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Ask HN: What's your use case for iPads/Android pads?
I realized, after reading that Newton article, that I actually own one iPad and one Huawei pad but not doing anything with them.
The iPad mostly sits and collects dust and the Huawei pad serves as a music player for my 18-month kid. Recently I managed to read a bit on it but the experience is mediocre.
I'm wondering what's your use case? I feel I'm missing out a whole range of electronics out there.
- hbcondo714 4y agoOur 4th generation iPad is still kicking and used for Zoom / Google Meet / FaceTime calls. Thinking about finally getting a new one because the video can lag when streamed onto the TV with AirTime / AppleTV.
- PaulHoule 4y agoI use an iPad continuously for browsing the web, controlling IoT devices in the home, playing music on the HEOS system, etc. I live in a place that carriers choose not to serve so I don't spend a lot on a smartphone and plan, sometimes I have a cheap prepaid phone, sometimes I go for years and not renew it. Skype is my preferred way to make phone calls both with my PC and the iPad. It works in most places I want to make a call because public WiFi is available in a lot of places. The real problems w/ the iPad as I see it are: it refuses to use play music over Bluetooth when using WiFi (Android devices try and usually fail because of interference between the two services) and Apple doesn't allow access to NFC on the device except for Apple Pay. I have a lot of android tablets that I bought for testing software. Before I had the iPad I used Amazon Fire tablets pretty seriously (read software docs when doing cardio at the gym, I took my best photo of the last decade w/ a Fire tablet) but all of my Android tablets go unused for so long that I can't count on them being charged when I need them.
- josefresco 4y agoBoth of our older iPads(and a very slow Kindle Fire) have become devices solely used for streaming video: Netflix/YouTube TV.
- CrazedGeek 4y agoMy iPad is my main book reading and video watching device, with a little light gaming sometimes, too.
- Moldoteck 4y agoOut of curiosity, isn't tv more convenient, since it is bigger and you don't need to hold it or you don't have a tv?
- CrazedGeek 4y agoI’ve got mild insomnia, and I do most of my video watching to wind down before I go to sleep, so I usually use it while I’m laying down on my side (and I flip every now and again, so I can’t just set up a TV on one side of the bed).
- adrianmonk 4y agoSheet music. I have a cheap Android tablet that sits on my music stand all the time. I could use a laptop instead, but I would need something to hold the laptop. Plus laptop displays are landscape orientation, whereas I need portrait. Also, there would be a laptop keyboard sticking out and getting in my way. The drawback is tablet screens are not very large. If someone made a large-screen (15" or even bigger) tablet, I might buy it. But I would want a cheap, low end one, because all it has to do is display PDFs.
- joshstrange 4y agoCurrent iPad: Content consumption/games Old iPad: Dedicated Paprika (recipe app) machine in the kitchen. I cannot rave enough about Paprika. [0-4] If I had more (that weren't earmarked for development) I'd consider using one as a digital picture frame, status board, and/or home assistant dashboard/controller. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31159358 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31159358 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29796425 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29796425 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14474563 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14474563 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13886047 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13886047 [4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12491028 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12491028
- andrewstuart2 4y agoI'd love to see more apps that can cut cruft the way Paprika does. It's one of my favorite apps that I don't use all that frequently, but absolutely appreciate all over again any time I do use it.
- markus_zhang 4y agoThanks! The digital photo frame sounds good~
- alvarop 4y agoI use it to play Settlers of Catan, Pictionary, Codenames, etc… several times a week with family. It’s my only travel device and I use it to watch movies on planes. I also use it for al my social media apps. Not having them on my phone has done wonders in reducing my screen time. Edit: I almost forgot! I use it for podcast editing with Ferrite!
- runjake 4y agoConsuming books, articles, web browsing, and videos. I have an Apple Pencil and a keyboard, but I rarely use the Pencil, and only use the keyboard when I don't have a Mac nearby.
- AdamJacobMuller 4y agoA) GaiaGPS https://www.gaiagps.com/ https://www.gaiagps.com/ when I have the jeep offroad. B) Movies/TV when I'm on a plane.
- witheld 4y agoIt’s a giant perfect e-reader, and a small kitchen computer/TV.
- SenHeng 4y agoI carry my iPad mini 5 with me everywhere, a lot more than my iPhone. Work tasks - managing Trello - sketching apps like Wacom Bamboo and Concept - note taking/reading on Bear - Miro, upload photos directly using the camera app - sometimes I check issues and PRs on the GitHub app Consumption - general web surfing - lots of ebooks
- MrDresden 4y agoAndroid Samsung Tablet S7. Used for sketching (mostly UI),reading articles on the couch and ofcourse playing games
- SMAAART 4y agoOP: get Notability (iPad). Notability is the greatest app for taking notes (text and doodles) and sketching too. Consuming media at night and on the go is also better/richer on a tablet.
- braingenious 4y agoI have a cheap tablet that is nearly exclusively used for reading comics books and various PDFs. It’s great!
- musicale 4y agoComics are great on color screens, at least indoors.
- agent_simon 4y ago
- focusedone 4y agoiPads are great for note taking, content consumption, some remote terminal things. The battery life is really darn good. For most remote work and management I find a Windows tablet is much more useful. Even if it feels slower in use, having the same programs natively as a workstation is extremely convenient. For content consumption or idling CPU use cases, iPads are tough to beat. For most anything else I think a surface go, small yoga, whatever is much more functional.
- al_borland 4y agoRecently, I started using the iPad at the lunch/dinner table. I've always lived alone and just ate lunch in front of the TV, but in trying to get away from that, I moved to a proper table with the iPad. This lets me watch videos from an online course or read some articles while eating. I prefer this to just looking at the wall. I guess one could think of it as a digital version of the back of a cereal box. Back when I traveled more, the iPad was always a good option for watching movies or TV shows on the plane.
- Arrath 4y agoRecording data in the field, a well crafted spreadsheet taking the place of a clipboard and pages of paper. Works like a charm.
- bigtech 4y agoMy nicer one is in the living room for end of the day games and such, but my older one is an always-on weather display.
- ackatz 4y agoI have an iPad with a keyboard case that I use every day 80% of the time it sits under my monitor with Things app to-do list and upcoming meetings linked to my work calendar so I can add stuff to it that people bring up during calls Other times I have Obsidian open during a meeting and am typing notes. It is also pretty useful when you don't want to drag a laptop over to the couch and just browse. Apple's Universal Control with iPads is another use case that I haven't been able to use at work but with my personal computer it's great: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212757 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212757
- markus_zhang 4y agoThat's nice. How fast does note taking...take? Would you recommend Apple pencil for that? I found note taking to be challenging: if I write them down with hand, I need to digitalize them. If I type them it's too slow for a meeting.
- ackatz 4y agoAs a consultant, part of my job is to type notes really fast while talking to people, so I have gotten good at that over time. The Apple Keyboard is surprisingly good for fast typing, but there are probably some other/better Bluetooth options out there. The Apple pencil sounds nice for diagramming but maybe not for on-the-fly notes/dictation.
- markus_zhang 4y agoThanks! Just curious did you train yourself on note typing or it just grows with experience?
- mejutoco 4y agoMy main uses for an ipad are drawing (procreate), showing materials at meetings with clients, and annotating pdfs synced with dropbox.
- markus_zhang 4y agoThanks. Do you use Apple pencil for annotation?
- mejutoco 4y agoDefinitely, yes. It is very accurate.
- er_d0s 4y agoI use my iPad (and I pencil or whatever it’s called) for reading technical books, legal documents, tech documentation etc. then I write notes, thoughts, todos, questions all over it, it’s extremely useful for summarizing a boring document, then going back any pulling out the important bits I also use my iPad for dissecting sheet music in a similar way One day I hope to stick it on my wall and have a max headroom type avatar that greets me and turns on my roomba etc. until then value I get out of the above ^^ is worth the silly price tag Oh and I also read comic books on it
- markus_zhang 4y agoPerfect. I'm glad I find someone with pencil experience. How fast do you write notes on technical documents with apple pencil? Is it almost as smooth as writing on a notebook with real pencils? One of my concern is the lagging of all those devices.
- er_d0s 4y agoIt’s not a new device, there’s been a few generations since then but it’s still close to perfect, I can scribble notes as quickly as I like and don’t notice a problem. For the highlighter I tilt the pencil a bit for a fatter highlighter, I’m sure it would be a good for artists. Hit up an apple shop and try it out… I’m really not a shill for apple, I thought the pencil was stupid until I got it and started using it (I can buy a pencil and eraser for a £), I’m not saying it’s _worth_ the cost, but I love it
- musicale 4y agoiPad is a great creative device for music production (Gadget and dozens of amazing multitouch-enabled music apps) and digital art (Procreate + Apple Pencil.) It's also great for sheet music (forScore), books/papers/PDFs (Books, Kindle), and magazines (Apple News+). It's also a pretty great portable video game device (both native and streamed, and it works out of the box with PS5 and Xbox controllers), great for digital board and card games, and obviously great for streaming music and video and for web browsing when a keyboard just gets in the way. I also use it as a capture device for random notes and ideas.
- spdegabrielle 4y agoIt’s good as your eyes get old and tiny screens are too hard.
- markus_zhang 4y agoThat's right. I found a large screen extremely helpful for reading pdf books.
- CarrieLab 4y agoFor ipad, reading only (no social media, slack, etc).
- lern_too_spel 4y agoThey're both toys. Load them up with educational apps for the kid. For productivity and entertainment (and if your kid were older, teaching them to type and code), a convertible Chromebook is superior to both devices.
- fomine3 4y agoGalaxy Z Fold3: Reading everything. It's just enough to read most content, and fits in my pocket.
- pixelface 4y agopurchased an ipad mini for the singular purpose of running foreflight on it - an electronic flight bag application which replaces a whole bunch of frequently updated aviation charts and printed material, gives convenient access to aviation weather data, simplifies managing a digital logbook, plus lots of hand-calculations like weight and balance that are not difficult but are more annoying to do by hand. in flight the ipad sits in a claw mount sunction cupped to the canopy where it's easy to keep an eye on adsb traffic, pull up airport information, and so on. there are other EFB apps that will run on android tablets but foreflight is more or less the standard and default used by most people so far as I'm aware. since owning it i've found it's also very handy in the kitchen for viewing recipes as it can be set in place and read without being picked up in the hand as a phone might require.
- QuarterReptile 4y agoI used my Android tablet with active stylus to take all my college notes back in 2013-2015. It saved me the pain of carrying tons of stuff between classes, plus reduced my organizational burden (which was a weak point in college.) Infinite sheet was good for note taking, and I remember discrete math being seriously improved by a large color palette and the ability to copy paste. I used the same tablet to watch movies when I had a bed where the ceiling was about 10 inches above my head. Just taped it to the ceiling.
- c22 4y agoI ended up mounting mine to the walls as glorified calendars, A/V controllers, and video-call kiosks for the kids.
- pjmlp 4y agoSamsung Android tablet, content consumption, with the detachable keyboard a lightweight laptop on the go for, and with the pen a sort of digital paper for drawing stuff (technical diagrams or plain drawings).
- daltont 4y agoMy teen daughter has an IPad-Mini that she no longer uses, I use it as an e-reader mostly.
- nicbou 4y agoMy iPad Mini replaces books and notebooks. It's detached from clouds and notifications. It's not a browsing device. It doesn't try to grab my attention. I use it when I don't want to be on a computer. I take notes, sketch and read on it. I sometimes use it as a cookbook. It always sits by my side, and I rarely leave home without it, just like the notebook it replaces. I use the latest Mini with a paper-like screen protector and a metal pen tip. It feels fantastic to write on. I almost only use Notability and ProCreate.
- tomjen3 4y agoOne thing I haven't seen mentioned here is using it for notes. If you read them from your phone people are more likely to think of you as unprofessional, but an iPad will register as something else, like a clipboard. You could also print, so this is more of an "I have it, may as well use it" thing.