Hardware CRIMP?

Posted by Dr Andus
May 31, 2011 at 10:07 PM

Ken wrote:
> It is certainly a device of convenience, but I am wondering if that
>convenience of size, weight and instant-on have changed anybody’s productivity
>habits. I thought the netbook would make me a bit more productive and organized, but I
>never seemed to use it quite that way. Boot up times were a barrier, and small and light
>as it is, it is not quite small or light enough.

Ken,
I bought an Asus netbook when it first came out for the exact same reason. I thought it would become easier to capture ideas on the go. Also, I wanted to be able to surf the internet on the sofa and in bed. Eventually this remained a dream. While it was easier to carry around than the laptop, the boot times prevented it from turning into a notetaking device and it was still too heavy and the wrong shape to watch anything on it on the sofa or in bed.

Then I caved in and bought and iPad and I never looked back. It delivers on all of the above and more. As I also bought the bluetooth Apple keyboard, there are days when I don’t even turn on the PC any more. Since the iPad I stopped using paper notebooks. The killer apps for me are the following:
- the instant-on;
- the built-in Notes app that automatically syncs with Gmail (this is where I capture random ideas);
- CarbonFin Outliner where I add notes into hierchical outlines;
- Mail, the Google app and Safari for email, blogs, and browsing;
- PDF Expert and GoodReader for reading and annotating PDFs;
- BBC iPlayer for watching BBC programmes in bed.

So I don’t think you can go wrong with iPad 2. I have iPad 1 and I’m still extremely happy. I did try a Windows tablet and returned it the same day. While my initial preference was for an Android tablet, I just couldn’t find the kind of apps I needed. And in the area of apps iPad is far ahead.