Do I need a new laptop, or will the IPad do?
 

I recently bought a new I Pad air and am thinking, do I really need a new laptop. I only use it for surfing the web, photos, music, word processing and emails. I’ve heard you can get Microsoft Office for the IPad, what do you do if flash player is required. Since I’m not computer literate, any advice or recommendations would be appreciated. Thank you.

You may want to look into getting a Chromebook. You can buy a good one for about a hundred dollars or so. It will do everything you mentioned, but it won't have much hard drive storage, or a disk drive. You need to learn to use the cloud to save your files. The Google Drive will allow you to store 15 GB of data for free. Also, you can subscribe to MS Office 365 for about 70 dollars a year, which will allow you to use word processing on the Internet.

A few years ago I started using my Ipad and now my laptop just sits idle.
Got a keyboard case for the Ipad, so it’s like a mini laptop, and it works just great for me.

Same. Nothing I can’t do on my iPad including my taxes.

The use of Flash is becoming less of a problem because the major browsers are going to drop support for Flash at the end of 2020 so most reputable sites are working on alternatives.

A Chrome book is a good alternative to a full Windows laptop.

The only use case for Chromebooks which is still a problem is if you need installable software such a TurboTax or Quicken. The vendors may now have cloud based versions of their products but I have never used them this way.

I would recommend you hold off a while and see how many times you need to pull out your old laptop and for what purpose. There may be browser based options.

You can download LibreOffice for MacOS and it'll do everything you normally use Microsoft Office for, except it's free. Works the same way, the files are compatible.

You can use Google docs for word processing and spreadsheets and they are easy to share.

There are web sites that don’t work nearly as well on my iPad as they do on my computer. I am also MUCH faster on my computer. Typos are far fewer and those that do happen are much easier to correct. I really do miss pointing with a mouse and having a delete key. Still, I use my iPad for 90% of my work. I’ve tried MS Office on my iPad and it is very inferior to the real thing.

I use my iPad 100% load WPS (a free program in the App Store)you will be able to do everything that you did with Windows and open any windows documents, I use it all the time now, still kept a Windows computer but I will donate it in January 2020

Isn't printing a problem/difficult on Chromebook and/or ipad?

As I said, I have a bluetooth mouse and keyboard I use for my tablet. As long as you have bluetooth technology in your ipad (which you do), you can connect a mouse and keyboard with no wire, no dongle.

Google Docs can read MS Word docs and you can save them as Google Docs. Then you can change it and re save it as a MS Word doc.

This Monday (Dec 2nd 1PM) the Connected Computer Club will be having a Workshop at The Eisenhower Rec Center. I will have a Chromebook/Linux table, other tables are Apple, Aundroid, PCs and "other".

Come on down (bring your village ID) and ask questions.

My wife and I hardly touch our laptop or chrome book anymore, months at a time, and her Chromebook for over a year. iPad works perfect with our Epson wireless all in one/double side printer. You can also get a keyboard case or standalone keyboard and/or a mouse for your iPad if you are doing a lot of hard core work. I think tablets are the most convenient things with our laid back lifestyle here. Easy to carry to lanai, bed, living room, poolside in a lounge chair etc. just my opinion. I just use my laptop for hardcore gaming and graphic arts noe.

I’m like UPSTATE, I’m not very literate about computers. My 6 yr. old great grandson know a lot more about computers than I do. My question is when I read some of these comments I’m thinking I have a laptop too, what is the difference between an IPad or Chromebook over my laptop?