iPad for College

I have a few friends that used tablets in college (as I just graduated). They prefer it because not carrying books and the ability to take notes on one device (not 10 notebooks).

As for getting the iPad. Eh, there are cheaper tablets (Samsung) that work just as well. As for books, you can find most of the in PDFs. They do have books apps for all tablets.

I've had plenty of classmates regret getting a MBP because of compatibility issues with university programs so I would advise against buying one for university. You would be better off buying a Lenovo Thinkpad as they're sturdier, cheaper, and have the best keyboards in the market (beats the MBP by a huge margin in my experience). Trust me on this. Skip the MacBook Pro. As for the iPad, only a few textbooks are available in e-book format and I've found reading long texts on tablets very strenuous to the eyes. Although heavy, nothing still beats good ol' paper textbooks. You can buy your textbooks cheaper on amazon or, better still, buy them used on Craigslist and other online markets. I don't see much advantage over buying an iPad for textbooks unless most of your textbooks are also available in e-book format which is far too few to warrant buying an iPad for.

I currently use a Nexus 7 tablet to study while commuting (laptop / desktop while at home or work). I have opted not to buy any printed study material, therefore I rely solely on the e-book version of the textbook. There are pluses and minus with regards to relying just on e-books for studying.

Good:
+ All your textbooks can be stored on the tablet.
+ No additional weight for each additional textbook.
+ You can take out the tablet and read on the go. On a subway, on hand hold a rail, the other hand holds the tablet. My Nexus 7 fits in my jack inner pocket to easy to whip out and put away.

Bad
- Flipping back and forth between pages can be a nuiciance ... but there is a solution ... discussed below...
- Everything is stored on one device and if the e-book's DRM only allows you to have the e-books stored on one device, then if you loose your tablet, you loose all your text books... but there is a compromise ... discussed below...
- If your tablet runs out of juice, then you cannot study.


Flipping back and forth between pages - Not an ideal solution, but I have my textbooks stored on my laptop and PC therefore I can simply bring open up the textbook on my Nexus 7, laptop and desktop to do cross referencing. This is not exactly convenient if you are on the move, but it is still possible.

Multiple copies of textbooks - My textbooks are from Vitalbooks and I am allowed to store my textbooks on two devices. I have them stored on my laptop and desktop. I assume all DRM will allow you to store the ebooks on two devices; one acts as a backup for the other. However, I also have copies on my Nexus 7 and work desktop. How? I basically printed out my ebooks as PDF files broken up by chapter. I then store one set on my Nexus 7 and another on my work PC.

If that's the case, then go for it. Just remember that reading off an iPad is no different than reading off a computer screen. It's really bad for your eyes, but, if you really want to, go for it. Most of the e-books that my friends had were PDFs so I can't comment on the app. As for flipping through the pages, it would really depend on the eBook that you are buying. Some have linked chapters that help you navigate the eBook while others don't. About the storage, most books are only in mb sizes so I doubt you will ever go over 1gb per term of books. I use eBooks, but I have an eBook reader. They're an entirely different experience so I can't really comment on the flipping pages part. jaguarskx gives a good glimpse on what you should expect about flipping pages.

Most of the top 10 schools have ebook rentals. You will save 40% on textbook cost.

Plus, ebooks are searchable, this is very helpful during the open book tests.

I had several classes (CIT) the last 5 years where applications required for the class would not run on apple products. A Windows laptop is your best bet.

Get a windows laptop, something lightweight with a good battery life. And pair it up with something like a 10in android tablet, it will generally be cheaper by far than the iPad and just as good for school as I can guarantee you if the ebook supports iPads it will support android.

Not all books come in ebook form, and from what I've seen the ones that do typically you are given a licence for something like 180days and you don't actually own the book. Not a big deal if your getting something for a general ed class which you won't look at again, but I recommend having something you own so you can reference it latter on if it's part of your major. So I would buy hard copies of books for your major.

Other option is buy a hard copy and scan it into a computer and convert to PDF. If you qualify for your schools student disability center they will most likely provide this service for you to free if it is in your accommodations. If not I still recommend dropping by and asking if you can talk to their tech person so you can ask them how to best go about this, as they do this a lot and probably know the best way to go about it. This way when you do this yourself you only have to do it once and you do it right.

I have never bought a book that included an ebook copy. The ones that do you usually end up paying significantly more for too. And they are limited use for the keys which expire after a set amount of time which every ebook I have had to deal with was something you access online and you didn't have an offline version to work with. So don't rely on that.

If you truly wanted to go without textbooks try to make sure you have some type of setup which allows you to scan the hard copy textbooks into PDF's. And use that as you can't always rely on being able to acquire an ebook, and if I were you I would make a few new friends in class and get them to help you at this task since it won't be far fetched to say that you will have classes with a few of them. My understanding from a quick glance at how to do this over a year ago is it's a bit annoying to do but thats also what friends are for, entertainment and someone to trade places with while doing this.

If you have a smartphone I would make sure that you can hotspot a signal to your laptop, or use easytether if you have an android phone (not sure if they have iphone one) so you can share your mobile connection if you needed to. Than it's a good idea to use dropbox/google drive/etc on your computer so you can sync up notes/hw between your laptop, desktop/iPad/phone and have an offsite backup to download from. In the past I have just had my class notes located in the folder that got sync, and all relevant school data saved there. It just makes life easy, and can potentially save your butt if something goes wrong. Also wouldn't be a bad idea to carry an extra power/usb cable for your phone and Ipad so you can easily charge it while on the go or from your laptop.

Dropbox/Google Drive work pretty much the same way. And it can be used offline but it just won't sync until your online. For taking notes you can use Evernote if you want something that is made for note taking, never heard of Pages so I can't comment on it. Though for google drive I know on my android phone you typically have to do syncs manually.

I have used a windows xp laptop/win7 desktop/android phone and chromebook/win7 desktop/android phone and kept them all connected. In the original setup I used dropbox and took notes in Abiword and saved it as an .RTF and tossed it in the dropbox folder so it would sync next time I had an internet connection as I usually didn't have a signal in my classes back than. Now I have a chromebook and am forced to use google docs which will automatically sync to my google drive account, so I have it installed on my desktop and android phone. Though occasionally I use evernote because it just works better in certain situations such as copying the questions from quizes to it (on blackboard) as some other programs don't handle the image intensive formatting correctly. And it will work across all the platforms, though on chromebook I have to access it through their website if I remember correctly. Though in most cases for the apps I were using I couldn't get the files to auto sync using the "normal" apps on the android phone made by the party who made the cloud service. Though I suspect a program I just started using called folder sync may be able to do that but I just started using it within the past few days to auto upload the pictures I take to my google drive account. So looking into a similar program may be worth it just so you can keep everything up to date.

As for a good setup for using .PDFs between all of them I can't comment on it as I have limited experience with this type of setup. I am just in the process of setting things up so I can do this for the fall and I am more limited to what I can do due to buying the chromebook which has pretty basic software for dealing with .PDFs as I never intended to use it for this and just bought it for basic note taking and browsing. Though if you have software that will edit in notes in the .PDF and allow you to highlight things on the ipad/laptop I suggest you find a way to sync it so it stays consistent. And throw in the original .PDF as a backup just incase something happens and can't be read anymore as a precaution. I am even contemplating on buying a cheap kindle to load up the .PDFs on it but I am unsure how well that would work out, it's something I am currently looking into as I liked how clearly the text was readable on the screen and how it felt like it popped out of the screen when I saw one a few years ago. So that may be something to look into if it interests you, it won't do as much as an ipad but if you can get one to work and work well it may make an awesome e-reader for .PDFs. With me if I can get one to work I might use it, if it doesn't work out I probably just sale it and lose a little bit of money it doesn't look like they devalue too much from a quick glance online.

You should be able to get MS office pro at school for $20. Some of the course books can be rented in e-book form. Hard copies are sold separately.

I would advise against an iPad and go with an Android Tablet (Nexus 10 or similar) It can do just as much as an iPad and more. The MSI GT60 is pretty heavy at 8 lbs even though its a power beast and I love the steelseries keyboard. If you're going to be carrying a lot of books (hardcopy > eBooks) then you should go with http/www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7895995&SRCCODE=WEBBP1684&cm_lm=gaminglaptopsjunky@gmail.com&cm_mmc=email-_-Retro-_-WEBBP1684-_-tigeremail1684&utm_source=EML&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=WEBBP1684

It gets 10 hours+ on battery life (Idle) and 7-8 surfing. You can even wait for the Haswell version if you like. The GT60 gets 3 I believe even with optimus. It also has an 8870m which is a GTX 670M performance at current drivers (Will probably get a boost to GTX 670MX/675M performance with next driver and Haswell processors.