All this talk about iPads has me wondering: Could I really replace my laptop with an iPad?
Now I'm not talking about permanently chucking the laptop out the window (especially since I just made the move from PC to a very cool, brushed metallic MacBook Pro like last week—and that's the subject of a whole different blog, or two, or three). No, I mean just for a couple days—like, say, for a business trip or something.
So again, the question: Could I go on a business trip where I will have to receive and check magazine PDF proofs, edit an article or two in Word, and maybe even write an article of my own—and leave my laptop behind? Can the iPad do all that?
I went to my friendly neighborhood Apple Store at Partridge Creek in Shelby Township, Mich., where every single member of the Apple business team knows me by name. (I've asked a lot of questions in the last several months since purchasing my iPhone and iPad.) I told Business Team Member Ryan that I was going to lock up my laptop for a few days and see if I can exist solely on the iPad—and that I was going to blog about it.
His eyes got big when I said I was going to blog about the experience. "Who reads your blog?” he asked.
"That was not the first thing I expected to come out of your mouth,” I scolded.
"No, I just mean that before you take this on—and blog about it—we should make sure that you have all the applications lined up that you will need.”
So Ryan and I spent 15 minutes or so discussing my work and the kinds of projects I do—and in this conversation, I immediately found something the iPad couldn't do: I can open PDFs just fine, but I can't annotate, edit, or do anything to them. There is no Adobe Acrobat application for the iPad.
That means that I could view a PDF of an article layout or three possible cover choices, for example, but I would have to call and talk to the designer about what changes I needed, or send a separate email with instructions. Not ideal, not as efficient as how I would do the work on my laptop, but still doable. And there was also the argument that the extra step was worth it if I didn't have to lug the laptop through two airports, a hotel, and a tradeshow.
Ryan's first recommendation was that I purchase an application called Pages ($9.99), a word processor app for Mac that has been completely redesigned for the iPad. You can start with a template or import an existing Pages or Microsoft Word document, and supposedly, you can write, edit, re-save, and email it to someone—just like you would normally on a laptop.
I asked: "What if I buy it and it doesn't do what I need? Can I get my money back for the app?”
"It's $9.99,” he said with a bewildered smile. "They don't really offer a money-back guarantee for something that cheap.”
"Well, I've returned a $4.95 burger for not being cooked properly, and the restaurant was happy to refund my money,” I retorted.
"True, but name any comparable word processing software that you can buy for $9.99. It's a risk most people are willing to take. Read the app's reviews. You can always get satisfaction by writing a bad review if you don't like it,” he pointed out.
As soon as Ryan and I were finished, I plopped down at the Starbucks next door, buoyed by a grande, non-fat, extra-hot Chai, and did a little research on Pages. Some of the reviews were very good and some were not so good. In the end, I did what Ryan predicted I would do—I risked the non-refundable $9.99 to try out the app.
So that's where the story ends—for now. I am speaking at the FORUM's Holiday Showcase in Chicago on December 14th (with fellow Association Media & Publishing members, Jim Vick of IEEE and Erin Pressley of NACS), and that's the trip where I plan to leave the laptop at home. For now, I am going to spend time getting familiar with Pages so that I can give this little experiment a fair chance to succeed.
Stay tuned.
And by the way, if anyone out there is already editing and creating content solely on the iPad, I'd love to hear from you.
Carla Kalogeridis is editorial director of Association Media & Publishing.
