Oh Hive Mind, help me, I've lost mine.

[blamebrampton]

It's stinking hot, I have a vile head cold, and am writing like a demon whenever I am not at work, asleep, on a bike or icing my aching over-typed hands. (I might start icing my whole body if this weather continues …)

However, I need your help! I have the opportunity to buy an iPad 4 or 2 or iPad mini at a decent price, and I do not know if I want one.

Pros: They are cool. I like the Apple interface and live in Apple-land computer-wise. I like to read magazines and do crafty things and there are lots of good apps that would let me get mags more cheaply and help with things like inventing new knitting patterns with less stress. It's very easy to travel with. I am already doing some work editing and writing for the iPad and imagine this will only increase in future. I can afford it without much stress, and since no one else looks as though they are giving me anything for Christmas due to Mr B still not working, it would be a pressie!

Cons: I don't really need one, as I already have a laptop and a Kindle. When will I use it? I still have a stack of New Yorker magazines and Vogue Knittings to get through, and they're paper so can be read in the bath! If I do start using it, it will mean I fall further behind with something else, like knitting or ukulele practise, or stretching enough to get my hips and knees back to ballet-fitness. I have no money to travel! I could use the money to pay for something more useful, like summer clothes since I have done no sewing with the lightweight linen I bought for that purpose, or a banjolele, because I really really want one.

I realise that the cons list is longer, but on the other hand it would be good to learn more about publishing onto tablets. And before someone says 'Ooh! The Samsung!', the work I am already doing is iPad-based so it's Apple or wait at the moment.

My head is full of snot, Mr B has no opinion, feel free to offer yours! Do you have an iPad? Do you love it? Do you do cool things with it? Is it just another thing to cart around in your bag? Work-wise, the world will not end if I don't have my own as I can use office ones.

The news just reported that on Monday, New York City passed its first day in living memory without a single violent crime. Well done, Big Apple! Keep it up!

Comments

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

I have one and love it. Mumsy has one and loves it. It makes a good ereader, has fun games, and I can use it to take telly into the kitchen whilst I was up.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

They are seriously cool tech. My issue at the moment is that they seem mostly to be about consuming media, while I have at least 12 months where I need to focus solely on producing media (including That Thing for you, which is very next on my list). On the other hand, maybe I am missing opportunities producing more media for tablets …

Oh fuck it. I should just push on with That Thing so that we can both chuck our day jobs and then I can have whatever toys I want.

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

Oh no, I think that there is a real opportunity for producing Things for the ipad. I think it's a really interesting medium to explore.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

That's going to be the thing that tips me into buying one. But I'm still undecided as to when that will be :-)

[hometime.livejournal.com]

I loooooooove my ipad.
Having books, movies, internet with me at odd moments is great.
I like locking the screen and reading while lounging on my side in bed.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I think I would be more likely to be leaping at the opportunity had I not a three-foot pile of print in my Must Read stash to get through …

[hometime.livejournal.com]

See, so far this year I have travelled through Europe reading ebooks, and then moved house, and all our books are still in boxes, so I am still reading ebooks. JB did unpack a box of books because he was getting desperate for something to read, but unfortunately he unpacked one of MY boxes instead of his, so he had a choice of reading Georgette Heyer or paranormal fiction. He is reading Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels books, but he is not very impressed.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I agree that ebooks are hugely handy, though I already have a Kindle for that. I could see me subscribing to a few of my mags in iPad format, though, especially the New Yorker. But not Selvedge, I love touching its pages so much!

Poor JB! My J does better when he is handed my Kindle in a cafe: acres of Agatha Christie and popular science ;-)

[takarai-karin.livejournal.com]

Considering I'm an Android user, I unfortunately have no worthy opinion of this issue *hugs her Motorola XOOM*

I hear ya about the heat though, it's been really hot and humid where I am too. We have rain, but that only makes you more miserable than helps cool the temperature off.

To make things worse, figure skating season's here, and I've been jealously looking at people huddling together under thick gorgeous winter coats watching ice shows ://

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I actually left work in the rain the other day, just so I could get soaked riding home and thus survive the heat. (This is not why I have a cold, that's my friend's toddler. Damn virulent baby germs!)

You know, I was thinking about taking up skating this summer as a means of dealing with the heat, but a friend just broke her arm doing it. However, since I've already had my mandatory skating broken arm in my teens, so maybe I've already paid the blood price!

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

I use a laptop and a Kindle. The laptop is because I do a lot of writing for work and the Kindle is to carry work documents around. A tablet is of no use to me at all. But I am also consciously trying to do more real world things.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my current needs are quite well served by mine, and I am trying not to up my tech time. But there are a few things the iPad does that I think would be very helpful.

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

The other thing is that for really long, all-day meetings, a Kindle is a much better thing for document storage because the battery goes on forever. This is good when you can't find a working socket to recharge.

[janey-p.livejournal.com]

Never had an iPad, but we have them at work for testing stuff on them, so I have at least fiddled with them a little. ^^

BUT!
A colleague has an iPad (I think it's the iPad2, but not sure) and she loves it because of the apps that make her work with music easier. She's got her sheet music on it, can make annotations and scribbles on them, can link songs in her itunes library to them and other nifty stuff.
She was considering to buy the iPad mini, but for her purposes it would have been just a little too small.

And if you'd want to write on it really comfortably, the mini version is probably not the way to go either.
I'm pretty happy with own my mini tablet. It's not Apple and it's actually even smaller than the iPad mini - so all I can tell you is that the virtual keyboard is either rather narrow (in portait mode) or covering a lot of content (in landscape mode).

As for the "when would I use it?" question:
Exactly then when you're working on your projects that are to be published for iPad. ;)
The question just is if you'd start using it for much more things as well... I know how hard it is to find a good balance. But I'm sure that in my case it's just a poor grip on my resolve that makes me lose time when "playing" with my gadgets. :D

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Music is one of the things I would use it for, as there are a lot of awesome apps to help both play and learn better reading and other techniques. And I agree that the full-sized iPad is better for that usage, especially for reading sheet music.

I don't think it is a poor grip on your resolve, though, I think that some gadgets are just time sucks, and the iPad is one, albeit one that can be productive and is also a lot of fun.

[janey-p.livejournal.com]

Well, in that case... If you'd use it for music, too, then it seems like it WOULD be a nice addition. :)

I've found that since I've started using my tablet, the laptop's stayed shut more often and I don't sit in my dark little corner as much anymore. So that's definitely a plus. :D

Hope I'm not making the decision harder. ;)

[vaysh]

*watches this post*

[astardanced77.livejournal.com]

I'm new to commenting on LJ and HP fandom in general, so my apologies if this is an inappropriate intrusion into conversation. I haven't even worked out how to make posts on my own page yet. But you touched a topic near to my heart :-)

I love my iPad with a passion; slightly more than my iPhone, and occasionally more than my children. It's much easier to lounge around reading fanfic on an iPad than a laptop (she says from her prone position on the couch). And if you are careful, you can even read it in the bath. In fact, it is easier than turning the pages of a magazine. I have downloaded some of my favourite books (free as they are out of copyright) as well. I like that it is backlit, so I can keep reading after hubs has gone to sleep without disturbing him. Plus, Angry Birds is heaps better on the big screen!

Of course, the downside is the size of my pile of folding, which, no matter how hard I close my eyes and wish, does not fold itself.

[astardanced77.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the weather at the moment is my personal definition of hell. 36 degrees tomorrow and it's not even officially summer yet! We don't usually get this kind of weather until January; it doesn't bode well for the coming season.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

While I could not live without my laptop, the iPad makes life much easier, in terms of both media consumption AND production. Where I used to carry my laptop, I now take my iPad (third gen, with 3G). Using the Logitech mini keyboard (the one that hinges right on, forming a nice aluminum cover), and Pages for the iPad and Dropbox, I now do my on-the-go writing on the iPad. I upload the day's work to Dropbox, and at home I sit at a table and use the laptop by preference because it lets me do everything else that I want--surf the web more powerfully and comfortably, get mail to my Mail program and file email into folders, use programs like Photoshop Elements, etc. But these days the laptop only leaves my house when: 1) I'm going to do some all-day writing at the cafe, 2) I'm going on a trip of longer than 3 days duration (yes, that blows my mind, that I'll actually leave the laptop at home for a couple of days), 3) I'm going to work and might get some downtime and really have a project that requires the laptop.

And at home, every night, I take the iPad to bed and read/watch things in bed. It really has made everything easier.

[hmufson.livejournal.com]

I bought one this summer and tried it for the 30-day period that I had before the store made me return it. It was the new one (with the retina screen). It was gorgeous. Absolutely stunning. Lovely to watch movies on and read fanfic, etc., etc.

HOWEVER. I have hideous carpal tunnel. By which I mean, bad enough to hurt and sleep in wrist braces and not be able to ride a bicycle with hand brakes because I don't have the grip strength to stop; not bad enough to get the surgery. The iPad was just too heavy for me. Lying in bed (or on sofa) and propping it on my (ample) chest required constant tiny, finicky movements that really hurt after about 10 minutes. I also found that the only one that made sense to buy was the 64G model, which had sufficient memory to carry around all of those books and movies and music, and that sucker was EXPENSIVE. Like, way too expensive to justify for what I was using it for. It also doesn't have a local drive. Meaning that if you have to upload things to certain proprietary websites (court websites for me) and the website doesn't recognize dropbox or whatever you're using to store your docs, you can't use the thing as a computer substitute. Others may have figured a work-around for that, but I couldn't.

So, with much sobbing and upsetness, I took it back. Oh, that was a sad day.

As always, YMMV.

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

I love my iPad so much more than I thought I was going to. I got it because my husband got one and I was jealous. Also because we moved cities and are currently in an apartment with a security entrance that means daily delivery of a paper newspaper is impossible, and so my husband was getting to read the paper on his iPad at the breakfast table but I had nothing (but the jealousy!).

I have to tell you that owning an iPad has made me chuck my Kindle. I read books now with the Kindle app. (I had one of the grey-screen Kindles, so the aesthetic upgrade is huge. I love that the pages look like book pages, especially when in horizontal aspect where two pages appear side by side. I love that pictures and tables/charts appear where they should in the text and are not banished to the end of the document. I love that I can click on footnotes, read them and return to the text, which my Kindle did not allow properly.) I love it at the gym for reading books. It sits on the little ledge on the treadmill and the pages never turn by themselves and it never tips over and falls off like a paper book sometimes does.

I use it for knitting patterns, too. (Though... I still printed out a paper copy of the one I'm working now so I could keep it in my knitting bag for knitting on a car trip where there just wasn't room to prop up the iPad. Oh, the first world dilemmas!)

I use it to stream French radio and have a bunch of vocabulary apps. I could do some of this with the laptop, probably, but the radio apps, especially, are fabulous!

We read magazines on them and ... haven't yet cut off the paper subscriptions, so we still have all that recycling to do.

You're so right about the bath.

[being-here.livejournal.com]

I don't have an opinion, but I did buy a ukelele. Now I just need to learn to play it...

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Buy a pad and give me your kindle or journals - I'd declined the offer of a gifted Kindle (Fire!) as usual, a year ago, and am now unhelpfully begging for other people's. Seriously though, I don't see how you could learn more about "e+w for the pad" if you already have laptop and Kindle and most likely a smartphone, it's just a similar gadget, con list looks longer to me. Only real reason: you want a new toy, and why not.

[melia244.livejournal.com]

I have a Macbook Air, a Kindle and an android phone, but I did go out and get a 7" Samsung tablet. Which I 've been using very rarely.
When there is the slightest chance to get some work done, I find myself willing to carry another half a kilo if that means a full keyboard.
For novel-length reading, my eyes always appreciate the Kindle. Plus, it weighs almost nothing.
And when it comes to web-browsing, I hate that on Android you can't just tap on a button to go to the next page. "Swiping" requires too much effort. (My phone has a physical keyboard, and I love how I can hit the space-bar for page-down!)
Anyway, as someone used to carrying around an ultra-light laptop, I can't seem to find any use for a tablet.

[mrsquizzical.livejournal.com]

my kids LOVE the ipad. i'm not convinced that it was worth the money, in that most of the things they do on the ipad they ~can do elsewhere. but it does it in a cooler, easier, more enjoyable way. which is a good thing! but... i'm not sure it was a good enough thing to spend that amount of money on instead of other things. so... i'm pretty on the fence.

[kath-ballantyne.livejournal.com]

I know someone who uses one exclusively for knitting patterns, both reading and writing.
I have to say that I enjoyed using the Mother-in-law's iPad and I'm not an apple fan in general. I have a PC and hate my iPhone (soulless irritating beast of a thing. I wish my old symbian Nokia still worked I'd switch back).
But the iPhone was fun and useful when I was laptopless and didn't have to deal with iTunes. Obviously the iTunes thing is not going to make a difference to you if you're an apple person anyway.(oh to just be able to plug in an external drive)

ahem.
There are a lot of iPad only magazines that are doing quite interesting things with inbuilt media content. And some interesting e-books that use music and video too.

I guess the question is, if you have access to iPads at work then do you need one at home as well? How much were you intending to work on tablet content at home? You do freelance stuff don't you? so it's different than just using it at the office.

Do they have the equivalent of gorilla glass yet? I don't think I could manage not to break one in the first month. I'm too clumsy.