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Joined: 09 Dec 2008
Posts: 1221
Schools:Kellogg Class of 2011
Re: Apple iPad - Legit BSchool Tool?
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03 Jan 2011, 19:04
After playing around with a friend's iPad I have to say I was sold on it. Beyond the pure entertainment value (Angry Birds in HD, Netflix, web browsing, etc.), I think it is a useful tool that, while it doesn't replace a laptop, does a lot of great things that make it useful to have in school - assuming you can afford the price. The best way I heard it described is that the iPad is a content delivery device - allowing you to view content such as the web, email, or documents (especially with apps like Dropbox and the various Office clones), with limited editing capability, while a laptop gives you full content editing and creation ability with the tradeoff of greater size and weight.
I finally broke down and bought one and have been very happy with it. I use it primarily to read the WSJ, NY Times and Economist (the WSJ and Economist apps especially are by far better than their web experience), read cases and other class materials (which we have access to electronically), view documents from my laptop when I don't have it with me (I keep most of my documents in a Dropbox folder), as an e-reader (although i still prefer my Kindle to the iPad for this), and for entertainment. Of course there's still plenty of times I need my laptop in class (spreadsheet modeling, Stata, etc.), but there have been more than a few times where I've been able to use the iPad instead.
Would I have been able to survive school without it? Absolutely, but it has been a convenience to have it.