Hacker News Reader

Comment by WA | Hacker News Reader

So what do you do on your iPad then except for surfing the web? I'm really curious as I don't see the point of an iPad right now.

View on HN

The iPad is a tool and toy you probably don't need, but if used to the max it'll probably enhance your life in some noticable way.

Every single morning, while sipping coffee and waiting for my omelette to finish cooking, I catch up on the latest news through Reeder, the first RSS reader I've actually enjoyed using. I also check my mail to see if there's anything important I need to respond to right away.

When I'm finished eating and catching up to the latest news, I grab my iPad and go upstairs for my exercize. While doing strenght training I use my iPad to quickly make a note of how many reps and how much I lifted. After I'm done with my strenght training, I take a run either outside or on my threadmill. If I take the run on the threadmill, I'll use the iPad for watching a video, either South Park or TED.

After I've showered, groomed, brushed my teeth and flossed, it's time to start working. When I work my iPad is always lying on the desk next to my laptop. I use it for:

* Displaying my ToDo-list (the Hit List)

* Displaying the email I'm working on.

* Displaying some relevant notes to the work I'm doing (Evernote).

* Displaying a PDF or website containing documentation to what I'm working on.

* As an extra screen (AirDisplay) for Photoshop tool pads and similar.

* VNC or SSH to another computer

* The occational check of HN, Twitter or Facebook.

* Calculator

* Calendar (Week Cal HD)

Yup, everything I've mentioned could be done on a normal laptop. However, it's incredibly useful to have an extra screen for displaying relevant information that'll never be obscured by application windows covering the information.

After I'm satisfied with my work for the day, I might hang out with my friends, perhaps take a picnic in the park. My iPad is always accessible in my manpurse. If a customer has an emergency problem, I can quickly and easily log into their server and fix the problem (Textastic/Prompt). If I get a brilliant idea, I'll note it down in Evernote and analyse it with the Business Model app. Maybe I want to think deeply about my business - I'll just open Dropbox and read through some business documents about future plans or surf on some of my competitor's sites through Mercury Browser.

When I'm back home I might do some more work or chill out with some games. Perhaps I'll open Rage HD and have one of the most immersive and physically exhausting gaming experiences possible through the Virtual Window control mode.

Right before I go to bed, I write in my diary (Day One) and finish my TODO-list for tomorrow.

Thanks a lot for sharing this, especially with the mention of apps and tools you use. I really should consider at least trying it out at some point.

That's definitely one of the main things, but there are others. I suspect everyone has their own mix, like on a smartphone. For me it's probably:

  35% web surfing
  35% facetime chat with the wife
  10% kindle app
  10% random games and apps
  10% watching shows and movies on the plane

it's also fantastic if you have one of the video-out cables because you can just drag/drop hours and hours of movies onto it and then play them on any TV wherever you are. Netflix in bed (with the Netflix app) is also pretty good.

There really is no "point" to having an iPad. It obviously doesn't do anything that you can't do without one. But it's a LOT easier to pick up and use than a laptop and if you have one you'll find it becoming your go-to device for a lot of things.

Thanks for that. Well basically, most of the time I'm using a laptop (I'm a happy user of a new MacBook Air) for coding, surfing the web and, well, doing office stuff and that's it. I guess an iPad would be too much of a toy for me, but I'm curious anyways what people do with an iPad.

It's been argued many times over but I now think we are just touching the surface of what a tablet can do. It will be eventually used for content creation. The most important thing is that people feel some kind of a natural connection to it. From there you build around it just as they did with the mouse.

Ideally, we all want people to be enthusiastic about technology and it's best that we accommodate them instead of forcing them to understand it as we do.

I have a feeling that it can be used to design UI really effectively. Are there any apps taking a crack at this?

I can't give your path but I think we're at the very beginning. Apple's own apps have set the standard as well as Loren's Twitter app but that doesn't mean we are limited. It's up to us to define what's ahead.

As Einstein has said, imagination is more important than knowledge. From my experience, look at how kids use these things and pay attention to what what they need. They're more intelligent than we give them credit.

Computers are merely extensions of ourselves. The intent must be obvious so as not to confuse. If there is one thing I've learned from Jobs it is this.

EDIT: Look at the Elements app as well as the Al Gore (Push Pop Press) app. There are many holes left in this market where others can cause a disruption to what was the dominant presence on the PC.

As far as I am concerned the iPad is the ultimate general purpose media consumption device: web browsing, video, Kindle ebooks, games etc.

Exactly. The iPad is optimized for consumption. For production, however, the iPad is worth next to naught.

I guess it fits well with the rest of our society. Sigh.

GarageBand: http://www.apple.com/ipad/from-the-app-store/garageband.html

IMS-20: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJSyPW4BFgo

nLog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkjiSIPF-Ho

Not to mention iWork and a host of other apps.

Yes, the iPad is really good for consumption, but it's quite good at production as well. And it will get better with time.

And, on which platform do you think those apps were created? On an full Apple computer with Mac OSX, most likely.

Try to program on the iPad. (i) you need a proper keyboard, (ii) you need a proper dev environment, and (iii) interpreters are forbidden and you are not root anyway.

Try to do anything on the iPad. You need an App. And since you can't write one yourself (at least not on the iPad), you have do download one that passes through Apples moral filter (no sex but war is okay, so much for "peace and love").

It's not like you can't create with the iPad. But the thing is not a general purpose computer to begin with. It wasn't meant that way. Apple optimized ease of consumption, and for that they sacrificed everything that got in the way, including creation.

I'll slightly amend my phrasing: for production, compared to a general purpose computer, the iPad is worth next to naught. And Apple likely doesn't care, though it would be bad PR to admit it.

Now if Apple suddenly gave you the root password, that would be another story. My argument would be limited to the form factor, which isn't such a big issue (just put your iPad on a docking station).

That's what I use it for - other people can be very creative with them, notable the artist David Hockney:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11666162

I mentioned this in a comment above too but I feel like it can be used to design UI (like dragging and dropping components with gestures). Are there any apps that take a crack at this?

if a person can't produce something on an ipad that's a reflection of the user, not the device.

http://www.textasticapp.com/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com