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Discounted iPad 3 or used 11" Macbook Air as secondary device
#11
I'll offer the contrary opinion.

It's biased, because I've been using an iPad exclusively, as a laptop substitute, for over a year. In that regard, I'm the ideal test-case for such a question.

I didn't end up here voluntarily. My MacBook Pro is crippled (it's a 2006 model, and I can't justify repairing it, can't currently afford to replace it) and I happened to have just gotten an iPad 2 around the same time my MacBook Pro ran into trouble and became unusable. So what I have is a desktop Mac, an iPhone, and an iPad. No laptop.

If I could choose, by a slight inclination, I'd definitely want a laptop, particularly a MacBook Air, rather than an iPad. I can say that because of my situation. I've had to live this way for a while. I don't like it. The grass is definitely greener, as they say, on the other side. If it were reversed, to be fair, I might be really longing for an iPad, it's a luxury I have that I probably take for granted.

Here's the thing. I can't stand those moments, using my iPad, when I want to use it the ways we take for granted we can use a laptop. When typing text, for example, and I wish I could navigate a cursor via a trackpad, or reach for a mouse, and there isn't one.

The competing platforms (the Surface, for example) are smart to make a hybrid product that responds to mouse gestures. Even if you sync a bluetooth keyboard to an iPad, you still have to touch the screen, there's no choice. It's mandatory.

Normally, I prefer Apple's design and Apple's wisdom in such matters, but as a consumer, with no laptop option, I find it vexing. My impulses are limited by the design. And I think it's aimed more at protecting Apple's product categories (not cannibalizing potential sales of its own products) than it is at serving the user's needs, frankly.

Do I enjoy my iPad? Absolutely. I particularly am impressed by the pleasure of reading books on it. Light web browsing, purchasing items on eBay, playing games, lots of great apps. As a mostly passive device, it's reputation as the most-loved tablet is well-deserved.

But there are times when I would kill to be able satisfy the occasional need to kick into power-user mode, like one can effortlessly on a full-featured laptop. Type fast, edit, browse, move data around, copy/paste/process/correct, manage larger writing tasks, at normal speeds, without sticking my finger on the damned screen, trying to compensate for the missing cursor/mouse advantages. At those moments, the iPad feels too limited, and extremely frustrating, and I have to suppress the urge to hurl it across the room.

Plus, I think the MacBook Airs are beautiful. They've gotten better over the last few years, and are affordable, too, compared to that first overpriced one that introduced the model. I covet the MacBook Air, in a deeply Biblical, sinful way. Gnashing of teeth, burning lakes of fire, dogs and cats, sleeping together...

I haven't sold my wife's jewelry, or her car, or cashed in our retirement funds, to buy one, yet, so..if I"m patient, maybe I can survive one more year without a MacBook Air. But I'm not making any promises!

In conclusion, I think an iPad is ideal for someone who already has a Mac laptop, a portable Mac. Or someone who simply never writes or edits anything longer than 50 words, and will have no need to, ever.
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Re: Discounted iPad 3 or used 11" Macbook Air as secondary device - by guitarist - 01-10-2013, 09:44 PM

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