I really enjoyed reading this feature in the Wall Street Journal today called "An American in Paris Says Au Revoir To His Laptop". Written by Walter S. Mossberg, the feature tells of how the writer decided to see how he'd get on when he went on a 10-day working vacation with his wife, if he left his laptop behind and relied only on his iPad, smartphone and a digital camera. Mossberg writes that the reason behind the test was to see if the iPad, and other tablets, could actually be viable replacements for laptops when travelling.
Mossberg says that his experiment was "a pleasant success", and that for the most part, the iPad helped him to get everything done that he normally would have used a laptop for, "yet I toted a lot less weight, enjoyed much better battery life, and had a computer that started up instantly whenever I reached for it."
Mossberg adds that he was far from the only person using the iPad in his hotel, in fact he says that at breakfast every morning he saw several other iPads appear with their owners at the breakfast table, noting that even a small laptop would have had a job fitting on the breakfast room's small tables.
Among the other things that Mossberg discovered about the iPad on his Parisian jaunt was the fact that you can rent iPads at the Eiffel Tower, preloaded with a tourist guide!
Mossberg concludes his article with a word of caution, however, saying that while the iPad did everything he wanted it to do on his working holiday, he'd still prefer to use a laptop for more serious work, such as writing long documents or delivering presentations. Be sure to click through and have a read, it's a really interesting article.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
