IPAD virgin - help please!

[Barmaid]

It is Mr BM's birthday next week, so I thought I might buy him an IPAD. He needs it to surf the web and create documents and spreadsheets, receive emails and access pdfs. He'd also like to be able to control the lights in the house from it (but we'll ignore that bit for now cos he is a geek). He normally uses word and excel.

My problem is, I just have NO FLAMING IDEA which Ipad to get and which accessories he will need. I *could* go to a shop and have some spotty 17 year old explain it to me like I am some sort of neanderthal idiot, or I could ask you very knowledgeable lot for some help, please.

Until now he has been using a laptop. Although that died last week.

[Tilly2]

I am not being flippant here because I am as interested as you are barmaid.
I don't even know what android means, in this context.

[VHG]

See my first answer above where I explain what Andriod is.

Note also Amazon have their own tablet called Amazon Kindle Fire HD. I believe this also runs Andrioid but a special version tailored to work closely with Amazon web site.

It is £159 (16Gb) or £199 (32Gb).

More here

Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

[Tilly2]

Thank you, VHG. I understand now that I've read it properly.

[Barmaid]

VHG thank you very much for your detailed explanation. That is a great help.

[Tilly2]

Have you made a decision then, barmaid?

[Barmaid]

Well, I think I am heading towards a new laptop Tilly, rather than an IPAD. His main usage is creating docs and I do now see that a tablet might not be the best way forwards. Whilst the idea of a tablet is nice, I am listening to the sensible advice I've received.

So I am thinking lappy for birthday and the tablet VHG suggested for Christmas (because he does want a tablet). I'm going to take him into town in a mo and we will have a look.

[sherrardk]

If I wanted to do something 'serious' I would use my laptop. I equate my iPad with wasting time really.

[cazzz1975]

Tablets essentially are browsing devices, serious work is awkward to do on them

[rockyracoon]

I agree with sherr, iPad's are an indulgence, they don't replace a laptop/desktop, that being said, I love mine!

[Barmaid]

Now you see if I had gone into a store and asked this question I doubt for a minute I'd have got anywhere like this level of sense.

[Tilly2]

Thanks for posting the question, barmaid. It's clarified things for me too.

[AB Editor]

Ask him if he fancies one of these: http://www.microsoft....rface-with-windows-rt touch tablet experience with a keyboard. It won't run everything he's used to but does have a version of Excel, Word etc built in.

[AB Editor]

Also, with a small adapter you can plug any usb keyboard into an Ipad, making it possible to do a variety of low level productivity stuff - just something to think about.

[VHG]

It is important with tablets to understand their "app stores".

"Apps" are small programs (Applications), many free, written by people all over the world to run on tablets. There are literally hundreds of thousands of "apps" for tablets.

Now Apple have their own app store, and Andrioid have their own app store as well.

But if you have an Apple iPad you can only download programs from the Apple app store.

And if you have an Android tablet you can only download programs from the Android app store.

Also note some "cheap" tablets dont allow you to download from the app store at all.

And also some tablets (like Blackberry I believe) dont run android so you cant download from the Apple OR Android app store.

When apps become available people usually write for the Apple app store first (because there are so many iPads & iPhones) then the write for the Android App store second.

So as an example if you go to the Daily Telegraph page you see there is a Daily Telegraph for the iPad. But if you look at the bottom of the page you see it says "Telegraph mobile apps for iPhone and Android" so they do them for both.

So if you are really keen on a particular app then check it is available for the platform (Apple or Andriod) before you buy a tablet.

Here is the Telegraph web page to show what I mean

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/apps/#

[lcg]

barmaid....make sure you get an epson or cannon printer - they are by far the cheapest in terms of replacing ink cartridges. and also get one with seperate colour cartridges as they are cheaper to replace also. go somewhere like tesco and see what they have for £20-50 all in x

[Ellipsis]

> I equate my iPad with wasting time really.

Very good! Made me laugh. But (in my case at least) it would be truer and fairer to say that I equate my iPad with leisure time. :)

[VHG]

To the abeditor.

Regards your link to the Windows RT tablet above.

Note the version of Office for the Windows RT tablet is not finished yet.

The version of Office supplied with that tablet is a "preview" (beta I suspect) so it may be best to wait till it is finished.

These are also VERY new machines so it may be best to wait till they have ironed out all the problems before buying one.

Note also Windows RT is NOT the same as "normal" Windows, it is a version of Windows written to take advantage of the "Arm" CPU that runs in most tablets.

But that version of Windows (Windows RT) CANNOT run "normal" Windows programs and can only run programs downloaded from the "Windows app store".

Microsoft do have a tablet coming out that runs "normal" Windows and can run "normal" Windows programs but these have been delayed so are not out yet.

This tablet/laptop world gets more confusing as each day passes !