Should I purchase an iPad?
I have enjoyed helping people decide whether or not to buy an iPad. Let’s go over the possibilities.
1. I won’t buy one. Don’t need it, don’t like it, don’t want it. Enuf said.
2. I think I would use it. But, for what?
Answers: If you travel you could use it to check your email, read electronic books and magazines (saving the weight of paper books and mags), surf the web, and play games if you are so inclined. The weight of a lot of ‘stuff’ you might carry can be left home.
More answers: if you use it when visiting clients, you can write up orders, invoices, and notes. If you have the 3G version you can email copies to your client and yourself. The peperless office is closer than you thought.
Even more answers: The Kindle reader app, the Nook reader app and the iBooks app allow you to use books on your iPad most conveniently, even at night.
If you are a writer, get a keyboard and write -- drafts, scenes, blog posts, articles, and notes, to name but a few possibilities.
3. I know I want one -- but what kind?
- First, memory size: 16GB, 32 GB, 64GB. Apps don’t take much room, but pictures and videos do. If you plan to do much with the camera, I would get the 32GB or 64GB model and skip the lower end all together. That excludes the good price on the iPad 2 which is only being sold as a 16GB model. But if you only check email and use the web, plus Solitaire and Srabble, the 16GB is just fine.
- Second, WiFi only, or WiFi plus 3G. With WiFi only you have to find a WiFi location. Hmmm. Starbucks, MacDonalds, most public libraries, most airports and lots of other places offer free connection to the web via WiFi. My wife and I have gotten along just fine with WiFi only. But now I have 3G as well on my third generation iPad. I go to client locations where they do not have WiFi, or don’t want to give me the password to their network, and the 3G let’s me make notes, email invoices, and look up parts wherever I am. I only turn it on when I need it, and Verizon charges me $20 for a modest amount of use. Only the month I turn it on.
- Third, what apps should I get?
- Readers, if you like to read. Kindle, Nook, the iBooks one from Apple, and a good PDF reader. Don’t forget -- your public library probably has ebooks to loan. Check at overdrive.com.
- Productivity apps if you will use it for writing, invoicing, presenting. I suggest spending the money for the Apple apps Pages, Numbers, and Keystone to get a decent word processing app, decent spreadsheet app, and a decent presentation app. But there are others.
- Utilitiy apps include Printopia or Print or Print Central so you can print to a printer. Check these out on the web before you buy so you KNOW whether they will work with your computer and printer setup, or purchase an “AirPrint” printer.
More on this later -- you have an idea of what questions to ask and answer. This may be all you need.
If you try one, you will probably like it.