Is an Ipad a good choice for me?

An iPad is a trendy toy. If you don’t do much typing (requiring a real keyboard) say, reading facebook or other playtime activities, then an iPad is fine. Otherwise, keep your real computer with USB ports, a keyboard, a means to adjust the angle of the screen, etc

No. The iPad is just a large iPod Touch. It’s a toy, and iOS is designed to make sure you aren’t really able to do much with it. (Note: I have one that is not intended as a laptop replacement, and it still angers me when I use it.)

Agree with the above. An ipad is a consumption device. You can do email, videos, look at pictures, do basic picture manipulations, reading, taking notes, email, play games, etc. It is NOT a creation device. An ipad does not replace a computer, especially for the applications you want to do. It is a powerful tool, but it is not a computer. That said, unlike Tom, I love my ipad and I use it all the time. I just downladed a very powerful astronomy software program and I am intending on controlling my telescope with it. But I wouldn’t dream of doing any photo manipulation with it.

I will sometimes just take my ipad with me to conferences and travelling, but only if I know that I’m going to be needing it for anything but the above applications.

BTW I am typing this answer on my bluetooth keyboard attached to my ipad.

With the new iPad, it is definitely transitioning from a mere consumption device to one that produces content. You can do alot with it once developers start getting on board making more advanced apps for it, Garageband for example is pretty powerful in making music. When I hear of art apps, I do hear a lot of good things about Paper, and ArtRage is pretty powerful as well. Adobe has released a version of Photoshop for the iPad, and while it is more feature filled and more powerful than you’d expect for an app, it’s not as robust as the desktop version as of yet. While I do think the iPad would be a good on the go companion for doing work, and it’s certainly capable hardware wise of being a full on replacement for your art workflow—the software isn’t quite there yet, but it will be in the near future.

If you were planning on checking facebook, watching movies, listening to music, and other spare-time activities… the iPad is for you.

If you’re doing actual work, graphical or typing, I would not recommend it at all.

I can’t imagine if you do photoshop and other specialty graphics in a very serious way that the ipad would be sufficient. If you do get an ipad make sure you get a cover that oritects the glass well, a hard cover. Whenever I travel I worry about the thing splitting half, because my cover does not really protect well. It is nice and light for travel, but for serious work, I wouldn’t recommend it.

I concur. Tablets in general are not great at content creation. Sure, I can do some CAD or type out a novel on my tablet (or even my phone), but some things are best done with a keyboard, mouse, a CPU that actually has some power, and enough RAM to work with.

Photoshop, while possible, it’s far from feasible on a tablet. It’s the difference between skateboarding cross-country and just driving; both will get you there, but one is faster and more comfortable.

“People keep telling me an Ipad would be so much lighter and more flexible”
Those people are watching Netflix and posting to Facebook on their iPads.
They probably aren’t doing graphics work.
“Photoshop and painter 12” The best you can hope for are minimal-featured and slow wannabe’s.

Tablet’s are great fun but they’re optimized for portability, long battery life and simple operations. the kind of ooomph you need to do sophisticated photo editing is in the opposite direction.

Basically it comes down to this: A cheap dell laptop can do anything an iPad can do for a lot less and with a lot more software available ubiquitously. (Well, with a simple laptop, you don’t look as cool sitting at Starbucks – with your beret and pointy shoes.)

@Charles Actually, even my old 1st-gen Acer Aspire netbook with it’s little Intel Atom N270 could run circles around the current crop of tablets. The key to a tablet’s long life on a small battery is that it lacks the computing power to draw much electrical power.

Think different… just like everyone else.

@dabbler That’s definitely what it is. I borrowed my brothers iPad for a recent vacation. It was great for flying and watching movies on.. checking facebook, etc, etc.

But as far as doing work on it, not at all practical. If I ever had to type more than a paragraph it became extremely annoying and even somewhat bothered my fingers.

@tedd I got by that by getting a bluetooth keyboard. It fold up neatly into a nice portfolio and is really light.

@Rarebear Once you start hauling extra stuff around, it starts to defeat teh purpose of a small, portable device though. The main reason I got my table is because I wanted something bigger than my phone but still small enough to fit in my jacket pocket. If I can’t do that, or I have to use multiple pockets, I may as well bring my laptop. And no, I am not going to add more storage to it with an external hard drive!—

@jerv Oh, I agree. I hemmed and hawed about the keypad, but I hated the magnetic cover of the ipad anyway, and the Belkin keypad I got packs up into a very nice light package, and I can stand it up really easily. It was still way lighter and easier to carry than my laptop when I’m at work.

@Rarebear Actually, that is pretty decent/nifty. But my big thing against buying an iPad in the first place was the 10” size. I eventually went with a Nook Color and flashed the ROM with CyanogenMod7 (turning it from an e-reader into a full-on tablet) because I liked the hardware; a nice, svelte 7” whisper-light thing.

@jerv And I like the bigger size. I am using it instead of paper and I read a lot of technical journal articles on it. So it suits me.