Technology in Architectural Practice

I read your discussion on using either iPad or other tablets for carrying around and using our documents. In the last months our firm has been working with specifications that can be read in iPads.  I have found that it is very easy to download the specs (PDF's) using either iBooks or the Kindle APP (navigation in each is different but both are good). I keep the documents I am not using in the "cloud" and download the ones I need.   However, our specifications had to be reformatted for easy reading and navigation.  We designed the pages as book or magazine pages, we worked with fonts, paragraph spacing and size of text blocks, page proportions, and such.  Section titles have a large size font, summaries are right below the title, information is color coded so it can be easily located when passing the pages (i.e. LEED requirements one color, products another, etc.), and we added photographs, diagrams and other pictorial information, but we kept the CSI page format.  This task took an initial investment in time, but made the specifications easier to use.  Printed in paper or in the screen they do not look bad at all.  The objectives, which were saving paper, making the information accessible when needed, and not having to carry around bricks that no one opens, seem to be almost accomplished.  Now, let's see what the CSI has to say.

-------------------------------------------
Gloria Rasmussen AIA CSI
RMW Architecture & Interiors
Sacramento CA
-------------------------------------------

Hello Gloria,

Well, it's not a simple question because there are so many variables and there is no easy answer. I use both and it depends on what you are talking about and what want to do with the device in question in order to determine which is "best" in a particular situation. By "tablet" I'm assuming you mean something like a Windows 7 tablet and not an Android tablet which is very similar to an iPad with similar abilities and limitations.

The most basic explanation I can give is that the iPad (as well as the Android tablet) is a good "consumption" device whereas a decent tablet computer running a real OS is a "creation" device. There are some areas of crossover but what I mean is this:

The iPad is great if you want to quickly browse the internet, look at a document, check the stock market, check the weather, make a call on Skype, check the news and so on but you hit a ceiling very quickly when you want to do more. It is also locked down so tightly by Apple that, even though you may have a lot of memory on it, you can't just plug it into your computer and use it as a temporary storage device if you want to without doing some gymnastics.

A good tablet computer however, like the Samsung Series 7 i5 running 64 bit Windows 7 pro that I also have, is an excellent, compact, media creation device. For example, I was in Zimbabwe recently, in the middle of nowhere, processing my photographs, by candlelight, in Lightroom on my Samsung 7 then uploading them to Facebook when I had access to wifi. Recently, I was on a flight to Wyoming and sat on it, working in SketchUp, on a bank I was designing, i.e. doing real work on my Samsung 7 tablet - can't do anything approaching this on an iPad or Android tablet at the moment.

I have used my iPad a number of times in meetings taking notes using Notability and Notes Plus and, although these apps work reasonably well, but they can't hold a candle to Microsoft OneNote on my Samsung 7 tablet. To take hand-written notes on an iPad you have to use a really clunky, capacitive pen (like the Bamboo pen available from Best Buy & elsewhere) but, my Samsung tablet computer, with an active Wacom digitizer built in and a very nice, fine pen, coupled with Microsoft OneNote, is vastly superior to the iPad when it comes to taking hand-written notes.

Another major advantage of my Samsung over my iPad is, of-course, it fully and easily integrates into my office network environment (all windows 7 based).

So, I have both and I use both and choose which one I want depending on the task at hand. Each blows the other out of the water in certain situations and your choice depends on what you want to do with it.

-------------------------------------------
Alan Roberts AIA
Principal
Eubanks Harris Roberts Craig Architects, Inc.
Tyler TX
-------------------------------------------

Sorry, just wanted to add the link below to a FaceBook album of mine where I was showing my friends my foray into tablet computers and thought you might like to see it. I started by trying a Motion Computing CL900 which turned out to be a well-made, rugged, expensive but sluggish & problematic piece of junk. After a lot of trouble with two of them I scrapped it and tried the Samsung 7. I am very much happier with it and it has, although the screen is small, performed very well and been very useful to me.

agr
-------------------------------------------
Alan Roberts AIA
Principal
Eubanks Harris Roberts Craig Architects, Inc.
Tyler TX
-------------------------------------------







Original Message:
Sent: 07-13-2012 14:29
From: Alan Roberts
Subject: IPAD vs Tablet

Hello Gloria,

Well, it's not a simple question because there are so many variables and there is no easy answer. I use both and it depends on what you are talking about and what want to do with the device in question in order to determine which is "best" in a particular situation. By "tablet" I'm assuming you mean something like a Windows 7 tablet and not an Android tablet which is very similar to an iPad with similar abilities and limitations.

The most basic explanation I can give is that the iPad (as well as the Android tablet) is a good "consumption" device whereas a decent tablet computer running a real OS is a "creation" device. There are some areas of crossover but what I mean is this:

The iPad is great if you want to quickly browse the internet, look at a document, check the stock market, check the weather, make a call on Skype, check the news and so on but you hit a ceiling very quickly when you want to do more. It is also locked down so tightly by Apple that, even though you may have a lot of memory on it, you can't just plug it into your computer and use it as a temporary storage device if you want to without doing some gymnastics.

A good tablet computer however, like the Samsung Series 7 i5 running 64 bit Windows 7 pro that I also have, is an excellent, compact, media creation device. For example, I was in Zimbabwe recently, in the middle of nowhere, processing my photographs, by candlelight, in Lightroom on my Samsung 7 then uploading them to Facebook when I had access to wifi. Recently, I was on a flight to Wyoming and sat on it, working in SketchUp, on a bank I was designing, i.e. doing real work on my Samsung 7 tablet - can't do anything approaching this on an iPad or Android tablet at the moment.

I have used my iPad a number of times in meetings taking notes using Notability and Notes Plus and, although these apps work reasonably well, but they can't hold a candle to Microsoft OneNote on my Samsung 7 tablet. To take hand-written notes on an iPad you have to use a really clunky, capacitive pen (like the Bamboo pen available from Best Buy & elsewhere) but, my Samsung tablet computer, with an active Wacom digitizer built in and a very nice, fine pen, coupled with Microsoft OneNote, is vastly superior to the iPad when it comes to taking hand-written notes.

Another major advantage of my Samsung over my iPad is, of-course, it fully and easily integrates into my office network environment (all windows 7 based).

So, I have both and I use both and choose which one I want depending on the task at hand. Each blows the other out of the water in certain situations and your choice depends on what you want to do with it.

-------------------------------------------
Alan Roberts AIA
Principal
Eubanks Harris Roberts Craig Architects, Inc.
Tyler TX
-------------------------------------------

I was pleased to see Gloria Rasmussen's message on how her firm has attempted to make specs easier to understand and portable by producing them in a format that is legible on the iPad.  I love my iPad and use it for reading and searching for infomation in documents on the go.  I have a copy of our University's Master Plan on it and am always ready to pull it iup and show faculty or staff how their concerns are being met by the plan.  It's also very easy to carry a PDF of a presentation in iBooks that I can then present to a class I might be visiting - there is a simple connection from the iPad to an AV connector that allows you to use a projector.  It works better than a PC at times, because I can enlarge with my fingers what often requires 2-3 clicks on a laptop or tablet. 

I also use iAnnotate PDF to markup draft documents and email my comments for consideration by the author. 

-------------------------------------------
Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham AIA
Senior Facilities Planner
University of Massachusetts
Amherst MA
-------------------------------------------