ipad questions

[colore]

hello!

I need a business portable computer and I am willing to consider ipad for this role, due to its excellent indoors/outdoors screen visibility and its battery life.

A) maybe a bit off-topic, but do you know any devices with similar characteristics? retina-like or better screen and great battery life

B) I would like to make sure beforehand that I will be able to do my tasks easily with ipad:

1) I want to browse the web without any limitation (like flash limitations, etc), with a browser like Chrome or Firefox, is it possible? I am interested to use chrome/firefox extensions too, is it possible?

2) I want to use limitless email checker: many accounts, attachments, etc, is it possible?

3) I want to use MS Office suite with 100% functionality: is it possible?

4) I want to use speech recognition (using major speech engines) for dictation and voice commands: is it possible?

5) I want to use pen input for hardwritting recognition: is it possible?

6) I want to use OCR on screen and documents preferably with Abbyy Finereader engine (which is top): is it possible?

7) I want to use a fully-featured pdf editor: is it possible?

8) I want to create macros, keyboard shortcuts and mouse gesture shortcuts (like in the excellent AutoHotKey engine): is it possible?

9) I want to create folders and files easily everywhere and use a regular (WindowsOS-like) file explorer: is it possible?

10) I want to be able to transfer files with other devices, without having to connect to the internet: is it possible?

11) I want to be able to use a fully functional hardware keyboard and mouse: is it possible?

generally can you inform me about ipad limitations in comparison with a regular laptop?

and any advice is highly appreciated!

thanks!

 

[UnknownSouljer]

hello!

I need a business portable computer and I am willing to consider ipad for this role, due to its excellent indoors/outdoors screen visibility and its battery life.

A) maybe a bit off-topic, but do you know any devices with similar characteristics? retina-like or better screen and great battery life

B) I would like to make sure beforehand that I will be able to do my tasks easily with ipad:

1) I want to browse the web without any limitation (like flash limitations, etc), with a browser like Chrome or Firefox, is it possible? I am interested to use chrome/firefox extensions too, is it possible?

2) I want to use limitless email checker: many accounts, attachments, etc, is it possible?

3) I want to use MS Office suite with 100% functionality: is it possible?

4) I want to use speech recognition (using major speech engines) for dictation and voice commands: is it possible?

5) I want to use pen input for hardwritting recognition: is it possible?

6) I want to use OCR on screen and documents preferably with Abbyy Finereader engine (which is top): is it possible?

7) I want to use a fully-featured pdf editor: is it possible?

8) I want to create macros, keyboard shortcuts and mouse gesture shortcuts (like in the excellent AutoHotKey engine): is it possible?

9) I want to create folders and files easily everywhere and use a regular (WindowsOS-like) file explorer: is it possible?

10) I want to be able to transfer files with other devices, without having to connect to the internet: is it possible?

11) I want to be able to use a fully functional hardware keyboard and mouse: is it possible?

generally can you inform me about ipad limitations in comparison with a regular laptop?

and any advice is highly appreciated!

thanks!

Well, not sure where you've been. You have a lot of questions, but if I'm honest, I'm half wondering if you're being ironic or facetious. Still, despite this, I'll summarize and do my best to answer your questions.

A.) There are plenty of Andorid based tablet computers. If you want something with specifically with the iPad resolution, OS, fluidity with how good the touch is, etc, then no.

B.) Okay.

1.) The iPad IS NOT a fullfledged computer. It's running iOS, which is the same operating system as the iPhone. As such Firefox and Chrome are really just piggybacking on Safari and using their respective names. As a result there is 0% compatibility with any of their desktop extensions, nor is there any form of flash support. If you choose to jailbreak the device, there are options. However there is next to no reason to support flash these days, even youtube can be viewed without it.

2.) You can have multiple e-mail accounts active on any given iPad if you choose to. It may have attachments... whether those attachments will be usable is dependent on the attachment.

3.) In short: no. There is an Office suite made by Microsoft for the iPad, but it is in no way fully featured. It has the "most used features" but not everything under the sun.

4.) What is a major speech engine to you? Are you aware of Siri?

5.) I am unsure whether or not there is a handwriting recognition program, however there is an app called Penultimate that features writing and drawing (especially for the purpose of diagramming) in one app.

6.) There is this: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/finereader-touch/id565102038?mt=8

7.) There isn't one that I know of currently on the iTunes store. It is doubtful that there will be for the foreseeable future. PDF editing (to my knowledge) requires a lot of system resources as it involves being able to edit a document anyway you want it, inserting images, using templates, things from indesign, and many other complexities. As such the iPad is strictly read only.

8.) On a non-jailbroken iPad, the answer is no. On a jailbroken iPad, I imagine someone has created something similar to this, but I'm not aware of any app in particular.

9.) There is no "explorer" as such. Once again, it's a mobile operating system. It doesn't work under the same approaches as a desktop system. Although with a jailbroken iPad you can use a program like "iFile" that allows for browsing within the file system of the iPad, it doesn't work the way you think it does. iFiles' big use is for hacking not for really for file management. The iPad is designed to do all the managing of files on its own for you. However you can use Dropbox or Evernote to gain some amount of flexibility in how things are organized.

10.) I'm sure there are some apps that do this, but on a larger scale for anything and everything, the short answer is no, it doesn't really do that.

11.) It is possible to use a fully functional bluetooth keyboard with the iPad. I have done so extensively in order to create a document that was over 50 pages in length. You cannot however use a mouse with the iPad. There is no mouse cursor, so there is no way to use a mouse with it as such.


Notes: You seem to think throughout your series of questions that the iPad is directly comparable to a laptop or at the very least you infer that way. The iPad is a significantly different device and if you need to do extremely serious editing, controlling/organizing of massive amounts of documents, and the like, the iPad will not work for you. Although it is capable of doing these things some-what, it won't be able to do it with the speed and efficiency of a dedicated laptop.

The limitations then all revolve around the fact that its a mobile operating system that is significantly different in nature with Windows and OSX. It's a light weight system by nature. This is partly why its so brilliant; mainly that it's fast, doesn't take much memory, it's intuitive, clean, and simple. However on the other end of the spectrum it doesn't have all of the features of a desktop/laptop operating system. These are the compromises that were made so that it could be quick/light/efficient. Whether or not those compromises work or not for you is for you to decide.

Where the iPad excels is for being able to keep on top of incoming and going data quickly. What I mean by that is things like e-mails, RSS feeds, websites, etc. As a tool for staying on top of information, I would say in many respects, it is simply faster than a typical computer. In this regard it is very similar to working with a phone. Getting your e-mails all the time and responding to them quickly is advantageous, especially when no other device is available. Things like scrolling are effortless. Reading long documents and flicking through pages is actually an easier motion that mouse scrolling or click locking. Holding the device feels more familiar than a lot of posturing with a computer.

Writing extensively on the iPad is possible and I have indeed done it. Some aspects are tedious like deep editing, and not every function is available. Even with Apple's own "Pages" the editing only goes as far as indents, font size, font type, and font modification (that isn't to say things like inserting graphics, graphs, or page numbers isn't there... but I'm just talking nuts and bolts). It's enough to get what you need down, but if you're trying to write a final draft of something it won't be sufficient.

If you're looking for a true laptop replacement, one does not exist (although I'm sure some would argue Microsoft's own Surface Pro Tablet). Buy a laptop if you need a laptop. If you want to stay connected, read and send small bits of information on the go, be able to have a device in which you can easily show someone else an idea or a document (say across a coffee table or in an office meeting) the iPad really shines. As a webdevice I've found it useful constantly as it's always on, I'm never worried about it running out of batteries and hence doing a quick Wikipedia search (with a Wiki app), catching up on an RSS feed quickly, or searching for an answer on the web as it's all just a few presses away.

 

[Ocean]

your needs also rule out android tablets. you will need a laptop running a windows os.

while some things are possible with work arounds. after viewing your questions, i think your requirements would be too difficult for you to personally implement and maintain.

the ipad is mainly a content consumption device, view documents, view webpages, view movies, etc.

 

[colore]

thanks for your informative reply!

Well, not sure where you've been.

Well, not sure where you've been.

What you mean by that? Please note I am non native english speaker, neither I would classify myself as fluent enough.

1) the functionality of desktop Chrome and Firefox is huge considering their extensions. I suppose Safari for Ipad is something closer to an Android web browser, most of which have near zero functionality?

to give you an example of my web browsing behaviour, I almost everytime end up with 900 tabs opened. so for example I would need a feature to unload all the tabs, apart from the last eg. 20 opened tabs

4) I am not aware of Siri, but I think Nuance engine is top.

11) is there a chance for a touchpad? (without meaning that a cursor has to be displayed)

not been able to insert graphics in doc files, etc, is very disappointing!

I was aware of some ipad limitations, that's why my first choice was Lenovo Yoga 13: relatively excellent battery life at 7 hours and supposedly good screen

my main hesitation was the screen: seeing some photos from outdoors usage were disappointing!

that's why I got back considering ipad!

 

[heatlesssun]

Like Ocean said to do everything you've mentioned you're goning to need a Windows 8 Core i5/i7 based hybrid or convertible. At this point I'd wait for the Haswell devices, those should be interesting.

 

[colore]

unfortunately I cant wait for Haswell, since I am moving to another country and I need something immediately

what would make Haswell so worthy, in short? just a 20% or so increase in CPU performance, wouldnt appeal to me that much

 

[heatlesssun]

Well coupled with a 20% boost in battery life Haswell could be as I said interesting. If you had to have something right now, the Samsung 700T might be of interest to you. Basically the same thing as a Surface Pro though with a traditional keyboard dock and a bit better battery life. It gets pretty good user reviews. Then there's the Lenovo Helix which should be coming out soon, that device has a lot of high end options for a hybrid, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD with a battery in the keyboard dock. They should be coming out shortly, but is pretty expensive. The Samsung 700T is on sale at the Microsoft Store currently for $1k even with the keyboard dock,

 

[UnknownSouljer]

Well, not sure where you've been.

What you mean by that? Please note I am non native english speaker, neither I would classify myself as fluent enough.

It wasn't meant to be offensive or a slight at you or your person. The iPad has been around for 4 (or some would argue 3 1/2) generations. It's gotten faster and loaded with more features but in terms of overall capacity in what it can do, it has not changed. I was merely stating that anyone keeping up with tech would sort of know about the device. Perhaps that presumption was wrong.

1) the functionality of desktop Chrome and Firefox is huge considering their extensions. I suppose Safari for Ipad is something closer to an Android web browser, most of which have near zero functionality?

to give you an example of my web browsing behaviour, I almost everytime end up with 900 tabs opened. so for example I would need a feature to unload all the tabs, apart from the last eg. 20 opened tabs

This is definitely not something you'd want to do on a device like the iPad. It's essentially a mobile browser. I'm not sure if there is a hard-coded limit to how many tabs it's capable of having open, but I'm going to assume that before you reach 20 it's going to be pretty slow.

4) I am not aware of Siri, but I think Nuance engine is top.

Siri is Apple's integrated voice engine/processor. It has certain advantages. It is completely integrated by the OS and as such can do a myriad of functions via voice command only. Dictation is actually a side benefit. It does have disadvantages as well. The main one being that it requires internet access to work, as Siri is designed to do all the voice processing off site (IE: on Apple's own servers). This means that considering the iPhone/iPad are mobile devices, Siri is very snappy, but at the same time you may not have internet access everywhere.

11) is there a chance for a touchpad? (without meaning that a cursor has to be displayed)

Still in a word, no. I would highly recommend picking up the device. I think the iPad is much better understood when you actually use it then when it is described. The iPad is designed to be intuitive and one of its original design goals was to not require any pointing device. Steve Jobs famously said that "If you see a stylus, they blew it", similarly it's not designed with any other form of input in mind.

not been able to insert graphics in doc files, etc, is very disappointing!

You can insert graphics into Pages, I haven't used MS Word. I assume similar functionality is there. But like I said deep editing isn't possible. There are things that allow for making your documents "pretty" but for me I care more about control than "prettiness".

I was aware of some ipad limitations, that's why my first choice was Lenovo Yoga 13: relatively excellent battery life at 7 hours and supposedly good screen

my main hesitation was the screen: seeing some photos from outdoors usage were disappointing!

that's why I got back considering ipad!

The iPad is a mobile device using a mobile OS. Any limitations the iPhone has, the iPad has similar limitations. I'm not sure what your size/OS limitations are like, but if I needed an extremely mobile device that was still plenty powerful, I'd personally choose an MBA 11" or possibly 13".

However, it should be said that any fully featured laptop would be able to meet your requirements.

 

[heatlesssun]

However, it should be said that any fully features laptop would be able to meet your requirements.

All but the inking requirement could be met by a conventional laptop. While the iPad can do inking it's not to the level Windows.

 

[UnknownSouljer]

All but the inking requirement could be met by a conventional laptop. While the iPad can do inking it's not to the level Windows.

Right. Although I suppose you still "technically" could with something like a Wacom tablet, but for most that defeats the everyday portability aspect of it. So for all intents and purposes, you are correct.

 

[AQ_OC]

Get a Windows 8 ultrabook with a screen digitizer and pen.

BTW, that did read like a troll post.