Goodbye Macbook, Hello iPad.
I have written about the MacBook Air a number of times in the last 18 months. I first tried an Air in December 2010, but ended up returning it due to performance anxiety. I felt it was two expensive for its ‘limited’ specs.
However, due to increasing demands it became apparent i needed something for studying so i purchased an Air for uni. It also gave me digital separation between work and home.
Yesterday i sold my MacBook Air to my partner so he could use it for studying. I’m sad to see it ‘go’ but its not going far and it’s for a good cause.
Instead of going out and replacing it with a shiny new MacBook Air i decided to have a little experiment. Is it possible for me to live without a laptop? Can the iPad meet my personal computing needs.
I should note, i will still have access to an iMac at home. I share one with my partner, it acts as a media server and my freelance workstation. However, i don’t use it for personal stuff (writing, browsing etc).
What kept me.
You could ask what has stopped me from doing this in the past? Well a few things. As i wrote recently i found a few activities on iPad frustrating or just impossible.
I found instant messages slow and clunky. This is still the case but its getting better as time goes by. Using IM+ i can get the job done but its hardly the best experience possible. I hope to experiment with apps a bit here and to find a better solution.
Some activites seemed impossible. For example managing my finances with “Xero“http://xero.com. It requires me to download a bank statement from my bank and then upload it to Xero. Without a file system i thought this was not possible.
It turns out a third party iPad browser called iCadMobile does the job perfectly. So that problem is solved. Another blocker bits the dust.
Cloud.
I must admit, after 2 years i still hate the term Cloud however service like dropbox are very useful. I am using Dropbox to simulate a basic file system. It provides a place for my documents to live and it syncs between my phone and the iMac.
Where Next.
Its very much early days, rather shamefully i have actually already failed a little. I forgot to bring my keyboard home with me from work this evening so i have instead written this post on another machine. I suppose changing habits will take time, i am excited, and a little nervous, to see where this experiment leads.
Have you swapped out your laptop for an iPad? Do you have any software tips. Feel free to ping me via twitter, i would love to know your thoughts.