As of iOS 4.0 we are now able to use Bluetooth keyboards with any of our iDevices. Although this can be overkill for something like the iPhone or iPod, with the iPad I find that I can turn my tablet into a bit more than a tablet making it a perfectly suitable work environment for me. With the keyboard I can accomplish most things as easily as I can with a laptop. The OS is different than that of a laptop and there are some obvious short comings. But for some of the standard things that I do at work I can get it done with my iPad and bluetooth keyboard.
Combined together with a few good apps, I can get most things done, from email to IM to programming. With each of these I can do the majority of thigns I would for work. This makes for a nice way to concentrate on my job while hanging out in the park (with WiFi of course) or at the coffee shop, without having to lug the laptop around. At present all of my work lives on an internal server, which means once I connect through the VPN and then via the iSSH app (Which I have found to be the best SSH app in the app store) I can connect to the remote server and access all of my work. Using Screen (if you are a linux/unix user and don’t know screen, look it up, you’ll love it) carefully configured to work exactly as I want, I can pick up on my work exactly where I left off. Should I get disconnected from the internet unexpectedly or need to shutdown for a while, screen automaticlly saves my place where I left off. This technique has even been useful while in the office when going to your standard boring meeting if I want to continue working on something right from my iPad.
Add in the native email app which allows me to stay responsive as needed, and then of course IM. I use BeejiveIM (pronounced beehive) for IM, it is a fantastic IM app with a variety of options available for configuration to make it the perfect app. You can connect to a variety of services, just about every service out there. And since we use it pretty heavily for communication at the office this is a great way for me to stay in touch. And of course, don’t forget the native Music app or Pandora or Spotify. These apps provide me with the musical entertainment I need to stimulate my mind and keep working. I use this together with my bluetooth headphones which keeps me completely wireless and productive.
Working like this is even better now with iOS 5.0 which has the notification center, that means that I no longer have notifications interrupting my work, but rather displaying a small banner at the top of the screen while keeping me working. The only down side to working like this is that there is a lot of functionality missing (that I hope brings to us in the future) for working with a bluetooth keyboard. For example there is no “send” button on the keyboard, that means if you are in iMessage or sending an email, after you are done typing the email or iMessage, you will still need to touch the screen to send. Navigating between apps must still be done via touching the screen. But most bluetooth keyboards do come with extra keys for going to your home screen and controlling your music. You can also use a lot of key combinations available on your laptop such as command-c and command-v for copy and paste. Here is the keyboard that I use and recommend above all others: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=logitech+bluetooth+keyboard&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=9528725514121470562&sa=X&ei=g9z8TtrxMOf30gG9m9i8Ag&ved=0CHsQ8wIwBw