iPad as laptop replacement

After seeing all the information on the iPad I started wondering whether the iPad could replace my laptop (which is slowly failing me). This is a functional, situational and practical question.

First the situational question. At the moment I use may laptop sitting in the kitchen. The laptop is on the table, I am behind the table in front of the fire place. I should use an iPad in the same location. This does not seem ideal, although I might put a reclining chair in my kitchen. I guess I would like to have a stand. In the evening I would love to use the iPad on my couch.

the iPad surely seems capable enough. The speed seems great. People start to complain already about some missing things, but these seem non-issues for me. The video camera would be a nice addition, but I can do without (as I do now). No multitasking might be an important point, but I am not sure it is a real issue. Notifications will be enough for me. No flash is OK, I hate flash. I installed ClickToFlash to get rid of it on many sites. It is amazing what people use flash for. GPS is an interesting point. I see GPS as something useful while on the street and in the wild. So the question is where would you use this thing? The no HD output seems an extremely silly remark. This is not a video server! All in all, it seems very useful for me from a hardware point of view. And I am very curious whether the Bluetooth can be used for all kinds of interesting peripherals. It seems that the iPad will be used to connect to projector, so that is covered.

I am worried about the screen size though. Ten inch is really small. I find my 14 inch laptop screen already to small. But I might be confusing usage situations here. The iPad is not really for working!

The most important thing are however the apps. So the question is: is there an app in my dock that can not be replaced with an iPad app? Well, in my dock I have: Finder, OmniWeb, Safari, NetNewsWire, Mail, AddressBook, MarsEdit, iCal, iTunes, iPhoto, SandVox, Vidalia, Nambu, Billings and EverNote. Occasionally I use Mellel, Pages, Keynote, Last.fm, Calculator, ChaChing, NoteTaker, Preview, MacGourmet and various other small stuff.

If I look at my dock apps, I seem to be well covered by iPad support. How can I manage my files however? It seems there is a solution as a wide variety of attachments possible in Mail on iPad. OmniWeb is not there, but I can do well with Safari. Sandvox not available on the iPad would be a big pain. I need this app. Vidalia is not on the iPad, but that does not matter. For my occasional apps there would be no problem either. Mellel would be a pity, but I can convert to Pages. NoteTaker (Aquaminds) will be on the iPad. So from an application point of view I seem to be covered.

Another problem is multiple users. On my laptop I have now multiple users defined, which are all used. I am afraid the iPad is a personal thing. This implies that I would need multiple iPad’s. Bit expensive, but will give an interesting household.

The question that remains is a practical one. Is the manipulation of the various files easy enough? Is the on screen keyboard good enough for inputting messages such as this one?

Unfortunately we still need Mac for docking the iPad for backup and synchronisation. So I still must have a Mac around the house.

I guess I have to get one in order to find out whether the iPad can be a replacement in practice.

 

 

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