The keyboard on an iPad… it's optional

Mi friend and co-author of the book #iPadOnly, Michael Sliwinski always said that with the iPad the keyboard is optional.
Most people get their iPad and immediately get a Keyboard. I did it when I got mine on 2010 and have use it for every time I need to write for two hours or more. The reality is that for anything else I don’t need the keyboard for anything else and I am even able to work without the keyboard for writing, it is just that there is something nice when I am spending a long time siting writing to be able to use the full screen.
People it is obsessed with trying to make their iPad a laptop and get frustrated when they discover it is not. Those things that many called weakness of the iPad are in many cases exactly the strengths they have. The lack of keyboard it is one of those.
When I am going to write or respond email, analyzing data, working on spreadsheets, making presentations, mind maps and much more things, I really don’t need the keyboard for anything, and because of that I can work on many places that a laptop will be the wrong tool for the job.
The reality is that we use the keyboard and the mouse constantly because those where the best tools available on a PC. Most likely you have seen that famous keynote where Steve Jobs announce the iPhone. At that time most SmartPhones had a small keyboard, when he announced that his iPhone was not going to have any, people was sure he was going to fail. Well I think time has shown us that he was not necessarily wrong.
The iPad has exactly the same power to change the keyboard and mouse paradigm and we are seeing how more and more people it is using tablets and more specifically iPads to do their job.
In 2011 when I mention that my iPad was my main machine and that I was #iPadOnly people tough it was impossible. Two years later, many people is trying to accomplish the same, but they are not yet ready to abandon their old believes and because of that, they simply find frustration and try to do a familiar set up.
I have joke that if Apple release a mouse to the iPad, many people will get it as a compliment to their iPad keyboard. The reality is that the keyboard is optional, for most part you don’t need it, and if you spend enough time practicing and paying attention you most likely will use it on exceptional occasions, unless you write for two or more hours straight almost everyday.

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Augusto Pinaud

Augusto Pinaud es Coach de Tecnología de Productividad Bilingüe, Especialista en Nozbe Teams. Augusto trabaja con dueños y gerentes de pequeñas empresas, ejecutivos y profesionales en productividad, tecnología y mejora de procesos utilizando una variedad de tecnologías de productividad.

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