So I am fickle…sue me. Yes, not to long ago I “took a leap”, which lasted approximately 44 days. Then, while innocently shopping at Best Buy, the lure of a new MacBook Air caught my eyes and within minutes my iPad was relegated back to a Netflix viewing device. Now, lying in bed and typing this on my iPad 2, I am recommitted to trying again. I am armed with some new reasons (my wife says rationalizations) and have a couple new apps to share with you.
To begin with, the iPad 2 has a great battery life…far superior to any laptop Apple makes; I just get tired of being tethered to a wall all the time. I left the office at 6pm with 100% battery and now, at almost midnight, I’m at 80%. Another purchase that should help this transition is my new Adonit Writer keyboard case. (www.adonit.net) Sleek and made of Aluminum, this keyboard is the nicest I have seen…and it runs on double “A” batteries!
As far as apps go, I still highly recommend Pages, Awesome Note (with Evernote to cloud sync) and BeeJive Chat. Reeder still rocks for RSS and I couldn’t live without iDisk (not to mention the new iCloud features). A couple new Apps I just got that are killer are:
iThoughtsHD – advanced mind mapping applicant; if you love or need to map out your thoughts, this is your program.
TED – This app is awesome for watching their short talks on everything from philosophy to leadership, storytelling to technology. You can of course watch these online, but lounging on the couch in the evening with my iPad is more relaxing.
epicurious – Probably the best cookbook online you will find. Nothing like grabbing your iPad, going to the grocery, then to the kitchen and whipping up some dinner.
So there you have it…Leap 2.0 is in the books. My wife gives me 60 days before I am back to a laptop. What do you think? Want the over or under on that bet?
Follow up to this post. I lasted exactly 5 days this time. What happened? Well, the biggest downfall was that I could not run Quickbooks online from my iPad, and they don’t have a (good) app. And yes, I tried the Opera browser, it still didn’t work.
So I donated my iPad to my favorite charity, Fat Atom, and bought a 11″ MacBook Air. Which is really like an iPad, without the touch screen. I have 250GB hard drive and I upgraded the RAM, so it really flys. Lesson learned. I will stick with my iPhone and Air…for the time being.
How do you like the Air? I’ve debated whether to buy that or a Pro, and ended up getting the latter. Really like it though
My one and only complaint is the 11″ air has a short battery life….about 3.5 hours for me unplugged…other than that…LOVE IT.