Old competes with new

by Volker Weber

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I am perfectly happy with my 13" MacBook Pro. There, I said it. Three years old, it looks exactly like a new 13" MacBook Pro, well at least to those people who cannot tell the model from the ports on the left side. It has proven to work well in all situations, be it connected to Ethernet or Wifi, tethered to a wall outlet or running on battery. It's not too heavy, the battery is lasting, the screen resolution is good enough for my aging eyes. All is well.

The only thing is, I am hardly using it anymore. I work on a 27" iMac, and I travel with an iPad. Occasionally I use a Bluetooth keyboard with the iPad, but most of the time I am fine without it. Why am I not traveling with the MacBook? It's three times as heavy as an iPad and needs a recharge during the day, where the iPad keeps on going.

I keep lusting for a MacBook Air, if only for its weight. But then again, I know people with similar setups like myself, and they keep leaving their MacBook Air behind, just as I do with my MacBook Pro. The iPad has proven to be much more than a media consumption device.

Comments

I have an 11 inch MBA (hooked up to a 27 inch TB display in the office), and for me, the reverse is true: I always carry my iPhone and the MBA, while the iPad stays at home. The iPad's only advantage over the MBA is its battery life, but for absolutely every other work-related aspect, I'm way more productive with a full-featured computer. The iPad, OTOH, is perfect for everything that's not work-related.

Stefan Tilkov, 2012-06-14

I am always wondering about this thing with "productive work" and the iPad. This is not meant in a derisive way, but I really wonder how it works for others. I find most things work only rather clumsy and many times not intuitive on the iPad. In my experience

* handling of attachments with email is a total mess. I can't even reply to an email and attach a file. Sending attachments of different file type with one email is impossible, and sending anything different from a photo feels awkward.
* synchronizing documents (or even a rather simple "copy to iPad") is a real pain
* exchanging documents between different apps is clumsy

For most simple tasks on my iPad I need much more time than on a full-fledged computer or even my phone, in most cases. And yes, I know there are many workarounds using third-party apps, but e.g. using dropbox to copy documents from a laptop to the iPad is not what I call an easy solution for a simple problem.

Martin Engel, 2012-06-14

@Martin,

absolutely agree that you have to change the way you work in some kind. While I can understand everybody who may have problems to adapt ... it never was a problem for me.

I can live with most of this downsides while getting rewarded with a small, fast, easy to use, long batterie lasting device. And even with the external keyboard (which I rarely use) it's stil the most mobile device I ever had.

Since I have the iPad it's about 95% of my computer use (privately). I only use my netbook (have no PC) in cases were there is no option at all to make something work on the iPad. I would love to do the same at work (also I assume it would be more 80% iPad and 20% Computer here).

I am currently thinking about selling my netbook and moving to a Mac mini for this 5% usage that doesn't work on the iPad. No additional Hardware needed as I then would use my TV as a monitor (and the already available) bluetooth keyboard for this 5% use cases.

I may be definately not "average-joe-at-a-computer" but for me the iPad is my MAIN device now.

Harald Gaerttner, 2012-06-14

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