Moving on from iPad "office productivity" apps

Re:Moving on from iPad "office productivity" apps by waxman on Sunday March 13, 2011 @05:06PM (#2320232)

I'm looking forward to the further convergence of iOS and OS X.

As the owner of a mid-2010 Macbook Pro and a first-gen iPad, I think the new Macbook Air, which is a significant step in that direction, could replace both devices for me.

The iPad cannot be used for productivity work (coding, writing, even longer emails), but my 15" MBP is relatively clunky, especially for the type of consumption activities that the iPad excels at (i.e. reading on the couch, watching a TV episode, etc.) I wish I could have the best of both worlds.

The new iPad version of Garage Band really captures this: in some ways it's better than the Logic Pro I have on my laptop; I can play keys on it, I can trigger drums with my fingers, etc., but it's painfully underpowered (in terms of CPU, memory, I/O, etc.) to comfortably record a serious track on it (despite what Gorillaz accomplished).

I'm waiting for a Macbook Air with a full touch screen, and a new OS that fully combines the simplicity and interactivity of iOS with the power and breadth of OSX.

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Re:Moving on from iPad "office productivity" apps by joebananas on Sunday March 13, 2011 @06:16PM (#2320398)

> I'm waiting for a Macbook Air with a full touch screen

You're in for a long wait then. Jobs said laptops with touch screens is total bullshit when talking at the new air launch.

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Re:Moving on from iPad "office productivity" apps by jonknee on Sunday March 13, 2011 @08:58PM (#2320828)

He's dogged on a lot of things that they then went and launched afterwards (no video on iPods, no tablet, no cell phone, etc etc) so I wouldn't take his criticism too seriously.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/02/steve-jobs/

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Re:Moving on from iPad "office productivity" apps by axxl on Sunday March 13, 2011 @08:50PM (#2320809)

Admittedly, Jobs has said many things that end up happening. That the switch on the side of the iPad would not be controllable (which it is now) is just one recent example. So anything can happen!

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Re:Moving on from iPad "office productivity" apps by joebananas on Sunday March 13, 2011 @11:02PM (#2321146)

There is a world of difference between Apple changing their minds on a switch and Jobs saying that they've done extensive user testing on touchscreens on regular computers and that it turned out to be worthless.

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Re:Moving on from iPad "office productivity" apps by rbarooah on Sunday March 13, 2011 @05:11PM (#2320247)

The iPad cannot be used for productivity work (coding, writing, even longer emails)

Coding apart, it works great for these things if you use the bluetooth keyboard.

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Re:Moving on from iPad "office productivity" apps by kenjackson on Sunday March 13, 2011 @05:24PM (#2320278)

I'm writing this in bed with a laptop on my lap. The bluetooth keyboard (at least the one Apple has) is just not functional in this position. And I do a surprisingly large amount of work in bed.

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Re:Moving on from iPad "office productivity" apps by rbarooah on Sunday March 13, 2011 @08:43PM (#2320777)

That's fair enough - but saying it 'cannot' be used for such things is simply false.

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Re:Moving on from iPad "office productivity" apps by rahoulb on Sunday March 13, 2011 @06:33PM (#2320435)

I bought an 11" Air because I wanted a laptop that was as close to an iPad as possible. I also have a 1st gen iPad - typing is an issue; coding's impossible but emails are OK (stick it in landscape and use the 1st gen Apple case and it's reasonable).

The Air is great but the real problem is when you are moving around. The iPad is perfectly natural to carry with you and to be used standing up - the Air, because of its laptop form factor just isn't.

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Re:Moving on from iPad "office productivity" apps by bergie on Sunday March 13, 2011 @06:09PM (#2320381)

I'm waiting for a MacBoor Air with an ARM processor and iPad-like battery life. Other than that aspect, the 11" laptop is the best computer I've ever had.

(and yes, I run Ubuntu on it instead of OS X)

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Re:Moving on from iPad "office productivity" apps by dr_ on Sunday March 13, 2011 @11:37PM (#2321214)

That's interesting. I have the 11" laptop as well. When I first got it, I thought it was too small, but it's so perfectly designed that I can be quite productive on it and don't need anything much larger.

The same can't be said for other designers of 11" laptops as yet. You really need a great trackpad to work with, because you do have to zoom in at times, and a great quality screen as well. The SSD helps tons as well. The MBA is the best designed 11" I've come across.

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Re:Moving on from iPad "office productivity" apps by LiveTheDream on Sunday March 13, 2011 @06:27PM (#2320425)

I've heard of this quite a few times now, people running Ubuntu on their MacBook Airs.

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Re:Moving on from iPad "office productivity" apps by yesbabyyes on Sunday March 13, 2011 @08:24PM (#2320713)

I run Ubuntu on my 13", it's a great Linux machine. It was really tough to install without a CD drive, but finally I made it. Everything works, but waking from sleep and reconnecting the wifi takes ages compared to OS X.

That said, I too would love to be able to work on a tablet. Basically all I need is vim and Chrome. What I'm thinking is connecting the iPad to a bigger screen and using the pad as a keyboard, but nah it doesn't seem realistic.

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