Mobile phones & tablets thread

[GridGirl]

Wow you're good!!!!!!!

Speaking as an IT person, your laptop is a tool which you're not meant to be using to play DVD's install hello kitty desktop themes and so on and so forth on.

Indeed, which only reiterates my point that an IPad might actually be quite useful but as so called IT person you can't seem to grasp that idea.

[ArrowsFA1]

Whilst that's impressive and I'm sure it works well, do you not think that you could probably write notes far quicker on a laptop?

No, I don't see how I could write any quicker with a laptop, or a pen for that matter. The iPad, app & stylus do the job perfectly well and are less obtrusive at the table.

For me the iPad is more functional than a laptop.

If you want to stick all sorts of labels on me for making that choice that's entirely up to you.

[Daniel]

Indeed, which only reiterates my point that an IPad might actually be quite useful but as so called IT person you can't seem to grasp!

I think what you fail to grasp as a know it all user is that a laptop is cheaper and provides a lot more functionality. But then again you know everything

[Daniel]

No, I don't see how I could write any quicker with a laptop, or a pen for that matter. The iPad, app & stylus do the job perfectly well and are less obtrusive at the table.

For me the iPad is more functional than a laptop.

If you want to stick all sorts of labels on me for making that choice that's entirely up to you.

I'm not trying to label you or anything Can you really write faster than you can type? I would say the vast majority of people can type far faster than they can write.

[ArrowsFA1]

I'm not trying to label you or anything.

A funny thing I've noticed in the UK is that people seem to delight in being able to say they spent more than they needed as if it's some sort of status symbol. Person X spends £200 on something and person Y spends £300 and didn't have to rub shoulders with riff raff or shop around. Look at me! I've got more money (and less sense) than you!

Can you really write faster than you can type? I would say the vast majority of people can type far faster than they can write.

Daniel, you're making the classic mistake of "salesman" who thinks he knows better than "the customer" what they want. I've already said the iPad, app & stylus do the job perfectly well for me.

[Koz]

Some of my friends haven't had good experiences with Xperias in general. I think 3 of my buddies had it, neither of them was really happy. They had issues with the battery, choppy video playback, random shutdowns etc.

Then there's also this:

Xperia arc users report cracks issue - The Inquirer

That's a shame. It's a very good looking phone, perhaps the best.

Daniel: I an not sure about Windows Phone, but I will look into it.

It may look like a drawing app, and you can certainly draw away to you heart's content if that's what you want to do, but as someone who uses it I know I can write notes, which is particularly useful at meetings, which the app will also record.

But that's the issue, at least for me. If the "writing" isn't OCR-able, if it can't be indexed and searched word for word, then it's a fail in my book.

IIRC, there is OneNote for IOS, it might have handwriting recognition.

The two things operate in a similar way e.g. apps & operating system, but that does not make their functionality the same.

Same UI, same apps, same processor... What exactly is different other than the screen size??

What is the difference between a 13" laptop and a 17" laptop? Does the smaller size of the former make it fundamentally different from the latter?

I was quite sceptical of the IPad but I think that I'd actually quite like one now. I have a job where work is quite ad-hoc and may involve travel and staying away. My work laptop heavily locked by down by our London based IT department and it doesn't even have a disc drive to watch DVD's. For periods where I might be staying away I think an iPad would actually be quite a good entertainment device. This doesn't mean I'm planning on rushing out to buy one but next time that I might have a prolonged period away from home I think I'd definitely be thinking about buying one.

Save yourself some money, download a Linux live CD, get it onto a usb-stick and boot to that when you want to do naughty things on your company laptop.
And/or buy an external dvd/blu-ray drive.

[CaptainRaiden]

The ipad is a nice gadget that provides the user with enjoyment and something abit different to a laptop. "Nerd Alert" sirens might be ringing that it hasn't got as much hardware as a standard laptop but its a different user experience altogether.

I don't have a problem with the iPad being a nice little toy for technologically-challenged people. The problem I have is, why should I pay the same amount or MORE for something with which I can do MUCH, MUCH lesser? I mean for 600 GBP you get a 64 GB capacity iPad, which is a robbery! It may sound nerdy to you, but I'm not really into getting shortchanged by Apple just to look "cool" in some circles.

For example, for 600 GBP, I can get an amazingly amazing top of the line gaming laptop, which can play full HD 1080p or even 3D movies if I connect it to my 42 inch TV via an HDMI cable or even wirelessly these days. Or I can connect it to a HD projector and play a full HD movie on my white wall. I can connect an Xbox-360 controller to it via USB and play PC games on the TV while on the couch or the bed. With the new 12 hour batteries coming out, I can play HD movies and play games like F1 2011 or Assassin's Creed in full detail while in a train or a bus or a plane. The whole Adobe Suite with Photoshop, Premiere, Dreamweaver, which are essential to my work, are handled effortlessly by this little piece of device. I can store hundreds of HD movies or games on the 1.2 terabyte hard drive, and don't have to compromise on anything.

Can the iPad do all of this? Sure, it can play 720p videos on its dinky screen, but so can the Samsung Galaxy S, which costs half its price. If you wanna pay more than half a grand for a limited functionality toy, then be my guest. It's not my money you're wasting.

[Daniel]

Daniel, you're making the classic mistake of "salesman" who thinks he knows better than "the customer" what they want. I've already said the iPad, app & stylus do the job perfectly well for me.

That statement wan't directed at you specifically, it was general statement

The point I was trying to make about typing on a keyboard is that most people can type a helluva lot more quickly and accurately with a keyboard than they can write on a tablet. Surely for note taking speed is of the essence as the slow you are the less detail you can put in.

I'm not trying to say that an iPad doesn't work for you, it clearly does and for for me to say otherwise would be rather rude.

My point is that whilst something might do the job, sometimes there are better tools for the job

[ArrowsFA1]

That statement wan't directed at you specifically, it was general statement

Of course mokin:

I don't have a problem with the iPad being a nice little toy for technologically-challenged people.

Nor do I have a problem with the laptop being a nice little toy for technologically-geeky people.

(See, we can all do it )

[Malbec]

Why would someone want to save £100 or so and have a device that is far more functional?!?!?!?! What are you smoking man! Plus you won't look really cool whilst using a laptop.

EDIT: A funny thing I've noticed in the UK is that people seem to delight in being able to say they spent more than they needed as if it's some sort of status symbol. Person X spends £200 on something and person Y spends £300 and didn't have to rub shoulders with riff raff or shop around. Look at me! I've got more money (and less sense) than you!

A funny thing I've noticed on this forum is that some guys don't understand that people have needs that go beyond having the best spec possible for the price.

Personally when it comes to meetings I'm a fountain pen and paper man. Electronic stuff merely gets in the way especially when you already have reams of minutes of previous meetings, agenda and various summaries to wade through already. A laptop in such a situation is laughable and merely an annoyance especially given how slow they can be to start up.

Arrows' comment about using a drawing app to take notes on is appealing for me even if there is no writing recognition going on, because a tablet in such a situation could actually be handy and replace my easily lost scraps of paper.

Daniel, you keep going on at people who have iPads claiming that other options could perform some other tasks better. I'm sure you're right on paper, unfortunately people don't live their lives on paper.