How practical is IPAD? Forum

[pcwcecac]

What % of common text out there are available in electronic form?

Does anyone use the IPAD as a law text reader?

Thanks

[thechee]

I use it all the time for law school reading. Not so much for cases assigned for class, but for reading over cases that I've found for legal research assignments, as well as supplemental reading from the Kindle store. Also, some profs do assign a good number of cases and articles that are supplied in PDF format. While I generally prefer the Kindle DX for PDFs, the iPad is more versatile. Also, you can get the FRCP and Constitution as apps, which I've found handy, and there's a good but overpriced version of Black's law dictionary for iPad.

Another use I've found handy is flash cards. You can make them in Google Docs (my study buddy and I work remotely), and then export them to an app (Mental Case is my favorite). This is particularly useful around finals, when you want to review cases or concepts. You can just copy and paste stuff from your notes into flashcard format.

I thought getting an iPad would be a waste, but it has proved very useful overall. HOWEVER, it is easy to get distracted when you have an assigned law review article and Angry Birds on the same platform...

[Hippononymous]

I use it all the time for law school reading. Not so much for cases assigned for class, but for reading over cases that I've found for legal research assignments, as well as supplemental reading from the Kindle store. Also, some profs do assign a good number of cases and articles that are supplied in PDF format. While I generally prefer the Kindle DX for PDFs, the iPad is more versatile. Also, you can get the FRCP and Constitution as apps, which I've found handy, and there's a good but overpriced version of Black's law dictionary for iPad.

Another use I've found handy is flash cards. You can make them in Google Docs (my study buddy and I work remotely), and then export them to an app (Mental Case is my favorite). This is particularly useful around finals, when you want to review cases or concepts. You can just copy and paste stuff from your notes into flashcard format.

I thought getting an iPad would be a waste, but it has proved very useful overall. HOWEVER, it is easy to get distracted when you have an assigned law review article and Angry Birds on the same platform...

+1

I'll also add that I enjoy having internet access at the school without having to haul my laptop in every day (laptop is only 12.5", but still seems heavy after only carrying the iPad, a binder, and a notebook). Lexis/Westlaw seem to behave pretty well on it. I've never been a huge fan of gaming on it, so distractions really aren't an issue. I hand write my notes, but you could get a small keyboard dock and leave it in your locker if you wanted to take notes on it (I understand Evernote is pretty good for that...).

As far as availability of texts, I have one professor who is in the middle of a rewrite on a casebook. We get the entire thing for free in PDF format. That has been great. Other professors will often post things online that can be downloaded to it. Dropbox is wonderful for that. I don't think that you will see major casebooks available for download or in digital format any time soon, though.

One thing I have not yet tried, but am seriously considering: buying a duplex document scanner and putting all of my books into PDF format. I checked with a few places that do that and they wanted $.39-$1.49 PER SIDE. No. But at $500 for a good one, I'm not sure I'm going to go the document scanner route either. For now, I just have my books unbound and put the current sections in a 1" binder.

HTH.