The ipad should be in your toolbox

[soupcxan]

Since getting an ipad earlier this year I surprised myself by using it with great success on several home improvement projects. I am not that handy but I can figure out a few things when stuff breaks. The ipad is great for taking a picture of the broken thing and showing it to the guy at Home Depot who can identify it. I've also used it to display parts diagrams and play how-to-repair videos from youtube while the ipad is sitting next to the broken thing. Really convenient. Yes you can do some of this stuff with a smartphone but the bigger screen makes a huge difference.

 

[Ronstar]

+ 1. I always use mine in my home projects. Combining screenshots, photos, links to magazine articles etc in evernote. Pdf's saved in Dropbox. I can bring everything I need to the store, workshop, etc on my iPad.

 

[donheff]

I love my Ipad but would probably use my phone for photos for the hardware store.

 

[photoguy]

I figure with the iPad we can get rid of all our bookcases and downsize. Housing is ~500 sq/ft here so it is substantial :>

 

[audreyh1]

Since getting an ipad earlier this year I surprised myself by using it with great success on several home improvement projects. I am not that handy but I can figure out a few things when stuff breaks. The ipad is great for taking a picture of the broken thing and showing it to the guy at Home Depot who can identify it. I've also used it to display parts diagrams and play how-to-repair videos from youtube while the ipad is sitting next to the broken thing. Really convenient. Yes you can do some of this stuff with a smartphone but the bigger screen makes a huge difference.

Really handy device! I use it in the kitchen a lot to display the recipe.

I'm about ready to upgrade my iPad 1 to the new version. I would really like to the camera and video chat capability. We saw the (retina) display in the Apple store the other day, and it really is nice!

I don't buy physical books anymore except for the occasional (used) cookbook or photography book - I prefer reading on my iPad unless the book has a lot of pictures.

 

[W2R]

I love my Ipad but would probably use my phone for photos for the hardware store.

Same here, or if I needed a larger version then I would print the photo on my color laserjet printer and just tuck that paper copy of the photo in my purse. Making my purse as lightweight as possible has been a project of mine for a while.

 

[FIREd]

I figure with the iPad we can get rid of all our bookcases and downsize. Housing is ~500 sq/ft here so it is substantial :>

Technology like the iPad made it so much easier for us to downsize:

250 VHS tapes and DVDs: all gone. Netflix, Hulu, iTunes have all the movies we need and they can be viewed on the iPad.
600 paper books: 100 left. The rest is available in electronic format at Amazon and can be read via the Kindle for iPad app.
Recipes: 300+ paper clippings and recipe cards gone. They have been scanned, archived, and indexed in Evernote. Accessible from the iPad at any time via the Evernote app.

 

[explanade]

I am looking at remodeling my kitchen and bathrooms. Going to hire a contractor, not do it myself.

But I found an app. that promises to generate a floor plan just by taking pictures with the iPhone. I couldn't quite get it to work though.

It does indicate the variety of software apps. being produced though for iPhones and iPads. Hard to find a category that isn't covered. I heard pilots can get special mapping apps. which load their flight charts for them, for instance. And iPad will probably become a big deal in health care.

 

[ducky911]

I have the first ipad and use it daily. I wish it had flash...I wish it would print..I with it had a delete key.....and now with this site getting greedy I wish it had better pop-up blocker....this ing ad popping up everytime I open a post is nuts!

 

[Ronstar]

I have the first ipad and use it daily. I wish it had flash...I wish it would print..I with it had a delete key.....and now with this site getting greedy I wish it had better pop-up blocker....this ing ad popping up everytime I open a post is nuts!

It will print to an e-printer

 

[Katsmeow]

I figure with the iPad we can get rid of all our bookcases and downsize. Housing is ~500 sq/ft here so it is substantial :>

In our old house we had at least 15 bookcases. When we decided to downsize (not all that small but still no room for that many bookcases) I went and bought on Kindle all the books I thought I would ever have any interest in reading again that were available. In the new house I have 2 bookcases (well my son has 2 in his room) and all our other books are all on Kindle (mostly read on the iPad or on my phone). Those bookcases hold the books that are not on Kindle (mostly no longer in print). Periodically I check to see if any of those become available on Kindle and replace them when and if they do.

 

[photoguy]

This may be blasphemy to book lovers but here's what we do:

Cutting, scanning a book with PT6176 & ScanSnap S1500 - YouTube

 

[48Fire]

Technology like the iPad made it so much easier for us to downsize:

250 VHS tapes and DVDs: all gone. Netflix, Hulu, iTunes have all the movies we need and they can be viewed on the iPad.
600 paper books: 100 left. The rest is available in electronic format at Amazon and can be read via the Kindle for iPad app.
Recipes: 300+ paper clippings and recipe cards gone. They have been scanned, archived, and indexed in Evernote. Accessible from the iPad at any time via the Evernote app.

Wow! That is awesome! We are in the process of downsizing from 4000 square feet by the end of October to two places at 1200 square feet each. In addition to some of the cool IPAD features, it looks like it can be a huge benefit for us. I was originally thinking IPAD for when we ER next year, but looks like it would be extremely beneficial in our downsizing transition in the next several weeks.

I am also interested in how IPAD with 4g may be useful to minimize internet costs at two places. Carrying one of these is already an ER strain. Any feedback from people with two places, two internet bills, etc.? Do any services offer a "hibernating" plan?

 

[photoguy]

I am also interested in how IPAD with 4g may be useful to minimize internet costs at two places. Carrying one of these is already an ER strain. Any feedback from people with two places, two internet bills, etc.? Do any services offer a "hibernating" plan?

Well you can setup a personal hotspot and tether all your other devices to the ipad. Been playing with this while visiting my brother and using his iphone 5 in this capacity. Seems to work well but I think the bandwidth caps (6GB/month) would be very limiting for anything more than email/surfing.

 

[rescueme]

As far as a hotspot using a smartphone - I use either my/DW's Nokia (Windows) phone to act as a hotspot (5 connections at a time, for either) as a backup in case we would lose house electric for any reason and would not have access to the net.

We're not "extreme" smartphone users and have a standard data plan (2 Gig each) at an additional $20 (each) per month.

I've used it for logging on our laptop, netbook, and KFire and it works well. In fact, it's a bit faster than our "in the boondocks" net access.

While we don't use it on a normal basis, it's good to know that we have the access in case of of outages (coming up to the "October storm" of last year, when we lost electric for three days). Today, we have a backup generator and backup net access (via our respective phones, and net devices). Bring on the snow!!!

 

[48Fire]

Thanks for the replies, I will take a better look later.