Mohammed Noor on the iPad

Mohammed gets it exactly right. I've had my iPad a little longer than he has, I am a Mac person,¹ I use some different apps than those that Mohammed mentions, and I still like paper and pen for notes at seminars [but not at meetings], but his advice matches the advice I've given to several people when they ask me about my iPad.

I got my iPad in early October. Even though I don't use a Mac, I love it- not just as the "new techy trendy toy" (which I fully acknowledge it is that too!) but as a functional part of my work and play. Let me say upfront- I don't think iPads are for everyone. It's neither a laptop replacement nor a smartphone replacement, and yes, no one "needs" to have one- we all got by last year without them. But here's how I use mine and why I like it, primarily in the context of my job.

Bingo! No one needs it, and you shouldn't get one if you're looking for a laptop replacement. But if you're looking for an easy way to take documents to meetings, take notes, read books (I love Kindle reader),² sketch ideas, send short e-mails, and surf the web conveniently (no Adobe Flash), it's very handy. I wouldn't call it "magical" the way Steve Jobs did, but I use mine all the time. The New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Economist all look great on the iPad, and the NPR and PBS apps are pretty nice too.

As a Mac person, I should add Papers is great for organizing PDFs of scientific articles, and it syncs wirelessly with Papers on my iPad. Very nice!