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"  It seems like every discussion of the iPad has to start or end with a caveat. &amp;quot;I love it,&amp;quot; people say, &amp;quot;but it doesn&amp;#039;t have a keyboard.&amp;quot; They&amp;#039;ll describe the processes of working, playing, consuming and producing on their beloved tablets but reflexively return to the same refrain: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s just not quite like a laptop.&amp;quot; I&amp;#039;m here to tell you that these people are wrong.  Reading the endless discussions about the absence of Flash in its browser, its occasionally awkward usability and its tightly controlled operating system, one can&amp;#039;t shake the feeling that this is a device defined inordinately by what it lacks.  Compared to almost any laptop, the iPad is sliver thin and extremely light. Its battery lasts all day. You can toss it into a bag without worrying about damaging its hard drive, slip it through security without so much as a glance from the TSA. Some models have built-in 3G, keeping them online at all times. It&amp;#039;s also a fantastic entertainment machine, juggling roles as an e-book reader, gaming device and multimedia hub with ease. Sure, it&amp;#039;s tougher to bang out a 2000-word document on an iPad than on a 17-inch ThinkPad, and there&amp;#039;s no Microsoft Office 2010 in the App Store. But these issues, and others, are surmountable\u2014easily, in fact. Here&amp;#039;s how to replace your laptop with an iPad. Gear Up  Just as any good road warrior shells out for a laptop case, iPad users will reap the manifold benefits of protection, portability and security from a decent iPad case. Apple&amp;#039;s official iPad case ($40) is thin and relatively sturdy and can be folded into multiple configurations, easing the strain of two-handed typing or extended movie-watching. The case itself feels a bit cheap and doesn&amp;#039;t look like much, so it&amp;#039;s worth shopping around for personally appealing alternatives. One standout is the DODOCase, a beautiful, Moleskine-esque bamboo-framed sheath available for $60. Tilting the iPad forward with a case goes a long way toward improving typing, and with practice some can sustain laptop-like typing speeds. For heavier typing duties, Apple offers a keyboard dock accessory for the iPad, but it&amp;#039;s a bit awkward to travel with. Apple&amp;#039;s own Bluetooth keyboard ($70) is a solid alternative: slim enough to slide into the back of the suitcase but spacious enough to offer a tangible advantage over the iPad&amp;#039;s virtual keyboard. If you are looking to transfer photos to an iPad directly from a digital camera, spring for the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit ($29), which allows you to dump photos onto the tablet using either an SD memory card or USB connection. And having a good mount, such as the Griffin A Frame ($50), makes it easier to use the iPad as an extra screen for a home computer setup (a task that can be accomplished with the $10 Air Display app). Reach for the Clouds  A subtle but potentially deal-breaking limitation of the iPad is its file system, or lack thereof. Documents are stored on a per-app basis, which can be disconcerting to those used to filing everything away in folders. By using the online service Dropbox, though, you can do your trusty Documents folder one better. Dropbox is essentially an online hard drive, accessible from any device with an Internet connection, including an iPad. (Free Dropbox accounts come with 2 GB of space; premium accounts come with more.) The official Dropbox app is good for basic document download and photo upload needs, but if you&amp;#039;d like to use the account for more than just images, you&amp;#039;ll need a more advanced document-viewing program called GoodReader ($2). If you&amp;#039;re looking to stream audio or video content from your computer\u2014even when you&amp;#039;re on the road\u2014download Pages, Numbers and Keynote ($10 each), the three most popular apps in its iWork Suite. They&amp;#039;re nicely designed and plenty capable as editors, but expensive (at least compared with other iPad apps) and fairly limited in terms of document sharing. The best compromise is an app called Quickoffice Connect. For $20, Quickoffice provides a word processing app, spreadsheet editing and PowerPoint viewing.  Its editing capabilities and document compatibility will suffice in most situations, but the star of the Quickoffice show is its sharing functions. The app lets you connect directly to Dropbox, as well as MobileMe and Google Docs, avoiding the problem of document storage and syncing altogether. (Documents can be stored locally as well.) Fill the Gaps  The iPad comes with a relatively capable collection of software, but there are a few holes. Its note-taking app is basic and a bit cartoonish, and worth replacing if jotting down text is a priority. One fantastic alternative is SoundNote ($5), a clean, easy-to-use notes app that also records sound. Notes are saved alongside the timeline of the recording, so they can be revisited in context.  For basic photo editing, Adobe offers a free app called Photoshop Express, which offers an intuitive, albeit sparse, set of simple image-editing tools. Printing documents from the iPad is currently difficult and requires the purchase of a third-party app. (The $10 Air Sharing HD is a reliable choice.) However, Apple is currently testing native printing capabilities for the iPad and will include them in OS version 4.2, due for release in the coming weeks. Hack Your Home Lastly, on the off chance that the iPad can&amp;#039;t handle a particular document, or work calls for a specific Windows or Mac OS app, a remote connection to a computer at home is invaluable. The easiest such system to set up is called LogMeIn ($30). This app provides full access to your home computer. You can actually take control of the keyboard and mouse and see the full contents of its screen. Tech-savvy iPadders looking to save money can set up a VNC server on their home computers and access with a free app called Mocha VNC Lite. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/apps/reviews/a6189/ipad-apps-accessories-laptop/>