To all the IPAD experts…

The boss wants one, he’s been sucked in by all the hype 😉

Im the geek who has to set-up up…

It will not replace his curent laptop ‘he says'(Windows with office 2010) BUT will be used to show presentation and pictures to clients when he hits the road.

I have a few questions… (excuse my ignorance)

1 – Can the IPAD open office files, powerpoint, excel? If not what is the work around? (if there is one)

2 – I know he will ask “can i have my work email on the IPAD aswell” – can this be done (current set up is POP3 via BT business downloaded to outlook 2010)

3 – Does the IPAD have a built in projector, or other black magic means of projecting?

4 – What spec shall we go for, money won’t be an issue.

5- I take it PDF’s are ok on apple?

6 – Any good apps for showing off pictures of our products etc?

Cheers for any help

iWork / Numbers / Keynote will deal with all you office stuff and they’re only a few quid.

Setting up emaul will be straight forward but you’d be better using IMAP than POP to keep both machines in sync

You can get a lead to connect to projectors/tvs

There are all sorts of presentation programmes, but it its all image based the built in software is spot on, otherwise Keynote

The only way to really be sure (and make sure he’s not left in front of a bunch of clients with his d*** in the breeze) is for him to fund one for you so you can explore its capabilities.

Stands to reason really.

Setting up emaul will be straight forward but you’d be better using IMAP than POP to keep both machines in sync

If you aren’t using IMAP on both machines then it won’t work. Once downloaded to Outlook it won’t be available for the IPad to see 🙁

A ‘workaround’ is to set Outlook to leave messages on the server for say 30 days and then make sure that the iPad picks up messages at least once in those 30 days.

Can the IPAD open office files, powerpoint, excel?

Dropbox is good for this but it is just a viewer. If you want to edit them as well you will need another solution (I think – I gave up trying as that isn’t really what the iPad is good at).

I convert my ppt files to PDFs and then use iBooks on the iPad for showing them. I find it works better than viewing standard ppt files as you get a distinct page-by-page view (ie ‘flick’ to the next slide) rather than ‘scrolling’ through a single long file, if that makes sense!

Nick

1 – Can the IPAD open office files, powerpoint, excel? If not what is the work around? (if there is one)

Yes, though with limits on functionality.

2 – I know he will ask “can i have my work email on the IPAD aswell” – can this be done (current set up is POP3 via BT business downloaded to outlook 2010)

Yes

3 – Does the IPAD have a built in projector, or other black magic means of projecting?

Nothing built in but this should allow you to connect to a projector
http://gigaom.com/apple/the-ipad-2s-killer-feature-is-hd-mirroring/

4 – What spec shall we go for, money won’t be an issue.
3G if you want access when away from Wifi and the biggest memory possible

5- I take it PDF’s are ok on apple?
Yes. EasyReader is a good app for them though

6 – Any good apps for showing off pictures of our products etc?
Loads – try and see which you like really

Can’t you just use webmail for Outlook? – I Do

Cheers all…

A ‘workaround’ is to set Outlook to leave messages on the server for say 30 days and then make sure that the iPad picks up messages at least once in those 30 days.

its set to leave on the server as he has a fekin blackberry aswell… i did mention to him buy two and i can take the one home and do some ‘R&D and he just stared at me!

Docs to go is what you need to be able to reliably open office for windows docs on the iPad.
If money is no object, then the 64gb 3G models the one to go for.
Are you still only using pop3 for mail 😯

Goodreader is a useful app to give you a “filesystem” on the ipad. But if you’re just showing off content, not creating it then that’s less of an issue.

You can set GR to sync with dropbox tho. So an easy way to show off stuff is to dropbox everything that needs to be shown off, sync it in the office on wifi, then GR will let you view/flick thru any photos/ppt/word/etc etc you’ve synced.

The iPad is a highly desirable piece of kit but it’s a fundamentally insecure device, if he already has a laptop, why spend more on something that has less abilities, as it’s built to be an electronic entertainment device (toy), not a business tool.

Just saying, I doubt you’ll be able to change his mind though.

Cheers all…

A ‘workaround’ is to set Outlook to leave messages on the server for say 30 days and then make sure that the iPad picks up messages at least once in those 30 days.
its set to leave on the server as he has a fekin blackberry aswell… i did mention to him buy two and i can take the one home and do some ‘R&D and he just stared at me!

Get both / all machines using IMAP that way you’re ‘sent’ ‘draft’ folders are synced on all the machines as well as your inbox, and you can search back for old emails on the server when you need to. My phone only holds the 50 most recent emails in memory but I can search the IMAP server for anything older if I’m looking for it

The iPad is a highly desirable piece of kit but it’s a fundamentally insecure device, if he already has a laptop, why spend more on something that has less abilities, as it’s built to be an electronic entertainment device (toy), not a business tool.

Just saying, I doubt you’ll be able to change his mind though.

i agree 100% but we had the HSE guy come in and he was showing our boss all the fancy stuff and he was taken in!

I know how it goes 😳 …so it’s probably worth having a search for stuff like this to implement on it:
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=63057

cheers all, and thanks for the link.

Do you not use Exchange for email – iPad works fine with Exchange – better than Outlook in my opinion.

I’ve not tried an iPad 2, but the iPad 1 is pretty rubbish with PPT presentations – too slow to render them and can’t cache enough, so if you flick back or forth too quickly you get a grey chequered background whilst it tries to catch up.

I’d say the iPad is an excellent email tool – handles multiple accounts really well and lets you move emails between folders and between accounts very nicely eg between Exchange at work and POP-3/iMAP personal mail.

Paging Samuri! Samuri to the forum please!

Smauri was saying it took him about 15 minutes from getting hold of an iPad to being into the “secure” servers on the company network.

One Note client is available on the App Store again (it’s iPhone but sort of works in 2x mode). This is the single most useful app I’ve found as I record nearly everything I do on projects and interesting snippets into it, and it’s nice to have to take to trade shows etc.

Not a business tool?

Depends on the business, but as someone who spends too much of his life on trains, planes and in meetings, I’d disagree.

For note taking and capturing ideas it is more than capable. It’s no good for writing or editing long documents on, but it’s good for email and web stuff and a lot lighter/quicker than a laptop.

Horses for courses.

Brass neck – have you looked at Evernote?

Dell have released a tablet with touch screen and windows 7 too. that may be of more use from an office compatability issue. iPads are a nice gadget and can work really well in some situations.

Paging Samuri! Samuri to the forum please!

Smauri was saying it took him about 15 minutes from getting hold of an iPad to being into the “secure” servers on the company network.

Ooh, sorry I’m late, just found this by accident.

No, I’ve refined the process now. About 3 minutes. I’ve made a video and given it to our board to make them take the risk seriously.

The company that we serve have just issued all the mid to top level scientists with ipads.

They have no use for them and all just have them to play with really. They’ve all got laptops and a desktop, so an ipad also is just
a) a money making opportunity from the pc suppliers
and
b) a waste of money and time for the company in loss of productivity.

The iPad is a highly desirable piece of kit but it’s a fundamentally insecure device, if he already has a laptop, why spend more on something that has less abilities, as it’s built to be an electronic entertainment device (toy), not a business tool.

Odd that, in the States enterprise is adopting iPad/iPhone all over the place. A number of airlines now issue them to pilots, the military are using them. Maybe the yanks are just more open-minded and forward thinking.

Our company is issuing them to all sales force. I’m typing this on one of them now. Just a couple of things I know about:
1. Activesync is used to get mail from the Exchange server
2. Product called Mobile Iron is used to secure them – allows remote tracking and remote wiping if (when!) they are lost.

cheers all, again…..

ones been ordered :O

There are two considerations here:

Productivity – There’s potentially an element of wanting something shiny over it actually offering benefits but depending on your boss’s methods of working (i.e. presenting ppt, pdf, product specs, brochures, plus of course email) it could well be beneficial.

Security – Because you’re using POP and it’s just your boss that’s getting one I’m assuming this isn’t some grand corporate plan but a one off in a small company. If you allow your boss full admin rights on his laptop, and potentially the ability to access email and other corporate resources from any computer, then I don’t see that using an ipad would be any less secure than your current setup other than that an ipad might be more prone to loss and theft than a laptop. I’d question Samuri’s claims that they’re fundamentally insecure and that they can be hacked to access the most secure corporate data in 3 mins (apologies Samuri if thats not your claim). Sure it’s possible to hack/root an ipad but what do you get? If it’s configured to get on the corporate network (via wifi or VPN) and the ‘secure’ apps are wide open with cached credentials and no network segregation then maybe it’s a goer but then I’d not regard that environment as secure. Dropbox is not secure, nor is IMAP and nor are ipads without some heavyweight device and security management such as MobileIron, Good Tech or other enterprise products.

I’m not a fanboi but I expect that it’ll work for you and your boss. Definitely dump POP and look at IMAP or native Exchange ActiveSync in order to preserve his sanity over finding emails.