Thinking of purchasing an iPad

It's hard to decide because it is a lot of money.

I'm in my thrid year of university and find it's great to have one if you have the money for it. There's a bunch of apps that are cheeper than laptop software that I use often like Antidote and Dragon. It's also great if you want to quickly look stuff up without taking out a large laptop or take quick notes. A bunch of my professors post their notes as pdfs that I can load onto my ipad and read them off there.

I am a musician and teacher and I have an iphone 3Gs, macbook pro, and ipad 1.

I love my ipad but haven't really found too many "serious" uses for it. I still default to my laptop 90% of the time. Although my ipad is very cool to have and very nice for taking on non-working trips and gigs, it'd think a laptop would be more useful for a college student. In theory, you could take notes, write papers etc on your ipad, but it'l be much more convinent to do on your laptop. I doubt you'll find many textbooks in e form to be read on ipad.

if it were me, I'd skip the ipad and use the money on some upgrades of laptop software. You could also check ebay and see about getting one used. That way you're not blowing the whole $499+. If you spend $250-$300 and dont' use it as much as you'd like at least you didn't spend as much as a new one.

Get the iPad 2. Not that much difference in price and it has so much more potential. The first gen iPad is already getting old and it will look ancient when the iPad 3 is released.

Does anyone know about an Ipad 3 release date? I got my ipad 1 3 months before 2 was released (not knowing there would be a 2 so soon) and I'm thinking about upgrading to an ipad2 but don't want to get stung again.

Apple doesn't have a set schedule, but if history repeats itself, iPad 3 will likely be announced in March, 2012, with sales opening in April.

Procrastinate.

Wait til you get to college. See what your curriculum is promoting.

As a college student, I've been relatively content with my MacBook Pro + BlackBerry...until this past semester.

Example 1) I like taking notes on my laptop, but during my Microeconomics class, I found myself at a loss when I needed to scratch out quick supply and demand curves in my notes. I needed to scrounge for a pad of paper and my pen. I refused to buy a peripheral touchpad/stylus combo. That's just more stuff to toss into an already heavy backpack. I sat in class thinking of how nice it would be to leave my MBP locked up and just have an iPad during class.

Example 2) I presented at a conference last semester and found myself scratching out my notes on a legal pad. Again, I thought about how nice it would be to be able to slide through my notes on an iPad instead of crinkling through a stack of yellow pages of scribble during my presentation.

Example 3) I'm really tired of lugging so much crap to class. Textbook, BlackBerry, iPad (with stylus), a snack, and maybe my little Fisher Bullet Space Pen and a pocket-sized notepad (you never know), and I'm good to go. My back is screaming for an iPad.

My only question is whether I should get an iPad or Motorola XOOM.

Go with the Xoom I have run into way to many problems with the iPad. The biggest being the adobe issues. My husband however has the Xoom and never has problems. I have been Apple loyal for ever but am starting to sway as I see the advantages that other products have for less money.

The iPad is not very durable. I have the iPad2 with the magnetic cover. I received it as a gift in April. It did not take much for the glass to crack. I sent it into Apple for repair on a Monday. They sent it back on Wed saying they could not repair it. I looked into getting a protective cover before the glass broke. Apple does not offer anything to protect the iPad2 so I did not think it would be an issue. Good luck with your decision.

If you are talking about repurchasing your iPhone apps, just use your current Apple ID to access the Apple iTunes Stores. Your past purchases are available for you iPad at no further charge. You may have to pay for an iPad specific version later but most, if not all, of your iPhones apps will run. They should be available through the Purchased tab in the different iTunes Stores.

Great answer.