I Can't Live without My Smartphone or Laptop but Where Does My iPad Fit into the Mix?

I love my smartphone and I don't think I can live without it. I can check my email, read the news, catch up with friends on Facebook, play Words With Friends, listen to Pandora, get driving directions, surf the internet and so much more. I was initially reluctant to get a smartphone because I didn't think I could justify the expense. To make matters worse, once I finally got one I had to go back to the Verizon store so they could show me how to use it. While I was waiting in line my new phone started ringing and I realized John, who was 7 years-old at the time, was calling me from one of the store demo phones. I guess if I had asked him to show me how to use my phone I could have saved a trip to the store.

My smartphone, with all its bells and whistles, would put the first computer I owned to shame. That first computer was a Macintosh SE my father bought me in the summer of 1987 before my senior year in college. It was cutting edge technology at the time, boasting a monochrome screen, an 800 KB floppy disk drive and a 20 MB hard drive all conveniently packaged into a 17 pound box the size and shape of a bread box. By comparison, my current Motorola Droid 4 smartphone has 16 GB of memory, a high resolution color touch-screen display and weighs 6.3 ounces. It would be even smaller and lighter if I could give up the slide-out QWERTY keyboard.  

Despite the fondness I feel for my smartphone I am just as passionate about my laptop computer. I bought my first laptop, a Macintosh PowerBook 100, in graduate school to replace my Macintosh SE. Throughout graduate school and in my postdocs I had access to the latest Macintosh and Apple desktop computers. But when I had to buy a new personal computer in 2002 I made the switch to a PC laptop. I don't really see any benefit of a desktop over a laptop. Desktop computers do have some significant disadvantages - they take up a lot of space and they aren't portable. My current laptop, an HP Pavilion dv6000 running Windows 7, is old (bought in 2007) and heavy (6 pounds) and the battery only lasts about 30 minutes. On the plus side it has a large display (15.4 inches) and comfortable keyboard so it's perfect when I need to do complex tasks.

My electronic device division of labor was straightforward until a year and a half ago. That's when my husband gave me an iPad as a gift. My iPad2 has 16 GB of memory, a 9.7 inch display and it weighs 1.3 pounds. I enjoy my iPad but do I really need it? Where does it fit in the mix between my smart phone and my laptop? My iPad seems like a pure luxury when it comes right down to it. It's kind of like a big phone or a small laptop but it doesn't quite replace either one. I purchased a Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard and even though that's a huge improvement over the touch screen keyboard it doesn't make the iPad a mini-lap top.  

Here's what I see as the strengths and weaknesses of each device. 

Laptop
Strengths:

• If I need to write anything longer than one paragraph I do it on the laptop. I type fastest when I can use all of my fingers on a full size keyboard and I like using the mouse to move the cursor. 
• I prefer real website functionality to simplified app versions. Have you ever tried creating a new invitation on the Evite app? Or editing a post on the Facebook app? Or updating your queue on the Netflix app? Or modifying your stations on the Pandora app? Whenever I try to do these things with the apps I am reminded how much easier it is to do these things on the full-fledged website. 
• If I need to write a lecture, download journal articles, or grade papers I will wait until I can do it on my laptop because it is so much more efficient.
• My laptop is portable, unlike a desktop computer. I can take my laptop with me where ever I need to go.  I can catch up on clinic correspondence when I'm on campus, grade papers in between meetings at the medical school, or write a lecture at the sand dunes. 
• I print and scan from my laptop. 

Weaknesses: 

• I am tied to an electrical outlet because my battery is so old it no longer holds a charge. 
• I still too uncoordinated to use the touch pad so I rely on my optical mouse to control the cursor.
• My laptop is so old the graphics card wasn't good enough for John to play Skylanders Spyro's Adventure so he had to play it on my husband's desktop PC. The newer Skylanders Giants doesn't even come in a PC platform version.

iPad

Strengths: 

• Compared to my laptop my iPad is relatively small and lightweight.
• The iPad has a long battery life. With normal use I don't need to charge it every day. I can also watch several hours of TV shows without draining the battery. This is a considerable improvement over the portable DVD players the kids use on car and plane trips.
• The screen on my iPad is significantly bigger than the one on my smartphone. This makes it a better option for watching videos and reading long articles.
• Dropbox works great on my iPad. I can save articles I find on my smartphone or laptop to my Dropbox and read them later on my iPad.

Weaknesses: 

• Don't be fooled by apps - they are not as good as the real, full-feature web sites you can access on your laptop. Apps are inferior, second class, dumbed down versions of the real websites. Sure, you can get by with the apps but in the end they often leave me frustrated.
• I despise editing text on my iPad. I find it incredibly difficult to get the cursor in the right spot, even with the magnifying glass tool. And don't get me started on the copy and paste text feature. It's always a struggle to get the little blue highlighted section to include the text I actually want.
• My iPad only has wifi so I have to plan ahead if I want to watch videos or read articles when I don't have wifi coverage.

Smartphone

Strengths: 

• My smartphone is small so I can take it anywhere. I can also pull it out in public places and not feel too awkward.  
• The display is small so the people around me can't easily read over my shoulder. That includes my kids. 
• My smartphone can do just about everything my iPad can do. 
• My smartphone has 4G and wifi so I can get internet where ever there is cell phone coverage or a wifi signal.

Weaknesses: 

• The worst thing about my smartphone is the phone part. I fumble around to find the number of the person I want to call and then I put the phone up to my ear and wait for the call to connect. More often than not I have to take the phone away from my ear and look at the screen to see if the call is going through. Why does it take so long for the calls to go through? And once the call goes through I can't hear the person on the other end all that well and I have to utter that cliche phrases, "Can you hear me now" or "Are you still there?". Sometimes I'll put the phone too close to my head and the side of my face will accidentally end the call. These are the reasons why I prefer email or texting.
• My fingers are too big for the touch pad keyboard. I accidentally touch the wrong letter so it takes me infinitely longer to try to use the touch pad keyboard, even with the auto-complete word feature than if I use the slide out QWERTY keyboard.
• The battery on my smartphone dies quickly. I usually have to charge it twice a day. I bought a charger for my car and I use it on a daily basis.

The boys' opinions:

Things they like to do on the laptop:

• John and Nathan agree Minecraft is better on the laptop than on the iPad. The laptop version lets you fly as high as you want and it has more materials than iPad app.
• John prefers the laptop version of the Infinity Ring game over the iPad app. The laptop version has a better user interface so it's easier to use.
• Nathan prefers the laptop version of Raz Kids to the iPad version.

Things John likes to do on the iPad:

• John likes playing Dragonvale better on the larger iPad screen than on the smaller iPod Touch screen.

Things Nathan likes to do on his iPod Touch:

• Nathan likes doing everything better on his iPod Touch than on the iPad because it's his own personal iPod Touch.
• Nathan said watching videos on his iPod touch is OK but it's better on the TV.