Ask HN: What's your use case for iPads/Android pads? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's your use case for iPads/Android pads?

15 pointsmarkus_zhang46 comments

I realized, after reading that Newton article, that I actually own one iPad and one Huawei pad but not doing anything with them.

The iPad mostly sits and collects dust and the Huawei pad serves as a music player for my 18-month kid. Recently I managed to read a bit on it but the experience is mediocre.

I'm wondering what's your use case? I feel I'm missing out a whole range of electronics out there.

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Current iPad: Content consumption/games

Old iPad: Dedicated Paprika (recipe app) machine in the kitchen. I cannot rave enough about Paprika. [0-4]

If I had more (that weren't earmarked for development) I'd consider using one as a digital picture frame, status board, and/or home assistant dashboard/controller.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31159358

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29796425

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14474563

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13886047

[4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12491028

I'd love to see more apps that can cut cruft the way Paprika does. It's one of my favorite apps that I don't use all that frequently, but absolutely appreciate all over again any time I do use it.

Thanks! The digital photo frame sounds good~

I use an iPad continuously for browsing the web, controlling IoT devices in the home, playing music on the HEOS system, etc.

I live in a place that carriers choose not to serve so I don't spend a lot on a smartphone and plan, sometimes I have a cheap prepaid phone, sometimes I go for years and not renew it. Skype is my preferred way to make phone calls both with my PC and the iPad. It works in most places I want to make a call because public WiFi is available in a lot of places.

The real problems w/ the iPad as I see it are: it refuses to use play music over Bluetooth when using WiFi (Android devices try and usually fail because of interference between the two services) and Apple doesn't allow access to NFC on the device except for Apple Pay.

I have a lot of android tablets that I bought for testing software. Before I had the iPad I used Amazon Fire tablets pretty seriously (read software docs when doing cardio at the gym, I took my best photo of the last decade w/ a Fire tablet) but all of my Android tablets go unused for so long that I can't count on them being charged when I need them.

I have an iPad with a keyboard case that I use every day

80% of the time it sits under my monitor with Things app to-do list and upcoming meetings linked to my work calendar so I can add stuff to it that people bring up during calls

Other times I have Obsidian open during a meeting and am typing notes. It is also pretty useful when you don't want to drag a laptop over to the couch and just browse.

Apple's Universal Control with iPads is another use case that I haven't been able to use at work but with my personal computer it's great: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212757

That's nice. How fast does note taking...take? Would you recommend Apple pencil for that? I found note taking to be challenging: if I write them down with hand, I need to digitalize them. If I type them it's too slow for a meeting.

As a consultant, part of my job is to type notes really fast while talking to people, so I have gotten good at that over time. The Apple Keyboard is surprisingly good for fast typing, but there are probably some other/better Bluetooth options out there. The Apple pencil sounds nice for diagramming but maybe not for on-the-fly notes/dictation.

Thanks! Just curious did you train yourself on note typing or it just grows with experience?

I use my iPad (and I pencil or whatever it’s called) for reading technical books, legal documents, tech documentation etc. then I write notes, thoughts, todos, questions all over it, it’s extremely useful for summarizing a boring document, then going back any pulling out the important bits

I also use my iPad for dissecting sheet music in a similar way

One day I hope to stick it on my wall and have a max headroom type avatar that greets me and turns on my roomba etc. until then value I get out of the above ^^ is worth the silly price tag

Oh and I also read comic books on it

Perfect. I'm glad I find someone with pencil experience. How fast do you write notes on technical documents with apple pencil? Is it almost as smooth as writing on a notebook with real pencils? One of my concern is the lagging of all those devices.

It’s not a new device, there’s been a few generations since then but it’s still close to perfect, I can scribble notes as quickly as I like and don’t notice a problem. For the highlighter I tilt the pencil a bit for a fatter highlighter, I’m sure it would be a good for artists.

Hit up an apple shop and try it out… I’m really not a shill for apple, I thought the pencil was stupid until I got it and started using it (I can buy a pencil and eraser for a £), I’m not saying it’s _worth_ the cost, but I love it

iPad is a great creative device for music production (Gadget and dozens of amazing multitouch-enabled music apps) and digital art (Procreate + Apple Pencil.)

It's also great for sheet music (forScore), books/papers/PDFs (Books, Kindle), and magazines (Apple News+).

It's also a pretty great portable video game device (both native and streamed, and it works out of the box with PS5 and Xbox controllers), great for digital board and card games, and obviously great for streaming music and video and for web browsing when a keyboard just gets in the way.

I also use it as a capture device for random notes and ideas.

My iPad Mini replaces books and notebooks. It's detached from clouds and notifications. It's not a browsing device. It doesn't try to grab my attention. I use it when I don't want to be on a computer.

I take notes, sketch and read on it. I sometimes use it as a cookbook.

It always sits by my side, and I rarely leave home without it, just like the notebook it replaces.

I use the latest Mini with a paper-like screen protector and a metal pen tip. It feels fantastic to write on. I almost only use Notability and ProCreate.

I used my Android tablet with active stylus to take all my college notes back in 2013-2015. It saved me the pain of carrying tons of stuff between classes, plus reduced my organizational burden (which was a weak point in college.) Infinite sheet was good for note taking, and I remember discrete math being seriously improved by a large color palette and the ability to copy paste.

I used the same tablet to watch movies when I had a bed where the ceiling was about 10 inches above my head. Just taped it to the ceiling.

Recently, I started using the iPad at the lunch/dinner table. I've always lived alone and just ate lunch in front of the TV, but in trying to get away from that, I moved to a proper table with the iPad. This lets me watch videos from an online course or read some articles while eating. I prefer this to just looking at the wall. I guess one could think of it as a digital version of the back of a cereal box.

Back when I traveled more, the iPad was always a good option for watching movies or TV shows on the plane.

Sheet music. I have a cheap Android tablet that sits on my music stand all the time.

I could use a laptop instead, but I would need something to hold the laptop. Plus laptop displays are landscape orientation, whereas I need portrait. Also, there would be a laptop keyboard sticking out and getting in my way.

The drawback is tablet screens are not very large. If someone made a large-screen (15" or even bigger) tablet, I might buy it. But I would want a cheap, low end one, because all it has to do is display PDFs.

OP: get Notability (iPad). Notability is the greatest app for taking notes (text and doodles) and sketching too.

Consuming media at night and on the go is also better/richer on a tablet.

It’s good as your eyes get old and tiny screens are too hard.

That's right. I found a large screen extremely helpful for reading pdf books.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned here is using it for notes. If you read them from your phone people are more likely to think of you as unprofessional, but an iPad will register as something else, like a clipboard. You could also print, so this is more of an "I have it, may as well use it" thing.

My main uses for an ipad are drawing (procreate), showing materials at meetings with clients, and annotating pdfs synced with dropbox.

Thanks. Do you use Apple pencil for annotation?

Definitely, yes. It is very accurate.

purchased an ipad mini for the singular purpose of running foreflight on it - an electronic flight bag application which replaces a whole bunch of frequently updated aviation charts and printed material, gives convenient access to aviation weather data, simplifies managing a digital logbook, plus lots of hand-calculations like weight and balance that are not difficult but are more annoying to do by hand. in flight the ipad sits in a claw mount sunction cupped to the canopy where it's easy to keep an eye on adsb traffic, pull up airport information, and so on. there are other EFB apps that will run on android tablets but foreflight is more or less the standard and default used by most people so far as I'm aware.

since owning it i've found it's also very handy in the kitchen for viewing recipes as it can be set in place and read without being picked up in the hand as a phone might require.

I use it to play Settlers of Catan, Pictionary, Codenames, etc… several times a week with family.

It’s my only travel device and I use it to watch movies on planes.

I also use it for al my social media apps. Not having them on my phone has done wonders in reducing my screen time.

Edit: I almost forgot! I use it for podcast editing with Ferrite!

Android Samsung Tablet S7.

Used for sketching (mostly UI),reading articles on the couch and ofcourse playing games

Our 4th generation iPad is still kicking and used for Zoom / Google Meet / FaceTime calls. Thinking about finally getting a new one because the video can lag when streamed onto the TV with AirTime / AppleTV.

They're both toys. Load them up with educational apps for the kid. For productivity and entertainment (and if your kid were older, teaching them to type and code), a convertible Chromebook is superior to both devices.

Samsung Android tablet, content consumption, with the detachable keyboard a lightweight laptop on the go for, and with the pen a sort of digital paper for drawing stuff (technical diagrams or plain drawings).

A) GaiaGPS https://www.gaiagps.com/ when I have the jeep offroad.

B) Movies/TV when I'm on a plane.

I carry my iPad mini 5 with me everywhere, a lot more than my iPhone.

Work tasks

- managing Trello

- sketching apps like Wacom Bamboo and Concept

- note taking/reading on Bear

- Miro, upload photos directly using the camera app

- sometimes I check issues and PRs on the GitHub app

Consumption

- general web surfing

- lots of ebooks

Consuming books, articles, web browsing, and videos.

I have an Apple Pencil and a keyboard, but I rarely use the Pencil, and only use the keyboard when I don't have a Mac nearby.

iPads are great for note taking, content consumption, some remote terminal things. The battery life is really darn good.

For most remote work and management I find a Windows tablet is much more useful. Even if it feels slower in use, having the same programs natively as a workstation is extremely convenient.

For content consumption or idling CPU use cases, iPads are tough to beat. For most anything else I think a surface go, small yoga, whatever is much more functional.

Both of our older iPads(and a very slow Kindle Fire) have become devices solely used for streaming video: Netflix/YouTube TV.

Recording data in the field, a well crafted spreadsheet taking the place of a clipboard and pages of paper. Works like a charm.

I ended up mounting mine to the walls as glorified calendars, A/V controllers, and video-call kiosks for the kids.

My nicer one is in the living room for end of the day games and such, but my older one is an always-on weather display.

I have a cheap tablet that is nearly exclusively used for reading comics books and various PDFs. It’s great!

Comics are great on color screens, at least indoors.

Galaxy Z Fold3: Reading everything. It's just enough to read most content, and fits in my pocket.

My iPad is my main book reading and video watching device, with a little light gaming sometimes, too.

Out of curiosity, isn't tv more convenient, since it is bigger and you don't need to hold it or you don't have a tv?

I’ve got mild insomnia, and I do most of my video watching to wind down before I go to sleep, so I usually use it while I’m laying down on my side (and I flip every now and again, so I can’t just set up a TV on one side of the bed).

My teen daughter has an IPad-Mini that she no longer uses, I use it as an e-reader mostly.

It’s a giant perfect e-reader, and a small kitchen computer/TV.

For ipad, reading only (no social media, slack, etc).

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