<p>I’m trying to think of a good surprise for my son for Christmas and was wondering if an iPad would be useful. He is a freshmen in engineering so he is really pressed for time - no video games this year. I’m also past the point of spending money on junk, and living in a dorm he doesn’t have any room for anything other than necessities. He has a laptop, smart phone and an iPod.</p>
<p>I’m not the most knowledgeable when it comes to technology so I am at a loss. Is an iPad something that would be useful for a college student? I’m also open to other ideas…realizing that it is only October and I have some time to think and plan.</p>
<p>I’d like to surprise him with something he could really use…and I don’t want to just hand him cash - unless there’s a really creative way to give it to him.</p>
<p>If he has a laptop and an iPod touch, iPad is probably not a good idea. It is a nice toy, but it is expensive, and its functions are covered by the devices your son already has.</p>
<p>You could give him a Netflix subscription… For $8.99/month he can have unlimited streaming options, so he could watch movies on his laptop whenever se has time for it. Most of the new movies are available to stream as soon as they are released on DVD. (They also mail DVDs, but students usually don’t use that part of the deal).</p>
<p>As the mother of another freshman engineering student, I can tell you that my son is fascinated with the iPad. There is an Apple store in his campus bookstore, and he brought me right to it during Parents Weekend. As the wife of a computer guy, I can tell you that my husband loves anything with a power cord. I recently worked with a young lady who had an iPad in a nice fancy zebra cover, quite the fashion accessory. In short, the iPads are the new fad, like the iPods were, and if they can play games on them, even better. Does your son ever talk about the iPad, how cool it is, etc? If so, maybe you can make a cute card saying, Redeem this certificate for an iPad. That way, he can pick out a model that works for him. And if he says, I’d rather take the 400 or 800 cash, you can do that, too.</p>
<ul>
<li>Lightweight and portable and easy on the eyes</li>
<li>Good for trips</li>
<li>Decent for entertainment (videos) when you don’t want to carry a laptop</li>
<li>Starts up instantly</li>
</ul>
<p>The iPad is good at consuming content but pretty poor for creating content. It’s not that great for doing papers and anything requiring a lot of writing. It is good for reading books.</p>
<p>Your son already has a smartphone so he can read or consume media on the go. His eyesight is probably a lot better than mine so he may not need the larger screen of the iPad.</p>
<p>I generally keep the iPad in the bedroom as my desk is in the basement and I can check my email from the iPad so I can see if anything happened overnight at work that I need to address. That’s not an issue in the dorm.</p>
<p>Another thing is that my desktop takes about 10 minutes to boot. My laptop used to take about 50 seconds to boot but I put in an SSD and it now takes about 20 seconds. The faster boot time of my laptop has me using it a bit more now.</p>
<p>I think that some students can use an iPad; it’s never bad to have an additional device and you can always use it for reference while you are creating a document on your laptop. The iPad is portable but not excessively so. Again, a smartphone will take care of most web needs on the go.</p>
<p>I think that the iPad is a bit pricey and perhaps not that useful in a dorm room</p>
<p>If he has desk space in his dorm and doesn’t already have one, perhaps an external monitor would be nice. You can get 21 inch monitors for well under $200 and they can make doing work easier hooked up to a laptop. They can also be nicer for watching movies or videos. A monitor would be less likely to be stolen and they’re always handy to have around, whether in college or in the working world.</p>
<p>Some other things are math books if he’s into that. There is a book thread around here somewhere with recommended titles for math and science kids.</p>
<p>I’m going to look at the new MacBook Air when they arrive at the local Apple Store. I was thinking of turning my 17 inch MBP (which I love) into my home desktop and carrying around an Air.</p>
<p>I would be hesitant to get an iPad for Christmas. I want one badly, but I believe the iPad 2 will be out early in 2011 and is going to be lighter and with a few improvements. I am going to wait- as much as I tend to be an “early adopter”.</p>
<p>Me, too. I’ve learned the hard way to never buy the first generation of anything. The Ipad2 is suppose to have a lot of improvements, including the ability to print from it. </p>
<p>I agree with BCEagle - the ipad is more about being connected to the internet than a tool for writing papers, etc. A lot of folks are carrying them to meetings at work so they can, basically, surf the internet while looking cool. :)</p>
<p>I asked my freshman son if he wanted one for Christmas and he said no. He said he really hasn’t seen many people carrying them on campus. I think an iphone, Droid or other smart phone is much easier to carry and you can do the same level of things on them as a ipad.</p>
<p>I think the ipad is great for traveling or long commutes or if you just want to have quick access to the internet from your bedroom, etc. I do plan to get one when the next generation comes out. We have a netbook that we use extensively for traveling but not much else. Occasionally, I’ll fire it up at night when we are in bed watching tv or I might take it to the library with me but we all have pretty lightweight laptops anyway.</p>
<p>I have a kindle that I love and can’t ever see the ipad being a replacement for that. If your son is a big reader, the kindle (or other e-reader) is great.</p>
<p>When the ipad came out my (engineering student) son said something along the lines of “Why would I want something that does the same things as my ipod touch, but doesn’t fit in my pocket?” He looked at DH’s for a short while but wasn’t really interested. I, otoh, love the ipad; it’s all about the screen size for me.</p>
<p>Absolutely true for me also. I use my iPad to check email when I’m not near the main computer, play games, show off my photos, watch podcasts of lectures and other videos , refer to a periodic table and chemistry data, and refer to pdfs and other documents that I have uploaded to the iPad. </p>
<p>I don’t use it to create documents or spreadsheets.</p>
<p>do many students who have iPads download theor textbook rentals to it? Is it useful as an educational tool? Am I totally naive - a friends’ DD conned an iPad out of her uncle justifying it as a way to get her textbooks cheap…</p>
<p>I had a look at the Apple Book Store in May and was not that impressed with it as a source of textbooks and non-fiction. I don’t know if things have improved since then. I suspect that Apple is still working out deals and that interested publishers are working on technical and digital rights issues.</p>
<p>If you are unsure, you could always give him a best buy (or similar) and let him decide.</p>
<p>Mom offered to buy me a kindle for my 20th birthday back in September, but I opted out. I just don’t enjoy reading that much text on a screen, and I do a lot of pleasure reading.</p>
<p>I don’t know anyone who has an iPad, but agree that you might look into a smartphone. I just got a Droid incredible and love it…does everything and fits in my pocket (granted I will be funding the data plan myself).</p>