The iPad Lawyer part two
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 7:53PM Since my first iPad Lawyer post I have been asked whether there is anything the iPad can do which can't be done just as well with a netbook.
My experience of the iPad is still fairly limited, but there are a few areas where I already think that it beats a netbook.
The first is battery life. The iPad battery is meant to be rated for 10 hours, but I am typing this on the iPad on the train back from London having tweeted, listened to music, emailed and reviewed documents for 2 hours on the way down and then typed notes during a seminar for 3 hours… and the battery is still on 65% charge.
Netbook battery life varies, but an
Engadget review which I found suggests that real life performance of somewhere between 2 and 4 hours is typical.
I use a decent spec Dell laptop (not netbook) for work and in my experience even the 2 hour mark is optimistic. I would expect netbooks to perform better, but the iPad is clearly a long way ahead.
Of course, with a netbook you can take along a spare battery (although that would reduce the ultra portability). The iPad doesn't give you that option, but it seems unlikely that you would need it provided you have access to a power point each night.
The second thing which stands out is the touchscreen. The iPad display really does have to be seen in the flesh - web pages, photos and documents look fantastic - but it is the touch sensitive interface which really stands out.
I could zoom in on a PDF document on a netbook, scroll backwards and forwards and highlight text, but the speed and ease of doing this on the iPad is like nothing I have ever seen on a laptop or notebook.
Whilst I am an Apple fan, neither of these points are iPad exclusive. However, I do think that this tablet form factor with touchscreen and day-long battery life is much more attractive for document review on the go than a netbook.
I have also found that the iPad is excellent for note taking in seminars and meetings. The ability to type silently is useful (much less distracting for everyone), but also the tablet form means you don't have a laptop screen as a barrier between you and the rest of the meeting. The freedom from having to track down a power source and the accompanying trailing wires also cuts down on the hassle factor.
The only "downside" is that the level of interest in the device at the moment means that you end up demonstrating it to everyone rather than typing notes!
There are some less obvious areas where the iPad could also win out. As a sailor I have used Navionics chart software on my iPhone for a while now to plan trips and as a backup chart plotter.
Navionics chart software is available on the iPad now with charts for the UK and Holland for £22. A GPS equipped iPad 2.0 and this software would start to look like a seriously good value alternative to a dedicated chart plotter for sailers - and with a waterproof cover like the Aqua Pac which I use for my iPhone it could be a great alternative to a laptop for the cruising sailor. I am leaving aside here my annoyance at being asked to pay again for charts which I have already paid for on the iPhone (surely it is only the viewer which has been updated, which is a free download on its own?), but that is a side issue!
The downsides? The onscreen keyboard is good (much better than the iPhone), but it is no match for a real keyboard for touch typing. One real annoyance is the different location of the backspace and return keys on iPhone and iPad keyboards, which tends to catch me out when swapping between them. Combined with the word processing issues I mentioned in my last post, this means you would be much better off with a netbook for editing legal documents.
You can get the iPad keyboard (or a wireless keyboard) but this seems to make the iPad more cumbersome than the netbook.
The iPad is a great tool for consuming content, but I think that for creating or editing content the netbook would win out.
One last thing to mention is the case. I bought the official Apple case and despite a few dodgy reviews from others I really like it.
It does scuff easily, but it is fairly low key and it folds to hold the iPad in a decent typing position or to watch video. It could do with a clip to hold it closed, but generally I really like it. It would be hard to use the iPad without a case of some kind as it is fairly awkward to hold or type on - of the alternatives I have seen so far the Apple one seems like the best.
At this stage I think I would have to say that I rate the iPad as a device, but that for serious remote working it may not relieve you from having to take along your laptop or netbook… which could make the investment difficult to justify.
My next task is to try and use the iPad to log into our corporate VPN and see how it plays with that. I will report back…
Reader Comments (1)
At the end of the day there are two key tools that a netbook has but the ipad doesn't: 1. An attached keyboard. Adding peripherals defeats the point of mobility. 2. USB ports. These seem almost integeral for business use and until bluetooth takes over they should appear on all mobile devices.