| I have a 4th generation iPad from early 2013 that I use all the time. Ironically, it wasn't until about 2 years ago when my wife got me a bluetooth keyboard case for it that I really started to get some use out of it. It definitely isn't as snappy as it used to be, and the battery reports that it has lost 20% of its original capacity, but I use it all the time. I primarily use it in meetings to take notes with OneNote, I also use it to SSH/RDP/VNC into other computers to write some code and such. I also have some means to work on code using a git app and Textastic. Yes, there are such apps available for iOS. GarageBand and iMovie get some usage when I'm feeling "artistic" though I will admit they are starting to get too sluggish (GarageBand especially). As far as games go, I mostly stick to the knockoff bargain-brand versions of big-budget games by Gameloft; Order and Chaos 2 (Guild Wars 2), Modern Combat (Call of Duty), Gangstar (GTA), Minecraft Pocket Edition, and retro game collections (Atari, Activision, Vectrex). I have a number of Bluetooth controllers that are compatible with those retro game collections that helps. I used to have my iPad jail broken and would play tons of emulators on it as well. The main thing that's nice about something like an iPad with a keyboard is that with a bit of work it can completely take the place of your laptop and do it better. When I go away for a long weekend, I inevitably have to ask myself if I want to take my laptop or my iPad. It always boils down to how much I think I'm going to have to work, and usually it's the iPad I take. It does 90% of the day-to-day things I need to do, still has a relatively great battery life, and it's the size of a notebook even with the keyboard-case. And if things come down to it, I can still access my work computer or my webserver at home and do the whatever else I need to do (albeit in a less than ideal manner, but I've never had to say "sorry, I can't look into this right now cause I only have my iPad"). I will admit, it's the addition of a physical keyboard that really does it for me on the iPad. But keyboard or not, even within the Orwellian App Store I can be extremely productive with my 5 year old iPad. And yes, I wrote all this on my iPad. |