For the last year and a half, I’ve almost exclusively used an iPad as my computing device at school. I was pleasantly surprised that practically everything that I needed to do: email, web browsing, demonstrating how to solve problems, and playing videos; I could do on the iPad. I loved that the iPad turned on instantly, never needed to be plugged in during the day, and weighed almost nothing. At home, I still had a traditional computer, an iMac, which I used extensively in the evenings.

Lately, as I’ve been more and more busy, I’ve noticed that during the day, I would have to capture tasks and postpone their completion since I could not efficiently handle them on the iPad. (Perhaps, a future post on Getting Things Done is warranted to explain the methodology I use for task management.) My extracurricular activities are ramping up and they require me to complete a more diverse and spontaneous series of tasks during the day.

I finally decided to make a change. I purchased a MacBook Air and have been using it for the past week. It has been wonderful and I have been more productive. The MacBook Air has many of the characteristics of the iPad: near-instant on, incredibly light, and long battery life. In addition, I can do almost anything on the MacBook Air at school as I can do at home on the iMac.

I haven’t set up a new Mac in a while and I was surprised at how different my experience was with the MacBook Air. With the advent of [Dropbox](http://db.tt/PQBFBih) and iCloud, I didn’t copy any files when setting up the MacBook Air; these services synchronized, and continue to synchronize, my contacts, calendar entries, mail, photos, and files between my Macs and iOS devices. For the first time, when I pick up any of my computing devices, I feel that I am at home and not using a satellite computing device that is just a snapshot.

Not everything is perfect, however. The iWork Apps on Mac OS X, need better support for iCloud so that document management is round-trip between Mac OS X and iOS. I expect that this will be addressed, but, for now, I continue to use Dropbox and manually integrate changes made on iOS devices back to the Mac. Particularly annoying are the issues with the [MacBook Air running Lion and wireless networks](http://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=macbook+air+wireless+issues). I’ve hacked on my configuration enough to have a functional but annoying solution; so, I’m better off than some. Regardless, I’m amazed that Apple has yet to address these issues. Finally, the MacBook Air isn’t a tablet. I continue to use the iPad on its own when I want to demonstrate how to solve problems because I can write well on it with Note Taker HD, it projects well on the screen, and it is easy to export my notes to PDF files and post them to our class web site. Perhaps I’ll find an app that makes the iPad function as a drawing tablet for a MacBook.

I haven’t given up on the iPad by any means. I still hope to run an iPad pilot with my class. I think an iPad has several advantages when used in a classroom by students and teachers compared to traditional laptops and I want to explore these. Personally, I still use my iPad. I expect that when traveling or attending a conference, I will only bring my iPad. Finally, nothing is more immersive than curling up on the couch with a blanket and an iPad and reading.