I won an iPad earlier this year from the great folks at Trackur. It was a gadget I really wanted, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to part with the cash to purchase one. I’m glad I got one, though, because it is really a handy tool. Now that I’ve been using it for a few months, I can’t imagine not having one.
To be sure, I play games on it. I play Words with Friends, Chess with Friends, Monopoly, Angry Birds, etc. But I also use it as a tool to make my life easier and more productive. For instance: I play bass with the band at church. Since getting the iPad, I’ve been converting my music binder from paper sheets to PDFs. Carrying the iPad is quite a bit easier than toting around a ten-pound binder full of paper. It’s easy to copy the PDFs to the “Books” section of iTunes and let them sync to the device.
Another way I use the iPad is taking notes. I bring it to meetings and jot down notes using the Notes app and then email the document to myself and anyone else with whom I might want to share. This is much more efficient for me than taking notes on paper and then typing them into an electronic document.
At the recent PubCon South, I used the iPad to build my summaries for the blog. Just for this purpose, I purchased the Apple Wireless Keyboard (Bluetooth – Amazon Affiliate link) because I found I couldn’t type fast enough with the on-screen keyboard. At each session, I set up my iPad and took notes in the CleanWriter app. At the end of the day, I copied the notes and pasted them into my blog using the BlogPress app. BlogPress is not a WYSIWYG editor, so I did have to code some HTML to put the notes in unordered lists. Still, using copy and paste didn’t take very long. I think it worked out pretty well.
I also use the iPad to read my Kindle books, go through my email, and surf the web. It has really enhanced my productivity in many ways.
If you’re thinking about getting an iPad (or any other tablet device) and are afraid that it’s not much more than a toy I say “Get it!” People may look at you askance, but they don’t know what they are missing.
What about you? Do you an iPad or similar device. How do you use it to be more productive. Please share in the comments.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Elmer,
We’re glad you’re making great use of that iPad! (I don’t have one yet myself, but it should be here tomorrow, thanks for the great suggestions -I’ll be downloading a few of those app recommendations!) Thank you so much for being a great customer
Erin
Director of Community Relations
Trackur
Hello Erin, thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you found my suggestions useful. Please feel free to stop back and let us know how you use your iPad to help you be more productive.
Elmer, like you (before you got one), the iPad is something that I’d probably use a lot if I won one, but I can’t see spending money on one. I guess I need to win one to come around to your thinking! For now I’m going to wait and see how the tablet space shakes out.
You may want to look into using Evernote instead of the Notes app. I use the web and desktop versions and it’s great at organizing and syncing your notes.
Hello Todd, thanks for the input. I was waiting to see what kind of offerings were coming from other vendors running Android. The ones I’ve seen so far have been pretty impressive. I’ll bet later this year there will be a lot of choice and some good deals to be had.
My front-runner at the moment is the HTC Flyer. It’s smaller and lighter, so more portable for me. And it has a truly amazing innovation… a pen! I sketch a lot, and I’ve moved past finger painting, so this interests me greatly. It’s too bad Microsoft’s Courier never made it past the concept stage, it looked amazing.
While we wait, I’ll continue to use my notepad and ink pen!
A friend and fellow iPad owner bought a stylus and she didn’t like it very much. In her experience, fingers worked better. If you’re a “pen” person, another pad might be worth trying out.