iPad as my only computer - my experience so far

[Cloudy147]

Hi all,

After getting truly sick of all the technology that was littering the house and consuming far too much time in my brain, I decided that enough was enough and it was time to do a big tech-cleanse and go minimalist with my digital life (well, my version of minimalist! ).

I wanted to be more mindful, more deliberate when using technology. This was the aim. No more endless scrolling. No more messing about trying to make and perfect apps and technology that I was never really going to use. I just want tech that ‘just works’ for the things I purposefully want or need to do. None of the other distractions. I am a techie at heart, always have been, but increasingly feel tech is there to addict us, to sell to us, and ultimately makes us less satisfied with life. I wanted to change that perspective for myself and get to the point where tech is actually enjoyable to use again.

Here is how I’ve got on, a few months later, if anyone is interested!

All of my old computers, tablets, games machines and phones went to donation, recycling or trade in. In their place I purchased an iPad Air 5. My daughter has one of these and I’ve always found it to be really good. I haven’t had an iPad since v2, but always enjoyed their simplicity.

I then removed everything but what I consider the purposeful essentials on my iPhone leaving only a single Home Screen (and a third of that is taken up by the Calendar and Weather widgets). All of my social media apps were moved to be on my iPad only (which stays at home), with only Pistonheads and WhatsApp being available on my phone.

In terms of transition to iPad, I’ve had a Windows laptop forever, and my main apps of concern that I’d lose out on was Microsoft Office (I use that a lot), and Powerdirector (I like to create family videos of our holidays). In their place would be Pages, Numbers, Office online and iMovie.

I set my iPad up on my monitor and I use Stage Manager, which allows the iPad to act like a pseudo computer with a keyboard and mouse too.


Internet pic

So, iPad vs PC:

General browsing - this all works pretty seamlessly and is pretty much the same as using a computer. Stage Manager is great for making this feel like a PC. But with less distraction.

YouTube - Also fine, but I prefer the web browser interface to the iPad app. My iPad is used connected to a monitor mostly and so the flexibility of the browser version works better for this.

Social Media - Again, the browser is my preferred option and it’s just like a PC. But I hardly use any of it now.

Email - I use the mail app as well as Outlook app and it’s extremely similar to the Windows experience. No complaints at all.

Office - The jury is still out on this one, but it could be down to familiarity of short cuts. I find Pages to be quite cumbersome compared to Word if I want to do anything other than the basics. Things such as changing fonts and moving pictures about the page is a bit tricky if you are doing a lot of it. I feel like it’s aimed at more basic needs where you just write from top to bottom, start to finish, and need to do maybe minor editing. The shortcuts I’m familiar with on Word don’t really work. This is the same on Numbers. For example, I have a formula in a cell to track my savings totals and each month I would just drag the cell to the next one and Excel would work out that I wanted the same calculations for the next row. I can’t find a way to do that in Pages and Excel online doesn’t work very well with mouse/stage-manager. I’m loathed to have to subscribe to Office 365 just for this function, but it is quite frustrating not having it. Any ideas?

Movie Making - Powerdirector is a really good app but not available for iPad. iMovie is a free alternative and so far I’ve just tried the Magic Movie option, where it creates the video for you just by adding in your photos and videos. The results were pretty impressive. An hour or two of editing and I had our previous holiday snaps ready for family viewing. The end result isn’t as polished as what I could do with PowerDirector on Windows, but it’s certainly not bad, and the finer editing could be just down to familiarity of the app. I plan to book a training session at the Apple Store in the near future to learn a bit more about the app.

Games - I don’t really play games much on my old PC, or the new iPad, but I did find that I can’t get my unlocked Google Stadia joypad to work with iPad. I’d have to buy a PlayStation controller as I think these work, but I’ll not bother as I have a PlayStation Classic and a Nintendo Switch for the times we play games as a family. And again, coming back to purpose, my iPad isn’t intended for this.

Photo Editing - I’ve not tried this yet, any recommendations for apps? (not photoshop, as I don’t want subscriptions!). It’s more for cropping and resizing photos when I’m uploading to forums. I’d also like an exif remover to get rid of all the file details (such as location the photo was taken - unless anyone can recommend an online photo host that does this automatically?).

Drawing - My daughter uses an app called Procreate and it looked a lot of fun. We had a training session at Apple and I really enjoyed tracing pictures with the Apple Pencil. I found it really relaxing so I have started doing that on my iPad and really like it. This is a great app. Simple but powerful!

Overall - It feels like these changes have met their objective for me. I am definitely more deliberate now with my technology use. The iPad is used for purpose, and my phone is used for different purpose. I’m not as consumed by technology and the need to be on it, fixing it, or using it all the time to keep up to date with the world. I also find the ‘limitations’ of the iPad when compared to a Windows PC mean it is actually less distracting. I have to be more deliberate with my actions when using it in Stage Manager form. Overall, the transition has ultimately freed up a lot of my time to do alternative, more productive and enjoyable things (I’m finally working my way through my book shelf!) and I no longer feel as wedded to technology as I did before.

I love it. My tech life feels so much more simpler.

Has anyone else done something similar?

[Captain_Morgan]

I’d say the office apps are ~£50 a year for a single user, sometimes discounted at Argos or amazon. It might be worth considering if it helps maintain simplicity, though I’d sign up a test account first to see if the functionality persists in the iPad apps first.

Alternatively there are a few good sources on youtube on pages & numbers there you could relearn the skills (if they exist) but obviously that can take time.

Good luck, it will be interesting to see if you remain as is in a years time.

[Alex Z]

I’m happy having different devices for different purposes, but can see the appeal of going for just an iPad.
I think I’d probably need at least the 12.9” screen and an external keypad to try though.

Good write up.

[Hoofy]

Interesting. You're basically using your iPad as a PC, right?

I've always had a PC and still use this as my main "device". It is down to what you end up loading on your browser (instead of apps) - you can still try to find the bottom of Facebook or watch a TikTok video on look1000 times. The only thing that stops you from doing this is willpower and positive habit training.

I could restrict using my PC to 1 hour per day but then I'd have to do things that I'd really rather not (like manual labour... or talking to people).

To quote numerous TV characters, age of the geek, baby!

Edit: forgot to add, for any work-related activities, I want a 24" screen and a second screen off to one side. I'm actually considering getting a third screen because now that I do video editing using DaVinci Resolve, that requires two screens for optimal use! So having a third screen for doing things like browsing Pistonheads searching for files or creating graphics/images using Photoshop or browsing other relevant things would be really handy. A quick google suggests my graphics card can handle 4 screens!

Edited by Hoofy on Tuesday 27th February 09:52

[Shiv_P]

Generally, despite being one of the better tablets on the market, iPads are poor for replacing a PC versus it's competitors (despite it having better apps for photo editing, video editing etc). Samsung's Tab S9 Ultra etc support 'Dex' which when you plug into a monitor, is effectively a full PC with multi windows, split screen views, desktop apps et al (and even when not plugged in support multiple windows, split screen). iPads do none of this.

[AB]

I tried this but it just wasn't working for me using it as an everything machine. It was still much easier to take out my Macbook Pro and open the lid, the iPad only really gets used for watching films or in front of the TV for surfing in the evening. What I did do was buy a Macbook Air and only load it up with non-work stuff instead of using the same thing for everything.

So no Dropbox, Office, emails, Whatsapp etc - the aim was to be able to switch off from work and enjoy my leisure time without distraction as it was becoming all consuming at all times of the day and night. I also set 'sleep mode' to come on at 7pm until 6am on all devices. Quite liberating.

[gangzoom]

Shiv_P said:

Generally, despite being one of the better tablets on the market, iPads are poor for replacing a PC versus it's competitors (despite it having better apps for photo editing, video editing etc). Samsung's Tab S9 Ultra etc support 'Dex' which when you plug into a monitor, is effectively a full PC with multi windows, split screen views, desktop apps et al (and even when not plugged in support multiple windows, split screen). iPads do none of this.

I love using my Fold 4 for e-mails on the move, but DEX is far from perfect, and generally speaking the Fold 4 doesn’t feel like its go enough power to properly drive any kind of productivity with a desktop setup, it maybe Android OS rather than the hardware.

The M1 iPad Pro I use for work is a different story, there still some iOS issues, like not been able to choose other webcam options for meetings, but overall its 95% there a replacement for my work HP laptop. The bonus is signing on via Company Portal is so much quicker/easier than opening a laptop, unlocking via Bitlocker, than login-in, than firing up Office/Teams. With the iPad Pro I know I can jump in a Teams meeting with zero delay.



Apple is suppose to be updating iOS soon to make the Pros more versatile, been able to support 2 screens would be idea for me as well, but as it stands the additional ‘functions’ the iPad can do, such as freehand drawing etc offers more functionality than the laptop. Someone mentioned gaming earlier, GeForceNow and a wired Stadia controller works beautifully on the iPad Pro, in addition all my work files are could hosted on OneDrive, so I get a feel for the work needed via email on the Fold, start the document on the laptop, and than tidy/complete the document on the iPad where/when the opportunity arises, all without having to worry about storage/versions upkeep etc etc.

The latest version of Office 365 now seems to allow sharing or ‘live’ linked documents straight from email, and you can see who else is working/editing documents in real time, from productivity point of view cloud based document storage has absolutely transformed where/when/how I can work. The most important function on any device becomes display quality, stability, and ergonomics all of which the iPad Pro nails better than any of the multiple Android/Windows machines I use/access.

[Cloudy147]

Hoofy said:

Interesting. You're basically using your iPad as a PC, right?

Kind of yes, but in a more focussed way. As part of the transition I reviewed what it was that I actually used a computer for and then assessed if I thought an iPad could fulfil all of those without any of the Windows laptop distractions.

Things such as backups, software installs, updates, driver downloads, all the usual trappings of Windows. And then all the other open-ended things you can tinker with if you so choose (and I would choose, because I’m a tech nerd at my core). The iPad removes all of those unnecessary time wasting options (aside from software updates, but they just happen on their own behind the scenes). In its place it what I consider a ‘clean’ computing experience. Multi-tasking options are fairly limited, but in a good way, meaning you only do one thing at once, generally speaking (Stage Manager allows you to have multiple windows open at once though. The (perhaps poor) analogy I’d make is the iPad is like you’ve just purchased a house with a nice sized back garden: All the things you wanted, nothing you didn’t. Whereas Windows is that same house but you didn’t realise it came with a forest out the back. That brings loads of new opportunities and things you can do with that forest - and you’re going to… but you didn’t particularly want or need to, and its now at the expense of all the stuff you actually wanted to do.

We’ll see if I still feel the same in a few months time! I’ll also report back on the Office experience too.

[Cloudy147]

Captain_Morgan said:

I’d say the office apps are ~£50 a year for a single user, sometimes discounted at Argos or amazon. It might be worth considering if it helps maintain simplicity, though I’d sign up a test account first to see if the functionality persists in the iPad apps first.

Alternatively there are a few good sources on youtube on pages & numbers there you could relearn the skills (if they exist) but obviously that can take time.

Good luck, it will be interesting to see if you remain as is in a years time.

Thanks for this. I did some ‘tubing and found a video which showed me how to do the bits I needed for Pages. So that has ticked everything off my requirements list for Excel (and therefore Office) for now!

[QJumper]

I have a question.

With a PC (or Mac) I'm used to storing all my files in one folder, with subfolders. If I want to open a document, photo or video file, I just click on it and the relevant app opens it. When I last used an iPad, I had to go to the relevant app first, to find and open the file. Is it still the case that file managent and storage is app led, or can you now have a "Documents" folder, from which you can store, access and open files directly?

[Cloudy147]

QJumper said:

I have a question.

With a PC (or Mac) I'm used to storing all my files in one folder, with subfolders. If I want to open a document, photo or video file, I just click on it and the relevant app opens it. When I last used an iPad, I had to go to the relevant app first, to find and open the file. Is it still the case that file managent and storage is app led, or can you now have a "Documents" folder, from which you can store, access and open files directly?

I’ve just had a quick go. There is an app now called Files (like Explorer). From here you can have folders etc like on Windows and the files are within those. If you click on them, they open up in an app. I tried docs, spreadsheets and photos. Most open up in a kind of ‘quick view’ app which displays the file. You can then chose to send it to, say Pages for a word doc and it opens up from the quick view app.

What I’ve not been able to find is ‘open with’. So the spreadsheets default to Excel rather than a quick-view, but I can’t (yet) find how I change that default behaviour to open with Numbers instead of Excel. But I’ve not investigated properly yet.

Hope that helps!

[Hoofy]

Cloudy147 said:

Hoofy said:

Interesting. You're basically using your iPad as a PC, right?

Kind of yes, but in a more focussed way. As part of the transition I reviewed what it was that I actually used a computer for and then assessed if I thought an iPad could fulfil all of those without any of the Windows laptop distractions.

Things such as backups, software installs, updates, driver downloads, all the usual trappings of Windows. And then all the other open-ended things you can tinker with if you so choose (and I would choose, because I’m a tech nerd at my core). The iPad removes all of those unnecessary time wasting options (aside from software updates, but they just happen on their own behind the scenes). In its place it what I consider a ‘clean’ computing experience. Multi-tasking options are fairly limited, but in a good way, meaning you only do one thing at once, generally speaking (Stage Manager allows you to have multiple windows open at once though. The (perhaps poor) analogy I’d make is the iPad is like you’ve just purchased a house with a nice sized back garden: All the things you wanted, nothing you didn’t. Whereas Windows is that same house but you didn’t realise it came with a forest out the back. That brings loads of new opportunities and things you can do with that forest - and you’re going to… but you didn’t particularly want or need to, and its now at the expense of all the stuff you actually wanted to do.

We’ll see if I still feel the same in a few months time! I’ll also report back on the Office experience too.

Haha. I want access to that forest where I can build more houses.

[eeLee]

I actually looked at doing this 4 years or so ago but iPad was nowhere near there yet. I went for a Surface Pro 7 instead.

I will be getting a bargain M1-based iPad Air next week and will probably use it in a similar manner, especially when I am working in Austria since we have a USB-C screen there to use and to charge the iPad. I had a Bionic chip in my present iPad so no Stage Manager for me, I hate it on the Mac but it looks useful on the iPad. Also hearing that DEX sucks a little is reassuring - given the power in these devices, you have to wonder why though. One device for all could be something for around 80% of users.

Files gets better; you can make it look more like the Finder in macOS which keeps my missus happy. I actually use OneDrive through Files more regularly than the App. And yes, I am knee-deep in Company Portal there too.

I do at least 50% on iPad right now so I do feel it has come a long way....

[Baldchap]

A Raspberry Pi 5 and a NAS would be my PC replacement of choice if I wanted to simplify, I think.

[Nemophilist]

I have only had an ipad (mini) and an iphone at home since 2016.
I didnt want a tech filled house and found that I wasnt even using the ipad much so have given that to my eldest so he can play minecraft on it.

There will come a time when he needs a computer for secondary school, but until then this is how it will be.

[gangzoom]

eeLee said:

I actually looked at doing this 4 years or so ago but iPad was nowhere near there yet. I went for a Surface Pro 7 instead.

I will be getting a bargain M1-based iPad Air next week a.

The M1 processor really does seem to be one of the few times in life when marketing hype has some substance, but if really pushing the device (ie not just watching something) it does devour battery life like 6 year old chocolate ice cream. I'm not sure if its the fact the iPad Pro has such a massive lovely screen or the relatively small battery, but I can run down the battery within 2hr if using Teams or Office 365, using the pencil for sketching/note taking also drains the battery quickly (the screen gets noticeably warm to the touch).

Luckily most of the heavy usage is usually done when tethered to a USB C dock, but the battery life is noticeably shorter than using the laptop to do equivalent tasks.

Edited by gangzoom on Wednesday 28th February 11:24

[Herbs]

eeLee said:

I actually looked at doing this 4 years or so ago but iPad was nowhere near there yet. I went for a Surface Pro 7 instead.

I will be getting a bargain M1-based iPad Air next week and will probably use it in a similar manner, especially when I am working in Austria since we have a USB-C screen there to use and to charge the iPad. I had a Bionic chip in my present iPad so no Stage Manager for me, I hate it on the Mac but it looks useful on the iPad. Also hearing that DEX sucks a little is reassuring - given the power in these devices, you have to wonder why though. One device for all could be something for around 80% of users.

Files gets better; you can make it look more like the Finder in macOS which keeps my missus happy. I actually use OneDrive through Files more regularly than the App. And yes, I am knee-deep in Company Portal there too.

I do at least 50% on iPad right now so I do feel it has come a long way....

I did similar a while back but also used a Surface 7, it worked so much to the point that I upgraded to a surface 9 pro last year, that along with my Fold gives me everything I need.

[QJumper]

Cloudy147 said:

I’ve just had a quick go. There is an app now called Files (like Explorer). From here you can have folders etc like on Windows and the files are within those. If you click on them, they open up in an app. I tried docs, spreadsheets and photos. Most open up in a kind of ‘quick view’ app which displays the file. You can then chose to send it to, say Pages for a word doc and it opens up from the quick view app.

What I’ve not been able to find is ‘open with’. So the spreadsheets default to Excel rather than a quick-view, but I can’t (yet) find how I change that default behaviour to open with Numbers instead of Excel. But I’ve not investigated properly yet.

Hope that helps!

Thank you that does help, and seems to be closer to what I'd want.

I guess what I'm looking for is a tablet, but with more of a desktop type OS. I've tried windows tablets, and they're ok, but not so great when it comes to the usability of the touchscreen interface with apps.

[ccr32]

Cloudy147 said:

The (perhaps poor) analogy I’d make is the iPad is like you’ve just purchased a house with a nice sized back garden: All the things you wanted, nothing you didn’t. Whereas Windows is that same house but you didn’t realise it came with a forest out the back. That brings loads of new opportunities and things you can do with that forest - and you’re going to… but you didn’t particularly want or need to, and its now at the expense of all the stuff you actually wanted to do.

I think that’s a great analogy!

[James6112]

An interesting thread, gets you thinking

My ipad air2 (2014) does most things
Fires up quickly
No dicking about trying to speed it up etc
Has my moneys worth (was used via my daughter)

My Dell laptop 2018 is on its last legs. I’ve invested too much time trying to improve it.
A waste of space (windows 10, can’t be upgraded already). Painfully slow. Too much effort.

Think i’ll bash it up with a club hammer & get a new ipad!