How to replace your old computer with a new iPad

“As the personal computing era draws closer and closer to an end, people are re-evaluating their computing needs and trying to get by with just a tablet,” Geoffrey Goetz writes for Gigaom.

“As a result, more and more are choosing to leave their personal computer behind in favor of what tablets like the iPad have to offer.,” Goetz writes. “That does not mean that everything is perfect. There are still some challenges that could keep you going back to your old computer from time to time just to get things done.”

“If you are looking to put off a computer upgrade a little longer, or leave your personal computer days behind you all together,” Goetz writes, “then the following tips to get over some of those hurdles may be useful to you.”

Read more in the full article here.

34 Comments

    1. Some of the personal cloud computing devices recommended in the article are capable of being set up as a torrent server. Most of them are the equivalent of small scale Linux servers. This is not a case of the iPad replacing a personal computer, rather a network appliance doing what your personal computer can do. Search Amazon for the “NSA325v2” if you are interested.

    1. I agree 100%.
      My iphone is like my Leatherman or Swiss Army knife, my MacBook Pro is like my portable toolbox, and my Mac Pro is like my fully equipped workshop.
      (My iPad fits in there somewhere.)
      All are used as appropriate and I really don’t want to give up any of them.

    2. I love both my iPhone and my iPad. I sometimes find it frustrating not being on my iMac, which I love most of all. There are just too many things you can’t do without it- as well or as easily at the very least.

      1. So you took my pointing out a liar as an opportunity to say anything-at-all about myself.

        “perfect” <- Who's supposed to be perfect? Prefection is an absolutist's conception.

        "nobody else is" <- That's the second absolutist comment you've made.

        "Pathetic" <- Maybe you should stop abusing yourself, which is the NEXT step out of your problem, and GROW UP.

        If you really gave a rat's about anything having to do with me, you'd bother to read and understand my usual catch phrase:

        We never know everything about anything.

        1. (Side clue: “my pointing out a liar” is a reference to an ongoing flamewar in another thread. Sorry for the incoherence relative to this thread).

          For the lazy who don’t know the word and won’t bother to look it up:

          niche

          – a position particularly well suited to the person who occupies it; “he found his niche in the academic world”.
          – (ecology) the status of an organism within its environment and community (affecting its survival as a species.

          Translated into idiocracy: “I like this. I don’t like that. This is my niche.” To each his own. I like mine. You like yours. We get along together in a big diverse world. 🙂

  1. I was not surprised that you of all people would come up with insipid, vapid, and vulgar material that isn’t even that funny or clever. Comedy to see someone think he is intelligent, but shows the world otherwise. Sad.

    1. “I was not surprised that you …”

      And yet you just couldn’t let it slide and had to put in your gasbag opinion. You puritanical hypocrites are worse than BLN anymore.

    2. When you were growing up in the South Bronx, where did you stand in the social hierarchy of your age cohort? Were you an outsider, a gang member, a private school or honour student, or just like everyone else except special?

      Not trying to be critical, just intellectually wondering about your talent for stirring up shit, and pondering its value in promoting discussion.

      1. Herewith is a list of proscribed jokes in the A. Jackson family:

        – jokes against Michael Jackson’s whiteness & pedophiliac tendencies
        – jokes against blacks (yo! you white racists you all yo!)
        – jokes against half whites (Obama)
        – jokes against Red Indians
        – jokes against Jews
        – jokes against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, asexuals,
        – jokes against the fat lard Oprah Winfrey
        – jokes against Polish people. (Steve Wozniak)
        – jokes against Adolf Hitler (you’re a communist)
        – jokes against Josef Stalin (you’re a fascist)
        – jokes against the Irish (anti leprechaun faction)
        – jokes against climate change (anti Al Gore)
        – jokes against the Democratic Party (white trash)
        – jokes against the Republican Party (communist big mouth)

        1. A caring and curious intellectual reaches out to you for better understanding and you respond with racist name-calling and bodily injury threats?

          Too often, you habitually draw racism like a gun. unfortunately, you’re just as guilty.

          Certainly doesn’t apply personally, but if I were to begin a quest to end derogatory comments working toward racial healing — I would lead by example.

          Comment on Macworld for a change and you will feel better. Peace.

  2. It seems to me thatpeople have forgotten why personal computing came about in the first place. Go back and look at the software that made companies buy IBM PCs in the first place. These were spread sheets, word processors, databases, financial programs and such. Those needs may seem mundane today but they are not magically going away, and they are just as critical to businesses as they were then. And those are not the sort of things you can easily do on a toy phone or tablet.
    If all you do is look at pictures of cats and clips of Family Guy, then by all means get a tablet. I don’t care. But don’t try and shove your dumbed down user interfaces on desktops where they don’t belong.

    1. Have you seen the ModBook Pro? There have been companies out there that have been converting MacBooks and the older PowerBooks into touch screen Macs for many years. Troll Touch use to have a slipCover for the 17″ PowerBook G4s that was pretty cool.

  3. Go back and look at the software that made companies buy IBM PCs in the first place. These were spread sheets, word processors, databases, financial programs and such.

    People bought these tools to do a job, because they were the best tools available at the time…as better tools become available, these tools will be replaced.

    My trusty slide rule helped me make it through engineering school, but I rarely use it today!

  4. Give me a MacBook Pro with a screen that detaches and becomes an iPad. At home, I can also dock my laptop to my 22″ LaCie photo editing monitor and full sized keyboard and mouse. One device, covering all my bases. Of course, if you need the power, a high end iMac or Mac Pro for home or office use.

  5. This obviously isn’t me. For one, the imposter spelled my name wrong. He or she added 2 P’s and 1 L in my name. With that out of the way, I am shocked and appalled that MDN would allow such racist and prejudiced comments in their forums. It says a lot about the current state of the Apple fandom than it does me. Just sayin’…

    1. It will likely stop the instant you quit posting unrelated (non-tech, non-Apple) too personal items. Not everything the MDN wise-asses post is “racist,” some just refuse to suffer overly “sensitive” whiners.

  6. My Windows 7 computer is nothing but a CD/DVD ripper now, i do my work on my iPad. I would love a Mac mini though perhaps when my Windows computer bites the dust i will get the Mini, but im saving for the iPhone 6 so the windows computer will have to do for now.

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