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Btw when you say download, you mean purchase+download, right?
Must have iPad apps for med students?!
Started by futuredoc2016
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Btw when you say download, you mean purchase+download, right?
Is iPad mini as good as the bigger iPad for med school?
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There's a 4' tall resident in one of the info packets I received.
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I think it should be fine. May even be easier to carry around as it's smaller. Not that the larger iPad isn't portable, but you know what I mean.
I tried the Samsung 10.1 and thought for a device that was supposed to have a designated stylus, it sure didn't work very well... an iPad with a capacitative stylus just works better IMO.
The apps are limited right now. They are fun, but they need more app development to make the tablet functionality more than games and surfing.
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I recently made a video showing the apps I use in med school. Not that many, but I just stick with a few and use them heavily. I don't like having a lot of apps and never really using them. Just pick a few and stick with them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jryMQco-a60
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jryMQco-a60
Thanks for the video
Probably, they wont be satisfied until they have more iterations than The Land Before Time.
It will likely be around that time frame. June-Septemeber.
Hmm.. Buy ipad4 now, or wait for ipad5?
Then it turns into, "Buy iPad 5 now or wait til iPad 6?"
Apple is that hot girl at the party that knows she can get any guy to do her bidding
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Well I want to have an ipad at the start of M1 and ipad 6 probably won't be in the picture at that point. I don't mind being a generation behind, but if I buy i buy ipad 4 now and then ipad 5 gets released in June I will likely be a little irritated.
That is going to happen regardless if you buy apple. I can't really tell the difference between my 2 and the new 3s. The 4 is just a 3 with a new processor.
If I were to buy one right now id get the 2 if still available from apple. Much cheaper and the price markup in the others has more to do with generation than features. Retina display is overrated and not on the mini at all IIRC
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Except for the most recent release, iPads were being released in the spring. Apple wanted to have the new plug in the iPad available for Christmas shopping so it released the new iPad4. It is my hope that Apple goes back to releasing a new model only once a year. A lot of people were mad when a new model was released only 8 months after the previous model.
dsoz
I see. I have never been an apple guy, but I have heard that their new versions of things typically don't change much from the previous year. I guess I'll get a 2 or 3 if I can find one for sale.
Do you think they'll release one this spring and then go back to once a year starting next year? Or do you think they'll wait until next spring for the 6?
Idk, I kind of disagree, I can really tell a big difference in performance and screen clarity between the 2 & 3, but that is just my opinion. I'd say with the 4 out now, see if you can get a new 3 on eBay or something for cheaper. Seriously, you get the better specs plus it'll be a much better deal than buying the current generation. And the fact they left out retina from the mini is just dumb haha. Or smart because they know they can get masses to buy another mini when the 2nd generation is released with retina...
I use uPad for note taking and marking up PDFs in lecture and I've never looked back.
Check it: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/upad/id401643317?mt=8
Check it: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/upad/id401643317?mt=8
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The 2 and 3 have the exact same power specs and hardware. The only difference is the data-intensive retina display. Not trying to be rude, but this is exactly the reason that Apple pumps these things out every 6 months - their fanbase always assumes the next iteration actually is better. Feeling the 3 performs better is nothing short of placebo. My gf had the same reaction when she played with a new iphone 5 compared to her 4s, neither of which were loaded with any apps or anything to slow them down.
And I have played with a buddy's 3. You can definitely tell the graphics are different, but better? Technically yes. But it is pretty hard to pick out unless you touch your nose to each one of them. at a normal viewing distance the 2 is already near the peak of human visual acuity (or so I was told in a CNET review). It will come down mostly to whether such things are worth the extra money. If my ipad broke right now I would buy another 2. I don't watch movies or anything on it - I bought an LED TV for that. I use it to annotate PDFs and.... occasionally it serves as a really fancy stylus holder for my ultrabook
out of curiosity, have you used the new apple headphones they are advertising?
lol no. 2x GPU cores and 2x RAM. Also lol at referencing CNET, the Yahoo News of tech sites.
Apple iPad 2
Apple A5 (2 x Cortex A9, PowerVR SGX 543MP2)
512MB RAM
25Wh battery
Apple iPad 3
Apple A5X (2 x Cortex A9, PowerVR SGX 543MP4)
1GB RAM
42.5Wh battery
Apple iPad 4
Apple A6X (2 x Swift, PowerVR SGX 554MP4)
1GB RAM
42.5Wh battery
I was debating waiting or not and decided to go with the ipad 4. I wanted time to play around with it a bit. Also, some people suggested that occasionally the new releases have issues (ie whatever iphone had the weird reception issues when you held it a certain way) Buying something that's been out for just a bit gives you a chance to hear feedback about it first. Although if they don't make major changes it might not be as much of a concern.
🙄 Oh well, looks like I better find a new review source.
The bulk of the processor change was to handle the retina display. The point I was making was that with the data non-intensive apps anyone uses to take notes you will not see any difference. For the gains we are talking here we might as well bring the weight and heat of the 3 into the equation. Apple iterations are about having the latest and greatest, not really about having a definitive leap forward in performance or ability. On the whole I find apple products to be under powered, over priced, and unnecessary user restrictive with a tendency towards form over function. iAnnotate and a couple games are the only things I use it for. Photon is ok, if you want to watch flash videos, but it is pretty clunky.
Thanks for that. Do you guys think 32gb is enough? Should I go with 64?
The 2 and 3 have the exact same power specs and hardware. The only difference is the data-intensive retina display. Not trying to be rude, but this is exactly the reason that Apple pumps these things out every 6 months - their fanbase always assumes the next iteration actually is better. Feeling the 3 performs better is nothing short of placebo. My gf had the same reaction when she played with a new iphone 5 compared to her 4s, neither of which were loaded with any apps or anything to slow them down.
And I have played with a buddy's 3. You can definitely tell the graphics are different, but better? Technically yes. But it is pretty hard to pick out unless you touch your nose to each one of them. at a normal viewing distance the 2 is already near the peak of human visual acuity (or so I was told in a CNET review). It will come down mostly to whether such things are worth the extra money. If my ipad broke right now I would buy another 2. I don't watch movies or anything on it - I bought an LED TV for that. I use it to annotate PDFs and.... occasionally it serves as a really fancy stylus holder for my ultrabook
out of curiosity, have you used the new apple headphones they are advertising?
No worries, I'm not the type to run out and by the newest apple toy simply because its newer or "better." I played with both the 2 and 3 for awhile before making my decision, and in comparison the 3 loads my main note taking app, Notability, faster throughout its use. That and I really can tell the difference between the displays, especially when zoomed in on images or when viewing PPTs. Of course it is not a NEED, but as a consumer I felt it worth the extra cost. The one thing I will say went against it is that due to the higher wattage, the iPad 3 takes longer to charge, but if I just don't forget to plug it in before bed, it's all good. Now when the 4 came out, I did look to see any differences, and if I simply ran out to buy that one simply because mine is outdated, well that would be dumb to me haha. Same reason why I still use the 4S. No compelling reason to upgrade. But that is of course just my opinion 🙂
I have a pair of the new apple headphones, I tried them out first, and was surprised my music actually had bass in it; the frequency range has noticeably improved. That and they are more comfortable in my ears. I then got them on a Black Friday sale for $15. Comparable to other high end earphones they aren't that huge, but for the performance I get for $15 and how much they do over the old style, it was a worthy upgrade. Far from placebo or me being suckered by Apple Tactics.
I originally had a 16 GB, and that was definitely not enough, but fortunately I was able to exchange. I have 32 GB and that has suited my needs. That said, I don't have any movies or music, just a lot of school material, Harrison's, and a game or two. 32 should be good!
I would go with at least the 3rd generation. To me, retina is worth the cost and text looks fantastic on it. You might find dictation/Siri useful too... It sounds silly but asking Siri to make notes, set timers, look things up, or to even send someone a message is really convenient. I use the camera often as well to take a picture of a figure from a text book/model in anatomy lab and the 3's camera is much improved!
The biggest thing for me is the 512mb vs 1Gb of ram between the 2 & 3. Although I'm not in med school yet I've used an iPad through undergrad (1, 2, & 3 generations) and when you're recording lectures, annotating, and typing all simultaneously things can crash (not to mention what apps might be running in the back). On my 1st gen this was a major issue, 2nd was better but would lag & crash with bigger PDF files, the 3rd gen hasn't given me any issues whatsoever. In my opinion, the ram (plus better/more stable apps) is a major deciding factor.
Just my experience, I'm sure my "bigger files" were a joke relative to size of presentations in med school.
Oh and another thing, there's definitely a learning curve to not only taking notes digitally but also most effectively. Finding the right apps also takes a lot of time and trial. So it would be a good idea to use the iPad and become comfortable with it (and especially the apps) well before school starts.
The biggest thing for me is the 512mb vs 1Gb of ram between the 2 & 3. Although I'm not in med school yet I've used an iPad through undergrad (1, 2, & 3 generations) and when you're recording lectures, annotating, and typing all simultaneously things can crash (not to mention what apps might be running in the back). On my 1st gen this was a major issue, 2nd was better but would lag & crash with bigger PDF files, the 3rd gen hasn't given me any issues whatsoever. In my opinion, the ram (plus better/more stable apps) is a major deciding factor.
Just my experience, I'm sure my "bigger files" were a joke relative to size of presentations in med school.
Oh and another thing, there's definitely a learning curve to not only taking notes digitally but also most effectively. Finding the right apps also takes a lot of time and trial. So it would be a good idea to use the iPad and become comfortable with it (and especially the apps) well before school starts.
Thanks for the info. I checked out prices online last night and it looks like Ipad3 and 4 still cost the same. Does it usually take a while for the previous gen to drop in price?
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Alright so I after a long hiatus from SDN, I was brought back because of this post haha. I hate these comments because I happen to have an iPad and a galaxy note 10.1. The functionality of the note 10.1 is about a 10000000000000000000000000000000x better than the iPad. It took some getting used to for about a week....but what new technology doesn't? For whoever asked about other tablets, the note 10.1 is my absolute favorite. I don't have anything against the iPad, I think it is a great device, but I just like being able to write on my note 10.1. It easily fits in my white coat and I can still keep my snacks on the other side. I use ezpdf and the adobe reader for marking up my pdf files, because they actually save as pdf files. I used iannotate on the iPad and I thought it was the best, until I used the pdf editors on my note 10.1. I use lecture notes for note taking and putting my learning objectives together. I don't carry any physical books anymore because I have found nearly every book I need in pdf format and I can write on them just like I would write on a physical book. If there was ANYTHING that I wish I would have had for my first two years of medical school it would have been the note 10.1. After showing my classmates what I can do with the note compared to their iPads, most of them are jealous! And I've even convinced a couple classmates to buy one themselves, and they love it as well. So I'm not trying to hate on Apple, I just want a fair word in for the galaxy note 10.1. I use it every day, even while interviewing patients because it is significantly easier than even a paper notebook to use. As for apps, everything you would use consistently is in the android play store, including epocrates, medscape, qxcalculate, etc etc etc.....Not every app mentioned, but nearly every app you will use consistently. So that's my soapbox speech for the day, if anyone has any further questions I would be happy to answer them 🙂
PS rumor has it that there will likely be a 7.7ish inch note being announced in Jan or Feb.! Which would likely be the best device ever. Just sayin......
Fair enough. I'm glad it's done you well! I'm no apple fanboy, trust me, I did a lot of shopping around before I decided on my tablet of choice. I'm not hating on Samsung either (sorry if I came off that way), the 10.1 is an excellent device. But I bought an iPad not because of it's name or popularity, but simply because I preferred the way it works and feels over other options. To each their own! 🙂
I honestly have no idea haha. I'm just wondering if there is a deal from someone trying to unload an iPad 3 that's relatively untouched, just because they want to have the newest variety! So if you don't mind eBay or something, maybe there's a good deal or two!
Yea I've been watching but no luck so far. I will probably end up getting a refurb from the Apple store.. Unless someone here has had a bad experience with that route before.
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Really? I tried it in Best Buy today and I liked it. I mean obviously it isn't going to be exactly like a pen and paper, but nevertheless I thought it was much better than a capacitive stylus. And that was with using it at an awkward angle since I didn't want to try and take it off the display. You can also buy a different pen which is fatter (I might do that) so you have a bit better control. For the few minutes I played with it, I thought it was a winner. The biggest argument people seem to have against it is the not as stellar display (which really doesn't matter a whole lot to me tbh) and the steep learning curve. But all things considered multitasking capabilities, formula recognition, shape recognition, and handwriting to text recognition I think it sort of makes up for it.
Was this for android tablets or windows 8? I will agree that there could be much more development, but developers have the challenge of having to develop for such a wide variety of devices, so its tough. As far as I'm concerned an Android tablet has everything I would need it for. That is in particular the Note 10.1. What I want is a way to take clean readable notes with a hybrid between typing when I need to, inserting pictures and problems easily, and multitasking. I really don't consume much as far as media. Sure I download music, but I have my ipod for that. I don't download movies because I have Netflix. Plus the addition of Flash on Android devices is nice as well. For the same price of the 4th generation Ipad you can get the Note 10.1 with twice the amount of internal storage and the designated stylus. For someone like me who really doesn't give much of a second thought of video quality (it doesn't have to be perfect) I'm willing to take a sacrifice there in order to get more optimization for what I want/need.
For rising 2nd years considering a purchase, I would really recommend the ipad mini or nexus 7 for wards. The big ipads fit in a lot of the new white coat designs because pockets are being made for them, but it's awkward to carry. It pulls your coat down one side of our torso rubbing your neck, and when you get up or sit down it's gets cumbersome. Hence all that money you invest in the technology with all of it's glory often gets left in your locker because of the hassle. At least for me it did. I sold my old one and got the mini and couldn't be happier. It's the design that is meant for wards.
The original specs are meant more for a light portable laptop replacement with the coolness of the touch interface. But when your packing your steth, and hammer and your patient notes having the extra bulk is really noticable. Especially when you've been running hard all day into your 12 hour. The mini or the nexus should be that lighter unnoticed thing in your pocket that is all your reference and applications bundled into one. And you won't need anything else.
Just my opinion.
The apps I'm using on wards are: Micromedex, Mediquations, Lab Values, Instant ECG, all my clinical references on ebooks, and siri to take dictation to organize patient care tasks when I'm on the run. I want to get UpToDate. But it's expensive and I haven't decided on it yet. But it's definitely a powerhouse of usefulness for wards.
Would love to hear some ward-specific recommendations from anyone....thx
The original specs are meant more for a light portable laptop replacement with the coolness of the touch interface. But when your packing your steth, and hammer and your patient notes having the extra bulk is really noticable. Especially when you've been running hard all day into your 12 hour. The mini or the nexus should be that lighter unnoticed thing in your pocket that is all your reference and applications bundled into one. And you won't need anything else.
Just my opinion.
The apps I'm using on wards are: Micromedex, Mediquations, Lab Values, Instant ECG, all my clinical references on ebooks, and siri to take dictation to organize patient care tasks when I'm on the run. I want to get UpToDate. But it's expensive and I haven't decided on it yet. But it's definitely a powerhouse of usefulness for wards.
Would love to hear some ward-specific recommendations from anyone....thx
Windows 8. I have 1 of each (ultrabook, ipad, and droid razr maxx). The droid and ipad are pretty similar in terms of apps available, especially for productivity. I would consider an android tablet if my ipad were to crash. Ipad apps tends to be a little more aesthetically pleasing - soft edges, better colors, and whatever. Android tends to actually have more advanced utility in their apps (mostly because android allows more customization of the apps and open source availability means programmers can tie in whatever they want. This also means somewhat decreased stability if you mess with it too much).
Windows 8 is sweet, but I wouldnt recommend it without touch screen availability. I just built a new PC tower and may partition some HD space to set up a virtual Win8 machine to see if I like it on a desktop.... but so far my impulse is "no". The apps for windows8 are pretty limited and only the official windows ones or the brand-specific ones (Toshiba, in my case) are well enough constructed to compete with apple or android. The ultrabooks (and all of windows 8) got rid of Aero so everything looks very pseudo-windows95 (boxy, crap colors, no transparency... the things that make you feel like you aren't using your middle school's ancient computer for a word processing assignment). The only thing I do like about windows 8 that doesnt include the touch is the ability to zoom out to the start screen using the windows key and quickly launch pinned apps. But.... this is of limited value on a desktop (I run 2 24" monitors... it isnt like I am strugging to organize my shortcuts, but on the 13" tablet/laptop that is another story).
So, in short
Pros:
-Great for laptops
-took about a day to learn the layout but once I learned/set up the gestures everything is very smooth
-will be very powerful once app support takes off
-Ability to pin apps/programs to parts of the screen is really nice. This would be even cooler on desktop with a large screen because it kinda sucks to sacrifice 1/4 of a small screen to pin an app up. But that said, I can pin a self-updating SDN app to the side while I work so I can see when people respond to threads I am watching
Wash:
Needed some registry hacks to get it how I wanted it. These are all readily available either as paid apps or 1-time .exe downloads. Things like editing start screen background/layout is unavailable via regular options, so a reg-edit program was needed for this (unless you know how to do it off hand, which isn't terribly difficult, but it was worth the $5 for the app to do it so I wouldnt have to dig around each time I want something different (Start8 is the name of the program, or one of the ones this group makes). I also use their start menu hack, because if I am on the desktop I still want a start button on the taskbar
)Once these were installed I got the customization I wanted and they work flawlessly which is why I call it a washCons:
-Apps often look very.... old.... like I said "windows95-esque"
-Very little touch integration at this point for anything with the exception of news/games/e-reading. Those programs are at least as good as iOS/Android. Social networking apps are kinda lacking. (once these programs take off - I would bet in the next 6 months - and touch is more highly integrated into core functions of several apps/programs I would say windows8 is a no brainer)
To answer your question directly - if you are going android look up "RepliGo PDF Reader". I havent used it in forever, but when I did it was very similar to iAnnotate in terms of functionality. I don't really type that much when I take notes. I will scribble short sentences down to clarify or emphasize a point that wasn't directly stated in the notes, otherwise I just have a color-coded highlighter scheme which (I believe) this supports, but I do it on iAnnotate. I believe both of these programs support typing, but I can't comment if one does better than another. Usually it is like typing on MS Paint, click your desired location, type stuff, if you want you can edit font/size/color/whatever before or after you type. They should all let you select annotations and edit them after moving on as well (making it more like photoshop than ms-paint in this regard as each annotation exists as a separate object on the PDF)
Windows 8. I have 1 of each (ultrabook, ipad, and droid razr maxx). The droid and ipad are pretty similar in terms of apps available, especially for productivity. I would consider an android tablet if my ipad were to crash. Ipad apps tends to be a little more aesthetically pleasing - soft edges, better colors, and whatever. Android tends to actually have more advanced utility in their apps (mostly because android allows more customization of the apps and open source availability means programmers can tie in whatever they want. This also means somewhat decreased stability if you mess with it too much).
Windows 8 is sweet, but I wouldnt recommend it without touch screen availability. I just built a new PC tower and may partition some HD space to set up a virtual Win8 machine to see if I like it on a desktop.... but so far my impulse is "no". The apps for windows8 are pretty limited and only the official windows ones or the brand-specific ones (Toshiba, in my case) are well enough constructed to compete with apple or android. The ultrabooks (and all of windows 8) got rid of Aero so everything looks very pseudo-windows95 (boxy, crap colors, no transparency... the things that make you feel like you aren't using your middle school's ancient computer for a word processing assignment). The only thing I do like about windows 8 that doesnt include the touch is the ability to zoom out to the start screen using the windows key and quickly launch pinned apps. But.... this is of limited value on a desktop (I run 2 24" monitors... it isnt like I am strugging to organize my shortcuts, but on the 13" tablet/laptop that is another story).
So, in short
Pros:
-Great for laptops
-took about a day to learn the layout but once I learned/set up the gestures everything is very smooth
-will be very powerful once app support takes off
-Ability to pin apps/programs to parts of the screen is really nice. This would be even cooler on desktop with a large screen because it kinda sucks to sacrifice 1/4 of a small screen to pin an app up. But that said, I can pin a self-updating SDN app to the side while I work so I can see when people respond to threads I am watching
Wash:
Needed some registry hacks to get it how I wanted it. These are all readily available either as paid apps or 1-time .exe downloads. Things like editing start screen background/layout is unavailable via regular options, so a reg-edit program was needed for this (unless you know how to do it off hand, which isn't terribly difficult, but it was worth the $5 for the app to do it so I wouldnt have to dig around each time I want something different (Start8 is the name of the program, or one of the ones this group makes). I also use their start menu hack, because if I am on the desktop I still want a start button on the taskbar
Cons:
-Apps often look very.... old.... like I said "windows95-esque"
-Very little touch integration at this point for anything with the exception of news/games/e-reading. Those programs are at least as good as iOS/Android. Social networking apps are kinda lacking. (once these programs take off - I would bet in the next 6 months - and touch is more highly integrated into core functions of several apps/programs I would say windows8 is a no brainer)
To answer your question directly - if you are going android look up "RepliGo PDF Reader". I havent used it in forever, but when I did it was very similar to iAnnotate in terms of functionality. I don't really type that much when I take notes. I will scribble short sentences down to clarify or emphasize a point that wasn't directly stated in the notes, otherwise I just have a color-coded highlighter scheme which (I believe) this supports, but I do it on iAnnotate. I believe both of these programs support typing, but I can't comment if one does better than another. Usually it is like typing on MS Paint, click your desired location, type stuff, if you want you can edit font/size/color/whatever before or after you type. They should all let you select annotations and edit them after moving on as well (making it more like photoshop than ms-paint in this regard as each annotation exists as a separate object on the PDF)
On android ezpdf is the best. Followed by repligo reader, followed by qpdf .
Sent from my Galaxy S2
I havent tried ezPDF
What makes it better than repligo?
What makes it better than repligo?
Much more features, text reflow, quicker access to annotation features, etc...
Sent from my Galaxy S2
Smaller keypad. Great apps in the pipeline good for personal use, study, reference, but check with hospital compliance officer about HIPA compliance. Battery life could be longer, and they heat up, other than that very useful, and getting better. Tip, keep your charger handy.
Excuse my ignorance, but are the few select medical apps worth getting an ipad exclusively for those apps? Epocrates is on Android if I'm not mistaken. Don't get me wrong, the ipad is great, but are apples apps just so much better then anything that Android can offer? PDF annotators can be found on both and (at least the three tablets I am thinking of) there are specific note taking apps/programs that are tablet specific. I have debated over what sort of tablet I would want for class for a long while now. I think that four tablets have really stood out as far as specifics for what a use could want. First, the Ipad seems like the all around. It doesn't offer anything special as far as an active digitizer or a specific keyboard but it has the "newest and greatest" apps and are the industry standard. The Asus Infinity has a designated keyboard with a battery which boosts power time when put together. Samsung Note 10.1 has a designated stylus for detailed note-taking and annotating. The Microsoft Surface RT has a designated keyboard which securely locks into place, acts as a protective case, and has the Microsoft Suite of programs. Perhaps it's just different from my end. I am looking at something that will be useful for undergrad and med school. I'm not really in the mindset of clinical rotations. I mean who knows what apps and which platform (apple, android, windows) will be the top and how the others will be developed.
I really don't think there is one huge reason to go iPad over something else; there's definitely more than one quality tablet to choose from. For me, it was all about what provides the best user experience, and for me, that was the iPad. It's just a matter of personal preference. After shopping around I'm pretty sure you'll be able to do whatever you need on whatever platform you choose, just go with whatever you best like to work with!
I will say this though, as far s worrying about having a dedicated keyboard, I don't use my tablet as a replacement for a real computer; any writing I do is mostly on my laptop. My tablet has replaced all the millions of stacks of paper I used to carry around in various binders, making it really easy to have all my notes with me whenever I need them. And it's pretty nice to have a full copy of Harrison's too. So I didn't really worry about what device had a dedicated keyboard or not. But that's just me 🙂
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Hi,
I'm using 3D Organon Anatomy atlas on my mobile. Veeeery helpful for keeping up my anatomy knowledge. It has clinical correlations for each anatomical structure.
I also use Up-to-Date.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/3d-organon-anatomy/id1055273073?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/uptodate/id334265345?mt=8
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