I pad

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
They generally 'just work', are easy to set up and get to grips with, and can typically do 80% of what 80% of people need to do with a computing device - sometimes more. And yes, they are shiny and pretty and slick - but they're not for everyone; they're not general purpose computers, and they were never intended to fully replace a PC, at least, not in their current state.

Given the frequency of computer-related posts from you (and please don't take that the wrong way!) perhaps the people who suggested an iPad were just trying to avoid providing tech support... ;)

Pete
 
If your computer use is mainly browsing and facebook type stuff then they are quite good. Very handy for watching videos on or reading ebooks too.

If you consider getting one then also consider the Google Nexus 7 tablet as that is cheaper. I've not used any tablet for more than a few minutes so can't say what is better value for money.
 
At the present time I am into flight sim X , flying a Cesna up the Thames from Southend, also a big Freecell fan, bridge player and finally the scorge of moderators on this forum. :)

(Also Got Painter 11, Paint shop pro)

So Ipad doesnt look like its for me.

Plenty more aircraft and a heli to master in the future.

Made my retirement the PC. (and computer support from forum members. )
 
devonwoody":nn1kxdku said:
Twice this week I have been told to get an ipad.

What does an ipad do that our laptop and desktop does not do?

To be fair, I've never followed the trend of iPhones or iPads and always figured an iPad would be something that I would never use if I bought one.

The Mrs has just got a new iPhone, and I have to admit its pretty smart. Personally, I'll stick with my laptop.
 
My wife has an Ipad. It's just for convenience, mostly. Portability. You can easily carry it from one room to another, or onto the porch, and do quite a bit with it. If you do much typing, it's a pain. It would never replace a desktop (or even a laptop), but it's a nice extension of those devices, if you can justify the cost.
 
My wife has an iPad, which she loves. She uses it for email, Skype, note-taking during meetings, bible readings, watching TV (catching up on series via iPlayer), and so on. She hardly uses her desktop machine nowadays, only to archive emails really.

I have to say, the initial excitement wore off fairly quickly and thereafter I was a bit underwhelmed, but I was blown away by one thing the iPad can do incredibly well - display QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) panoramas.

I finished one from holiday this afternoon and emailed it to her:

The internal structure of the QTVR file format (go with it for a sec!) is actually six frames of 'video'. They form the faces of a cube in the panorama, and your viewpoint is the exact centre. The viewer makes it look as though you're in the centre of a spherical image - you can 'spin round on the spot' etc.

Typically though, a PC without compatible software installed tries to "play" the file instead of opening it correctly, so you see all six images flash past and that's that. Disappointing, and embarrassing if you just gleefully emailed it to someone!

Sure enough, when the file appeared in her email inbox, double-tapping on it brought up the video player - infuriating! So I had a quick look in the app store for something to recognise QTVR properly, and found this.

It lets you use the compass and accelerometers built into the iPad to move around in the image, so it looks amazingly 'real'. If you stand on the spot, holding the iPad, the image moves as you'd expect, turning as you do and tilting as you look up/down. You can also use finger movements in the normal way, too.

The other app that does this is the Night Sky "planetarium". We use it out of doors to identify stars, and once it's got north, it too will follow your movements - hold it up to a constellation and it will tell you what you're looking at. Most smart 'phones will do this, too - Android or iPhone.

I'm dead impressed with the pano viewer though (there are alternative viewers out there too). It's encouraged me to get on and finish the other panos I took on holiday, too!

E.
 
I have been discouraged recently from commenting on this subject, so we'll keep this one quiet.
I know of no other company in this field that possesses such mastery of BOTH the hardware and the software. And I seriously don't know anyone that ever went 'back' to a pc, after living with an Apple pc/phone/pad.
There will be a battle royal now though, between Apple and Google... I do wonder why Google have not yet 'back-integrated' into the hardware space.
(I know about the ios6 mapping issue - they have done the right thing, and will climb the curve very fast indeed, plus how will google feel losing a user base of hundreds of millions? - knowing that google's mission is user data-capture).
 

Latest posts

Back
Top