I've seen some creative types using drawing applications on it, which is cool I guess, but for the most part I don't see it replacing a laptop/desktop just yet.
I'm pretty convinced that the motivations for providing iPads or laptops for each student are almost entirely political and not educational.
How a school, and vendor, get away with requiring flash in 2017 is beyond frustrating.
This madness must stop, but field-tested textbooks are a lot of work. And a lot of $$. Good luck.
Was it some kind of ebook? Is that what you mean?
I have OSX in a VM just for Safari issues.
For about $400 (total - iPad + Casio, some wires and software), you can use one to build a portable rig that actually sounds decent (if only I knew how to play better...). Use a "camera kit" (USB hub) to run MIDI in through USB, and an aux cable to run the sound back through something like a Casio keyboard (disabling the Casio's internal noise maker). Start up one of the inexpensive but pretty good synth programs on the iPad and go to it. (A cheap Casio lacks controller knobs, but you can use the tablet touch screen for expression)
Audio latency on Android is generally too sluggish. Have not tried ChromeOS, but I expect it's similar.
Plus, the guys that make the synth programs expect to get paid $5, $10 or $20 (depending), so I don't see this stuff moving over to one of Google's environments, where everybody expects vendors to provide free apps.
The trick is to get/make a patch that makes no sound (e.g. - sample of silence) to abuse the keyboard's "play along with MP3 player" feature. The built-in speakers on these type of $100 to $200 battery operated keyboards aren't very loud, but they work for practice or sidewalk playing.
Also see Bret Victor's talk (https://vimeo.com/64895205) where he does digital puppetry using two tablets: one using direct motion input, the other with a knobs-and-sliders UI for a set of behavior controls.
Outside of school, I've done a little bit of artwork on it, and it's nice. But that's about it. My daughter draws prolifically, has a Surface and, after trying my iPad for awhile, decided she didn't want me to buy her one of her own.
For myself, the most useful device I can imagine is the MacBook Pro that, by the way, you can remove the screen and draw on it. But I don't want iOS and a cobbled on Bluetooth keyboard. And I'm not holding my breath.
I'm not going to try to make a argument for Android tablets in general (on my third, not buying a fourth), but they actually support all this.
Run up a chroot with Debian and X11 and you can even have yourself a semi-normal Linux desktop inside your Android. With a mouse and keyboard.
It's not great, but when cornered I've actually managed to pull through on a device like this.
At the point you're using X11 on Android, wouldn't you be better off with a Chromebook?
I'm also interested in Samsung's DeX. We're well past the point where I should be able to carry one device in my pocket and dock into extra peripherals as needed.
Sidenote: of course we couldn't have a standard for dockable devices. So we've got Microsoft's Continuum, Samsung's DeX and whatever MaruOS is doing these days.
> Run up a chroot with Debian and X11 and you can even have yourself a semi-normal Linux desktop inside your Android. With a mouse and keyboard.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge a Linux fan, but calling this "supported" seems like a stretch. Maybe better phrasing would be "this is possible on an Android tablet".
Similarly with keyboards: ctrl-c, x and v work just as you expect. As does alt-tab.
This is very different from the iOS story, so just to play on the differences, I was just showing to what extent a Android-tablet can be taken if the need arises. I didn't mean to hint X11 and chroots were officially supported by Google or any vendor.
Deep down Android was clearly built to be a general purposey OS.
Too bad they botched the tablet-story.
So I almost always travel with a laptop-like thing (whether a Mac or a Chromebook) and a tablet-like thing (whether an iPad or a Kindle). Frankly, devices are small and light enough today that there just isn't a huge win to paring down to one device that doesn't do some tasks well.
> My problem was the lack of multi-tasking…
The current iOS does this pretty well. http://www.imore.com/ipad-multitasking
> …and no mouse support.
Okay, now this is more of a stretch. :O) BUT, with a Lighting to USB adapter you can (technically) use both USB mice, and wireless mice that use USB dongles.
The closest thing is the X1 Mouse and that only works on Citrix.[0]
Ethernet yes, keyboard yes, mouse, no.
[0] https://www.citrix.com/products/citrix-mouse/support.html
And in recent years I have noticed a large number of ruggedized Windows devices aiming towards much the same market.
My grandma couldn't do more than automatically playing DVD on her windows desktop.
My wife can't do more than opening and closing the door on any random semi-truck.
I can't do more than make horrible sounds on a violin.
All of these are only half of the story, and the receiver of the message is supposed to guess the other half perhaps ? But of course, which is the other half ? Is there a point to be made about any of these or is it just a random observation ?
Basically it brings more questions that it answers.
There certainly are limitations due to the form factor and Apple's lockdown of the platform. Pythonista and other dev environments would be a lot more useful with less strict code sharing options. Still, you can do a lot with these things.
Maybe it's because I don't own a laptop, carry the iPad frequently and use it on my daily commute.
I agree it's not likely to replace laptops in the next couple of years for everyone but plenty of people make it work now.
physical input of symbols can be done, but I like clicky keys.