I get a lot of questions from Youtube, friends, and family asking if an iPad will work for them as
their main computer. I usually respond by asking them what they use their computer for so lets
break down what most people probably need from a computer and if iPad can be their only computer.
Hey, Im Jerry and I have used my iPad for just about everything over the last 2 years.
This device just fits my needs and I really enjoy using it because of its versatility as a touch
screen tablet that can also be transformed into a workstation with a Mouse and Keyboard. People
complained from the introduction of the iPad that it was a content consumption device and not a
content creation device. I would agree with that but over the last 5 years or so there has been
a dramatic shift in the ability to use the iPad for more than watching videos and playing games.
Starting off, the most important thing that makes the iPad a more useful device is a keyboard.
Any keyboard case or Bluetooth keyboard will exponentially increase the ability
to type long messages or documents on the iPad but I prefer the iPad Magic Keyboard.
As a whole, the iPad magic keyboard offers a dock like experience for desktop use with
a great feeling backlit keyboard, a smooth operating trackpad, and adjustable viewing angles.
For apps that have been updated for the iPads full keyboard and trackpad or mouse support
there is a new level of precision and productivity that can be achieved.
Just because I am using an iPad Pro with a magic keyboard does not mean
this video and everything that will follow is limited to the iPad Pro.
There are a ton of keyboard options out there for iPads of all sizes
and most Bluetooth keyboard and mice will work just fine.
So, what do you use your computer for?…………Web Browsing.
I would think that most people would say web browsing is the main thing they use their computer
for. Thats what I would say, and iPad obviously has the fantastic Safari web browser built in.
iPadOS 13 Brought the iPad browser much closer to a desktop class browsing experience by showing
desktop sites by default. iPad will now take advantage of the larger display compared to
a phone and show more content or more columns which means its faster to find what you need.
Just like on the Mac, when you find something you want to read but the page has a bit
of a messy layout you can enable reader view and safari will pull just the content of the article
forward and improve the formatting so that you can read what you want
without getting distracted by bouncing ads or formatting around photos.
Most of the time I will have a bunch of tabs open,
especially if I am comparison shopping or researching something.
You can have as many tabs as you want open on iPad and move them around however you want.
You also have the ability, ……..finally………to add favicons to tabs on iPad. I don’t know if you
know this but favicon are the best when you are trying to find the one tab you are looking for.
Speaking of comparison shopping, now you can even have multiple windows of safari side by side
so you can see 2 webpages or 2 items at the same time if you are trying to
decide which overhead camera rig setup to buy………. You know,……hypothetically.
You might have noticed that I was using Amazon on the web instead of the Amazon App and that’s
because with all of the changes in Safari since iPadOS 13, I have found that in most cases the
website works better and is more consistent in Safari. And that goes for almost all shopping
pages I use like Home Depot or Apple, as well as many other sites including YouTube and Twitter.
Besides them running better and offering more features than the Apps I find that I am not
filling up my ipad storage space with apps and I don’t need all the extra notifications. ………..but
you should definitely hit subscribe below and hit the bell for notifications for MY videos.
The last things I will say about Safari on iPad is that we now have
a download manager to monitor the progress of downloads and view the download history.
We also the ability to upload any files from the iPad Files app,,,no
longer just limited to Photos. You can download files of any type, whether or not you can actually
open it on iPad, AND you can now upload anything like a resume file or documents for your bank.
Email and social networking are probably a close second to browsing the web when it
comes to computer use. I don’t have a lot to say on this because you all know you can use social
media apps or now the websites in Safari, and the built in email client works really well. If
you are looking for more information on how to use email, this is probably not the video for you. But
suffice to say, with the iPad and a keyboard I can crank out email responses and weed out the crap
just as fast as I can with a Mac or Windows PC. The only problem is wanting to go through email.
After Web and Email I would say document creation is next on my list of computer tasks.
You have a bunch of options for word processing, notes, and spreadsheets.
You can go with Apple’s built-in iWork apps like pages and numbers
and use the built in Apple Notes. All of these apps sync with iCloud for backup and
viewing on any device and are fully updated for current iPad features like mouse support.
Google Docs and Microsoft Office apps have issues with mouse support on ipad currently,
but Microsoft has already started beta testing mouse support and that should be
available shortly. Google Docs in Safari has full functionality with mouse on iPad and of course
both of these have their own syncing ability with Google Drive or OneDrive.
One complaint I have heard a lot from others…and myself…is that file management on the iPad is
not great. That’s true, its not great but it is usable. Most apps will save files to their
respective cloud location, but you can choose to save files locally on the ipad if you want.
Inside the files app you can navigate to a folder……….. create a folder……….call
it whatever you want and save files to it from whichever app.
And if you want to see your respective cloud service drive integrated with the iPad Files app
you can add it by tapping the menu button………….edit sidebar………..then
you will see what options are available.
For other types of documents, like PDFs there is always Acrobat Reader and Adobe Fill and Sign
which I use for work frequently. If I am sent a time sheet or other signature required document,
I can send it from email to Fill and Sign, add my signature, and send it back.
…..Fill and sign on the iPad works far faster for me compared to a PDF software on a PC.
And I know that sometimes there is no getting around printing and scanning documents,
and yes, iPad can do both. Using any AirPrint compatible printer,
or a shared printer on a network, you can absolutely print.
And if I need to scan in a document the awesome Microsoft Office Lens is the way
to do it. Office Lens makes it easy to line up a photo, take it, and Lens will
automatically clean up and straighten the image to create a presentable document.
Next up, photo management. Google Photos is my go to photo app instead of Apple Photos. I prefer
Google Photos because it really does hit all the requirements I have for a photo management
app like with Syncing, editing, and sharing. When I take Photos from my iPhone, they are
uploaded automatically, as you would expect, and are available across all devices pretty quickly.
I have over 56k photos on Google Photos and use it for shared albums with friends
and family for things like holidays or parties. That gives us a shared album
for an event that we can all save photos too and see what everyone else took photos of.
Of course, you can also get photos from a non-smart phone camera
onto the iPad and into google photos by a few different ways.
If you have and iPad Pro with USB-c you can connect the camera directly to the iPad with a
USB Cable and copy the files over. If you have an iPad with Lightning you can use the Apple
USB3 camera adapter. You can use an SD card reader like this CoCacka SD card reader that uses usb-c.
Even if you don’t want to physically connect anything to the iPad
most cameras have apps for iPad to control the camera or transfer files wirelessly.
Unfortunately, there is one caveat to this. No matter which method you choose you will have
to import the photos into Apple Photos first and then Google Photos will backup your camera roll.
What I like to do is make sure iCloud photos is disabled and after everything is backed
up to google photos you can use the Free Up Space utility which will delete photos and
videos out of the Apple Camera roll if it has been successfully backed up to Google.
Although computers can do much more, Entertainment is another big use for a computer. From watching
videos on apps like YouTube or Netflix to playing casual games like what you can get with a little
$5 subscription to Apple Arcade, this is what iPad was built for. You can even play not so
casual games like modern combat 5. You can get live TV from apps like ATT TV Now or YouTube TV.
Entertainment opportunities are really endless on iPad.
The retina screens and decent speakers on iPad make it a fantastic device for watching video
anywhere from on the couch, to a kitchen counter when cooking, or, because the iPad is so portable,
when traveling on an airplane…………..some day……… With just a simple folding case of some kind
you can prop it up almost anywhere, pop in some headphone and drown out the rest of the noise.
So, I know that this is not an exhaustive list of what you might use a computer for
but I do think that this covers most activities that most people use a computer for.
There are of course 10s of thousands of apps that give the iPad the ability to help you
learn, work, and create almost anything. From video editing and graphics arts to
learning languages and flying a plane, the iPad is probably the most versatile computer you can buy.
I like using iPad and I like finding ways to make it work better for me. In my experience iPad CAN
be your only computer. Just like switching from a PC to a Mac or vise versa, making the switch to
iPad can be daunting or confusing as you learn all the new ways to do things. You will find things
you like and things you don’t like, or things that confuse you, but eventually you just use it.
What do you think? Are the workflows that you absolutely cannot move to ipad?
If you have made the jump, what is the best thing about using iPad for everything?
For me, The massive changes in Safari have allowed me to make the iPad my only computer if I want. I
switch all the time just because I am crazy, but if you want to see more about how Safari
can make your ipad more like a laptop, check out this video over here. …………….Hit the thumbs
up button if you liked it, hit subscribe if you want, and Ill see you next time.