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are they worth it for law school? I know that it would be cheaper to buy textbooks, and I've heard it can be useful to take notes. How useful are they really?

What the fuck is with this trendy shit. I know an ipad is super trendy right now but type your goddamn notes (or even handwrite) and your exams. I don't see anybody use an ipad in any of my classes because they're basically laptops except less functional in terms of being a grown-ass adult taking notes and doing law school.

Pretty useless for law school. You will have your laptop and that will more than suffice for everything you need to do in law school. Ipad has no marginal benefit.

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Jessuf wrote:the douchey people at my school use ipads in class.

It's purely a status symbol in the law school classroom context. It's less functional than a laptop while also being obnoxiously expensive.

When the windows tablets come out, you can pair them with a bluetooth keyboard and they'll be just as useful as a laptop. I already have an android tablet which I'll be bringing, but my laptop will be used for class and note-taking. Current tablets including ipads are mainly good for couch surfing, coffee shops, toilets

Strange wrote:When the windows tablets come out, you can pair them with a bluetooth keyboard and they'll be just as useful as a laptop. I already have an android tablet which I'll be bringing, but my laptop will be used for class and note-taking. Current tablets including ipads are mainly good for couch surfing, coffee shops, toilets

I've seen vendors that come to my office that use their ipads connected to keyboards instead of a laptop. I don't get what everyone's aversion is to them unless the software is incapable of handling the workload.

I don't have an ipad so I don't really know, but an ipad connected to a keyboard would be pretty similar to a mac, no?

LockBox wrote:

Strange wrote:When the windows tablets come out, you can pair them with a bluetooth keyboard and they'll be just as useful as a laptop. I already have an android tablet which I'll be bringing, but my laptop will be used for class and note-taking. Current tablets including ipads are mainly good for couch surfing, coffee shops, toilets

I've seen vendors that come to my office that use their ipads connected to keyboards instead of a laptop. I don't get what everyone's aversion is to them unless the software is incapable of handling the workload.

I don't have an ipad so I don't really know, but an ipad connected to a keyboard would be pretty similar to a mac, no?

I don't use macs, but as far as word processing goes it's definitely not similar. You can't run full versions of office programs on tablets because the operating systems are basically mobile versions - ie iOS vs Mac OS X, or Android vs Windows. Especially for a windows PC, you can't run OneNote on a tablet.

Ipads can still be used for a lot of things, but taking tons of notes in class seems like it would be a burden and would slow you down. I've never done it though.

When the Windows 8 Tablets come out, they'll be fully functional, and then you probably wouldn't even need a laptop at that point.

Bildungsroman wrote:

Jessuf wrote:the douchey people at my school use ipads in class.

It's purely a status symbol in the law school classroom context. It's less functional than a laptop while also being obnoxiously expensive.

To be fair, iPads aren't exactly obnoxiously expensive when you're comparing it to laptops. I'm guessing 5-10% of my class uses them (I'm not one). Depending on what you need/want, it's probably fine. But I don't know if exam software and such would work on it.

birdlaw117 wrote:

Bildungsroman wrote:

Jessuf wrote:the douchey people at my school use ipads in class.

It's purely a status symbol in the law school classroom context. It's less functional than a laptop while also being obnoxiously expensive.

To be fair, iPads aren't exactly obnoxiously expensive when you're comparing it to laptops. I'm guessing 5-10% of my class uses them (I'm not one). Depending on what you need/want, it's probably fine. But I don't know if exam software and such would work on it.

It depends on the context, you're trading functionality for convenience, in the case of law school convenience isn't an issue since classes have power outlets and you can get a fairly light laptop for not much more than an ipad. It doesn't really make sense to trade away functionality like that for law school purposes so it can be interpreted as obnoxious

My guess is though these people probably didn't have a computer, so faced with a decision they just got an ipad. I think it's a big mistake to rely on a tablet, always get a laptop and then you have money get a tablet as an accessory

birdlaw117 wrote:

Bildungsroman wrote:

Jessuf wrote:the douchey people at my school use ipads in class.

It's purely a status symbol in the law school classroom context. It's less functional than a laptop while also being obnoxiously expensive.

To be fair, iPads aren't exactly obnoxiously expensive when you're comparing it to laptops. I'm guessing 5-10% of my class uses them (I'm not one). Depending on what you need/want, it's probably fine. But I don't know if exam software and such would work on it.

5-10%? Figures, at NYU . And it is expensive compared to laptops when you realize that most adults require more functionality on their computer than a (barely) souped-up mobile phone OS can provide and therefore need a laptop in addition to the ipad anyway.

idk about exam software. We can just use Word I think.

Bildungsroman wrote:

birdlaw117 wrote:

Bildungsroman wrote:

Jessuf wrote:the douchey people at my school use ipads in class.

It's purely a status symbol in the law school classroom context. It's less functional than a laptop while also being obnoxiously expensive.

To be fair, iPads aren't exactly obnoxiously expensive when you're comparing it to laptops. I'm guessing 5-10% of my class uses them (I'm not one). Depending on what you need/want, it's probably fine. But I don't know if exam software and such would work on it.

5-10%? Figures, at NYU . And it is expensive compared to laptops when you realize that most adults require more functionality on their computer than a (barely) souped-up mobile phone OS can provide and therefore need a laptop in addition to the ipad anyway.

idk about exam software. We can just use Word I think.

Right, but getting a nice laptop (read: expensive nice mac rather than comparable and cheaper pc) when a cheap laptop is just overkill if all you're going to do is use word etc.

Moral of the story: I wouldn't use on. I think you lose some performance and you also look at least a little pretentious.

I would check with the school and see what they require for exams. If they use exam software, then you're screwed.

I use an iPad in all my classes.

I've seen students use iPads in class, but only in classes where laptops are banned. They'll put up a name card (whether the prof. requires it or not) and then set the iPad behind it so it's hard to see.

vanwinkle wrote:I've seen students use iPads in class, but only in classes where laptops are banned. They'll put up a name card (whether the prof. requires it or not) and then set the iPad behind it so it's hard to see.

"name card"?

vanwinkle wrote:I've seen students use iPads in class, but only in classes where laptops are banned. They'll put up a name card (whether the prof. requires it or not) and then set the iPad behind it so it's hard to see.

wut

Even if you pair an iPad with a keyboard it still seems awful since laptop keyboards are going to almost always be better, you have to deal with shitty iOS word processing software, you lack a mouse which makes it that much hard to move around the document, you have a small screen and can't have multiple programs running side by side... I could go on but you get the picture.

Bildungsroman wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:I've seen students use iPads in class, but only in classes where laptops are banned. They'll put up a name card (whether the prof. requires it or not) and then set the iPad behind it so it's hard to see.

"name card"?

Tent cards that professors print out and have you put on your desk so they know your name. There's often a direct correlation between a prof's hatred of laptops and their love of name cards, but they don't object to you having one on your desk when it's not required, either.

vanwinkle wrote:

Bildungsroman wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:I've seen students use iPads in class, but only in classes where laptops are banned. They'll put up a name card (whether the prof. requires it or not) and then set the iPad behind it so it's hard to see.

"name card"?

Tent cards that professors print out and have you put on your desk so they know your name. There's often a direct correlation between a prof's hatred of laptops and their love of name cards, but they don't object to you having one on your desk when it's not required, either.

That's weird, I've literally never heard of name cards in law school before this moment. Here professors usually figure out people's names by using the seating chart. I learn something new every day.

the reason why i was considering getting one in the first place is because my laptop is shitty and takes like 10 minutes just to get booted up, which is not optimal for taking notes in class. its also pretty heavy for a laptop and not very functional for carrying from class to class. i figured a tablet would boot up right away, and with some practice you could use something like onenote to take notes and things like that. Obviously for exams I would have to take it on my laptop, but im talking more on a day to day basis.

i judge the kids in my section that take notes on iPads.

I also laugh at them when they have to go back to certain points in the text of their notes, because it's way harder for them and they look like idiots tapping the up key or their touch screen.

In all seriousness, laptops are just so much more functional, especially for what you'll be using them for.

Bildungsroman wrote:That's weird, I've literally never heard of name cards in law school before this moment. Here professors usually figure out people's names by using the seating chart. I learn something new every day.

It's up to the professor. It's not common, but I've noticed that it's a lot more likely to come up in classes where the prof has banned laptops and expects a lot of class participation. I got unlucky and have two such classes this semester.

I can understand iPads for reading certain documents or even eBooks but using it for note-taking etc seems to be trying to make it more than it actually is.

Also, how available are e-textbooks for law school?