I am in NYC for a conference and planned to bring just the ipad. In a constant aim to decrease the amount of gadgets I carry across the pond, I thought hoped that the iPad could do all my blogging, reading and entertaining as I travelled.
Sadly not. Not yet. So I wrote five reasons why not. Some are hardware issues, others are interface issues but here goes..
1. No camera. To me that was the killer reason I couldn’t run it alone. I travel, I miss my family and I want to see them. For that alone I will carry another laptop. The fact that there is no camera and no iChat function are major issues. I have been advised there is an app called Camera A Camera B which can somehow wireless sync with the ipad but I haven’t tried. It all sounds a bit Heath Robinson really.
2. Poor Wifi. Even if I could iChat the poor wifi thingy means it cannot pick up the hotel network in certain parts of the room. So unless I was chained to a certain spot (which of course turns out to be the bathroom) then I can’t use it. Placing the laptop and the iPad next to each other shows me a huge disparity in signal strength which I hope is fixed in the next generation.
3. Content Creation – Typing. If you put the iPad into landscape mode you can get a relatively quick typing speed but still less than 50% of the speed I can do on the keyboard. So, when I am in a conference it is great for taking notes but not so good for long stretches of writing. I bought the wireless keyboard and a cover/stand for the iPad which means I can do proper typing – the only flaw was I couldn’t use Bluetooth on the flight so I needed the laptop for productivity in the air.
4. Content Creation – Blogging. The WordPress App has been updated to offer full iPad support which means I can write blogs and edit blogs within the app. However, if we look past the typing issue, I still have trouble with links and importing images. If I want to link to something in the article I need to have it copied somewhere, or copy it straight from the browser. But as I am not in the browser, I have to save my work, exit the app, find the link, copy it and go back to the blogging. Not conducive to deep content writing. The image inclusion is also a pain unless you already have the images uploaded to your blog.
5. You Tube management. If you don’t do much video then this isn’t really an issue. This morning I launched a video but it was still locked. I jumped onto the YouTube app and could see my video but could not edit the properties of the video. Trying through Safari gave me the same block so I had to run upstairs, jump on the laptop and fix it.
What the iPad is great for is content consumption. I am reading more than I have done in a long time, although in more silo based consumption which is a step backward, but that’s another article for another site.
I still love the iPad no question, it shouldn’t stop you buying one but as a content creation tool, it still needs work.
This was written on the laptop!
Thanks /comicsgonebad.com/
