[Closed] IPad, tablets etc what are they actually for?

The person in question has an iMac, a MacBook Pro and a smart phone. So where does the tablet fit in? What does it do that the others can't?

LOL!

That had crossed my mind.

It's for the masses to sit in front of the telly smurfing the net. No real input or maintenance required and takes the genre almost to the level of other on/off consumer goods I.e. No knowledge needed of the workings, no fragile software that requires arcane start/stop processes and they are very, very good at just doing simple stuff simply.

Stop thinking of them in terms of being a laptop, there different things. Ok, yes you can be productive on them if you want to be, but that not normally why ppl want them.
If you have a smart phone, you'll understand there capabilities but with a decent sized screen (unless you've one of those stupidly big phones..).
Think of it as coffee table device that just quick & convenient.

So...a bit of techno fluff then. 🙂

Candy crush.

they make a snazzy little camera
[img] [/img]

Think of it as coffee table device that just quick & convenient.

Loving the matching outfit ^^^^

So...a bit of techno fluff then.

Yep, if you want, but like all techno fluff you'll be amazed how quickly they simply become part of your life.. everyone love convenience after all.

Anyways it ain't for you, so stop being judgemental & start saving... 😀

EDIT: I really think there especially ace for 'older' generation, as there ease of use and quick to learn (little to learn really)

Wouldn't be without mine now. Rarely use the laptop unless photo processing etc. Great little things to have around. I have a nexus 7 which is great but looks like you'll be spending twice the amount for an apple for the set. Makes sense I suppose if already used to that UI.

Candy crush.

...Clash of Clans, Paradise Cove. I guess mrs aracer does use it for browsing the net, but I prefer a proper keyboard.

Anyways it ain't for you, so stop being judgemental & start saving...

True!

Must take grumpy old man hat off more often and embrace the consumerist world!

Now if it was a pair of carbon wheels for my road bike, or a nice new frame for the replacement SS I have been promising myself for years......

What them lot said. Instant On/Off, lot more convenient to use than a laptop (but no, not as "productive") TBH my main uses are email and web surfing/googling - stuff I might not bother firing up the PC for - but I have some films, books, magazines, iplayer and a couple of games on there too. Bit of a toy, as so many things are, but at times genuinely useful too.

I haven't used mine for about 6 months
Seriously the kids pretty much have it when ever they are at home. The older one just watches smosh or something on YouTube and his little brother cbbies on iplayer.... And the wife on that Facebook.
If I need the internet I just use my phone...
We talked about going camping in the summer and the kids are refusing to go if there's no internet connection... I only have my self to blame I suppose for getting sold on all this tech.

If you have to ask, then you probably don't need one.

We talked about going camping in the summer and the kids are refusing to go if there's no internet connection... I only have my self to blame I suppose for getting sold on all this tech.

as a parent with younguns thats pretty scary about the internet addiction, sounds like the next generations obesity crisis is gonna be off the hook!

I run a business from one. Accounts, website, email, editing, mapping, music, documents and so on. Renders a PC or laptop redundant.

I run a business from one. Accounts, website, email, editing, mapping, music, documents and so on. Renders a PC or laptop redundant.

How do you store all your files?

I have currently about 600GB of Data so I need a pc or something to store everything.

As above though, very handy for most uses, too handy sometimes when it comes to buying things! 😳

Quick and easy to use as others have said - the only time I'll bother with the laptop now is for photo work or much more in depth word processing etc. Oh, and for uploading files from my Garmin to Strava.

Otherwise the tablet is so easy to go to for internet, reading (Kindle app, plus a few magazine/newspaper apps), Netflix, YouTube, Skype, internet radio etc. It's just more convenient.

We got my Mum one for Christmas a couple of years ago, again asking the same questions - what will she use it for? - but she's never without it now.

How do you store all your files?

I have currently about 600GB of Data so I need a pc or something to store everything.

Still tablets are there and do stuff that most people want. Remember most people probably use 5% of the computers they own simply viewing/editing little bits of data. The movement to tablets really depends on the take up of the cloud ideas which remove the hardware and processing from the user and puts it back end.

If we get the jump in processing that we got over the last few years we might swing back to desktop.

Historically on a lacie drive, which is still where any video footage goes, mainly because my go pro is not tablet friendly and my laptop still seems the best place to edit video. May well change this tho as I have editing software on my tablet, yet to investigate it fully.

Any new stuff is on google drive with images syncing to google plus. Initially a bit off faff converting all my MS docs to google but now its bye bye microsoft office.

If cloud's no good to you for storage what about a wifi enabled hard drive?

as a parent with younguns thats pretty scary about the internet addiction, sounds like the next generations obesity crisis is gonna be off the hook!

Only if you let them get addicted. There are things called books, boardgames, puzzles, gardens, fields, forests, rivers, parks that have been around for years y'know.

We stayed in the New Forest this year. No internet. No mobile signal. Only had the TV on for an hour (each morning). Can't understand how that can be a problem when you have a garden and/or the great outdoors.

EDIT: re iPads, I've just started letting my 3 yr old use it for 10 mins a day. Naturally he gets the hump because he wants to keep playing on it. But he gets over it soon enough.

The person in question has an iMac, a MacBook Pro and a smart phone. So where does the tablet fit in? What does it do that the others can't?

Convenience mainly. My iPad is mainly used for reading the newspapers in bed / checking mail etc. MBP lives downstairs..

I'll be getting the new iPad Air at the WE as my 1st Gen iPad is just so slow now.

If cloud's no good to you for storage what about a wifi enabled hard drive?

Just looking at these at the moment, looking at binning the pc as it's old and slow.

Easy enough to transfer photo's from a camera to a wifi hard drive via an ipad?

Suddenly feel like a luddite 😆

Easy enough to transfer photo's from a camera to a wifi hard drive via an ipad?

I'm sure it's possible, but not that simple. iOS makes access to drives quite hard, you have to use Apps.

I have a set of USB hard drives plugged into an Airport Extreme, so they all appear as network drives to all the OSX devices. Can't see them from iOS devices though...

When I got a smartphone it replaced the laptop for general web usage (browsing, news, weather, social networking, here, etc), but small screen size got irritating after a while.

I now have a 9" tablet which gets used instead of my phone (bonus is that my phone used to struggle to last a day on a charge but now does comfortably).

If I could read my Garmin from my tablet the laptop would almost become useless for me.

EDIT: Oooooo, this might do it!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.carlopescio.uploader&hl=en

to keep my toddler amused while we do the chores.
to provide internet radio, coupled with half decent speakers while making the sunday dinner/bicycle repair/making bread/cakes etc.
to quickly look up 'who's that' on imdb when watching a movie.
to skype grandma and uncle malcolm in japan.
to play Candy Crush 😀

In future all my cameras will be wifi/smart. Images and video strait to cloud is the way to go.

I was sceptical , but having bought the daughter an iPad mini - we all use it loads. Very useful bit of kit.

re hard drives...
I got a networked QNAP driver (TS212 I think). It's got a USB slot on the front so I can plug a camera/USB stick/Garmin/whatever else into it and then either press a button on the front which copies everything into a predefined 'USB' folder, or I can go through the browser based console thing and move files around how I want.

I've also moved my 'my documents' folder to the QNAP, so I can access all of my stuff through my tablet, phone and my laptop when they're on the wifi.

In future all my cameras will be wifi/smart. Images and video straight to cloud is the way to go.

I'm not sure if cloud will ever be cheap enough for video, the rate at which cloud capacity is expanding / price falling seems to be lagging the rate at which you can generate Gb from video.

[quote=footflaps ]In future all my cameras will be wifi/smart. Images and video straight to cloud is the way to go.
I'm not sure if cloud will ever be cheap enough for video, the rate at which cloud capacity is expanding / price falling seems to be lagging the rate at which you can generate Gb from video.

send it up and drag it down, come christmas I should have my 100mb connection then I will be testing the cloud and trying video editing from up there too. Space will get cheaper, once you are done with the original files then dump them to archive at home or bin them. Keep the cloud stuff live.

I dont keep raw footage long anyway. Dump the good bits into a rough edit for later, bin the originals. Tablet is perfect for that... Otherwise you just end up with hundreds of hours of footage you can never be bothered to go through.

[quote=allmountainventure ]I dont keep raw footage long anyway. Dump the good bits into a rough edit for later, bin the originals. Tablet is perfect for that... Otherwise you just end up with hundreds of hours of footage you can never be bothered to go through.

I can't imagine doing proper rendering on any tablet is going to be quick (not at HD levels anyway) I only use the laptop for edits and any heavy lifting still goes back to the desktop. Unless people like Adobe start renting out server/cluster space for rendering then the desktop is still king.

Youre probably right mike... as I said previously, only thing my lappy gets used for these days is go pro footage.

Was given one by the mother in law when she upgraded hers but it barely gets used. Sometimes for a recipe when cooking. I still can't get out of the habit of going straight to my laptop.

I find the iPad ok for searching one specific thing but for general browsing, using more than one tab or doing anything intense then it's the laptop all the way.

Samsung note, tabbed browser and multi tasking all the way .

You'll be glad of it when the DH World Champs are on and you don't want to fire up the laptop.

Great for travel - books, magazines, games, music, films.

I thought they were pointless until I bought one - its pretty much replaced my lap top for general internet use, buying and selling on eBay, banking etc.

I like the fact that I can take it round the house easily and that it's alwasy ready to use. It was great when I was commuting loads by train being able to download TV and magazines.

My ipad is for singletrack

I like the fact that I can take it [s]round the house[/s] [b]to the bog[/b] easily

FTFY

But if you just want to find out the phone number for that restaurant, or check the weather for tomorrow's ride, or any of those quick web based things that we do then the tablet (Nexus 7 here) is great.

I can do all that on my phone...

send it up and drag it down, come christmas I should have my 100mb connection then I will be testing the cloud and trying video editing from up there too. Space will get cheaper, once you are done with the original files then dump them to archive at home or bin them. Keep the cloud stuff live.

Cloud storage is cheaper if you don't need instant access. I store about 50Gb of stuff on the cloud, but it gets quite expensive if you want instant access to 100s of Gb and very expensive for Tbs....

I'm sure it's possible, but not that simple. iOS makes access to drives quite hard, [b]you have to use Apps[/b].

[quote=curiousyellow ]You'll be glad of it when the DH World Champs are on and you don't want to fire up the laptop.

I must have more time on my hands 🙂 I reckon it would take as long to fire up the laptop as find the tablet (and much faster for those with kids who have to engage in complex negotiations and substitutions to get it back) - I just throw Red Bull TV on the TV though...

I have had various tablets (Lenovo Thinkpad, Blackberry Playbook, iPad3) but have recently bought a Chromebook (HP11) which has become my go to instant on Internet device.

It is light, boots quickly and input is a lot easier (for me). I also have a Galaxy Note 2 which covers my portable needs.

Everything. and more.

so much easier than lugging six or seven pounds of 17" laptop around in a bag.

Not all laptops are 17" or weigh six or seven lbs. The 11" I'm typing on (with a proper keyboard) weighs about 3. Granted that's still a lot more than an iPad, but it's also a lot more powerful and versatile.

so much easier than lugging six or seven pounds of 17" laptop around in a bag.

My iPad1 replaced my Mac Book, I just didn't use it anymore. Definitely revolutionised the way I work/play as it where, very portable, instant on, great battery life. I have a Mac Mini as my desktop and an iPhone.

As per above it's used for email, web browsing, document reading and mark-up (for work), lots of useful and fun aps, great for travel especially on flights - having my own movies, online videos, Skype etc. Yes you can do the same things on the phone but the screen is too small on the phone really.

OP you might like to consider an Apple TV - works great with iPhone and Mac's - only £100 and perhaps don't get the iPad if you're not sure the other half will use it.