Apple picker The iPad 2 is slowly knocking on the door in the Czech Republic, and you may still be considering whether you can find a use for such a device. To help you decide, we have prepared a small series for you with usage examples for different groups of people. We dedicated the first part to the most employed - entrepreneurs and managers.
iPad in the workflow
In spite of all the critical voices, only one thing can be written about the use of the iPad in the practice of everyday work: the bigger the frmol, the better to have an iPad and "not carry around a notebook". There are several types of arguments for this statement. From purely technical advantages, through issues of work efficiency to the socio-psychological dimensions of the use of technology.
However, the iPad alone will not bring any miracles. Streamlining work and increasing productivity with the help of this tablet (after all, just like with other gadgets) requires some preparation on both the desktop and iPad side. Although it may seem banal, it is good to think a little about what software we use for work, which online services are necessary for us and how much money we can afford to invest in applications so that we do not end up in a situation where our work PC, iPad and God forbid a home computer will each have different versions of documents and notes. We would find ourselves in a hell of faulty synchronizations with hours of unnecessary searching for lost files and thoughts.
Technical arguments
The main argument for replacing a laptop with an iPad, especially outside the office, is its battery life. With two meetings a day, where you'll be taking notes for a while, a charged iPad on Monday will keep you going until Friday afternoon without having to look for a drawer at the client with a guilty look on your face. The second key advantage is the speed with which applications and documents are available to you. You will quickly forget about awkward sentences like: "I'll show it to you as soon as my computer starts up," or "I have it here somewhere, wait a second, I have to find it among the other documents." And thirdly, if you move with a bag on your shoulder, your back will thank you thanks to the pleasant weight of the iPad.
Labor productivity tools
As we mention earlier in the article, the iPad is not a self-saving device. It is necessary to know what you want from it and what applications to use not only in the iOS environment, but also on desktops and laptops with which you work in the comfort of your home or office. The basic tool with which we can achieve consistent synchronization of documents on all computers is any cloud storage that has a corresponding application on the iPad. It worked for me for many reasons dropbox, but I recognize that this is not the only solution.
In second place is the editor of ordinary documents, in our particular case QuickOffice HD, which can work with Dropbox, but synchronization with Google Docs is also a significant helper, especially in a corporate environment. Here's just one complaint - not a single service is 100% in QuickOffice. Synchronization sometimes happens, sometimes not, which is a good thing to know in advance and save the document locally first (during the meeting) and upload it to either Dropbox or Google Docs at the end.
For the sake of maximum effectiveness, it is not worth taking a cannon on every sparrow. Therefore, the office suite remains switched off most of the time and is fully replaced by some notepad with online synchronization, in our particular case Evernote. It is a handy application that, together with its desktop brother, solves the problem of short notes, snippets, searches and their clear organization and archiving. Sometimes, however, the pace of negotiations or brainstorming is so frantic that you appreciate an exceptionally successful application Notes More, which simulates a notepad. You only write with your finger instead of a pen, the more daring individuals with a stylus for capacitive displays. Notes Plus handles quite naturally a range of gestures with which you can quickly edit, correct or delete your sketches. It detects and automatically completes shapes, and its recognition algorithm seems really sophisticated. Perfect for drawing wireframes, flowcharts or sketches. The authors even thought of standard text, so if you tap with two fingers, the keyboard will come out, and you are back in the 21st century.
From Apple apps
If the other party is annoying you and you need to distract them, start playing them a Michal David hit in Garage Band. You are guaranteed to at least confuse your opponent. No, it is not actually a tool to increase work efficiency (quite the opposite). But it does illustrate the usefulness of native Apple apps.
Although the iOS mail client is more convenient and clearer on the iPad than on the iPhone, if you need to quickly find an old e-mail, I recommend creating a bookmark in Safari for quick access via the web interface. The same goes for the calendar. If you're one of the unlucky ones who use multiple calendars, it's hard to invite someone to an event in your private calendar, if you have, for example, a company calendar set as the default.
Social and psychological icing on the cake
You know it: you meet with clients in a restaurant, everyone pulls out their laptop, the waitress is stuck with lunch, there is no room on the table, everyone is nervous... Yes, if you need something for a successful business meeting, it is above all the comfort of everyone involved. It is probably not necessary to defend at length the idea that it is much better when people talk face to face and not through the lids of laptops. Because if everyone opens their portable offices, they won't pay so much attention to you. A physical and psychological barrier will grow between you, which will worsen concentration and sow doubt on both sides, whether the person on the other side is really paying attention to you, or rather to the content of their display.
Although the iPad has sold millions of units, it is still, especially in our parts, an exclusive product in a certain way. Therefore, on the one hand, it will interest the opposing party, and on the other hand, it will often provide a topic to break the ice before the start of the actual negotiation. Last but not least, it is also a matter of status in a way. Something like a quality suit or an expensive watch. Especially if the meeting is intergenerational, the original iOS concept with its "instant" start of applications also works great. And the quality of the display, on which you show your portfolio in rich and vivid colors, may be the one that dispels the suspicion of a potential client and you get a contract and an unexpected bonus...
If only it were that simple. However, it is at least easier with the iPad. And if things don't work out the way you expected, at least you can play Worms HD whether Need For Speed Hot Pursuit.
The author of the article is Peter Sladecek
I would like to ask, the article mentions that if I have more than one calendar, I am not able to uninvite them. I would like to ask if, if I have one calendar, if it is possible and how. I have several calendars via WebDAV and I haven't tried to achieve this yet, I only have the option to see who is invited to the given event.
Dekuji
Both the iPad and the iPhone manage to synchronize a whole range of calendars (I don't know where the upper limit is), but the described situation is certainly not a problem. I have a corporate calendar from Exchange, a personal calendar from Google, a girlfriend's shared calendar, and one for birthdays and another for holidays. I have a total of 9 calendars, it is possible to choose which calendar I want to enter the meeting without any problems. When I create a new event, I select a calendar and I'm done. I believe the author had something else in mind, but I have no idea what.
PS: of course it also works with e-mails - I can also choose the account under which the e-mail will be sent (exchange, gmail, etc.)
WormsHD plays quite badly on the iPad, the game is not well made.
I would like to ask about Notes Plus. I understood it so that I can open a .pdf or word in this application and then enter it, for example, if I want to underline something or write it as additional information? Or it's just Notes in handwriting style and you can't open .pdf or word in it.
Thank you for answer
No, Notes plus only exports to PDF as far as I know. It probably has some custom format. There are good applications for PDF annotations such as iAnnotate or Goodreader.
I recommend iAnnotate for pdf annotation.
Thanks, nice article…!
Since I use iPad, iPhone, iMac at work, PowerBook & ATV2 at home, I can't imagine migrating between these devices without the MobileMe service - or without bookmark synchronization in Safari, common address book, iDisk, gallery, calendar and push mail, web space for company and private pages. All in one and three years without problems. I'd rather pay for a comprehensive service than use different services fragmented for free.
Like the author, I have deployed an iPad in management traffic. After three months, he left mainly because of the unusable keyboard (writing longer notes is a pain - I don't understand why someone doesn't at least make a CZ keyboard app with a classic ISO keyboard and the option to copy text elsewhere, that would be a killer app for the Czech environment). I replaced it with an Air 11″: all the above advantages remain, and a full keyboard and system are added.
I partially agree with Jan. It is true that typing on the iPad is more for short text. Try writing a few pages and see how your fingers hurt from tapping on the hard glass. I didn't buy an Apple keyboard because it's not flat (due to the input for connecting an iPad) and it would be awkward to carry around in a bag or backpack. That's why I decided to combine the ipad case with the keyboard, in my case this is the solution
http://www.vaveliero.com/it/cover-iphone-ipod-ipad/ipad1-cover-stand-con-tastiera-fisica-integrata
After several months of use, I can only recommend it. It just takes a bit of getting used to the tapping style, as in the beginning it happened to me that when I tapped two characters were absorbed instead of one. This is due to the rubbery nature of the keyboard and takes some practice.
Regarding writing with a finger or stylus, the ipad is only for occasionally making a line or some shape. Typing, as shown in the screenshot of the Notes Plus application, is rather a decoy that is unusable in practice, which I regret. T is unfortunately a disadvantage of the capacitive display.
The article is very brief, I would mainly expect more options and therefore more applications for "Work engagement in business and management", but it's an ipad and I, so I assume the author doesn't use them.
The iPad is not specifically made for content creation, but rather for consumption. I think its great advantage is the manipulation and presentation of content - quick transfer from hand to hand, absence of cables and lightness.
I basically agree with everything that Macropus said here... In any case, iPad2 will be my daily bread anyway :)
The work described in the article applies to whom? For some door-to-door sales representative?
The iPad is not suitable for real work.
Not suitable for real work? And what is real work? For example, on the railway to stop wagons when moving or to throw sand and cement into a mixer, hammering nails or felling trees, it is definitely not. :- Mr
Igor: Only a fool calls out to the world proudly. I'm a fool. First, find out what iPad is, who uses it and how in the world, and then grab your nose. Some things are done differently on the iPad, but in principle it will serve the same as a laptop (if we are talking about a "secretary on the go", not a workstation - and the author conceived his article that way).
So keep the "clever" and "unscrutinized" sayings in the pub if you don't even know how to directly respond to a comment. I know very well what an iPad is, an excellent gadget for consuming content, but not for creating it, therefore not for serious work.
Maybe read what I wrote again if you're just sputtering instead of reacting.
It's a bit old, but I recently bought an iPad and I'm very happy with it, and it writes great, you can write with ten fingers. :-)
Unfortunately, due to the absence of Czech characters, it is not as convenient as on the keyboard. Moreover, as I wrote, after writing several pages of text, my fingers hurt, at least. But it is more than enough for shorter texts.
I would be interested to know how to write with that stylus on the iPad. I mean writing :-) I can't imagine it well enough for a normal job. The connecting keyboard is probably the best if necessary. I would like to write notes in writing, and the ipad would write in printers. But that is definitely a utopia. (I'm writing this clumsily, but you definitely know what I mean) It was unusable on WinMobile. Otherwise, I agree with Igor and Jan.
Well, it's written stupidly, but it works. It is given by capacitive dipley. It is not a utopia that you write text and it is printed on the screen. It works perfectly fine on windows mobile, but PDAs have (at least had) resistive displays and they were really much better for this. Unfortunately, I can't see this realistically on the iPad. But perhaps a display will appear in the future that will combine the advantages of both resistive and capacitive displays.
On the iPad, it is not possible to change the keyboard to handwriting only if the application does it directly.
... good article ... Macropus and where did you buy the case with the keyboard, directly in the Italian webshop? or does someone bring it here? thanks for the reply
I personally bought it at iStyle in Palladium in Prague.
thanks :) I'm going to check it out...
I would add - at least for me, the application that convinced me - and that is TeamViewer . The ability to access your computer at work, another computer at home and work assistants and not have to worry - I have it synchronized - I don't? Just anytime and from anywhere...
can he speak Czech?
he can do it in Czech
The Czech system, the keyboard is not normal Czech, diacritics are written on it completely differently than on a normal keyboard. So honored to 50%.
I also miss "deployment in medicine..." in the title.
Finally, there is a professional application on the iPad, OsiriX, which enables the viewing of DICOM files (e.g. the output of digital X-ray devices). Due to the absence of a mouse and keyboard, the device can be easily wrapped in foil and sterilely used even in the operating room. See video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5nbNIpqdAY
Otherwise, this is not a utopia here either, in IKEM they have a central DICOM server for patient data, and a few doctors use an iPad as an easily portable terminal for viewing images. I note that this is not some trivial image data viewer! On the image, the application can measure the distance or angle (e.g. deviation of the spine, etc.)
Screenshot of the iPad (OsiriX App) of the X-ray image of the spine from Motolo:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7755459/osrix.jpg
Applications in the AppStore:
http://itunes.apple.com/cz/app/osirix-hd/id419227089?mt=8
Does anyone know of a Czech company that would provide a set of Apple products for presentation + ideas for interactive use?