iPad for student - yes/no

[Speedster]

What would be a good netbook for my purposes then?

If you can afford it - get a MacBook Air. Otherwise Lenovo should have the new ThinkPad Edge 11 in store any time now for about half the price of a MacBook Air. A netbook (Atom) is generally pretty underpowered so these so called not-books are better value imo.

 

[Rishalin]

If you can afford it - get a MacBook Air. Otherwise Lenovo should have the new ThinkPad Edge 11 in store any time now for about half the price of a MacBook Air. A netbook (Atom) is generally pretty underpowered so these so called not-books are better value imo.

Yeah i agree on the new Macbook Air 13".. its an awesome little Mac,

But regarding the iPad.. do you want to be cool at university???

 

[surfs-up]

What would be a good netbook for my purposes then?

I have an iPad, and it is awesome with it's 3G. If I lost mine, I would buy another in a flash. You don't really know it's usefulness unless you have owned one - it's like cellphones. Before cellphones came out, it wasn't that much of a deal to not have a cellphone - we pretty much learnt how to live without one. However, I think most would agree - if you had to lose all your phones, you would feel lost without it. The same is true with the iPad - if my iPad was lost or stolen, I would feel like I had lost a limb...I would have to go an buy another.

However, having praised the iPad. I got an iPad because I already have MBP's. But, if I was you, and you can only get ONE device - then I would rather opt for a small 13" MacBook Pro. Put Parallels and Windows 7 on it, to run any Windows app that you want.

 

[Synaesthesia]

I reckon iPad. It attracts attention, it's cool, if you don't dig it, you can sell it at the price you bought it for

 

[Nerfherder]

Rather get yourself a netbook / notebook. you can get a pretty decent machine for the price of an iPad.

+1

You can get a great netbook for the same price (or less) and you can do way more on a netbook.

 

[surfs-up]

I reckon iPad. It attracts attention, it's cool, if you don't dig it, you can sell it at the price you bought it for

This is true, you wouldn't lose much....if anything, if you wanted to sell your iPad. With a netbook.....hmmmm you could lose 50 % or more, if you tried to sell it

 

[Tacet]

I'd suggest a laptop or a netbook, though I might be ignorant as to some of the iPad's abilities.

1) My Univ has a Novell network. By installing Novell I could browse the Uni LAN, internet, and print, all of which I wouldn't have been able to do without Novell.

2) USB. I'm not trying to bash the iPad on this one, but I used USB A LOT on Uni to copy notes to and from friends. Mostly the notes would be on a usb stick.

3) If you use software for your courses, it is more likely to be windows based. Ok, I did engineering, not economics, so I don't know what software you use. We used Matlab, PSpice, Office, LaTeX, Protel Altium, various programming languages and compilers, all of which was easy to do on windows. I've switched over to linux postgrad, and found that while I could find alternatives for almost anything, it made life much more complicated. I could never find a proper PCB layout tool for linux, though.

On the other hand - the coolness factor of the iPad is much higher! ;-)

 

[surfs-up]

If money were not too much of a factor, the ideal would be to get a MacBook Pro for the res/dorm/frat house/whatever, and an iPad to take to class. With the iPad you can doodle (with the right app - ie make hand written notes) or you can use office apps like pages for doc's, numbers for spreadsheets or keynote for PP. Or there are plenty of other apps to choose from - 300 000, to do various things. Then after class you can sync with your MacBook - decisions, decisions....

 

[UnUnOctium]

The only reason I disagree is because I study engineering and there is just no way using a computer/tablet/netbook to draw graphs/symbols/diagrams can compete with pencil + paper during a lecture.

Perhaps if its something like BA languages - then it(iPad) would be awesome, I type faster than I write and it will much neater in digital format.

iPad also likely to get stolen and you going to have to watch your bag even more carefully.

Truth. Some people did take notes on laptops though, but it's a bit slower and have fun trying to keep up when the lecturer shows some equations.

Yeah i agree on the new Macbook Air 13".. its an awesome little Mac,

But regarding the iPad.. do you want to be cool at university???

I reckon iPad. It attracts attention, it's cool, if you don't dig it, you can sell it at the price you bought it for

Rather be cool at the parties when not studying and focus on being dilligent/productive during lectures and study time. Unless you want to be in university for 6 years + (and totally cool)...

I did my undergrad in engineering at UP, finished last year, now I'm doing postgrad at UCT. BIG difference. Father offered to buy me laptop repeatedly, and I repeatedly turned him down because I knew I didn't need it. At worst I had to borrow a friend's laptop for one day to demo my project (needed RS232 connectivity and USB [lol iPad] to communicate with and program my dsPIC for last minute changes, the nerves!).
You'll find that in undergrad, the thing you use the most is a flash drive, you'll have lots of assignments which you'll only have time to print at university.

Post-grad, I do have a laptop for running my own software and a desktop machine given to me by the university which I don't use. So even now one could say I can actually do without it, but the convenience of it is much greater. So I'm glad I didn't get a laptop as an undergrad since now, for the same money, I got a much better device than I would've bought in 2006 or 2007.

 

[surfs-up]

I stand to be corrected as i haven't purchased this option yet - but you can have USB for the iPad, if you buy the optional camera kit with adapter that plugs into the iPad. I haven't bought that option for my iPad yet, as the local sources are a rip-off. I will have to wait until February next year when I go back to the USA, to get my camera kit for the iPad.

BTW Anyone else here that has the iPad, and the camera kit, that can confirm this - re the USB port for flash drives ? does it work for flash drives ?

 

[Synaesthesia]

It does work. However the iPad doesn't have a file browser, so you can't copy files from it, without jailbreaking. And then it gets complex.

You can place things in the /DCIM folder, because that's where it looks for photo's automatically. Like PDF's and the like, I think.

 

[surfs-up]

It does work. However the iPad doesn't have a file browser, so you can't copy files from it, without jailbreaking. And then it gets complex.

You can place things in the /DCIM folder, because that's where it looks for photo's automatically. Like PDF's and the like, I think.

So, that is a software issue ? with the release of the new firmware for the iPad later this month......that could possibly include a file browser, and allow the port to be used for file transfer ?

 

[Synaesthesia]

It won't include a file browser.

 

[Vixremento]

I have a netbook (with Visual Studio 2010 installed on it - just for kicks...it's the LG X140 if you want to take a look - 6 hour batter life on average over the last three months). I guess it depends on what you plan to do on it too (I guess if you're only gonna browse the web without flash then the iPad is probably the answer /joke). Personally though I for like being able to run anything available on my machine without being forced through a single provider - especially if the hardware potentially supports it.

 

[lynnband]

It is very convenient , it works in anyplace which have net. If you always stay at room ,you can buy a laptop ,but if you often go off ,the iPad is enough for you！