How to justify buying an iPad

The question

When Apple launched the iPad 2, Tim Butler asked:

Can anyone come up with a good way for me to justify a new iPad?

The answers

• Accordance? - Patrick

• My wife and I carry our iPad wherever we go. She uses it as much or more than the laptop. I probably use the laptop more, but just because I need it for programming. For meetings, out and about, or anything else, I always grab the iPad. I don't take my Bible to church any more. I take the iPad with several Bibles. And Internet to check commentaries during men's Bible study.
  And don't forget Angry Birds! - Scotte

• With an app like iTeleport, you can have access to your Mac back home (well, as long as it is turned on and has the desktop ITeleport Connect also running). So in a pinch, if you need to email a file you don't have with you, or any number of other uses, you can do it right on your iPad.
  The iPad2 has the new feature of HDMI out with video mirroring so a great tool for teachers as you can now mirror exactly what is on your iPad to your audience. - Christi

• I have an iMac at home and an iMac at church. The iPad fills the gap between the two. I can use it for teaching (especially with the cool HD out), for preaching, in meetings, and out on visits.
  With Logos I can have access to all my Bibles, Luther's Works, and copies of the Lutheran Confessions. With my Kindle app I can access all my digital books. With dropbox I can get to all my files. This truly is a game changer (just as the iPad 1 was... but I wasn't in a position to buy last year). - Sam

• They are very handy for looking up Hebrew words fast. - Albert

• ...can I really do any work on it? ProPresenter or Powerpoint? - Kimberley
  • Yes, you can do Keynote on it (like Powerpoint).
    That is the main reason I intend to buy one. - Faithe
  • Oh, you need to watch the video from today. Garage Band now has instruments included. Piano, Organ, Guitar, Drums. Also iMovie with full editing. Pages. Numbers. Keynote. My niece is a graphics art student and does most of her drawings and designs now on her iPad. - Scotte

• I use my iPad a lot. I see it as sitting somewhere between a smartphone and a laptop. It will do some jobs well, and others not so well. It's great for note taking and shortish emails, especially with an external keyboard. I wouldn't particularly write an essay on it. I like Kindle on it, looking things up on the web and reading emails. It's a tool for looking in the main, but with an ease of interactivity when you need it. But if you are putting a lot of stuff in, you will probably want a laptop or a desktop. - Simon

• I'm looking forward to putting lots of books and reference material on the iPad and also video lessons and presentations.
  I need to move about whenever I teach or preach. It seems that's the only way my brain can actually function when I stand up in front of people and speak. So having something that allows all my notes to be in my hands instead of having to run back to see my printed notes would be great.
  Plus I want to be able to carry 1 device and many books instead of carrying many books around with me whenever I am on the go and need to break out my stuff for a spot of studying and writing. I am doubtful that I can touch type on this device and that was the one thing that held me back and left me hankering for a MacBook Air instead.
  Personally I see the iPad as an excellent reference tool rather than a document creation tool, but I believe this is slowly changing also.
  What I'm waiting for is for the iPad release of OmniOutliner. With that plus a good bluetooth keyboard, I might be able to turn the iPad into a document creation device also. - Jesse

• My justification would be reading & typing in bed without disturbing my wife. Not sure I'd get enough sleep, though! - Neville
  • This is the upside to the lack of touch typing: no audible key clicks (if you have short fingernails). My typing speed is about the same as on the regular apple keyboard, thanks to the autocorrect function. About 80 wpm.
    The screen is still a little too bright for nighttime use, except in those apps that have extra dimming (like iBooks and Stanza). I don't know if the iPad 2 screen will go dimmer than the iPad 1 (I hope it does), but the latest iOS provides a functional solution: you can invert the screen colors with three clicks of the home button. That means you can now use apps like iA Writer and PlainText with a black background. Which makes it much better for using in the dark—easier on the eyes and less light means it's easier to fall asleep when you're done.
    I noticed the other day that in an hour of typing in iA Writer, I use about 6% of battery (wireless on). If my battery scale is consistent all the way down, that means I have about 16 hours of typing on one charge. - Aaron

• Just remember that iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads are designed with consumption in mind, not creation. Doesn't mean there is nothing that can be created on them, but the software and methods of doing that on an iPod versus a laptop or desktop are awkward and clunky.
  The technology is amazing for what it does for web surfing, reading, games, etc. It is also a great form factor for things like Keynote presentations created elsewhere but presented with an iPad. - Brian
  • The iPad user interface is still brand new. What the iPad is best at is not consumption, but intuitive user interaction. That's why it's so good for games. You can download a game and start playing instantly. It just so happens that media consumption app interfaces are much simpler than media creation interfaces. Pro video and audio interface designers have spent so long designing for keyboards and mice that they can't think out of the box, and this includes Apple, too. (Plus, the battery and processor aren't quite there yet.)
    I guess what I'm saying is that we shouldn't think the iPad will only be good for consumption—casual games and web browsers. It's going to take some time to discover ways to make full use of the interface and develop the technology to where it can handle hard-core computing tasks. We saw the same thing with the iPhone. The first year, apps were clunky, awkward, and extremely limited, compared with what we have available today... and it's only been around for 3.5 years.
    I like that a segment of the writing community has espoused the iPad, and writing apps are developing. The Kindle app and Stanza are coming along. BibleReader is experimenting with some new interface features. OmniOutliner for iPad is in the works.
    I love the iPad 1 for reading. Just the thought of an iPad with a retina display makes me weak in the knees...
    Both the iPads and the current model iPod Touch are compatible with the Apple bluetooth keyboard. - Aaron

• Can Microsoft Word/Excel documents, received as email attachments, be opened on an iPad? - David U
  • Mail will open those without Pages or anything. I've double-clicked on a variety of attachment types and so far Mail has opened them all to view. - Scotte
  • You can either purchase the iPad version of the iWork programs (Pages/Numbers/Keynote) for $10 each, or one of the other Office compatible apps in the App Store. I have Pages and QuickOffice, which open all MS docs with no problem. - David E
  • Another option to local apps for viewing and editing MS docs is MS's Office Live WebApps cloud based service. - Ed

• "Honey, I understand that my playing Angry Birds on the iPad has been making you an Angry Wife so as a measure of my love and respect for you here is my iPad so that you can play Angry Birds on it... while I play it on this other iPad I bought today!" - Andreas

Credits

Contributed by many people on Mac Ministry List on March 2-5, 2011