[enya227]

Ive been debating over whether to buy an iPad for some time and as a few of my friends who are lucky enough to have them swear by them it seems very appealing. Thing is, I had an iPod touch for years and barely used the thing as it ran out of charge really quickly and I found most of the apps pretty dull and limited.

I was originally going to get a kindle but when I realised I could access the kindle store as well as the itunes book store I looked to the iPad. I read quite a lot and spend a lot of time writing so I thought a tablet would come in handy. Thing is, I don't want to work all summer to buy something I'm rarely going to use or that is going to take second place to my laptop.

Can anyone give advice or share their experiences with the iPad?

[Nick Longjohnson]

For me, no way.

I annotate the **** out of my lecture notes with equations, diagrams etc. No way you can do that on any tablet.

Also, at any point, i have at least 5 or so sets of notes/books open on my desk. I'm not going to get 5 tablets.

I can think of better ways to spend a few hundred pounds.

[hamza7]

It depends on what you're going to study. Does your course have a lot of reading to do? If so then yeah sure go ahead but if you're studying engineering or something you definitely won't need it.

[Intriguing Alias]

Definitely don't get one for education. It may come in handy in rare occasions but in the end it is a gadget/toy and is meant for entertainment and leisure foremost.

[enya227]

(Original post by hamza7)
It depends on what you're going to study. Does your course have a lot of reading to do? If so then yeah sure go ahead but if you're studying engineering or something you definitely won't need it.

I'm hoping to study either History on its own or combined with English Literature so it would come in handy for reading hopefully

[HighwayUnicorn]

I have had the iPad 3 for a little over a month now and here's my verdict on both:

Essay writing:
Pro - Voice dictation is pretty handy.
Con - Clunky.

Overall: Don't get it for essay writing. Pen and paper is a lot more practical.

Book reading:
Pro - Looks good, can save you from the burden of having to drag loads of textbooks about if they are in PDF/eBook form
Con - Impossible to find a comfortable spot to read. Unlike a book it's kinda heavy so you can't have as much freedom of how you want to read it.

Overall: It's pretty good, though the weight is pretty frustrating when trying to find a comfortable position to hold it in.

As far as the whole "will it replace my laptop" argument goes, I would say it's been used quite regularly since I have used it. It depends on whether you rely on flash that much. If you don't and tend to use Twitter/Facebook etc then it could end up replacing it.

If you have the money go for it, it is a nice gadget as a whole (not just for reading and essays). Though I can't help but feel that the money would be of better use elsewhere.

[AbzTheBabz]

Stick to paper, then scan it. Easy peasy.

[H.C. Chinaski]

(Original post by Nick Longjohnson)
For me, no way.

I annotate the **** out of my lecture notes with equations, diagrams etc. No way you can do that on any tablet.

Also, at any point, i have at least 5 or so sets of notes/books open on my desk. I'm not going to get 5 tablets.

I can think of better ways to spend a few hundred pounds.

Not true.
A slate tablet pc is perfect for note taking/ Annotation.
I have used one for years.

[Igrisok]

A Kindle or tablet might be useful for those rare occasions that the required reading material is available as a PDF or eBook, but as aside from that I can't think of any way you can justify getting one for education. Note-taking is much simpler and more versatile with a laptop or good ol'-fashioned pen and paper.

If you want to get an iPad for purely recreational reasons (reading novels, Fruit Ninja etc.), go ahead! But it's hardly worth getting a £300 tablet for school and university when there are other, infinitely cheaper and more useful options.

[Nick Longjohnson]

(Original post by H.C. Chinaski)
Not true.
A slate tablet pc is perfect for note taking/ Annotation.
I have used one for years.

Does the iPad come with a proper digitizer and pen? Name how many arm tablets do.

[cl_steele]

(Original post by Nick Longjohnson)
Does the iPad come with a proper digitizer and pen? Name how many arm tablets do.

not quite sure what you mean by arm but the lenovo thinkpad tablet comes with a digitizer and is optimised for note taking, the zoon from motorola is also pretty good at it?

[Nick Longjohnson]

(Original post by cl_steele)
not quite sure what you mean by arm but the lenovo thinkpad tablet comes with a digitizer and is optimised for note taking, the zoon from motorola is also pretty good at it?

ARM is the architecture that all these things people consider "tablets" run on (like iPads, and all the Android ones).

Actual PC's that have a touchscreen thing and a pen are completely different, and yes, they are good for note taking.

I still like proper paper anyway. I dont carry around a laptop in my bag because it will get destroyed, and someone will probably steal it.

[djshine88]

I love my ipad for reading books. It depends on the format of books that you have, but with epub you can annotate them.

I have a lot of pdfs and ebooks so i find it amazingly useful for reading books. And yes it is brilliant for Kindle app.

I have both kindle and ipad, and the only advantages of the kindle is the eink that doesn't burn your eyes. But with retina on ipad, it's less prone to eye strain now.

The one thing i hated about the kindle was the fact that if i converted books to mobi from pdf, the converted books were very poorly done. Where as on the ipad - ibooks supports pdf, epub, and then kindle supports mobi, and there are apps to support chm format.

There are loads of different things that can be done on the ipad, but once again it really depends on what you are studying??


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[H.C. Chinaski]

(Original post by Nick Longjohnson)
Does the iPad come with a proper digitizer and pen? Name how many arm tablets do.

erm, sorry ?? .... why are you asking these further questions??

I simply responded to your comment

(Original post by Nick Longjohnson)
No way you can do that on any tablet.

Which is clearly wrong, as I pointed out to you.

As it happens and indeed as another poster pointed out, this lenevo ... http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPa.../dp/B005F0I8GI does indeed have a wacom digitiser + stylus ... so I suppose that answers your question regardless ......

[djshine88]

Oh to answer that question, the ipad is capable of using a stylus, but with multitouch sooooo amazing, why would you want to?

I bought one just to try, it was a fiver and works brilliantly.


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[H.C. Chinaski]

(Original post by djshine88)
Oh to answer that question, the ipad is capable of using a stylus, but with multitouch sooooo amazing, why would you want to?

I bought one just to try, it was a fiver and works brilliantly.


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

The type of stylus being referred to here is with reference to a wacom digitiser interface found on selected slate models, not to be confused with the "stylus" offerings that are essentially "fat fingers."

They 2 are entirely different beasts.

[cl_steele]

(Original post by Nick Longjohnson)
ARM is the architecture that all these things people consider "tablets" run on (like iPads, and all the Android ones).

Actual PC's that have a touchscreen thing and a pen are completely different, and yes, they are good for note taking.

I still like proper paper anyway. I dont carry around a laptop in my bag because it will get destroyed, and someone will probably steal it.

ah fair enough

yar id agree you with you bar the fact my hand writing is ****ing aweful so i have to use someform of computer to write with lest no one be able to read it :P

[djshine88]

(Original post by H.C. Chinaski)
The type of stylus being referred to here is with reference to a wacom digitiser interface found on selected slate models, not to be confused with the "stylus" offerings that are essentially "fat fingers."

They 2 are entirely different beasts.

I see... In that case, yea they're different. Have to say, im surprised that there are stylus that work with capacitive touch devices


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[adrenalinmmx]

I use my iPad 2 all the time for my university notes. I had one anyway and wasn't initially so keen on using it for uni notes, however...

I now have a complete digital archive of all of my notes, neatly filed away and backed up in Dropbox. It's so light to carry around, and you can get pdf copies of most textbooks (if you know where to look). The Notes Plus app is terrific and is easy to write with (I use a Griffin stylus). My laptop hasn't left my desk all year since anything that I need to be portable is easily accessible on my iPad.

There are about 8-10 people in my engineering lectures (of 60-90 people in total) who take notes on iPads; they all swear by them.

Just make sure your uni has decent wifi coverage (ours does!)

[chloemclaughlin]

I bought mine for work and it has been a God send in terms of note taking. Yes it can be an ass if you need to annotate but with apps for diagrams etc and easy multi tasking it works very well.

I would suggest you download pages and keynote at the minimum as without these it's pretty much pointless having one for work.

It does depend on your subject etc. for me in performing arts it was handy as it meant I could put scripts on it and annotate them using iBooks (there's highlighting and annotation available) but for something like Maths it would be a total ass.

The disadvantages is that it doesn't have flash and until your used to typing on it you can make quite a few mistakes.

But it's cheaper than a Mac and ideal for on the go. You can always Dropbox docs and view them on a computer at a later date/ print them out and annotate them. Thats what I do