Laptop time. NLC.

[tut]

Co-incidentally Campbell, doubt if you would do better than this one, solid aluminium at a third of the price.

Built just like the MacBook air and I would order one myself but it looks as if I am going for the iPad mini.

http://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/national ... 344&a=1664

tut

[campbell]

Good spot. Have considered similar so will check it out properly later when I get a mo. Have also seen an alternative leather-based one for a lot more money but a touch of class

[robin]

Tom has one of these if you want to play with it before deciding to buy ...


Cheers,
Robin

[tut]

Presuming that Tom has an iPad Robin, how do the two go together?

Does it cover most functions that a laptop will?

tut

[robin]

The actual link on Tom's is Bluetooth I think. So you don't have to have the iPad in the keyboard slot, but it is the most obvious way of using them.

The iPad will fit in either portrait or landscape mode, I seem to remember, so for word processing you might use it in portrait mode, though maybe not useful in plane/train scenario where the landscape mode would be better (more like a normal laptop).

The iPad does have some "office" apps - Tom only uses Pages (I think that's what it's called) which is pretty limited functionality word processor BUT more than enough for what people should need for letters/short reports. I had to do something to my printer to allow him to print but I'm sure Campbell could make that work too.

The main problem with this is if you have a large catalog of documents that you maintain; in this case you need to do some work to see how you would check documents in/out of the catalog to get them onto the iPad, edit them and then check the edited versions back into the catalog. Especially important if your documents have complex content with pictures, etc. My guess is that it's not the way ahead unless you're really keen to use the iPad in this way. A normal laptop will no doubt work better.

Cheers,
Robin

[campbell]

I assume Dropbox would support the document library issues? I have their app on the iPad already...

[Lazydonkey]

Even with Dropbox you may still have formatting issues. I use quickoffice on my ipad and its ok for viewing docs at work but i use my Netbook or laptop for creating documents.

[tut]

Verian's needs are simple, ability to open .doc and .docx files, and write straight forward letters, ie:- as you would send to friends or the bank. Her main usage is e-mail and browsing the Internet, plus Skype.

Anything that the iPad cold not handle could just be done on our laptops.

tut

[campbell]

Tom has one of these if you want to play with it before deciding to buy ...


Cheers,
Robin

Cool. Will arrange a short test drive soon

I had thought of trialling this sort of stuff on my forthcoming trip to London this week, but have decided to have one final fling with my beloved Toshiba Portege R600 I have a bucket of Outlook work mail to delete or archive...wasted hours in departure lounges can therefore be put to good use

[tut]

Bit the bullet and bought a white iPad 4 32gb for Verian from John Lewis as they have a two year warranty, and that matches the keyboard that I ordered from Groupon.

She wants to buy me the iPad mini but I said that I could not really justify it, but had second thoughts and have ordered that as well. I thought that they could prove good value, as if we dock them together, a 9.7" into a 7.9" could produce an 8.8"

tut

ps:- of course I will not be able to heat the house now, but at least we can lie in bed together with our iPads, and Skype each other.

[campbell]

Facetime each other Tut, it's Facetime when you are Apple Fanboys and Fangirls...Skype is so last week

[Sanjøy]

Facetime each other Tut, it's Facetime when you are Apple Fanboys and Fangirls...Skype is so last week

Does antone use facetime? I find anything other than a LAN connection and its pants. Skype ftw.

[Dark]

Does antone use facetime? I find anything other than a LAN connection and its pants. Skype ftw.

The kids use Facetime on their iTouch's constantly for talking to their grandparents down south and their friends from school.

It's much less formal than talking to the grandparents on the phone or Skype on the computer. Since we only see the grandparents 4 or 5 times per year it's made a huge difference to how they communicate and share information They call each other during all sorts of random activities: drawings, baking, clothes, hospital scars; it all gets shared!

Group homework sessions via Facetime when somebody gets stuck on a tricky maths question are also the norm this days! Better they work the answer out amongst themselves than ask me anyway!

Okay, Mrs Dark is Head of IT at school, but I don't think our kids are doing anything different with technology than most other kids. Certainly not if you saw the report on C4 news last night!

[campbell]

Facetime each other Tut, it's Facetime when you are Apple Fanboys and Fangirls...Skype is so last week

Does antone use facetime? I find anything other than a LAN connection and its pants. Skype ftw.

I ran a facetime session from the beach at Achmelvich back in September. Truly awesome. You need to check your kit mate...

[Sanjøy]

Facetime each other Tut, it's Facetime when you are Apple Fanboys and Fangirls...Skype is so last week

Does antone use facetime? I find anything other than a LAN connection and its pants. Skype ftw.

I ran a facetime session from the beach at Achmelvich back in September. Truly awesome. You need to check your kit mate...

Hmm I guess it depends on where you call, I mainly use it to call Florida and Melbourne for which Skype rulez with its peer to peer network bandwidth.