Sent from my iPad

I’ve always been a fan of the physical keyboard, and have long been a sceptic of whether the coming tablet deluge would be able to move me (and the consumer market) away from physical keys, or just end up being another companion device until serious input is required, at which time the keyboard comes back out again.

Until July, I had not owned a tablet PC and had held off getting one for a while since I didn’t see the purpose of one in my life. The laptop was enough, I figured, and continued to lug it around. I’d always thought that if I were to get a tablet, I’d have to get an external keyboard for it, since on screen keyboards weren’t enough considering how much typing I do.

I have a laptop, why do I need one? #

While I was overseas in the US, I had my Chromebook with me (since it’s the lightest laptop I have) and was a little tired of having to carry it around. In San Francisco, I found myself accidentally in the Apple Store downtown and literally made a snap decision to purchase the new iPad. For what it’s worth, I’ve never spent any significant amount of time with the iPad and hadn’t really seen it’s value as much more of an entertainment device and was purchasing it for this reason.

After I started using the iPad, I realized that by the end of the trip I hadn’t been reaching for an external keyboard or a laptop since I had purchased it. The on screen keyboard really is good enough; if you get tired of typing with the iPad on your knees then it’s simple enough to switch to the split keyboard and hold it instead. Not only is the keyboard good, it’s light. I can slip it into a backpack or bag and barely notice the difference.

I never thought I’d say this, but in the thirty days since I’ve gotten a tablet (and all the travelling I did in-between), I have used my PC a total of two times. Once to play Starcraft II, and another when I was a bit too tired to aim at the screen and type.

It turns out that the iPad can perform almost every task I need to do that I usually use a laptop for. I can write emails, surf the internet, watch videos, play games, download movies and manage my pictures. And the best part? It’s consistent, never crashes and is effortless to carry around. It really is the best device on market right now to begin the ‘Post-PC’ era.

Tablets still don’t go far enough yet #

Whilst I’m a big fan of what the iPad does, I don’t think it goes far enough yet, and I think Microsoft has it a bit backwards and takes their tablet idea a little too far. I want a device that is my computer, can be docked in any orientation, and when docked, behaves like my computer does. However, when I don’t have the appropriate input devices (keyboard, mouse), I don’t want to see “touch-optimized” desktop bullshit. I want the immersive, touch experience. I don’t think Microsoft understands that users don’t want to deal with “PC-era” conventions – like the desktop – on the go.

Ubuntu for Android is exactly what I imagine the future could be, a phone that only acts like a phone when you’re on the go, but when it’s docked you get the entire PC experience. It’s hard to say when/if that will actually come to fruition in the commercial world, but hopefully phone manufacturers start looking past just the mobile OS soon.

I’m a tablet convert, and I won’t be carrying a laptop anymore.