Review: Apple iPad Delivers Basic Office ToolsReview: Apple iPad Delivers Basic Office Tools

When Apple introduced the iPad in January, it pitched the device as a superior alternative to netbooks. It's an ultra-portable Internet device that can be used for e-mail, Web browsing and other content consumption. The iPad's use case as a media consumption device is fairly obvious. It is a great platform for watching movies, reading books, listening to music, and tackling e-mail. But can it really replace a laptop, netbook, or other dedicated computing device? Here's what we found.

Typing

Before we get into some of the productivity software, first things, first: If you can't type on it, you can't be productive with it. (First a note about how I type. I was never formally trained to type. I started off as a hunt-and-peck typist, and have become extremely fast at it. I do not type by touch.)

The software-based QWERTY keyboard of the iPad works just the same as on the iPhone or iPad Touch. It provides a narrow keyboard when held in the portrait orientation and a wider, more usable keyboard when held in landscape orientation. Typing in portrait mode devolves into a hunt-and-peck-with-your-thumbs affair just as you'd type on the iPhone or iPad. It's not horrendous, but it's not speedy, either.

I was able to peck out e-mails this way, but because the iPad's screen is much larger than the iPhone's it is a lot more work for your thumbs to type this way. Typing with the iPad in landscape orientation is much better.

For the latest Apple tablet news, opinion and conversation, be sure to check out information's Special Report: Tablet Wars -- Can Apple Three-peat?

When placed on a flat surface, using the iPad for typing works well, but it works much better if propped up by the Apple-made iPad case. The angle is much improved for typing and for viewing the display. Typing on the flat, glass screen of the iPad mostly works. The keys are definitely smaller than those of an netbook or laptop, but they are big enough.

The big plus is Apple's predictive typing software. It corrects spelling as users type, and really makes up for any fat-fingered failings. My typical typing speed is about 55 words per minute. On the iPad, I was able to get up to about 40. That's a fairly large dip, but it's not terrible.

Alternate characters are reached the same way as on the iPhone, with a press of a software button. There are two full keyboards of extra characters. I wish Apple would let users customize these extra keyboards, as some of the characters (such as the "#" symbol) are placed on a third screen rather than the second.

Typing on the iPad is much better than using a BlackBerry or other smartphone for composing e-mails and documents, but it can never hope to out-match a real, physical keyboard. Verdict: It works well enough for productivity, but I wouldn't want to write thousands of words at a time on it.

Ah, but what about an external keyboard? I have an Apple Bluetooth keyboard. It paired with the iPad instantly and worked perfectly. There was zero delay in the interaction between the keyboard and when text arrived on the screen. This can be a life-saver when a full keyboard is what you need, well worth a few more ounces in your bag or briefcase.

E-mail

The iPad's native e-mail program has all the same flaws that are found on the iPhone and iPod Touch. It can be set up with Exchange, POP3, and IMAP4 e-mail accounts with ease, and users can set the device to sync e-mail at regular intervals. I was able to add three different POP3 e-mail accounts and an Exchange account in about 10 minutes. Apple has made some improvements to the e-mail program that are really good, but they don't go far enough in my opinion.

When the iPad is held in portrait orientation, it shows just one e-mail at a time. Pressing the button in the upper right corner of the e-mail program will show that account's inbox, allowing you to easily jump to older or newer e-mails with just a few flicks of the finger.

When held in landscape mode, Apple has added a permanent window on the left that shows all e-mails, and provides a large window on the right to view the actual e-mails and attachments. Interacting with e-mail this way is much improved when compared to the iPhone. It makes the e-mail program more efficient and easier to navigate.

It is still a real pain to switch between e-mail accounts, and the iPad does not offer an integrated e-mail inbox (e-mails from all accounts filtering into one master inbox) as many had expected. This means if you have four different accounts, you have to exit and re-enter each account with the on-screen tools.

Composing e-mails and responding to e-mails is a snap. There are no issues there. The e-mail program's real failing has more to do with the failing of the iPad/iPhone OS in general: no basic file explorer support. For example, there's no way to add an attachment to an e-mail after you've begun composing it.

If you start typing an e-mail and then realize you need to attach a document, there's no way to add one after the fact. Documents need to be attached to e-mails from the native program used to create them, which is the opposite of how most users expect to use e-mail. Contacts and calendars go hand-in-hand with your business' Exchange account. Syncing them is only a matter of clicking on some tabs in the e-mail settings. The calendar and contacts applications are much better to look at, no doubt.

They offer more detail on a single page, and Apple has designed nice user interfaces that remind me of the old Franklin-Covey calendars. The applications do what they need to: they allow users to easily access and edit contacts and calendar appointments. E-mail security issues are the same as with the iPhone, as are all security issues in general.

Verdict: For triaging e-mail and responding while on the go, the iPad gets the job done. There's no doubt that the improved basic user interface of the e-mail program makes it more usable, but the lack of attachment support could be a problem for some.

Productivity Apps

Apple is offering iPad-optimized versions of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers, part of its iWork suite of productivity software. These desktop version of these programs don't receive the warmest reviews from end users, and I can't say I know a single business that uses them.

In practice, I found them to be very easy to use and figure out with no experience using them. Pages, Apple's Microsoft Word equivalent, and Keynote, its PowerPoint equivalent, are both good for creating simple documents and slide presentations. Pages offers all that most users will need to put together documents and send them off to colleagues.

Remember, though, that documents will need to be attached to e-mails from within Pages itself, and not from the e-mail program. Keynote was a lot more fun. Using finger gestures on the screen to interact with slide elements, to move them, and scale them, etc., was actually enjoyable. I found Keynotes to be my favorite of the three Apple-made productivity applications, if only for its hands-on approach to creating slides.

As for Numbers, I openly admit that I am no spreadsheet whiz. I can do only the most basic tasks in Excel, and the same applies to Apple's Numbers application. I set up a few example documents, and found manipulating the fields to be a little cumbersome. I can't speak for how Excel experts will react to Numbers.

The main benefit offered by these three applications is some compatibility with Microsoft's Office suite. Pages documents can be attached to e-mails as Word docs or PDFs, Keynote as Keynote slide shows or PDFs, and Numbers as Numbers spreadsheets or PDFs. Microsoft Office Word docs, PowerPoint slide shows and Excel spreadsheets can be downloaded from the e-mail program, opened in Apple's software, edited, and then attached to a new e-mail with changes intact. Formatting wasn't always perfect, but the basic functionality is there.

Verdict: Apple's productivity applications do indeed work, but Microsoft Office aficionados will be disappointed by their limitations. Mobile professionals working in the field, however, will be able to perform basic document editing and creation. If that's all that that's needed, the combination of these productivity apps with the e-mail program is enough to survive while out of the office.

Beyond Apple's productivity applications, there are a number of iPad-optimized business applications already lining the shelves in the Apps Store. Cisco's WebEx and Go-To-Meeting, for example, are two perfect examples of how third-party developers can help expand the capabilities of the iPad beyond simply triaging e-mail. There are dozens and dozens more, and surely hundreds on the way.

Only time will tell just how far developers will go to support the business productivity side if the iPad. If it is anything like what developers have done for the iPhone/iPod Touch, business users can expect plenty of support down the road.

Safari

As a professional, I spend 100% of my productive time on the Internet and working in a browser. I run very few other applications. A browser is my main work environment. I realize that's more of an exception than the norm, but even so, I need a really robust browser. Safari on the iPad is better than on the iPhone, but it still has some major limitations.

Basic Web browsing with Safari is great, no doubt. Interacting with Web pages and zooming all over is fun, and feels natural for the Web. Using Safari, I was able to successfully tunnel into the back-end of several different companies that I work with/for, and access all that I needed in terms of basic document opening and creation. Need to upload a document? You're out of luck. Because of the iPad's lack of a file explorer, there's no way to upload a picture, video, or other document from within the browser.

Safari also has weaknesses when it comes to supporting forms. For example, it won't support scroll bars in text fields. That means you have to use the awkward method of pressing and holding your finger to the screen and rolling it down the bottom edge of a text field to get the field to scroll downward. It's not fun. It would be nice if the software QWERTY keyboard had arrow keys to help with this shortcoming of the browser. It doesn't.

Using the Bluetooth keyboard, however, I was able to get around this using the physical arrow keys. Apple needs to do something to improve text field support in Safari. For business users who need to work within cloud-based document editing programs, this could be problematic.

These weaknesses aside, Safari is lightning quick, and looks fantastic on the iPad's display.

Verdict: It really depends on your business needs. If simple site access is all that your mobile professionals require, the iPad could work. If they need serious back-end access, document creation and file-uploading powers, the iPad's Safari isn't going to get the job fully done.

Cloud Support

Support for the cloud -- or, more appropriately, lack thereof -- is one of the iPad's greatest failings, from the perspective of a mobile professional. For example, I use Google Docs for most of my writing and document creation. Using the iPad's Safari browser, I was able to access and view my documents, but I could not interact with or edit them.

There's no explanation as to why. The iPhone has this same failing. I can't say with certainty if this is a Safari problem or a Google Docs problem. It may be something that Google can solve with HTML5 as it has with the Web-based version of Gmail for the iPad, but it has yet to do so.

Beyond Google integration, the iPad can sync with Apple's MobileMe service, but does anyone really use that? For entrenched Google users, MobileMe is redundant, and actually costs money opposed to the free offerings from Google. Apple is also trialling a service called iWork.com. iWork.com is a cloud-based document storage and sharing service in the same vein as Google's Docs. It works seamlessly with Macs, PCs, the iPad, and Apple's iWork suite of software. The service is in beta, however, and on the surface doesn't offer anything new compared to Google's Docs and Apps.

iWork.com can be used by organizations to manage documents, no doubt, but its beta state and lack of visibility and fire-power when compared to Google Docs and services offered by enterprise heavyweights is anemic at best.

Verdict: Lack of cloud support is one of the iPad's greatest failings.

Multitasking

The lack of true multitasking is perhaps the iPad's single biggest failure. As with the iPhone, the iPad can only do one thing at a time. That means only one application can be active and running in the foreground. Only select applications -- such as the iPod -- will run in the background while working in other applications.

For the latest Apple tablet news, opinion and conversation, be sure to check out information's Special Report: Tablet Wars -- Can Apple Three-peat?

The two programs I use most are e-mail and Safari. After an evening of working on both, I found the inability to jump back and forth quickly to be a real pain the rear-end. In what I can only say is a credit to Palm's WebOS, I was longing for the ability to fling apps off the page and open background apps swiftly. WebOS and its multitasking powers might actually be incredible on a device such as the iPad.

Reports across the Internet widely suggest that iPhone OS 4.0 -- which we can only assume will be adopted by the iPad, as well -- will finally introduce true multitasking. I hope that is the case. Being forced to always use the "Home" buttons to jump back to the main desktop of the iPad and then find the other applications that I want to use and open them becomes tedious.

It's even more tedious if you're jumping back and forth between multiple applications. I wish Apple had created a swift way to switch apps, such as a press-and-hold feature of the Home button to access a task bar with all the open apps listed right there.

Verdict: iPad panners were right to lambaste the device for the lack of multitasking support. It needs it, badly.

Odds and Ends

I didn't miss Flash on the iPad at all. There, I said it. In the browsing I did over the weekend, I had no problems with Web sites and viewing content. Either the Web sites I visit don't make much use of Flash, or there's less of it out there than we think. For all those complaining that the iPad doesn't support YouTube, get over it. The dedicated YouTube application works just fine. For those looking to watch Hulu.com on the iPads, well, I guess they are out of luck for a while.

For the latest Apple tablet news, opinion and conversation, be sure to check out information's Special Report: Tablet Wars -- Can Apple Three-peat?

I also didn't miss a Webcam. I fired up Skype and tested a few calls over Wi-Fi. Skype has yet to really optimize its application for the iPad, but the iPhone version worked well enough to permit Skype-to-Skype calling. Without a camera, it doesn't support video chats, obviously. I don't conduct video Skype calls or other video chats often enough to really miss it -- yet. Who knows if or how that will evolve over time, and if Apple will bring in camera support on future versions of the iPad.

Google's HTML5-powered Gmail Web app for the iPad is outrageous. It works unbelievably well for Gmail users, and outclasses the native e-mail program in some respects, such as better access to Labels, filters, and starred items. I truly hope Google and other developers can kick out more HTML5-based Web apps. If it does, it will change the iPad's abilities drastically.

Verdict: The lack of Flash is a non-issue. Google's HTML5-powered Gmail Web app for the iPad is a winner.

Bottom Line, Does It WORK?

Despite the iPad's strengths when it comes to fun and media consumption, it hardly surpasses netbooks in terms of its ability to help professionals do their jobs out in the field.

Mobile professionals will be able to manage their inboxes, no doubt, and make sure they don't fall terribly behind in office communications with the iPad. The e-mail program works well enough for basic message handling, but if your workers rarely send an e-mail without an attachment, the iPad is going to get old quickly.

If video chats are important to the way your company interfaces with customers or business partners, you can scratch the iPad off your shopping list. If full Microsoft Office power and compatibility are a must-have, your IT team would do best to buy an iPad and test out the Apple-made applications to see if they are going to be adequate before deploying any.

The iPad's light weight, small form factor, and portabilitydo make it a great device for a day trip out of the office. I fully expect to leave my full laptop behind when traveling out of the office for a few hours or even a single day. For my needs, the iPad doesn't go far enough in media production and creation to replace my laptop. Not by a long shot. My guess is that's the same assessment most business professionals will come to, as well. The iPad is not a laptop replacement, not yet. With tweaks, it might be.

For now, businesses are best to stick with what works.