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Can The iPad Replace My Laptop?

Let me first say that this is my first time writing something of this length on my iPad, so I will give my impressions of this experience at the end. I am using the Wordpress for iPad application to create this, and I won't fault the iPad for the drawbacks of this application... And let me tell you, it has many.

My laptop I got when I entered college was a top of the line IBM t43p, before Lenovo started making the thinkpad series. I really liked that computer until it could hardly run XP. I installed ubuntu on it and it can barely run that now. I needed a laptop replacement. I have a desktop which I use for all my heavy lifting. I have a laptop mostly for casual Internet browsing, talking to friend on aim, etc. I weighed the pros and cons of getting a MacBook, a netbook, and an iPad. In the end I decided on the iPad because it seemed to fit in with exactly what i would use it for. Also, I have been impressed with the iPhone as a gaming platform, and knew that the iPad would likely see similar growth.

I expected the iPad browsing experience to feel very similarity the iPhone, because it's just a big iPod touch, right? Wrong, the extra horsepower loads web pages a lot faster, and the pages feel even better to zoom in and out on, or scroll through. I am impressed by how nice the experience with the iPad is. Everything feels smooth and responsive. Only a very few times have I noticed hangups or lag, and this is only during third party apps, such as this one. Interacting with a smaller screen using the tips of your fingers works great. I have hated touch pads and those little rubber nipples on laptops ever since I got my first one five years ago. This just makes for a much better interaction when a mouse isn't around.

The standard apple apps have been redone, showing multiple panels at once. For example when browsing email there is always a sidebar displaying email, rather than the email taking up the entire page. This is definitely a nice addition. Also, a lot of these iPad applications seem to be retooled so that the iPad can be oriented in any way. A lot of apps on the iPhone were restricted to a single orientation. A few apps that were standard on the iPhone are gone, like the stocks and weather app, I'm not sure why. Luckily these can be replaced with free apps that are better than the iPhone standard counterparts.

The real focus here is, can this replace my laptop? After one full day with it I think it's doing a good job. Also I'll likely play more games on my iPad than I would have on a laptop, only because the iPad will likely get exclusive games, and the games don't require a mouse to be played effectively.

So far today I woke up, watched Lost using ABCs app, which blew me away with how well that worked. Well, the show didn't impress, but again, that is not the iPads fault. I browsed the Internet for a while, which was great, until I hit a dreaded flash page. Dun dun dunnnnn. I knew this would be an issue, but luckily, this didn't bother me to much. I knew I would occasionally run into flash and knew it wouldn't be places that would bother me. I talked to some people on AIM. This experience is nice on the iPad, hopefully it will be improved when multitasking is implemented. I wish there could be some sort of overlay functionality with certain apps, such as instant messaging, or Twitter.

The iPad is something that needs to be tried to understand what makes it so appealing, it just feels good. I this it is exactly what I'm looking for from a mobile computing device. One of my favorite things about it is that it can be off, and I can be browsing the internet in about 15 seconds, and after a couple minutes I can click a button to turn it off and be on my way. It's super light, I can fling it around my bed while watching tv or playing a game, and it doesn't get hot in my lap. It can be occasionally awkward to find a comfortable way to hold it, but usually I can prop up nicely without issue.

As for the typing experience. And I remind you I am typing this whole article from my iPad, it is decent at best. It's takes a little getting used to. People not used to having physical buttons may have more issues. I probably make 30% more errors typing on the iPad keyboard than a physical keyboard. This may change with time as I adjust. I actually think the typing experience is better than I imagined, but I would not suggest it for something like writing a school paper. It would be perfectly adequate for typing out ideas, or subsections of a paper on the go, and emailing them to yourself to pick up on a real laptop or desktop. There are some buttons I found i was constantly attempting to go to, such as the delete key, and the directional arrows, but these unfortunately don't exist, obviously due to space issues.

In terms of my experience with this word press app, Adding pictures is difficult/impossible. To get a picture I first need to grab it from the Internet, which isn't the best but, it's not as easy as it would be on a full size machine. As for placing the photo, I think this app may be broken... Oh no, it's not broken, it's just that all pictures will be placed at the bottom of the post. Well I guess I will now be switching over to my desktop form final editing. { some time later} It turns out you can type HTML into the Wordpress app, so I could have added the image tag myself, but typing HTML would have been torture, i have since switched to my desktop to make final edits. Likely in the future i will type out rough drafts as emails to myself, and take it from there on my desktop.