Last updated on January 28, 2020
Like the name says, it’s just a pad. It’s not a notebook computer, nor a laptop. Basically, the iPad is a dedicated web surfer, supported mainly by third-party applications. The iPad is a wonderful thing, it really is. However, if you intend to use an iPad as a webmaster then you need to put on the breaks and turn around.
I can tell you with all certainty the biggest negative about the iPad is that it is very difficult and sometimes impossible to upload files anywhere. I first discovered this problem over a year ago when I was blogging from my newspaper site Mobile Tribune. I was using The Ning platform and the browser out of the iPad box – Safari, when I went to attach an image file and found I could not do so. The little image icon you would normally see above the blog text window was not there. In fact, there were no icons. I researched the issue and found I would need a new browser. After installing several browser apps ( you do not really “download” on an iPad, you install an app), I found all the icons present in the Atomic Web browser.
The really big problem had not yet revealed its ugly head: the inability to upload files from the iPad. The problem with uploading on the iPad is it is built to only allow transfer of photos you have stored in your photo albums, or to snap a picture on the fly and transfer it. In my case I wanted to upload word documents and PDF files. The iPad does not really have a desktop or a file storage system so you cannot navigate around the device like you do on a computer even if you have or use a super boost wifi. Ipad may be a nice device today but users should know and be aware that it still has its own limitations.
Further research reveals there are work-arounds on uploading files from the iPad, one of them being the use of a browser call iCab. I bought this app for $1.99 and continue to research, but at this point I am unable to trick Kindle books and the iPad and iCab into allowing me to upload a book to the Kindle site. The only option is to upload photos. Supposedly, you can transfer a file to Dropbox or similar programs – or from the latest web buzz phrase – the cloud – and upload in this manner. I do not think this method works from all web sites.
The only other thing I will mention about the iPad is something you can fix by attaching a keyboard to it, but if you are, as I am, a fast typist, the iPad is very unforgiving by connecting words together. You think you punched the space bar hard enough but you did not. I still like my baby but hopefully one day she will grow up.
