Apple’s iPad: Can it Work for Digital Nomads and Teleworkers?

Is the iPad the perfect device for today’s Remote Workers? While no device or tool is perfect for every job or person, the iPad may very well be just the thing for me.

Using today’s technology, Location Independent Professionals work from anywhere. Cell phones, near ubiquitous coverage of wi-fi networks in the city, and relatively inexpensive 3G connections when off the main grid have all shifted the concept of work in recent years. Go to any coffee shop and you are bound to see at least one person banging keys on a laptop, and that guy in the faded jeans thumb-typing on his iPhone may very well be closing a sale or placing an order.

I am rarely the first person to go out and buy the latest and greatest new thing. I am a bit of a minimalist that has never owned an iPod or a flat screen tv. My smartphone has the “Smart” turned off, so it is only rarely used for phone calls and text messaging.  I no longer use a desktop computer. My laptop is more than enough for my needs. I could work exclusively from a computer in the public library if I really needed to, and not have to own a single gadget.

The laptop is still too big to want to carry around wherever I go (a 5 year old Toshiba). I had tossed around my tech “ideal” of a Kindle, an iPod Touch, and a netbook at some point. The iPad would do just fine for all 3 of those for my needs in a single item.

When producing, I do a lot of writing and other content creation. Not heavy graphics-intensive CAD stuff that would need more processing power. Word processing, blogging, internet, email, spreadsheets — all basic things that any netbook could easily do.

I consume a lot of information on the web. When surfing the web or answering most email, I don’t normally write a lot. I didn’t expect to do a lot of work stuff from anywhere but the laptop. But a lot of what I do for research or in my free time is still online. The iTouch is a fantastic portable solution for most of this that is also great for music and podcasts, of course.

I read as many as 3 books a week, but refuse to stockpile a massive library. When I finish a book, it goes off to live where someone else can benefit from it. I only read magazines or newspapers online now. A book reader is something I definitely want. I read most books through the Kindle App on the laptop already.

The iTouch would be for sitting around in a coffee shop, campsite, or a park but not really working. The netbook for short trips where I didn’t want to bring the laptop (and may eventually replace the laptop). The Kindle would be for reading all the books I then would not have to carry around.

But Apple announced the iPad, I compared it to this previous ideal to see how it stacked up against these other gadgets for the needs of a Digital Nomad.

iPod Touch

The iTouch is a good little web, email, music, book reader, and game tool. I actually got one as a gift earlier this year, and it has already received a lot of use. I read 5 or 6 books on it the first few weeks I had it. The tiny screen makes page-turning more frequent and is a bit harder to read than a big screen.

It’s only a backup for the times I didn’t have a netbook or laptop with me to get on the web, as browsing on a tiny screen is less than ideal. The wireless-only usually works just fine, since there are wi-fi networks almost everywhere now. I wouldn’t be able to send emails if I was away from civilization, but that’s about it.

The only real advantage the iTouch has over the iPad is the portability. It can be carried in a pocket, but the iPad does everything that can be done on the iTouch. Heavy advantage goes to the iPad here.

Kindle

E-Ink is the screen tech on Amazon’s Kindle. It’s basically a non-backlit screen, which is easier on the eyes, especially for reading full-length books. Backlit screens like the iPad are lights, so it is hard on the eyes to stare at them all day. And you can read them easily outside in the sunlight or anywhere except in the dark.

Kindle’s e-ink screen is not color. The iPad has a gorgeous full-color screen.

The iPad can be read in a dark room. I’ve read books in bed late at night on my iTouch. If I wanted to do that with the Kindle, I would have to turn on the light. The iPad may be hard to read outside in sunlight. This advantage depends on which was a bigger trade-off: reading in the dark or at the beach.

Kindle is a great book reader, and they now added the ability to use Twitter and Facebook. You can download books in seconds, and be reading from anywhere. But that’s all it does.

If you want a very good book reader, the Kindle is tough to beat. If you want a very good book reader that can do several hundred thousand other things, the iPad wins by miles. Kindle replaces books. iPad replaces books and several other gadgets.

Netbook

The netbook for me would be mostly for content generation, but again, it was a kind of overlapping redundancy to the other gadgets. It’s inconvenient to type more than a paragraph or two on an iTouch. The netbook is good enough to type on with a tiny screen, but it’s like another laptop to lug around when I want to read a book in bed.

Netbooks can do more than the iPad. They use a full Operating System that run almost every application I can run on my full-sized laptop. The iPad still requires a computer to synch with. You have to have a computer to use an iPad (at least initially. Anyone want to correct me on this part?).

The onscreen keyboard on the iPad was much easier to use than I had anticipated. You have to look at your fingers to type on the iPad. The keys are on the screen, so there is no feel to it. No home keys to find with touch only. Ergonomically, this can’t be a good thing for a lot of content creation. You have to look down the whole time you type, so this would not be a better solution, even with a cute homemade pillow like our friends the Technomads just got for their iPads.

The on-screen keyboard is good enough for answering emails, tweets, and other brief items from the to-do list. So no major advantage to the netbook for that. The bluetooth keyboard and some sort of case or stand to prop the iPad up like a monitor solves the ergonomic and touch-typing issues, but now you are back to lugging around as much as a netbook. The only advantage is the option to leave the keyboard behind.

The battery life being reported from iPad owners is better than any netbook on the market. Another concern when trying to travel light is carrying as few additional power supplies as needed.

iPad Beats Them All

The iPad may not be the very best solution in every area, but it covers so many tasks so well, it is hard to beat.

The form factor of the iPad is something that gives it an advantage over traditional netbooks. It’s simple. Like reading a notepad. It’s just a one-piece touchscreen. No clam shell and extra stuff hanging from it.

Developers are only just beginning to tap into the possibilities of this new device. With so many amazing things being done with iPhone apps, I am excited to see the many uses that people can come up with for the iPad.

Of course if you are heavy into gaming with high-end graphics, have no need for a book reader, and don’t need anything other than what you already have, there will be no point to buying an iPad. But it will be a huge seller. People panned the iPod when it came out. I thought the iTouch was silly when I first saw it (“it’s an iPhone with no phone??”) Then I got to play with one and realized how well it works and how useful it could be. Apple has sold millions of iPod Touches — they are going to sell a ton of iPads.

While the Kindle may be a better ebook reader, the iTouch is a smaller, more convenient web and game toy, and the Netbook is a more powerful content creator, the iPad looks to do all of those things well enough for me all in one beautiful overall package.

Are you planning on buying an iPad, or have one already? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

Tagged as: iPad, iTouch, Kindle, LIP, Netbook