one - though a daily newspaper for gaps between sessions with clients would be nice too!

 

We'll see...

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AlanJW

AlanJW

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Chris, you have put your finger on it. The tablets are mostly for consumption and they are very good at that. They are also good for what I would call presentation -- showing your portfolio for example. As a "production" device for editing photos or even creating documents, or field backup a real computer will be superior.

 

I did not run out to buy an Ipad when they arrived, but eventually did and have no regrets. Books via Apple or Amazon are great. You can carry a whole library. I also have pdfs of all my camera manuals as sometimes you really do need to look something up. I also have pdfs of all my stereo gear for the same reason.

 

I do not think tablets are sufficient for backup or daily review because Raw files are too large and as a practical matter you're only going to be able to see the embedded jpeg.

 

The fact is they are not a Swiss Army Knife capable of everything. But they are very useful and especially great for doing some web browsing away from your computer.

 

I will not opine on Apple vs Android vs. Microsoft. I happen to be an Apple person and like the easy integration and synchronization but the other products are getting better at that too. The competition is very good for the consumer.

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