iPad and keyboard as writing tool

[ksmith]

Toby Buckell posts about something I've been wondering lately--whether a top of the line iPad with a keyboard is a solid enough writing device to replace a full-blown laptop. Both my laptops are teetering on the brink--they both still work fine (::knocking wood real hard::) but the 4+ yo MacBook may not be supported by Mountain Lion, the Mac OS set to be released this summer, and the iBook is 8+ yo, is still using Tiger, and has a m-board that may or may not be ready to give up the ghost.

Literature and Latte, the Scrivener folks, are working on an iPad version. When that comes out, the driving force behind getting a MacBook Air loses a little steam. The top of the line iPad would be about half the cost of the MOR Air that I've been considering, and the idea of traveling with something the size/weight of an iPad as opposed to a laptop is just so damned attractive.

Comments

[msagara.livejournal.com]

The iPad with a keyboard is not much lighter than the macbook air. I have the iPad and keyboard; the son has the Air (7 hours battery life vs. 10). I write on a macbook pro, using Scrivener, and I pinch hit on the iPad, using the plaintext Scrivener synching - but I have to manually insert any bold/italics/underlines after the fact.

I don't think Scrivener for the iPad is going to be the full-blown version.

I love my iPad, and as I said, I do use it in the workflow - but at this moment I couldn't imagine using it as my only writing machine.

I think Toby has a desktop mac, so the iPad is the work-away-from-home machine (which is what mine is). I don't have a desktop - my macbook pro is essentially that.

Do you have a desktop you use as well? Some sort of full notebook is still necessary to run Word with it's increasingly ubiquitous track changes.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I do not have a desktop. I was able to upgrade the MacBook with the latest version of MacWord, and should be able to upgrade the OS as far as Lion as well. If I can run Lion, I can access iCloud for syncing purposes.

I know I will need to upgrade to something at some point in the next 6 months to a year, and I take Toby's point about having a writing machine that isn't as internet-flexible. I use Freedom, but I still have a hard time shutting off all the distractions and focusing.

[khavrinen.livejournal.com]

Just saw this today: an iPad keyboard (http://thebrydge.com/) specifically designed to make it look and work like a MacBook Air, while retaining the option to detach it to use as a tablet. Unfortunately only in the Kickstarter/pre-order phase.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Toby linked to the site, too.

It will be interesting to see whether iPads evolve into mini-laptops.

[planetalyx.livejournal.com]

One thing I can't imagine my iPad/keyboard combo being up to doing is Track Changes on a Word or other document. For that, if for no other reason, I'd want to hang onto a working laptop... at least for now.

Another thing that happens quite often with the iPad is I'll have everything working as I want, at maximum efficiency, and then one of my crucial apps will get upgraded and thereby 'broken.' They fix it to the point where it's not useful and I have to find a substitute, or they just fuck up the code and I have to wait a week for the complaints to roll in so they fix it.

I looooove writing on the iPad--don't get me wrong. And I think all of this will get better and better.