Large Scale Central

Apple Macbook Air or iPad?

General Discussion
#1

I’m thinking about buying a small, lightweight device (I won’t call it a computer) to take on trips and to serve as a second “messaging” terminal at home so that the two of us can go online or work on a project at the same time without fighting over air time, so to speak. I’ve seen and studied the specs on the MacBook Air and the iPad and kinda know what both can do. But I’m still not sure which I should buy, so here’s what I would do with it:

Write stories, input and maybe rough edit photos, send and receive emails and other web stuff, watch videos, but probably not full-length movies.

I’m aware that there are other “things” out there beside the MacBook Air (Dell and Toshiba make some dandy ones), but having been to the Apple store a few times, I gotta say, their stuff looks great–from a design standpoint. BTW, the reason I used words like “device,” and “things” is that I’m not sure what these are called. Notebooks? Laptops?

Advice? Opinions?

P.S. I have a bet going with myself as to who the first respondent will be :wink:

#2
Joe Rusz said:
I'm thinking about buying a small, lightweight device (I won't call it a computer) to take on trips and to serve as a second "messaging" terminal at home so that the two of us can go online or work on a project at the same time without fighting over air time, so to speak. I've seen and studied the specs on the MacBook Air and the iPad and kinda know what both can do. But I'm still not sure which I should buy, so here's what I would do with it:

Write stories, input and maybe rough edit photos, send and receive emails and other web stuff, watch videos, but probably not full-length movies.

I’m aware that there are other “things” out there beside the MacBook Air (Dell and Toshiba make some dandy ones), but having been to the Apple store a few times, I gotta say, their stuff looks great–from a design standpoint. BTW, the reason I used words like “device,” and “things” is that I’m not sure what these are called. Notebooks? Laptops?

Advice? Opinions?

P.S. I have a bet going with myself as to who the first respondent will be :wink:


Really? A bet?

My sister in law showed up with an iPad, she got is as a present. It needed to be set up to connect to our WiFi.

What a PITA! Talk about intuitive, my foot!
Bought my equal half an Android tablet, setting that up went boom, boom, boom. No Apples for me, except the ones I eat!

PS have my eye on a smaller Android (7" version) to be used as a handheld with the ZIMO-DCC system with WiFi or the TrainController with WiFi. Decisions, decisions. Hmmmmm…

#3

No Apple’s here either.
Is a “touch screen” a must have?
If not, you can save a ton of money buying a Windows Netbook.
More or less a small laptop computer. I bought a 10.1 inch Asus with W7 for less than $200.
Ralph

#4

I have both an iPad, and a MacBook Pro. Several of the people at work use the MacBook Air instead of the Pro. They’re really apples and oranges. The iPad is a neat portable device for email, browsing, and things like that, but its no substitute for an actual computer with a full keyboard, etc. The Air is a true MacBook, in a small, very portable format. If you want to do things like image and video editing, the iPad will work, but you won’t be happy with the results. Given the choice of the two, for what you want to use it for, I’d get the Air.

#5

Joe Been an Apple guy since the 70’s. Have a ipad, and a MacBook, Mac Pro, iMac, and an older PowerbookG4 i will replace with an Air if and when it dies. Get the Air… it will do everything you need it to do, Plus a whole lot more…

I don’t want to touch off the Mac vs PC wars here. At work I am forced to live in a PC world, But on my desk runs my PowerBook for all my daily work… e-mails, correspondence, spreadsheets and etc. It is tied into our corporate servers along with the businesses HP desktop computer. I work in both Mac and PC worlds daily… it is my Mac that often times is the only computer running while the system re-boots from crashes and etc. Our corporate IT guys personal computer is a Mac, he often uses his Mac running Windows to fix our server and related problems. That speaks a ton to me.

The Macs jest work. And the cool factor…

#6

Looks like we got ourselves a range war! Apples vs All the others, Safari vs Android. Thanks for your opinions.And keep 'em coming, I’m still on the fence. Hans-Joerg, you made me lose my bet. I thought it was gonna be Elmassian :slight_smile:

#7
Dave Taylor said:
I don't want to touch off the Mac vs PC wars here.
It wont, trust me. :)

If it starts, Ill close the thread.

#8
Bob McCown said:
Dave Taylor said:
I don't want to touch off the Mac vs PC wars here.
It wont, trust me. :)

If it starts, Ill close the thread.


War? Not too likely! We just state our preferences. :slight_smile: :wink: And we hardly ever mention the price ratio. :smiley:

#9

Joe:

I’m a long time Apple user. Heavy (mostly internet based) research, writing, parts listing, drawing, picture manipulation and document production. I also do quite a bit of MS PC based programming for automation devices (PLCs & Smart Relays) that we design into products. All computer work is done on my two MacBooks. The MacBooks are treated as portable high performance workstations, but when in the office they are usually hooked to external keyboards, mice, hard drives, and other accessories. They are also both equipped with Windows XP in order to accommodate industrial tools that are not Mac compatible. Most of the stuff I design is used in MS PC environments. I really operate in the best of both the Mac and the MS PC world!

My (generally computer averse) wife has an iPad which she mostly uses as a replacement for her paper copy birding field guides and for occasionally reading internet content. Virtually no typing done there.

As to your stated potential choices: Recognize that the iPad is NOT a computer. It is a really great device when used for its intended applications which include light email reading / text generation, picture viewing, and the above mentioned document access. Before you buy one, try writing and (especially) editing an article on the virtual keyboard. I put it as just slightly better than no keyboard at all! It might just be me, but I don’t even like typing and navigating on the keyboards / touch pads that are on my MacBooks, thus the external keyboards and mice. The iPad way less so! And, virtually everything that you might want to do to make the iPad more like a computer requires some kind of extra adapter along with the external device, thus making it much less portable. Again, it is a great device, but it is definitely not a computer.

The MacBook Air is really a highly portable 100% solid state laptop computer. The main things that differentiate it from other laptops are the lack of multiple hard wired interfaces and the extremely small / lightweight ergonomic design. A truly portable machine with all the capabilities of a computer. The latest versions come in two screen sizes, employ faster processors and solid state memory, and have backlighted keyboards. The WiFi interface is really all that is needed for most operations, but there are also two USB ports that can be used for keyboard, mouse and backup hard drive connections.

As to terminology, the MacBook Air is a “notebook computer.” The iPad is an “iPad.” Note the lack of the word computer in the iPad’s (and similar pad device) descriptions.

Just my personal opinions. Your mileage may vary!!

Happy RRing,

Jerry

#10

Consider that fact that the Apple O/S is core Linux.

Bob C.

#11

Jerry, thanks for that. Actually, I am going further down the Mac road, having just ordered an Apple wireless keyboard to use with my iPhone. I love that thing, never mind what the other guys think, and use it mostly as a camera, which I use to send photos to my friends instantantly. I love that feature. Anyway, I tend to send very long emails and pecking away at that virtual keyboard tries my patience. And I have relatively tiny fingers! Hence, the “real” keyboard, cheap at $69. My understanding is it links up via the phone’s Bluetooth, right?

What turned me on to the iPhone was when me and my co-workers went to the Porsche Rennsport Reunion at Laguna Seca Raceway. Since they blog (me too, sometime) they were constantly firing off photos with extended captions to the Road & Track website. I thought, “how cool is that?”

Like your office, ours formerly used Macs in the art department and PCs in editorial, with the two systems interacting with each other. However, now that R&T belongs to Hearst, the powers that be just made us an all Mac operation. Not being computer literate and no longer working out of the office, I don’t know if they are MS or Apple operating system driven.

OK, back to daydreaming about that new computer.

#12

To my thinking, the main problem with extra devices such as external keyboard and mouse are that you must carry them along. I find that I already have enough ‘stuff’ to carry without adding extra parts.

I have several Apple mice including a wireless one. IMO, the wireless mouse is too heavy (mostly due to the batteries), and would also require that I carry at least one extra set of batteries. Easier to just carry a wired mouse when I am going ‘out of the office.’

I’m certain your employer’s Macs are running Apple’s Linux-based OS. All Macs less than ~4 years old can also run MicroSoft’s PC OS. They come with Bootcamp (Apple’s virtual machine platform) installed and there are at least two really good aftermarket virtual machine applications available. You do need to purchase the MS OS separately, but it really isn’t necessary except for special applications such as the machine programming I do. I use VMware Fusion to run the MS XP Pro OS. The only problem is that MS XP (like most MS products) has a really clunky, non-intuitive, human interface along with being somewhat fragile and prone to outside attacks as compared to the Mac’s native OS X. For that reason, I also run an antivirus application in the virtual machine frame.

Hope you are happy with what ever machine you get. As I wrote above, I would vote for the MacBook Air. Just remember that computers and their relatives such as pads, smart phones, etc. continue to be the fastest developing technologies in the modern world. It is very common for what is the ‘latest thing’ today to be outdated next year, or sometimes nest month. My neighbor calls me regularly to complain that his more than 15 year old MS DOS computer won’t do some operation that truly requires a newer machine and software. His view is that his computer should be the same as his 35 year old Volvo! Unfortunately for him, that is not the case!!

Happy RRing,

Jerry

#13

You make a very good case for buying a computer, Jerry. And you are right about stuff going out of date pretty quickly. A few years ago I bought a Canon 50D and thought I was up to speed technologically. About the time the VISA bill came in, my camera was superseded by the 60D–for the same price, give or take. Of course, I like my 50, necause I think it has a sturdier body and I don’t care for the 60’s swing out viewing screen since I still look through the viewfinder.

About those Macs at work: apparently they were not equipped with some kinda interface software or something, and the whole place was going nuts trying to get it to work–right at shipping deadline–which made everybody nuts.

Concerning my new Apple wireless keyboard: I haven’t hefted one yet (it’s in the mail), but it looked pretty small and light to me at the Apple store.

#14

I support, MAC’s, iPad’s and Wintel’s where I work. My primary machine is a MacBook Air. We use Parallels so I also have a Win7 VM. I love it, I only wish it had a larger SSD Drive in it.
Regards,
LAO

#15

I too am an Apple user, I have a Mini and iPad One. I love them both but they both have their uses, My mini gives me a workstation and the iPad gives me portability. my wife just bought the new iPad and loves it.

I would not switch to pc but I think it is whatever you are used to using.

#16

I have an Ipad…and I love it. I went that direction because I was looking for an E reader and things just escalated from there. I can pack it out to my railroad, it does Ipod thingies, streams music and Netflix. While it doe not replace a laptop for running massive programs “theres an app” for everything. I actually found a app that lets me download photos from my digital camera to the Ipad (Filterstorm Pro if you’re interested) If you just want to check Email, browse the web, read e books or do some light computing the Ipad is a way to go. If you need a real computer for work/programs then its prolly not the best choice.

#17
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Joe Rusz said:
I'm thinking about buying a small, lightweight device (I won't call it a computer) to take on trips and to serve as a second "messaging" terminal at home so that the two of us can go online or work on a project at the same time without fighting over air time, so to speak. I've seen and studied the specs on the MacBook Air and the iPad and kinda know what both can do. But I'm still not sure which I should buy, so here's what I would do with it:

Write stories, input and maybe rough edit photos, send and receive emails and other web stuff, watch videos, but probably not full-length movies.

I’m aware that there are other “things” out there beside the MacBook Air (Dell and Toshiba make some dandy ones), but having been to the Apple store a few times, I gotta say, their stuff looks great–from a design standpoint. BTW, the reason I used words like “device,” and “things” is that I’m not sure what these are called. Notebooks? Laptops?

Advice? Opinions?

P.S. I have a bet going with myself as to who the first respondent will be :wink:


Really? A bet?

My sister in law showed up with an iPad, she got is as a present. It needed to be set up to connect to our WiFi.

What a PITA! Talk about intuitive, my foot!
Bought my equal half an Android tablet, setting that up went boom, boom, boom. No Apples for me, except the ones I eat!

PS have my eye on a smaller Android (7" version) to be used as a handheld with the ZIMO-DCC system with WiFi or the TrainController with WiFi. Decisions, decisions. Hmmmmm…


Wow Hans, I didn’t know entering a wifi password was tough, wherever I go, I enter the system password and instant connection.

As for my Apple products, I have a iPhone 4S, New iPad, and a new Mini mac, last one only lasted 6 years and I couldn’t be happier, until the Mini hard drive failed I had never had a problem Apple products just work, While I was waiting for the new Mini, I had to do some work at home and the only device I had was the iPad. you would be amazed at the work you can do with an iPad and a wireless keyboard (that will fit in a small currier bag). So in a pinch the ipad will do work with the right apps. I don’t have a MacBook air yet, but several people I know do and they are very happy with them.

#18

I got an ASUS Transformer Prime for Christmas. It "transforms from a tablet to a netbook and back with one click. The “keyboard” is actually a docking station: keyboard, touch pad, USB port, SD port, and another battery that charges the battery in the tablet while they are connected. No parts to tote around. You don’t even need a case. It is Android based with plenty of “apps”, and you can even do all the basic MS Office type of programs with it using Polaris Office (free).

http://eee.asus.com/eeepad/transformer-prime/features/

#19
John Neal said:
...........

Wow Hans, I didn’t know entering a wifi password was tough, wherever I go, I enter the system password and instant connection.
…


Well John,

Since our network has static IP adresses it is a little more complicated … but only with an iPad. The Acer Android was straight forward, as were all our Win machines - even the happy mix of different OS - and whatever else uses our WiFi.

#20

And today I bought an Acer Iconia A100 (7" screen). :stuck_out_tongue: :smiley: