Recently I was lucky enough to get the extended use of a 32 gig iPad. My main computer is a 13″ MacBook pro and although I have a killer quad core PC at home it is relegated to primarily gaming and media duties. Since the iPad is not significantly smaller than the Macbook I didn’t think it would really add a lot to my life and work. I’m starting to think i was wrong.
Like most, when the iPad was launched I assumed it would be most effective as a content consumption tool – and it does excel at that. I have a vast library of books and all my music on it plus access to YouTube and the web in a very small form factor. But I didn’t see using it as a general computing platform very often. More and more however I find it replaces my MacBook in day to day usage. This is primarily due to the fact that there are some great applications available for it.
To be clear, my laptop is still my favorite platform for extended work. I would hate to have to build long presentations, edit large spreadsheets or write without Scrivener on e iPad. That said, there are a couple apps that have moved my iPad from an eBook reader to a serious part of my life:
Evernote – available on the Mac, Windows and iPad/iPhone this is a fantastic “jot it down now and sort it out later” tool. The fact that it syncs effortlessly across my machines is golden. I can quickly note down ideas on my iPad anywhere and then they are available on my laptop for further tweaking or importing into Scrivener. If Evernote ever does handwriting recognition on the iPad I will never carry a paper notebook again. That would be the iPads killer app – Steve Jobs be damned.
Sketchbook Pro – This is not only the funnest app I have on my iPad but also one of the most productive in some ways. I am not an illustrator or artist, so i don’t presume to say that this will be a tool people in those professions need. However as someone who enjoys sketching and has a Wacom tablet at home I love the fact there’s a tool that I can access on the train/bus/lunch table that allows me to bang out quick concept sketches without a backpacks worth of hardware. Yes I realize that a pad of paper and pen achieve a similar result but Sketchbook gives me a wide variety of brushes, colors and layers that I can later import to Photoshop in .PSD format. Paper doesn’t do that. One caveat – Sketchbook Pro really does require a stylus. Despite Apples hate for them there are some on the market, I use Griffins stylus for the iPad and love it.
There are a multitude of other apps for the iPad that are fun – but these two have taken a fun eReader/browser tool and made it productive for me. YMMV.
