Up until last April, I would not have considered myself a “fan-boy” of anything made by Apple. You see, up until then I was always a PC guy. My one brief excursion into the Mac/PC debate was when my sister bought her first generation IMac (you remember those computers with the funny shape and translucent covers). I took one look at that thing and I was not impressed.
All of that changed last April when Apple released their Ipad. I had been using an Ipod Touch for the past year primarily as a PDA and Mp3 player, and therefore was intrigued by what I considered to be just a larger IPod Touch (bigger screen=better viewing for my aging eyes). At first, I didn’t buy into Steve Job’s hype of it being “revolutionary” or even “magical.” But then something happened. I bought one. Since then, I can say that the IPad has revolutionized the way I view Apple and my computing workflow. In fact, because of my experience with the IPad, I just purchased a new MacBook! (more on that later in a future blog).
I will skip the customary product review for this blog and instead direct my attention to my experience with the iPad these last 7 months. For those wanting a full review of the iPad click here. I have found that the iPad is a much better choice to do many of the tasks that I used to perform on my laptop computer such as; web browsing, email, contacts, updating Facebook, calendar, viewing (most) videos, as well as reading E-Books. The thing I like about the iPad is its portability, instant on (no waiting for the thing to boot up with a bunch of “bloatware”) and the fact that it “just works!” I have found that about 80% of the tasks I used to do on my laptop, I now do on my iPad, the other 20% (Bible study/research and sermon writing) still require a full-blown computer with a real keyboard). So let me share with you the ways I use my iPad on a daily basis.
Web Browsing:
The included Safari web browser is just as good as any other I have used on a PC. It is fast, and has a built in Google search bar which I find myself using quite frequently. Safari does not support Flash on the iPad, and while this may be a huge concern to some techies out there, I have not found it to be as problematic as most blogs would indicate. The upside, is more and more companies and websites are being optimized for mobile devices that take advantage of the touchscreen interface and with Html 5 on the horizon, I think this will be less of an issue over time.
Email:
The iPad has push notification for email, which is one of my primary means of communication it seems! What this means, is that when you get a message in your inbox, you will be notified on the “home” screen. You just click on the email App and you can view any email account (MobileMe, Microsoft Exchange, Gmail, Yahoo, and even AOL). I currently have three different email accounts on my iPad and it is extremely fast and easy to read, compose and forward emails without having to turn on my “real” computer. The iPad also handles most types of attachments providing you have an installed App that can open them.
Contacts:
It took some time, but I copied our complete church directory into my contact list. I made a sub group for members of our congregation and included people’s addresses, phone numbers and emails. This makes it really easy to contact people when I am away from my desk or do not have the church directory in hand. I also have sub-groups for church council and various other ministries in our congregation so I can email a bunch of people at once. Contacts, when used in conjunction with the installed Google Maps App, makes it real easy to get turn by turn directions when visiting parishioners for the first time in their homes.
Facebook:
I have three separate Facebook accounts that I use all the time (one congregational, one for ClergyTech and one personnal account) Like the email App. Facebook also takes advantage of push notifications on the home screen. I have found that the the free App offered by Facebook is limited, and have since switched to Friendly for Facebook by a company called Oecoway (available in the App store for only $0.99) this App allows you to manage up to four different Facebook accounts without logging off as one user and back on as another, and has a much better chat and uploading features.
Calendar:
The iPad has a pre-installed calendar called Ical, which is almost useless for a pastor. If you are like me, you have reoccurring meetings scheduled for a specific day of the month. I have church council meetings on the second Tuesday and Thursday of every month. However, I have not found a way to schedule such events on the Ical app itself. While it will sync with Google Calendar and Mircrosoft Outlook with no problems, I find myself not liking to manually merge and sync calendars. Instead I have opted to go with Pocket Informant HD for the iPad. While fairly expensive for an App at $14.99, it is a perfect companion for the pastor on the go. Pocket Informant HD is a full-blown calendar and GTD task manager that automatically syncs flawlessly with Google Calendar. I have not yet had time to see if it will sync with an RCL calendar available through Augsburg Fortress, but will do so in the next couple of weeks.
Videos:
For teaching confirmation, I download quite a few YouTube videos to use in my PowerPoint presentations. I was quite surprised how many Christian videos there are on YouTube and the videos really do help the kids understand the lessons. It does take time to find appropriate videos, and if I can watch them on the couch with my family instead of behind my desk in my study, all the better!
Reading E-Books:
The iPad has really changed how I consume print media. Since getting the iPad, most of my library is now in E book Format (either Amazon Kindle or Apple I-Book). Both the Kindle and I-Book have their pluses and minuses, but I have found more theological oriented books for the Kindle than for I Book. These two platforms are not compatible, so you need to have both Apps installed. There is a way to convert Kindle to E-Pub format, but I have not yet seen the need for me to do so. Both the Kindle and I-Book have built in search functions, but only I-Book has a useable cut and paste feature. If you search the web, there are a lot of free books available in the E-Pub format for I-Books that are of good quality, but I have found most free books (self-published) available for Kindle, are missing a lot of the built in features and/or are in the public domain which means they are OLD!!!
The iPad in action:
To illustrate just how useful the iPad can be to your ministry, let me share with you the following example. A few months ago, I was called to the local funeral home to help a non-church going family plan a Christian funeral for their mom (a non-active member of our congregation). I brought my iPad with me to take notes and arrange the service. I used a custom built form in Numbers (another iPad app) to fill in data for our church records and the service bulletin. I then showed them a list of suggested funeral hymns, and they just looked at each with a blank expression. When one of them said that they thought that “Rock of Ages” was one their mom’s favorites, but wasn’t sure. I quickly typed in “Rock” on the search window and from my I Tunes Library played them a portion of the song. “Yep, that was the one!” The family then listed off several other hymns that they thought they would like and I was able to play them a clip so they could decide. Once we were done, I hit the send button, and all the information for the funeral service including music selections were sent via email to our church secretary. Obviously, you have to know your audience as this would not be appropriate in every circumstance.
Conclusion:
The iPad is revolutionary, at least for me. After using it for seven months, I have gone from mostly books to mostly digital, and from a PC to a MacBook. Do I love the iPad? You bet I do! Does it have limitations? You bet! But the pros by far outweigh the cons, and this will even more so when IOS 4.2 is released later this month with wireless printing built in! I would highly recommend the iPad to any pastor with the following caveats. 1.) do not get the 3G version unless you know for an absolute fact that you are in the AT&T’s 3G network area! Partner coverage doesn’t apply to web content. 2.) Get the most memory that you can afford! I actually use my iPad as an external hard drive to back up my PC documents on. 3.) Make sure you already have or plan on getting a Wi-fi router for your home.
5 out of 5 stars!
