The concept of PostPC was introduced by Lou Gerstner in the late nineties of the last century, but then only a few experts and computer fans spoke about the advent of the new era (history buffs can read old publications ). The idea of ​​replacing desktop machines with mobile devices penetrated into the mass consciousness later, with a light hand from Steve Jobs. Focusing on practical issues, we will try to prove (or refute) the concepts formulated by the founder of Apple.

What is what?

Checking the existence of life in the world of PostPC, for twelve months I will work only on tablets and smartphones. Having reserved the right to exploit various household appliances, office equipment, peripherals, network and server equipment, as well as cloud solutions and virtualization technologies - I repeat, this is only about abandoning desktops and laptops.
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As part of the experiment, all noteworthy mobile platforms will be tested and the first experimental device was the Apple iPad 4, which on March 3, 2013 was replaced by the Dell Vostro A860 that served me faithfully for several years.

Migration to the world of PostPC

The moving process went smoothly: in fact, the only difficulty I had to face was uploading two gigabytes of data from a laptop to the clouds via a slow 3G connection from my native village (at the same time I checked if there is mobile broadband in the Russian outback).

The basic hardware configuration is not too original: Apple iPad 4 Wi-Fi 16 GB, Logitech Tablet Keyboard for iPad (Bluetooth), TP-Link TL-MR3020 portable router connected to it via USB port Huawei E1550 modem, and active USB hub ( left from the previous configuration). I also purchased four AAA nickel-metal hydride batteries with a charger and, apparently, threw 840 rubles to the wind - the keyboard has been running from standard alkaline batteries since early March.

Other gadgets do not deserve a detailed description: java-phone, digital voice recorder, chargers, cords, cables, - the usual journalistic junk. But on the "clothes" for the iPad it is worthwhile to dwell in more detail - I wanted to buy an ordinary case, but I couldn’t find anything of quality for the sane money (everyone wants to cut an extra penny from the applause). But it turned out to buy with a huge discount "skin" made of genuine leather for iPad 2 and adapt it to your tablet with the help of an improvised Cover Case Adapter.

Is Apple so scary?

According to the results of the first month of using the iPad as the main machine, I can say only one thing: rumors about the banal fencing of iOS are greatly exaggerated. There is some kind of data encapsulation in applications (almost like in object-oriented programming) and this is not very convenient for creating content - it’s still better when your files are combined by task, not by type, and even within programs - but there are special restrictions on no data exchange. Yes, and it is easy to get around without jailbreak using applications from the AppStore.

However, I did not want to keep documents separate from photographs or, say, recorded interviews, and had to use cloud services. And since the fast Internet is not everywhere, it took a file manager that allows you to work with a local copy of data and supports full synchronization with the cloud, as clients do in desktop OS. Such a program was found and even turned out to be free - I can recommend " Documents by Readdle " to everyone.

Work and fun

The iPad is considered to be a machine designed to consume content, but there are a lot of good applications for work in the AppStore, but there are difficulties with entertainment. No, if you take games, surfing, social networks, reading newspapers, magazines and e-books, then the user will not have any problems - you can even download epub files from an arbitrary site with a regular browser and add them to iBooks library. The same is easy to do with books in fb2 format if you have the appropriate application (I chose the paid ShortBook program).

With music, everything is pretty good: there is an iTunes Store, there is a Yandex.Music service available by subscription (or free of charge in the browser) that allows you to download tracks into the iPhone application and even play them from Yandex.Disk. For 99 rubles a month (the price of an inexpensive album in the iTunes Store), the lack of a special program for the iPad can be tolerated, so the pirated music with the transition to the tablet was abandoned. But there is nothing to replace the films from the torrents: I would like to pay money, but with the legal Russian-language video content things are not the best.

I had to sort out a dozen services offering the user a licensed movie (iTunes Store, IVI.RU, etc.) and not one pleased me. “More junk! More sludge! ”- this slogan will suit any of them, although in iTunes some new items appear almost simultaneously with the release of the film on disks. Let's not forget about your favorite foreign series: “Futurama”, “House” or, say, “Game of Thrones” on legal resources is unrealistic, and I can only watch them in translation lostfilm.tv.

In general, it was not possible to refuse torrents, but there is no BitTorrent client in the AppStore. To solve the problem, you will need a file manager with a built-in browser and any of the many services that allow you to download movies using BitTorrent protocol and take them via FTP / HTTP. Another option: a BitTorrent NAS supporting media player (the latter should also be able to distribute streaming video on the local network).

For money or for free?

Fans smashed the myth of the excellent quality of applications from the AppStore around the world: they say, many of the programs are paid (there is enough free software, however, and therefore they are good. This is complete rubbish - junk in the online Apple store is more than enough. Moreover, for the money. If you did not like the purchase, then it is impossible to return the money spent, and the developer has already received his penny.

The funny thing is, reviews of applications and user reviews do not always help - they have already cost me some amount of money. A good solution is to use some kind of freebie catcher, for example, AppZapp - this program keeps track of discounts and sales in the AppStore, which the developers constantly arrange. So take the time to spend money, most likely, the desired application (or its equivalent) can be obtained for a much smaller amount, or even free of charge (for example, the Abbyy Lingvo dictionary cost me 33 rubles).

Finally, I want to offer the audience a little apple life hacking: you should not immediately subscribe to the services through the built-in client purchase programs - very often sellers shift Apple's considerable commission on the fragile shoulders of the user and on their own or partner resources the price of the service is less. Say, you can subscribe to Yandex.Music for 99 rubles a month only on the company's website - buying from an application is more expensive. Similarly, things are with Evernote and many other services, moreover, the difference is very noticeable.

Summary

You should not expect that the iPad will replace a professional graphics station, a computer programmer or a modern smart TV, but it copes with everyday tasks perfectly. A tablet is also suitable for creating content - in a month I had no difficulties with work. Details will be in the following publications (only 10 of them are planned for iOS, then, let's move on to other platforms), for now just take a word. Moreover, the stagnation of the traditional PC market confirms this.