Justifying an ipad (or any other $500 tablet)?

[sdesocio]

So I'm not looking to attack anyone. Im just wondering the justification for why a pastor should have an iPad? Ive started moving to buying most of my books at ebooks, through amazon barnes and noble and google, but Im not sure what else the ipad can really do well?

I've got a good laptop and a smart phone, and Im wrestling with how a tablet fits into a pastors life without becoming a distraction.

If you are a pastor with an ipad what do you do with it? What apps do you use? How do you use it in your study, your teaching and other ministry?

 

[Romans922]

I preach from it every week (2x on Lord's Days). Any time I teach, I use it. I use it for GA and presbytery meetings. It has helped me greatly. I'm not using paper nearly as much (environmentally friendly..somewhat). Cuts down on printing costs, which overtime will hopefully take care of the cost of the ipad. Also, I don't have to lug around a laptop (I don't have a smartphone).

I have a good number of apps, but I'm not at my computer or ipad to let you know them.


What do you mean by a distraction, how would it become a distraction? I would assume one's phone (smartphone) would be more of a distraction...

 

[sdesocio]

Thanks Andrew. Its seems that you can spend as much time exploring the possibilities of what apps you can get. Or looking for the best way to do something... For example I use evernote but it doesnt work well on the ipad. So what app do you use for your sermon?

 

[VictorBravo]

For example I use evernote but it doesnt work well on the ipad. So what app do you use for your sermon?

As they seem to be fond of saying: "There's an app for that."

Evernote for iPad | Evernote Corporation

I don't own an iPad. I get by with a netbook. But considering in 1984 I (and many others) spent more than $2,600 for a computer that did little more than be a word processor and a spreadsheet generator, a $500 iPad sounds like a comparatively good deal.

 

[Ask Mr. Religion]

For example I use evernote but it doesnt work well on the ipad. So what app do you use for your sermon?

As they seem to be fond of saying: "There's an app for that."

Evernote for iPad | Evernote Corporation

I don't own an iPad. I get by with a netbook. But considering in 1984 I (and many others) spent more than $2,600 for a computer that did little more than be a word processor and a spreadsheet generator, a $500 iPad sounds like a comparatively good deal.

Indeed. I wrote way too many sermons on a 29 pound Kaypro with a dot matrix printer.

AMR

 

[fredtgreco]

I use my iPad as both a laptop replacement when traveling and as a portable library. I have access to (nearly) all my Logos books, and for the commentaries I don't, I can scan the pages in for that week as a PDF and even annotated them on the iPad. It really makes for a very light mobile office.

 

[N. Eshelman]

* Accordance Bible Software (easy to see while writing without moving back and forth between sermon notes and exegesis program).
* Kindle
* Google Reader
* iBooks

I can travel without having to carry so many books.

It's just another tool in the toolbox.

 

[Romans922]

I use iBooks (free) for my sermons, I just make them into PDFs which is pretty easy. You can also make annotations on them, if you desire, with Fred's recommendation (iAnnotate) or something like that. I do all my work on my Word document, then make it to PDF and put it on my iPad.

Important things to remember if preaching from it, Lock the screen rotation and make the Auto-lock feature = Never. And Keep Battery charged.


Also, any kindle books, or PDF books, all can be viewed on the iPad easily and easily searchable.

 

[sdesocio]

But do you guys find that it was a worthwhile expense?

 

[N. Eshelman]

But do you guys find that it was a worthwhile expense?

Yeah

 

[Romans922]

My Apps:

Bible, Christian Creeds, Dragon Dictation, iBooks, Google Books, Print n Share, Robert's Rules, Kindle, Simplenote, ESV Bible, Dropbox, iAnnotate PDF, iReformed, Skype...

Yes, a worthwhile expense.

 

[fredtgreco]

But do you guys find that it was a worthwhile expense?

Yes, I do. It allows me to be productive really anywhere. When I travel, I no longer take my laptop bag with all its accouterments. It was really nice at GA this year to only have a small bag instead of the huge binder or laptop on my lap.I was able to use it to edit the bulletin while I was gone, check email, and work on my sermon. With Logos (and my entire library) any library, coffee shop or wherever is a place I can do sermon work.

 

[sdesocio]

What did you use to edit the bulletin?

 

[Edward]

But considering in 1984 I (and many others) spent more than $2,600 for a computer that did little more than be a word processor and a spreadsheet generator, a $500 iPad sounds like a comparatively good deal.

Kaypros and Osbornes were a lot cheaper than the alternatives of Magcards and more versitile than the slightly more expensive dedicated word processors that Exxon sold.

 

[fredtgreco]

What did you use to edit the bulletin?

Two apps work really well with Word documents - Docs2Go and QuickOffice. I also have a LogMeIn app that allows me to control a remote PC (in this case my secretary's PC). Another option I had (since we use MS Publisher for the bulletin, and Publisher does not play well with any other program) was to have my secretary make a PDF of the drafts, and then I annotated it, and she made the changes.

 

[sdesocio]

Well my question is more of a professional justification, especially since my church is subsidizing it.

 

[KSon]

But do you guys find that it was a worthwhile expense?

Yes, I do. It allows me to be productive really anywhere. When I travel, I no longer take my laptop bag with all its accouterments. It was really nice at GA this year to only have a small bag instead of the huge binder or laptop on my lap.I was able to use it to edit the bulletin while I was gone, check email, and work on my sermon. With Logos (and my entire library) any library, coffee shop or wherever is a place I can do sermon work.

As far as the use of Logos (which would be my primary motivation for purchasing an iPad), do you need to have the WiFi or 3G (if you're not by a hotspot) to access your books, or does it store them on the device? I briefly checked out someone's iPad 1 and without being connected to my WiFi it seemed, operationally, like a Kindle.

 

[fredtgreco]

But do you guys find that it was a worthwhile expense?

Yes, I do. It allows me to be productive really anywhere. When I travel, I no longer take my laptop bag with all its accouterments. It was really nice at GA this year to only have a small bag instead of the huge binder or laptop on my lap.I was able to use it to edit the bulletin while I was gone, check email, and work on my sermon. With Logos (and my entire library) any library, coffee shop or wherever is a place I can do sermon work.

As far as the use of Logos (which would be my primary motivation for purchasing an iPad), do you need to have the WiFi or 3G (if you're not by a hotspot) to access your books, or does it store them on the device? I briefly checked out someone's iPad 1 and without being connected to my WiFi it seemed, operationally, like a Kindle.

Logos allows you to download your books to the iPad for use without an internet connection.

Also, an app like GoodReader allows you to download files (PDFs, etc) to the iPad for offline use.

 

[Bookmeister]

The portability of my Logos library alone makes it worthwhile to have. Add the Kindle, iBooks, GoodReader, DocsToGo etc. and I cannot see myself without an iPad ever in my future.

 

[raekwon]

I dunno, Sam... but that Motorola Xoom is looking awfully tasty lately...

 

[KSon]

The portability of my Logos library alone makes it worthwhile to have. Add the Kindle, iBooks, GoodReader, DocsToGo etc. and I cannot see myself without an iPad ever in my future.

How is the Logos interface on the iPad compared with that of a standard laptop? Are the Exegetical and Passage Guides accessible? Again, during my very brief time with an iPad 1 with Logos on it it seemed like there was a substantial difference in interface and it was more about having your resources available to be read rather than having all of the operations available to do passage work.