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

[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.