The iPad is a great device. I often have people ask me if they should buy an iPad instead of a laptop. I guess that depends on what you want to do with the iPad but it can’t replace a laptop for me.
I started thinking about what it would take to make the iPad more functional and allow it to replace a laptop. And I am not going to jump on the “Flash” bandwagon. First of all let’s look at the good:
– The iPad that has 3G built in is incredibly useful. You have nearly a full size keyboard and can send full length emails from anywhere without carrying an air card for your laptop or putting up with the tiny keyboard on your phone.
– The size is great and the battery life is excellent.
Now, what would it take to make the iPad more productive? Here is a short list:
– Support upload forms! Do you want to upload a file to a website? You can’t do it on the iPad without a custom app. I would be ok with only being able to upload pictures.
– A place to store files. Ever click on a link to an mp3 file on the iPad? You can only stream it and can’t even more it to the music player.
– Recently I had to do a WordPress installation and wanted to download the WordPress zip file, unzip it and upload those files via FTP to a web host. There isn’t any way to do all three of those steps on the iPad.
– Sent from my iPad