iPad Travel Experience

This past week. I took a substantial leap of faith. That’s right, I left my MacBook Pro at home and traveled with my iPad and iPhone only. Overall iPad was able to keep up with my digital note taking, research and communication needs. There were just a couple of times when I was glad to borrow Matt or Kali’s notebook (literally just a couple of times).

I used iPad to take copious notes. Since I was typing these notes in an auditorium during lectures, I was glad to have the silent keypad versus the louder, clickier keypad on my MacBook Pro. I found the keyboard was good enough to allow me to keep up with typing as the presenter spoke. What I really missed on the keyboard were arrow keys.

I was able to send a few dozen emails, update the blog, send some Tweets, and IM from iPad as well.

Moving from event to event, I loved how iPad is unobtrusive, simple, and lightweight. It was also incredibly handy for passing around and sharing a document (such as the conference agenda, which we all seemed to keep forgetting). As I’ve mentioned before, iPad is a fantastic ebook and document reader, and I was glad to use it for that on the plane, outside the hotel sitting in the sun, and in my room at night.

One small problem with iPad on an airplane is the period during takeoff and landing when “all electronics must be turned off and stowed in the overhead compartment.” Maybe that’s the airlines way of forcing us ebook readers to study the Sky Mall catalog. Once the plane was underway, it was great to read on iPad.

The only other notable issue with iPad was using it with Google Analytics. The charts drawn up in Analytics are currently rendered in Flash, which is annoying. I use a couple of apps to help me see Analytics stats, but so far none really provides the granular view as Google Analytics on a webpage. I bet this will change soon.

One of the awesome things about iPad was its long battery life. I easily made through every day on a single charge. During the first day, it seemed my battery was draining faster than expected, but Kali noted that my screen was on max brightness. After dimming it about 25%, the battery use slowed way down. I never worried about running out of juice.

Managing the screen brightness is the best way to extend iPad battery life. Apple notes:

“By default, your iPad has Auto-Brightness turned On. Auto-Brightness adjusts iPad screen brightness based on ambient lighting conditions; lowering brightness in low light conditions helps to extend battery life. You can adjust brightness yourself; go to Settings > Brightness & Wallpaper and drag the slider to the left to lower the default screen brightness.” See more iPad battery conservation tips on Apple.com by clicking here.

Regarding multitasking (or the inability to multitask) on iPad, in most cases I appreciated having just one active application, as opposed to the my regular computer that typically also has iChat, Twitter, and email all open at the same time. It helped me focus, and it has made me more aware how distracting those applications can really be.

In many cases, I’d probably only bring iPad on four day or shorter trips. On longer trips, I’d either bring iPad and MacBook Pro, or just MacBook Pro with iPhone as backup. I also might bring a bluetooth keyboard for longer writing tasks. Guess I need another trip to test that out!