Apple iPad, Day 30: The Verdict–Can an iPad Replace a PC?

Today the 30 Years With an iPad series comes to a close. I array on this journeying with the goal of deciding whether an iPad is capable of replacement my Windows 7 notebook, and now IT's time to critique the experience and render a verdict.

To score the iPad, let's get a load at some of the common functions I need to do with my main computation platform and settle if the iPad terminate deliver:

• Web Surfing: Yes

After 30 Days With the iPad, all that's left is to answer the interview "can IT replace a PC?"

• Email: Yes

• Office Productiveness: Yes

• Manage Contacts: Yes

• Clog up to Cloud: Yes

• VPN to Company Network: Yes

• Online Meetings / Video Conference: Yes

• Calendar: Yes

• Social Networking: Yes

• Finances: Yes

• Printing / Scanning: Yes

• Entertainment: Yes

Did I leave anything out? Looking at this list, and scoring the iPad supported its capabilities, it seems that the result to the question "terminate an iPad replace a PC?" is an absolute "yes". Just…non for me. And, not for many others. Very, the answer is a very solid "it depends".

There are a couple determining drawbacks for me. I publish. A lot. That's what I do. Essential keyboard vs. physical keyboard aside, I involve a much bigger display and more efficacious multitasking so I terminate research and type simultaneously. I besides need a real web browser that can work with the PCWorld subject matter management system (Oregon I need the PCWorld developers to alter the scheme to work with a mobile web browser) for publishing what I write.

For ME, the experience over the ultimo 30 years demonstrated that it is possible to an extent, but not necessarily preferable for all. Essentially, I wouldn't release my notebook PC and rely solely on the iPad, but if my Windows 7 notebook suddenly died I know that the iPad can replete those shoes in a pinch.

In that respect are a number of scenarios where an iPad simply North Korean won't work as a PC replacement. If you are a developer–even a developer of apps for an iPad–you need a PC. If you are a professional lensman, or a printmaker, you call for a PC. If you are a hardcore gamer, you need a PC. I buns keep adding to that list, but basically using an iPad as a PC replacement will not work for everyone.

I am not an average user, though. I induce an iPad and a notebook that plural boots between Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux. I have an iPhone, and I am considering getting a MacBook Air. I English hawthorn puzzle out an Android smartphone and Android pad of paper just now because. This is what I do, and then I have a vested interest in learnedness and using every bit many platforms and technologies Eastern Samoa possible.

Umpteen of the criticisms and negative comments throughout this series also came from users who put on't inevitably represent the average. Some of the issues were more mainstream than others, simply many of the complaints affinal to to a greater extent advanced functionality. For many of the concerns, on that point is in fact a solution–or at least a workaround–then again it comes low-spirited to a query of "wherefore should I accept alternative solutions and workarounds if my Personal computer already does those tasks just pulverised?"

So, who does the iPad work for as a PC replacement? Most people, really. My father, my in-Pentateuch, my brother, my best acquaintance, my cousins, my neighbors. People who are still using a Windows XP PC. People World Health Organization think that Google is the Internet because information technology's the home page when they open their web browser. The great unwashe who think they put up't switch ISPs or they'll have to gravel a altogether red-hot Hotmail account and start over. People who grease one's palms a PC from Best Buy and basically use it as is out of the box.

The reality is that the iPad–particularly the iPad 2–is not only capable of handling the computing needs of an average user; it is probably a better choice than a PC. It is easier. It just works.

You can give an iPad to your Luddite grandmother who has never used a computer and she backside surf the Web and ship an email in a matter of transactions. You can give an iPad to a three year stale, and they can intuitively navigate the user interface and use information technology without a second thought.

AirPlay streaming — Streaming a movie from the iPad to a TV is simple with AirPlay.

The iPad give the sack do these things, and it's more than versatile than a desktop PC–or even a notebook operating theatre netbook–because of its form factor. You give the axe read a Enkindle al-Qur'an on your iPad in bed, rain cats and dogs a movie from your iPad to your 42″ LCD TV in your bread and butter elbow room, video schmoose with your parents from the hideout, and cook dinner using a recipe from the AllRecipes app in the kitchen.

The iPad lets you cheque your email when you have a give up 30 seconds dead in phone line at the bank, or post a status update to Facebook virtually the make fun next to you on the take with two divers artificial socks. The iPad lets you read National Earth science, observe dormie with breakage word along CNN, or watch your favorite HBO series spell posing in the wait room at the dentist.

Can you do these things with a notebook or netbook? Sure enough. Can your grandmother or your three-year-old horse do them intuitively? Probably non. Would you want to catch tabu a notebook Microcomputer, open it, kicking (or wake) it up, and try to harbour it in one hand out spell navigating the touchpad with the other just so you can check your email while standing in line? I doubt it.

I assume't plan to catch eliminate my notebook. I put on't recommend that any of my tekki friends dump their Personal computer any time soon. But, for the immense legal age of my friends and relatives, I accept no reservations whatsoever telling them that the iPad is all they need.

Read the last "30 Days" series: 30 Days With Ubuntu Linux

Day 29: Five Things I Like Most Near the iPad

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