Chiefinonhaze Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Is this a good or bad idea? I'm debating on whether I should get a laptop, or an Ipad. And I have no idea what kind of laptop to get.... I already have a laptop, but its virtually a desktop because there is no battery. It has to be plugged in, in order to work. Any advice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chipwhich Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Ipad doesn't work with Flash websites. I bought one. My wife uses it primarily. For me it's good for trips to watch movies on. Some love it. I don't find much use for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiefinonhaze Posted May 6, 2011 Author Share Posted May 6, 2011 I'm a college student, will this be useful for me? People say its just like an itouch.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PokerPacker Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 As a college student, you'll want a laptop. Personally, I'd go the ultraportable route. What are you looking to do with it and how much are you looking to spend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCSaints_fan Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 I'm a college student, will this be useful for me? People say its just like an itouch.... Reading websites/email/online books etc. has never been easier, but its difficult to do real work on it, like type papers. You can get a wireless keyboard to make typing easier, but without all the software you take for granted on a PC/Mac, it becomes appliance-like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiefinonhaze Posted May 6, 2011 Author Share Posted May 6, 2011 As a college student, you'll want a laptop. Personally, I'd go the ultraportable route. What are you looking to do with it and how much are you looking to spend? Well I have a laptop, it's just really heavy and has no battery, so its basically a desktop. My mom is buying it for me, so I don't want to dig deep in her pockets. She would buy me a macbook If I wanted, but that 1000, I don't want to waste that much on a laptop. I figured an IPAD would be the perfect compliment to a desktop/laptop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gracelander Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 The idea of owning an ipad was better than the actual thing itself. It's good, but for me I only find myself using it occasionally when i'm sitting on a couch and just want to look up a website like this for a few minz. 99.5% of the time I just sit at my pic. Chip was right about the non flash, you can download other browsers like cloud that have flash in it, but it's just not the same. The Ipad2 (which my wife has) has the facetime feature, but it's worthless for us because we don't know anybody else who has it, so we can't connect with them. It's just a big Iphone (without the phone) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chipwhich Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 I'm a college student, will this be useful for me? People say its just like an itouch.... It is a big itouch. Useful matters to the user If you want to surf espn.com, it will direct you to a special non flash site. It doesn't work with Flash, and LOTS of sites use flash nowadays. There are some workarounds, but they aren't great. It plays music, e-readers, etc. Personally I have no use for it unless I travel. At home, I will always choose a real computer. At work...same. On the road I have my smartphone. So the ipad doesn't really fill a need for me. But as I said, some love it. I gave mine to my wife. She uses it for recipes and mixed drinks It's a souped up ipod. If that is useful to you, go for it. But it's an expensive option over an itouch to listen to music. It's better probably if you want an ereader and an ipod in one. When I fly, I watch movies on it...which cost me money, and listen to my ipod songs.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsburySkinsFan Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Yeah, I've been considering one too for work and home, but it just doesn't seem like it would be able to do the stuff that I need it to do. I like my iPhone and the notes when I'm in a meeting or doing some planning, but any of the heavy lifting gets done on my pc, plus not being able to transfer my pc software to the iPad is a real negative for me as 90% of all my work software is in pc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PokerPacker Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 I think tablets are overrated. If you want to get a nice portable laptop that doesn't cost all that much, look at the Lenovo x120e. Its supposed to have the best keyboard available in an ultraportable, and the AMD Fusion E350 is a really good processor as far as ultraportables go, and I think its supposed to run pretty cool. 7 or so hours of battery should be more than enough. There's a visa discount for 35% off. If you order the machine with the Fusion E350 dual-core processor (definitely get this over the single core), 64-bit Windows 7 (free upgrade from 32 bit), 4GB RAM (free upgrade from 2GB without the discount) and Bluetooth, it should be about $420. http://shoplenovo.i2.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/visacardholders/StdAffinityPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=1A6A3D02F7AA4873976FC8168DDA8C77¤t-category-id=C63BB22720313B14F5906FFA72CB90D5&action=init Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOF44 Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 I love mine, but you have to think of it as an Internet/ereader device. It's nice to have the 3G for the net everywhere. It's just not really a replacement for a pc, if you go in thinking that you will be disappointed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mardi gras skin Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Is this a good or bad idea? I'm debating on whether I should get a laptop, or an Ipad. And I have no idea what kind of laptop to get....I already have a laptop, but its virtually a desktop because there is no battery. It has to be plugged in, in order to work. Any advice? My wife thinks its the greatest thing since sliced bread but that's because she doesn't need a computer to do a whole lot. She sends e-mails, updates her facebook, surfs the web, plays some games...generally, she just consumes content. I need my computer to produce 10 to 20 page papers, design print work, photoshop stuff, Design presentations, etc. I'd go nuts trying to be productive on that thing. Its size is just incredible. Way thinner and easier to hold than the first ipad. I've got a sweet laptop but it feels like a total brick now that I've played with that thing for a while. Its an amazing device. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeaconTheVillain Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 IPADs are cool, no doubt. I have no desire to get one because its just a cool new fad that will fad....plus if you have a laptop they are pointless IMO. I guess it would be a cool gift or something, but overall its a waste. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
royallypwned Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 I got an ipad for my last birthday, so a little more than 10 months ago. And just like most things, there are some positives and some negatives. There are two things I use my ipad for the most: as an e-reader and for the Netflix. I love being able to stream Netflix to my TV from my ipad. The thing I hate most about the ipad is how I can't go from one web browser tab to another and back without the first tab refreshing. It is so ****ing annoying I want to throw it at the wall sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackest Eyes Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 The thing I hate most about the ipad is how I can't go from one web browser tab to another and back without the first tab refreshing. It is so ****ing annoying I want to throw it at the wall sometimes. This is true with the first generation iPad. Second generation iPad has more RAM and no longer does that. I think the iPad is great. Granted, I am a little biased. The iPad is a good compliment to a desktop or a laptop. You can think of the iPad like a large iPod Touch but there is a little more added functionality to the iPad because of the extra screen real estate. The whole flash thing...is a horse that gets beaten endlessly. All the Android fanboys will tell you that Flash works perfectly on their Xoom and all the Apple fanboys will tell you that Flash is unnecessary. While both sides have their truths, it is up to you to decide if the lack of Flash support works. My advice is to try an iPad out, go to all the websites you normally go to and see if they load properly. If you don't notice anything out of the ordinary, I'd say it is a non-issue. Not to mention a lot of websites now have mobile versions. If you need to do papers and things like that, I would get a computer versus an iPad. If you just need something for taking notes in class, surfing the web, checking email, etc. get an iPad. And if you are thinking about a Mac, don't get a MacBook. Get a MacBook Pro. And folks, the product is iPod Touch, not iTouch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
royallypwned Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 This is true with the first generation iPad. Second generation iPad has more RAM and no longer does that. Interesting. Well it's too bad that I'm not the type of person who goes and gets the next version of something (especially that soon after getting the prior version). For instance, I still have NCAA '07 and Madden '08 as my most recent football games. And I played that Madden I think two times. Madden 2005 was by far my most played version of that game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackest Eyes Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Interesting. Well it's too bad that I'm not the type of person who goes and gets the next version of something (especially that soon after getting the prior version). For instance, I still have NCAA '07 and Madden '08 as my most recent football games. And I played that Madden I think two times. Madden 2005 was by far my most played version of that game. No worries. I wouldn't get a new one either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidenreich Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 I love my iPad (on it right now). That being said, at the end of the day, it's a toy. I use my real computer for work things...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mardi gras skin Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Post #15 has is all the help you need, Chief. Blackest Eyes nailed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 I don't get the whole tablet craze. If you have a laptop and a smart phone, what do you need a tablet for? Sure I can see the use for it if you travel alot, but other than that, I'd have no use for it. If you need to type papers and such, it would be much easier on a laptop. If I'm out and about and I want to surf the internet, its much easier to carry around my phone than a big tablet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mardi gras skin Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 I don't get the whole tablet craze. If you have a laptop and a smart phone, what do you need a tablet for? Yeah, this is probably true. But I never saw the point of smart phones. I have a laptop, what do I need a smart phone for? Now my wife and I have two internet devices...a laptop for the heavy lifting and an ipad for general consuming. The combination fits us well. Smartphones, with the extra burden of a data plan and a tiny screen, aren't something we needed but the ipad has been great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homercles82 Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 If you have the disposable income to buy one, then go for it. I personally will not be buying any tablet because I have a desktop and a smartphone. A tablet offers no unique experience to justify $500 or more of my money disappearing so I can browse facebook, twitter and play angry birds on a bigger version of my smartphone. Tablets are not replacements for laptops or desktops despite what any number of people will tell you. They are a niche market with marginal uses. ---------- Post added May-6th-2011 at 08:41 AM ---------- Yeah, this is probably true. But I never saw the point of smart phones. I have a laptop, what do I need a smart phone for? Now my wife and I have two internet devices...a laptop for the heavy lifting and an ipad for general consuming. The combination fits us well. Smartphones, with the extra burden of a data plan and a tiny screen, aren't something we needed but the ipad has been great. Because a smartphone is something more than carrying a 10" laptop wannabe around. Phone, camera, texts, web, email, and in my case, Microsoft Office. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Yeah, this is probably true. But I never saw the point of smart phones. I have a laptop, what do I need a smart phone for? Now my wife and I have two internet devices...a laptop for the heavy lifting and an ipad for general consuming. The combination fits us well. Smartphones, with the extra burden of a data plan and a tiny screen, aren't something we needed but the ipad has been great. Fair point. But for me, the data plan on my cell phone isn't a problem since I use the web on my phone constantly. The problem with not having the data plan on a tablet, is that if you're not somewhere with WiFi, its useless. Plus, having a phone with Verizon 4G is basically like using the internet on my computer, its amazingly fast. I don't watch movies or anything on it, like you said the screen is too small, but for YouTube videos, sports scores, surfing the web, etc. my cell phone works perfectly. And all those things, are probably things I would do on a tablet, so why spend an extra $500 or so when my laptop and cell phone have me covered? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnyderShrugged Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 I've been using the Motorola Xoom tablet for a month or so now and absolutely love the thing. It does everything my laptop did and with widgets and apps too. The ipad is for kids and seniors IMHO, the Xoom is for people who appreciate UI customization and a bit of freedom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homercles82 Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 I don't watch movies or anything on it, like you said the screen is too small, I watch Netflix on my phone every now and then, over wifi of course, and it is actually really nice. Yea, if you are watching something that requires attention to small details, perhaps a nature show, it can be taxing on the eyes, but typical movies or tv shows are perfect on it. I have a Samsung Focus which has a 4.0" Super AMOLED screen. I wear glasses and have astigmatism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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