iPad and aopa ... Ugh

Hobobiker

Hobobiker

Line Up and Wait
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Hobo
Cracks me up that although iPad is quickly becoming a staple tool for pilots, the aopa courses and other videos require flash video, which apple (and soon others) will not support. Also doesn't appear to be an 'app for that' yet. Guess it's a matter of catching up with the technology curves...

Oh well. Guess its time to break out the laptop...
 
There's another flash-enabled browser called iSwifter. Early versions seemed to be pretty clunky, but the current version is faster and smoother. Still not as good as native flash, but it does work well enough in a lot of instances.
 
Hobobiker said:
I appreciate the input. It's better than nothing. I just can't seem to totally ditch my laptop for reasons like this, so I end up using multiple devices...

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Yea :(

HTML5 will one day solve this, but it will be a very long time before we no longer care about flash.

The good news, is Flash for Android has been discontinued. Mobile devices are becoming the #1 web browsing tools. These two things should help rapid advancement to HTML5 video.
 
Scott and I have similar issues. Gold Seal has a huge amount of content developed in flash. We have created a few native iPad apps, but the bulk of our online material remains in flash.

We recently started working on a new development platform that allows you to run a flash version on the web, but supply an iPad-installable version that will run offline. Here are a couple of new freebees (for now at least) that can be installed on your iPad without having to get them from the Appstore:

www.2012PTS.com - multimedia version of the Private Pilot PTS, specifically for ASEL
www.430Copilot.com - an interactive Garmin 430 reference guide
 
write-stuff said:
Scott and I have similar issues. Gold Seal has a huge amount of content developed in flash. We have created a few native iPad apps, but the bulk of our online material remains in flash.

We recently started working on a new development platform that allows you to run a flash version on the web, but supply an iPad-installable version that will run offline. Here are a couple of new freebees (for now at least) that can be installed on your iPad without having to get them from the Appstore:

www.2012PTS.com - multimedia version of the Private Pilot PTS, specifically for ASEL
www.430Copilot.com - an interactive Garmin 430 reference guide
Click to expand...

With the newest Android tablets selling like hotcakes -- and also no longer running Flash -- methinks migrating to HTML5 is a better approach.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 
Jay Honeck said:
With the newest Android tablets selling like hotcakes
Click to expand...

I think you mean the Nexus 7. The dozen or so other Android tables are not selling well at all.

Q2 2012 saw 25 million tablets sold. 17 million of them were Apple according to this account.

In fact, the only segment to gain market share Q1 to Q2, was Apple.

http://eurodroid.com/2012/07/25/stats-android-tablet-sales-up-to-7-3-million-from-4-4-million-in-q2/

It's good that Android dropped Flash, and that helps drive the decision to go HTML5. But if you are a software developer looking to figure out your market, and what to do with respect to Flash, Android tablets are not really it. They are still a relatively small player, with 29 out of 100 new purchases, while the iPad takes 68 of those buyers.

Not sure if there is data on the subject, but I suspect those numbers are even more on the iOS side with respect to pilots.
 
Mafoo said:
I think you mean the Nexus 7. The dozen or so other Android tables are not selling well at all.

Q2 2012 saw 25 million tablets sold. 17 million of them were Apple according to this account.

In fact, the only segment to gain market share Q1 to Q2, was Apple.

http://eurodroid.com/2012/07/25/stats-android-tablet-sales-up-to-7-3-million-from-4-4-million-in-q2/

It's good that Android dropped Flash, and that helps drive the decision to go HTML5. But if you are a software developer looking to figure out your market, and what to do with respect to Flash, Android tablets are not really it. They are still a relatively small player, with 29 out of 100 new purchases, while the iPad takes 68 of those buyers.

Not sure if there is data on the subject, but I suspect those numbers are even more on the iOS side with respect to pilots.
Click to expand...

For now. :D

The Nexus 7 changes everything. I've had mine for over a month now, and it is everything the iPad wasn't.

It is possible to disconnect from the Apple collective.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 
Jay Honeck said:
For now. :D

The Nexus 7 changes everything. I've had mine for over a month now, and it is everything the iPad wasn't.

It is possible to disconnect from the Apple collective.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

We know your opinion. Sadly for Google, not very many people percentage wise share it.

This might shock you, but a lot of people buy Apple products, because they like them :)

And if Apple releases a 7" iPad for $250 on Sept 12th, you can say goodbye to a majority of the Nexus sales.
 
Jay Honeck said:
The Nexus 7 changes everything. I've had mine for over a month now, and it is everything the iPad wasn't.
Click to expand...

Let us know when you can store two full chart revisions for CONUS both VFR and IFR in it and have 32GB of other content also on it. ;)

Everything, eh? :)

(Side note, if you go into the settings, you can turn off the Tapatalk advertisement signature added to every post.)
 
Mafoo said:
It's good that Android dropped Flash, and that helps drive the decision to go HTML5. But if you are a software developer looking to figure out your market, and what to do with respect to Flash, Android tablets are not really it. They are still a relatively small player, with 29 out of 100 new purchases, while the iPad takes 68 of those buyers.
Click to expand...

Technically, Android didn't drop Flash, Adobe pulled the plug on mobile Flash because they couldn't ever get it to work well (which, incidentally, was Steve Jobs' objection to it.)

It will be interesting to see how the recent ruling against Samsung impacts Android, because it is sure to, since Apple's key patents on functionality were validated. Google and Android equipment manufacturers will have to change to avoid patent infringement, or strike licensing deals with Apple (which, by the way, Microsoft has already done for the upcoming Surface tablet.)


JKG
 
Jay Honeck said:
For now. :D

The Nexus 7 changes everything. I've had mine for over a month now, and it is everything the iPad wasn't.

It is possible to disconnect from the Apple collective.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

I don't know, it seems to me that the Nexus 7 is missing quite a few significant capabilities of the iPad. A big one for me is no cellular network support, which would significantly limit the way that I could use any tablet. Yes, there are ways around this (such as a MiFi), but nothing works as well nor is as convenient as built-in 3G/4G/LTE support. If you think that WiFi hotspots are ubiquitous, you either live in Starbucks or don't know what you're missing by not having cellular network support.

I guess that Google doesn't figure that folks will be doing much with cameras or video, since the Nexus 7 appears to have on one, front-facing, 1.2MP camera. I think that my 3 year old Samsung flip phone might have a better camera. I use the camera on my iPad all the time.

It would seem that a maximum of 16GB storage is a bit low these days; that's where the iPad starts.

Where's the headphone jack? Is there one?

Is there video out capability?

Perhaps the largest liability is that Android lags iOS significantly when it comes to the availability of quality applications. Even apps which are available on both platforms often come crippled in some way on Android. iOS is still overwhelmingly preferred by developers, so the application situation isn't likely to materially change in the near future.

For someone who claims to hate being "married" to Apple with iOS, it's interesting that you have no issue with being even more "married" to Google, a company whose business it is to make your business their business. Even though Apple has cloud products, they've managed to keep iOS fairly open to everyone else. I'd rather trust Apple over Google not to be snooping or mining data from my brand spanking new tablet and everything that I have connected to it.


JKG
 
Apple mines just as much data as google. Whose products are bettter or who is less evil is not relevant. Data is where it is at and Apple grabs just as much as google.
 
JGoodish said:
Technically, Android didn't drop Flash, Adobe pulled the plug on mobile Flash because they couldn't ever get it to work well (which, incidentally, was Steve Jobs' objection to it.)
Click to expand...

I bet there was another problem... They couldn't monetize it.

Out of all the stuff Adobe makes, which are all getting squeezed hard by cheap/free tools these days, Flash was one that never made them much money and probably to get serious gains in performance out of it, cross-platform, it took horrendous amounts of coder time for little benefit to the software, and even less to the bottom line.

I also suspect that Jobs saw that. His public reasons were performance and battery life, which stood on their own merits, but privately I bet it was a lot more than that.

Adobe as a customer went way beyond "demanding", they were often downright unreasonable. Many of us avoided their calls whenever possible. The folks who called us were regularly unprofessional and abusive to staff.

Some of their software is very good. I won't say it's not. But I look hard for other options before handing them any cash.

Just sayin'...
 
JGoodish said:
I don't know, it seems to me that the Nexus 7 is missing quite a few significant capabilities of the iPad. A big one for me is no cellular network support, which would significantly limit the way that I could use any tablet. Yes, there are ways around this (such as a MiFi), but nothing works as well nor is as convenient as built-in 3G/4G/LTE support. If you think that WiFi hotspots are ubiquitous, you either live in Starbucks or don't know what you're missing by not having cellular network support.
Click to expand...

I have the 3G Verizon iPad, and an AT&T iPhone with wifi hotspot option.

What I like about the hotspot, is I can do facetime from my iPad, while connecting through 3G. Outside of rooting your device, there is no other way to achieve such a thing (for now). Also when I am in a hotel room in NYC, I often have to have my 3G right next to the window for it to work, or some odd location in the room. It's nice to be able to position my phone there, and then just walk around with the iPad without worry that I am going to lose signal.

I do like the idea of the "always connected" feeling of having an iPad native connection, but there is not much lost using a wifi hotspot. It's definitely not a day and night situation.
 
You've found a loophole. AT&T announced plans to charge for the FaceTime over cellular feature in the next version of iOS.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/smar...-shows-unlimited-data-deals-arent-rubber-clad

And it has ticked off a significant portion of their customer base.

Their network is getting its butt kicked. Verizon strategically whipped AT&T in keeping up with data speeds desired by customers.

AT&T is too hobbled by their backbone infrastructure not being 100% IP. Costing them a fortune.

Verizon hasn't announce anything, but they're pushing their overall strategy to charge for data only and voice and text are "free" on their newest plans.

Since I dropped my grandfathered "unlimited" plans (that I had on two different carriers) quite some time ago, when VZ announced this new shared data plan stuff, I looked it over and realized just by switching to it and changing nothing, it'd save Karen and I $30/mo.

We switched. Now I never even think about whether a particular device will go over on data, since Karen hardly used any of her 2GB, and it doesn't matter if I use the iPad or iPhone. Can go add an Android or a data card for a project or whatever for a flat fee also.

VZ has got AT&T scrambling. AT&T was riffling around trying to buy T-Mobile while VZ was building a network. Good show, VZ.
 
ClimbnSink said:
Apple mines just as much data as google. Whose products are bettter or who is less evil is not relevant. Data is where it is at and Apple grabs just as much as google.
Click to expand...

How does Apple mine as much data as Google? Google's business depends on it, not so for Apple. I send Apple only the information that I elect to send them (and for which they ask permission), but meanwhile, I have Google looking through my emails, taking pictures of my house, illegally avoiding security features built into Apple's browser so that they can track me (and for which they were recently held liable), and snooping through my WiFi hotspots.


JKG
 
Mafoo said:
I have the 3G Verizon iPad, and an AT&T iPhone with wifi hotspot option.

What I like about the hotspot, is I can do facetime from my iPad, while connecting through 3G. Outside of rooting your device, there is no other way to achieve such a thing (for now). Also when I am in a hotel room in NYC, I often have to have my 3G right next to the window for it to work, or some odd location in the room. It's nice to be able to position my phone there, and then just walk around with the iPad without worry that I am going to lose signal.

I do like the idea of the "always connected" feeling of having an iPad native connection, but there is not much lost using a wifi hotspot. It's definitely not a day and night situation.
Click to expand...

The WiFi hotspot is: (a) another device to carry, (b) another device to charge, and (c) doesnt provide anywhere close to the same battery life. If you're talking about using a smartphone as a WiFi hotspot, that's even worse, because I'll assume that at least some battery life gets consumed with voice and data use on the phone.

I considered the "phone hotspot" solution, but ultimately discovered that I use my iPad way more than the smartphone for data, and trying to make sure that they were both equally charged at the same time was a pain. Also, the new iPad is 4G LTE, the phone is only 3G. :)


JKG
 
denverpilot said:
VZ has got AT&T scrambling. AT&T was riffling around trying to buy T-Mobile while VZ was building a network. Good show, VZ.
Click to expand...

I've found AT&T's network to be vastly improved over a couple years ago, and while their LTE deployment lags behind VZ, they have HSPA+ almost everywhere. As a general rule, I haven't noticed a problem with backhaul, either. VZ got the jump on LTE because they pretty much had to, as they were pigeonholed with the much slower EV-DO.

The one problem I've had with AT&T is spectrum-related. In my area, VZ still uses some 850MHz spectrum, which penetrates buildings much better. With AT&T, I can have a great signal until I walk into a building, and almost instantly have no service.

VZ compresses the heck out of voice, which makes it sound muddy during periods of high congestion. They've done this for years. AT&T voice quality is superior, in my opinion.

I worked for VZ for several years, and ditched them soon after I left, in large part because they provide a lousy signal at my house. I did not find their EV-DO data service to be overly impressive, either. They were significantly more expensive, and they appear to be getting moreso.

If you want a shared data plan, AT&T has them now, too, but AT&T isn't eliminating their old plans and forcing everyone onto a shared plan. Plus one more for AT&T in my book.


JKG
 
Mafoo said:
We know your opinion. Sadly for Google, not very many people percentage wise share it.

This might shock you, but a lot of people buy Apple products, because they like them :)

And if Apple releases a 7" iPad for $250 on Sept 12th, you can say goodbye to a majority of the Nexus sales.
Click to expand...


Do you stalk Jay in all threads just to defend Apple's/iPad's honor?

Sheesh. Fanboys.
 
JGoodish said:
The WiFi hotspot is: (a) another device to carry, (b) another device to charge, and (c) doesnt provide anywhere close to the same battery life. If you're talking about using a smartphone as a WiFi hotspot, that's even worse, because I'll assume that at least some battery life gets consumed with voice and data use on the phone.

I considered the "phone hotspot" solution, but ultimately discovered that I use my iPad way more than the smartphone for data, and trying to make sure that they were both equally charged at the same time was a pain. Also, the new iPad is 4G LTE, the phone is only 3G. :)
Click to expand...

On the other hand, your $800 iPad isn't suddenly outdated when the next generation of cellular data hits. I enjoyed my WiFi iPad on a 3G hotspot. I LOVE it on a 4G LTE hotspot! Battery life is a non-issue since most of the time that I need to use the hotspot I'm either close to a plug-in or it can be plugged into my truck, assuming I've outlasted the 3-4 hours of battery use.

When I'm using it, it's available to my laptop and to my other mobile devices, or those of friends with me. I've often had 3-4 devices all working nicely over it.

Finally, it serves as an excellent backup to my landline broadband connection (which occasionally goes south.)

In light of the above, I'd never consider having a mobile data contract on a single iPad ever again.
 
LDJones said:
Do you stalk Jay in all threads just to defend Apple's/iPad's honor?

Sheesh. Fanboys.
Click to expand...

Considering I have stated I think the nexus 7 is an awesome device, and my last post in this thread was defending his position on not needing 3G, I am going to go with no.
 
JGoodish said:
The WiFi hotspot is: (a) another device to carry, (b) another device to charge, and (c) doesnt provide anywhere close to the same battery life. If you're talking about using a smartphone as a WiFi hotspot, that's even worse, because I'll assume that at least some battery life gets consumed with voice and data use on the phone.

I considered the "phone hotspot" solution, but ultimately discovered that I use my iPad way more than the smartphone for data, and trying to make sure that they were both equally charged at the same time was a pain. Also, the new iPad is 4G LTE, the phone is only 3G. :)


JKG
Click to expand...

My iPhone battery lasts a long time. Plus I use it as a hotspot with my laptop, and can charge it off the laptop battery. 90% of the time I use it in a hotel room, or an airport terminal. I have power if I need it.

I am not saying 4G on my iPad is not awesome, but I am saying I have the option to use it however I like, and more times then not I tether my ipad. I am just saying the N7 not having built in cellular is not a huge issue.

The only time I can see it being one, is I was once in a highrise condo building on the coast of Florida, and there must have been 200 wifi hotspots I could see. I could not get the iPad to connect to my phone, because the bandwidth was so congested, but it connected to cellular just fine. As long as your not in that situation, a cell phone with a hotspot in it is going to do anything you want.
 
Dang, I read about the limitations you guys have on AT&T and Verizon and it makes me glad I use T-Mobile which allows, get this, Wifi calling so my phone works at plan rates any where in the world I have broadband wifi, including the middle of the ocean over V-Sat, they always supported with no extra charge tethering or more recently hotspotting to my phone, have always allowed Skype and have by far the best customer service call line I the industry.

For high use data for general steaming of movies and TV, I have a Mifi spot through Clear.
 
Henning said:
Dang, I read about the limitations you guys have on AT&T and Verizon and it makes me glad I use T-Mobile which allows, get this, Wifi calling so my phone works at plan rates any where in the world I have broadband wifi, including the middle of the ocean over V-Sat, they always supported with no extra charge tethering or more recently hotspotting to my phone, have always allowed Skype and have by far the best customer service call line I the industry.

For high use data for general steaming of movies and TV, I have a Mifi spot through Clear.
Click to expand...

That is nice!

I stick with AT&T for two reasons. One is they always drop my renewal penalty when the new iPhone comes out, so I get to buy it and sell my 1 year old one on eBay for more then the cost of a new one. This keeps me in a new phone all the time, and I get paid to do it :)

The other reason is I need to be on it, and talking at the same time. The only iPhone that allows me to do that is the AT&T one.

If I always had my iPad with me, I could use its wifi hotspot, and do the same thing, but I often leave it at home because my wife uses it, and just travel with the laptop and my phone.

A hotspot would do the trick too, but I used to have one, and it either never worked well, I forgot it, or it always needed a charge. It was just to much or a pain for me.
 
Mafoo said:
That is nice!

I stick with AT&T for two reasons. One is they always drop my renewal penalty when the new iPhone comes out, so I get to buy it and sell my 1 year old one on eBay for more then the cost of a new one. This keeps me in a new phone all the time, and I get paid to do it :)

The other reason is I need to be on it, and talking at the same time. The only iPhone that allows me to do that is the AT&T one.

If I always had my iPad with me, I could use its wifi hotspot, and do the same thing, but I often leave it at home because my wife uses it, and just travel with the laptop and my phone.

A hotspot would do the trick too, but I used to have one, and it either never worked well, I forgot it, or it always needed a charge. It was just to much or a pain for me.
Click to expand...


??? My iPhone 3GS would allow me to look up stuff on the Internet while I talked and I used it on T-Mobile as well as networks all over the world.:confused: I gave up the iPhone though as I find it inferior as an 'only one product' to carry as well as telephone to my Android phone. The negative to the Droid being battery life, but I have found a nifty backup battery/solar charger unit that works nicely, as well, it's rare that I'm away from electricity long enough for it to make a difference. I got the iPad mostly because playing Angry Birds on my phone sucked and then found it pretty nice as a replacement for TV with Netflix. As I cockpit tool it sucks IMO, but as a third tier system I'll take it for non critical reference material. My current Mifi unit has a longer battery life than my iPad which works out well. The only problem with Clear at this point is limited coverage, but it covers where I need it to for TV use and my 5GB on the phone which works everywhere covers all my non streaming video needs quite well.
 
LDJones said:
On the other hand, your $800 iPad isn't suddenly outdated when the next generation of cellular data hits. I enjoyed my WiFi iPad on a 3G hotspot. I LOVE it on a 4G LTE hotspot! Battery life is a non-issue since most of the time that I need to use the hotspot I'm either close to a plug-in or it can be plugged into my truck, assuming I've outlasted the 3-4 hours of battery use.
Click to expand...

Even my first generation 3G iPad isn't outdated by broadband standards, but it is on AT&T. I suspect that it will be quite a while before I would find the need for faster data speeds than a LTE iPad can provide.

As someone else may have mentioned, the Verizon LTE iPad can act as a WiFi hotspot with something like 20 hours of battery life in hotspot mode.

I travel around to various customer locations and am in and out of office all day with my iPad, and I almost never carry a laptop. Most of these locations don't have public WiFi, and 3-4 hours of battery life for cellular data won't cut it. The iPad is severely crippled, in my opinion, without a network connection.


JKG
 
Mafoo said:
My iPhone battery lasts a long time. Plus I use it as a hotspot with my laptop, and can charge it off the laptop battery. 90% of the time I use it in a hotel room, or an airport terminal. I have power if I need it.

I am not saying 4G on my iPad is not awesome, but I am saying I have the option to use it however I like, and more times then not I tether my ipad. I am just saying the N7 not having built in cellular is not a huge issue.

The only time I can see it being one, is I was once in a highrise condo building on the coast of Florida, and there must have been 200 wifi hotspots I could see. I could not get the iPad to connect to my phone, because the bandwidth was so congested, but it connected to cellular just fine. As long as your not in that situation, a cell phone with a hotspot in it is going to do anything you want.
Click to expand...

I quit carrying my laptop most of the time when I discovered that I could be just as productive on the iPad without the bulk of a laptop. However, that productivity depends on having a good network connection. A WiFi-only device just wouldn't cut it (which was one other problem with the laptop). The idea of the iPad for me was to get rid of hauling the laptop, provide much better battery life, and therefore permit me to be more productive for longer periods of time. Couldn't do it without the cellular data capability.


JKG
 
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Henning said:
Dang, I read about the limitations you guys have on AT&T and Verizon and it makes me glad I use T-Mobile which allows, get this, Wifi calling so my phone works at plan rates any where in the world I have broadband wifi, including the middle of the ocean over V-Sat, they always supported with no extra charge tethering or more recently hotspotting to my phone, have always allowed Skype and have by far the best customer service call line I the industry.

For high use data for general steaming of movies and TV, I have a Mifi spot through Clear.
Click to expand...

The big problem with T-Mobile is the lousy coverage away from the center of big cities or major highways (and even ALONG many major highways), even on the east coast. Same problem with Clear.


JKG
 
JGoodish said:
Even my first generation 3G iPad isn't outdated by broadband standards, but it is on AT&T. I suspect that it will be quite a while before I would find the need for faster data speeds than a LTE iPad can provide.

As someone else may have mentioned, the Verizon LTE iPad can act as a WiFi hotspot with something like 20 hours of battery life in hotspot mode.

I travel around to various customer locations and am in and out of office all day with my iPad, and I almost never carry a laptop. Most of these locations don't have public WiFi, and 3-4 hours of battery life for cellular data won't cut it. The iPad is severely crippled, in my opinion, without a network connection.


JKG
Click to expand...

Yeah, but you have to pay Verizon data rates which have always been the highest.
 
Henning said:
Yeah, but you have to pay Verizon data rates which have always been the highest.
Click to expand...

That's true, which is why I decided to stick with AT&T for the 4G iPad (and give up the hotspot). However, I don't know that I'd use the hotspot feature anyway, since I leave the laptop at home.


JKG
 
JGoodish said:
The big problem with T-Mobile is the lousy coverage away from the center of big cities or major highways (and even ALONG many major highways), even on the east coast. Same problem with Clear.


JKG
Click to expand...

Clear I agree, T-Mo not. I travel up and down the east coast every year in boats and have coverage in the most remote spots. Heck, I get 4G at the Big Stone anchorage at the bottom of the Delaware Bay down in the forepeak of a steel tugboat which is deep in the notch of a steel barge that sticks up 20' above it and is 4 more layers of steel, water and oil. I've only very rarely been out of coverage with T-Mo which I can hardly say for AT&T, and on the tug, the guys with Verizon are SOL when we're down in Big Stone.
 
JGoodish said:
I quit carrying my laptop most of the time when I discovered that I could be just as productive on the iPad without the bulk of a laptop.
Click to expand...

I am a software developer, running 3-4 OS's in virtual machines, with 5-6 instances of Visual Studio 2010 running. I have a copy of our entire production environment running on my laptop, and when I am in the airport, I need to work.

iPad is not going to cut it. :)
 
Mafoo said:
I am a software developer, running 3-4 OS's in virtual machines, with 5-6 instances of Visual Studio 2010 running. I have a copy of our entire production environment running on my laptop, and when I am in the airport, I need to work.

iPad is not going to cut it. :)
Click to expand...

Sure it will. It's called virtual desktop. But I suspect that a software developer doesn't travel quite as much as some other professions. For me, mobility matters all day, every day.

However, I do use a small Bluetooth keyboard paired with the iPad for serious typing.


JKG
 
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Henning said:
Clear I agree, T-Mo not. I travel up and down the east coast every year in boats and have coverage in the most remote spots. Heck, I get 4G at the Big Stone anchorage at the bottom of the Delaware Bay down in the forepeak of a steel tugboat which is deep in the notch of a steel barge that sticks up 20' above it and is 4 more layers of steel, water and oil. I've only very rarely been out of coverage with T-Mo which I can hardly say for AT&T, and on the tug, the guys with Verizon are SOL when we're down in Big Stone.
Click to expand...

Pick a state and move 10-20 miles outside of a major area of population. With T-Mobile, if there is service, it's likely only 2G. Even their coverage maps depict it. In more rural areas, there's often no service where AT&T and Verizon have at least something (often 3G).

It would be nice to have a less expensive option, but not even Sprint has comparable network coverage. At least AT&T seems to have decent coverage for a fairly reasonable price. If having the largest network footprint matters, AT&T and VZ are still on top.


JKG
 
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JGoodish said:
Sure it will. It's called virtual desktop. But I suspect that a software developer doesn't travel quite as much as some other professions. For me, mobility matters all day, every day.

However, I do use a small Bluetooth keyboard paired with the iPad for serious typing.


JKG
Click to expand...

lol, I have Citrix client (along with a server at the home office), a VNC client, Parallels client, and a nice RDC client as well. I have a Bluetooth keyboard as well. The wireless one that came with my 27" iMac. I bought a wired one for it when I got it, so the KB was extra.

Trust me when I say, it's not going to work. I mean it will, if I want to cut my productivity by about 95-99%.

If I scarified functionality of the laptop for the mobility of the iPad, I mine as well just not go.

The iPad is great, and when people use Laptops for tasks better suited for an iPad, it really can fit there needs. But make no mistake, an iPad is not a replacement for everything a Laptop can do. What I do, requires a laptop.
 
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