Ipad and Apps

Since I bought my IPad last June, I've found that my software needs have changed significantly and I doubt if I'm the only IPad user who has experienced this change.  I think what I'm experiencing is an unanticipated outgrowth of the tablets and many software companies are slow to react or are ignoring the situation entirely.

I find I'm using the tablet to do an increasing amount of work while I do less on my laptop.  I'm a fiction writer and I write short stories and novels on my laptop computer while sitting at a desk in an office at home.  In the pre-IPad days, I also wrote blog posts, email and other stuff on that laptop and at that desk.  While the laptop is portable, it has limited places where it can be used.  It can't for instance be used in a lounge chair.  An IPad on the other hand can be used in the lounge chair.  I'm writing the first draft of this article in a lounge chair using my IPad.

Soon after getting the IPad, I noticed it freed me from the laptop and the desk for certain tasks.  After downloading a number of apps such as Pages, I found I could write blog posts on Pages.  I could write scenes on my Ipad.  I could use mind-mapping software to brainstorm with myself to solve problems, to make to-do lists and work on character development and story design.

The biggest drawback to using many of the IPad apps is the inability to sync much of the IPad software with my laptop programs.  Some IPad programs such as Pages have a simple solution; I just email a document to my laptop and open it with the laptop version.

Obviously, Apple understood the impact of the IPad and the Apple software got it right with the initial software, unlike most other software developers who don't have an easy solution to transfer files and open them on another device.   A number of them don't have any solution at all.

To state it differently, I need the ability to use programs and files interchangeably on my laptop and IPad.  This need is one that was completely unforeseen by me when I got the IPad.  Simply put, the IPad has become a remote laptop.  While my writing business centers on the laptop, I have grown away from it and use the IPad quite a lot.  Despite my increasing use of the IPad, the laptop remains the core of my business and the files I produce on the IPad must be transferred to the laptop eventually.  Once on the laptop, they have to be modified or formatted or otherwise changed. My IPad has become an adjunct to my laptop and apps have to be adjuncts to the laptop programs.

The software developers seem to have missed is this interdependency between computers.  Too many apps are standalone toys thrown out by developers to make a few bucks from IPad users.

I have come to the conclusion that I can't afford to use a number of apps that have this standalone functionality.  If an app can't sync with the laptop programs then it is a useless app and I've gotten rid of several as soon as I found a replacement. I also stopped buying additional laptop software unless it has an app that allows syncing between my two devices.

Let me be clear.  Transferring files through an ITunes connection is NOT a satisfactory solution.  That requires deleting and adding files and has no syncing capability at all.

In conclusion the IPad has changed the situation and too many software programs act as if the IPad hasn't changed anything.  Not so.

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