ok i have had my ipad now for a couple of weeks, but the key test came last week. i had to go on a three day business trip to phoenix where i had to give a presentation and meet with some clients to walk them through some research. in the past i would either schlepp with me my work laptop, or my personal laptop or in some cases both. in addition would i take with me my kindle as well as my ipod. for this trip i packed my ipad and my ipod. that was it. i had bought the ipad with the thought that it could be a great secondary computer, something that would be great for those moments when you don’t need a full computer but access to computing functionality.
so i took the plunge and even left my bluetooth keyboard at home. so from the get go the weight difference was amazing. no more laptop(s) plus their powerplugs, no more kindle. no more having to get the laptops out at airport security. all of this was great. while waiting for the airport i used the boingo app to connect to their wifi and it was easy. one hour of blog reading at the airport. then the flight. baltimore to phoenix was about a five hour flight. i sat down got out the ipad went through the presentation deck twice, then watched two episodes of 24, read a book, read some of the economist (via zinio), then played with one of the crossword apps. all in all the flight went by in a breeze, i didn’t turn off the ipad for a second so taking out take off and landing probably used the ipad for a full 4 hours in the flight … plus the one hour before at the airport … when i turned off the ipad i still had 55% battery power left … my dell laptop from work would have died on me with that kind of usage probably after two hours. so using the ipad during a flight is amazing, you just don’t have to worry about battery life at all.
ok then the day to day usage on the road. what i have to do on the road most is check emails.even with the wifi version this was no problem the aloft hotel i stayed in had wifi throughout the hotel. in addition to email i have to present research material … and that went better than i thought it would go. all the content is in PDF, all in landscape format and it looks great on the ipad screen. i have nearly all material in goodreader and so during one client conversation i wanted to show a study that i would not have packed if i would have taken paper copies with me, but with the ipad no problem. just pull up the other report and boom, ready to go. there was also no hassle with the paper pages or if the content is shown on a laptop you have to stand strangely around the screen. with the ipad you put the device just between yourself and the client and both of you can see the screen and you can toggle back and forth.
in addition to that i need to access saleforce.com a bit, and even though their app for the ipad is not ready (yet) their web site is very functional on the ipad.
on top of this business usage … it is also really great not to have to carry around with you all the other devices that you carry around for post-work … like the kindle. so once i was done in the evening i could choose between one of the movies i had on the ipad or one of the books. or just play a game.
so while in the future i might take the bluetooth keyboard along, especially if it is a multi day trip and i want to get a headstart on meeting notes, i will no longer take my laptop with me. there is just no need for it. i can do anything i need to do on the ipad and on top of it reduce weight by quite a bit and during flights there is no need to worry about battery life. overall way more successful than i thought it would be. will there be people that won’t have a similar experience, i bet. people that need to work on documents more than i, people that need to rework their presentation decks, people that need computing power on the road (photographers, video people) but all others (and i think that is a large amount) will be able to leave their laptops at home and speed a little faster through airport security.