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At the time of my first daughter's birth, my local government gifted me an ipad mini. Three use cases: 1. I find it extremely useful for one specific thing: ch
by NiloCK 3y ago
At the time of my first daughter's birth, my local government gifted me an ipad mini. Three use cases:
1. I find it extremely useful for one specific thing: chess. I can't effectively play blitz timed games with a mouse, and with a smartphone I get way more off-by-one mistaken taps than with the ipad mini.
2. Almost five years later, my daughter enjoys making animations on it with Scratch Jr.
3. It is a comfy form factor for just plain reading content from the web. When I come across something specific that I'd like to put more than, say, 40 minutes of directed attention to, I sometimes pull up the resource on the ipad and hit the couch. It's a lot easier for me to focus on long form content (especially if it's dense or boring) with the ipad because it isn't my computer. I can't instantly call up other interesting and ongoing tasks with a meticulously programmed hotkey.
Also, touchscreen laptops felt like an upgrade to me until I tried to use one. IMO, the geometry just isn't there. If the screen is close enough to be touched as part of the general workflow, then it's too close for your eyes or else the keyboard itself is too close.
- walteweiss 3y agoHave you tried Kindle (or other e-reader) instead of iPad? Works very well for me.
- _s 3y agoA kindle is excellent to read eBooks, and that's about it. An iPad (or tablet form factor) is excellent for consuming content on the internet, which includes eBooks amongst movies, reels, articles, blogs, news etc. I've got a paper white and while the browser on it is decent, and you can email yourself PDF's to view on there - it's still a subpar experience for anything that isn't formatted to display as an eBook on an e-ink display. Don't get me wrong, I love reading on my kindle and it's far easier on the eyes, but it doesn't do what an iPad does in the same way reading a book on the iPad is more tiresome than on a kindle.
- lying4fun 3y agoI bought a used iPad 7 for ~$200 the other day, main reason being reading textbooks at a retail store where I work. What I found surprisngly enjoyable is what the parent mentions - reading HN threads, twitter, blogs. Even watching youtube is a different experience. All of those activities just feel easier and more relaxed than they do on my 14” Thinkpad or iPhone 12. Have you tried reading content on the web on the kindle, as the ones I mention above?
- walteweiss 3y agoOh no, I very agree that the Kindle’s experience just subpar. Although I like it for just very this reason, it helps me to distract less, as it’s so bad for anything but reading that book I have in my Kindle at the moment.
- NiloCK 3y agoI owned and loved a KindleDX for a while, but it broke falling off a nightstand. That said: a tablet wins out where I need to sit down with the docs of some technical monstrosity for a dedicated hour.