A new semester just started for me, and I found myself square in the middle of a brand new class. It doesn’t matter how stealthy you try to be in a class of 100: when there are 99 people sitting there with pen and paper, and you sit there with two tablets, you’re going to stick out. It didn’t take long before the tech questions started flying, and some of them both amazed me and provided excellent insight into why tablets are still considered toys: people have no clue what you can do with them.
Tech isn’t the center of everyone’s life, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Still, it amazes me at times exactly how big the gap is between people who are true tech users and people who aren’t. I was asked if the iPad had Office, and by reading between the line, deduced that the person in question also had no clue that you could connect an external hardware keyboard to the iPad. I also observed someone else who actually had an iPad, and a Bluetooth keyboard, but was typing long lecture notes in the built-in note program.
Situations like that catch me a bit off guard. When I’m asked about Office on iOS or Android, I immediately start considering the differences between the ridiculous number of third party office apps ad the actual full blown Microsoft/Open Office, with half a thought in the direction of OnLive and Splashtop as two ways of getting the full Office experience on a tablet. In reality though, that’s not what many people ask about. What they actually want to know is whether you can peck away at a keyboard and create text that you can then save, and preferably also transfer to your computer.
With such a simple criteria in mind, you start seeing existing products and OSes in a new light. A Transformer Pad TF300 with a keyboard dock is suddenly a relatively cheap, light computer, fully capable of doing what you need (create text documents), run for 18 hours straight, turn on instantly, have no fan noise, and at the same time be a “toy” while in tablet mode. Still, to many people who would have loved it if they had tried it, they’re simple not aware of any alternatives to a laptop.
I fully believe that paper is just a pointless relic of the past at this point, but to get to where society agrees with me, things have to change at a much more fundamental level. People need to get used to the idea of tablets as different types of computers, not as flat Angry Birds-capable Facebook portals. Right now, a lot of people see tablets as toys, and that has to change, or we’ll be stuck with paper until there are no more trees.
With windows 8 that might change. Full windows 8 devices like the surface pro and asus transformer book will do both work and play. But that would confuse customers with the rt version of windows 8. I use my iPad 2 because it’s so easy to look up stuff on. I just flip open the smart cover and tap safari. While on my Mac I have to wait about 3 minutes for startup. Windows 8 will combine the full fledge computer with the ease of use of the iPad. Now if they can get customers to notice the difference between rt and pro.
Yeah I can only wish MS good freaking luck with that task xD I think it’s going to confuse the living spirit out of people to introduce terms like that, especially since MS doesn’t seem to be doing that much to help explain the differences. Then again, anything besides huge red warning stickers all over the product boxes is likely going to be effective in letting people know it’s not the Windows they know
any tool that no one bothers to adapt to becomes a toy.
I remembered the OQO when i bought it – everybody proclaimed it a toy – i managed all my office needs on it. Yes the screen was small.
I believe not only lack of awareness but the failure to compromise is what holds us back. If users were willing to a galaxy note would be enough for most users needs – those who do surfing and document handling. i even use it to VPN to approve transactions on my companies server.
The problem with tablets/laptops/any technology in a school setting is that there’s no way to make sure people are actually paying attention. I taught some introductory humanities courses at the University of Cincinnati for the past two years, and I didn’t allow gadgets to be used during class, precisely because those who did were always on Facebook, and the people sitting around them got distracted. So I think we’re a loooong ways away from pen and paper becoming ancient relics.
At university and college levels, students should be capable of making their own decisions when it comes to paying attention. As for getting distracted, I don’t think the silent use of electronics should be able to distract anyone who wouldn’t otherwise be distracted. Had I been told not to use gadgets in a lecture, I would have walked out the door, as I find the notion of such a ban (at those levels) to be based on bias, and it would take away my ability to take notes. You wouldn’t take someone’s notepad away because someone else was doodling on theirs.
A tablet doesn’t seem like something i’d bring to class to take notes, I would just use it at home
My father-in-law told me this last week that he was given an iPad by his boss, and that it wouldn’t cost him anything. He told me he is trying to give it back because he already has an iPhone and a laptop, what need does he have for the iPad? Regrettably I didn’t have the time in that situation to fully explain to him everything that the iPad could do for him. He saw it as just a large iPhone.
I agree. I had used my iPad for many semesters. Not only did Pages make the text look readable, the tapping away on a screen (at that time) was far quieter than that of my MacBook Pro (ultra-quiet fan was unnoticeable), which was nice, as my professors tend to be long-winded and very wordy. This allowed me to keep at their pace, where otherwise I may have missed recording much of their lectures.
‘pointless relic of the past’
You shouldn’t give such a subjective remark.
Our project manager carries an iPad around with her, and I’ve only seen her using it once in a meeting. I looked over her shoulder and she was looking at holiday snapshots, ignoring the meeting chair. It’s not unusual. So many people carry around some pretty powerful tools like iPads and other tablets, but bring it and a notepad with them. Mostly they just use them for email.
I’ve only decided recently to structure some Evernote folders and notebooks and use them for meeting note on an ipad for work. It seems like a better way to record events than hand writing notes then transcribing them into typed minutes in order to distribute them.