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Ask HN: What's the most productive thing you do on your tablet?

3 points by mavsman ↗ HN
I generally feel like I need a keyboard to be productive, e.g. writing code. Most of my activities on my tablet feel like I'm just consuming and often wasting time. I want to be able to make good use of my time when I only have a tablet handy or when a laptop is not an option. Any ideas?

7 comments

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arvin
For writing code, you can use nitrous.io or c9.io to use your tablet browser as a full IDE on the cloud. I've tried this use case before and it works ok.
mavsman
I love c9.io but I don't find a it practical to actually write code on my tablet. I know that was the example I used so I apologize if that made it confusing.
acesubido
This won't be on the topic of writing code but more on being personally-productive: I use my iPad to make hand drawn wireframes/mockups using Paper53.

Going ahead and coding up an app without any idea of how the user experience/workflow goes blocks me up big time, on the flip-side wireframes/mockups multiply my productivity when the time comes that I actually type up code.

For me, when I'm trying to do some small experiment or side project, rapidly drawing high-level mockups on tablets multiplies my productivity than spending time on Photoshop/Balsamiq.

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retrogradeMT
I took cs50 and a couple of other classes from itunesU/edx last year. That was easily the most productive thing I have done with my ipad.
sharmi
I use my android tab to catch up on coursera videos, itunesU videos, feedly, hn. Read books: moon reader is a great app.
marketmaker
I wrote an app for the iPad that I use to monitor the stock market during the day. I use this app literally every single day and have been putting features into it that make the iPad a sort of extension of my trade desk. I now have two builds, one for me and people in my office, and one for the public.

I'm trying to open pieces of my framework to the public to help me get feedback currently to see if my work is usable by others. I'm trying to address issues like what you're mentioning. I think that, in some cases, you can actually be more productive on the iPad than on the desktop. It depends on the workflow within the app.