Board Packets: Printed versus Digital
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@g.jacobse iPad Air is one generation old. Might not be what you want. Be sure to consider the iPad Air 2, the current model, but also the Retina model (two gen old.) iPads last a really long time. We still use an original iPad and two iPad 2s and an iPad Mini (same gen as the iPad 2) and they all work great. No need to go current to get good usage. But current ones are smaller and lighter and just "cooler" so they have that going for them.
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As @scottalanmiller says, newer or older both will work. and you may get better pricing for older. Apple will still warranty it and if you go the AppleCare route you got the added certainty of replacement.
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@scottalanmiller
This was details right from Apples page. There is an addition cost of $100 to go up.. so $499 -And now I've been asked about using MS Surface as an option.... Who gave management a tech journal.....
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@g.jacobse said:
@scottalanmiller
This was details right from Apples page. There is an addition cost of $100 to go up.. so $499 -And now I've been asked about using MS Surface as an option.... Who gave management a tech journal.....
As much as I like the Surfaces that we have I don't think this is a good use case for them. They take a bit more to setup and secure, and a bit more for maintenance, then an iPad would. If this is just going to be available via a web browser, and they don't need Office, then I would steer clear of them for this application. That being said I believe that you can now get Office for iOS (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-word/id586447913?mt=8).
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This is a case of 90% usage (we care about) is the ability to view a PDF document and not waste money on paper, postage and etc.
They do not have access to services such as email provided to them. However I can see the use of SharePoint - but on the 'public' level and no user account in Office 365.
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@g.jacobse said:
This is a case of 90% usage (we care about) is the ability to view a PDF document and not waste money on paper, postage and etc.
They do not have access to services such as email provided to them. However I can see the use of SharePoint - but on the 'public' level and no user account in Office 365.
Yep... I would recommend against Surfaces then. Nice devices but a bit "much" for the use case and will take a significant amount of IT to setup and support where an iPad wouldn't necessarily have those costs.
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I have both the surface and the ipad. Ipad is so much simpler to manage for your case.
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How do you plan to get the PDF onto their device once you deploy them? Do you have Sharepoint in house? I'm guessing that you don't want to publish that to the internet so the could pull the file from your internal Sharepoint server (if you have one).
You've mentioned O365 - if you're plan is to use Sharepoint from there, how are you going to do it without giving them accounts, and if you give them accounts, can you do that without giving them email? (Yeah I think you might be able to buy just Sharepoint online licenses, though I have no idea how those integrate with your O365 system).
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Something like DropBox, Box, SharePoint, email... all options. Or a website.
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@scottalanmiller
Dropbox, BOX, website, are all pretty easy options and have their merit.SharePoint is a option I am interested in,.. however am not in the office enough to sit and work with it. I'm sitting on about 45 services requests right now. Office 365 is so under used right now... but I hope to change that.
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And I just thought - ownCloud might also be a option.
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ownCloud might be. I've had some complications getting OC hosted PDFs to move easily into the Apple Book program. So test that process before going down that road. Also, running your own ownCloud for such a trivial task might be overkill. The DropBox account you would need for this would be free. Or a free OneDrive account too. So while ownCloud freaking rocks and I love it, I think it sounds like overkill here by quite a bit unless you have other need of it and just adding this on as a freebie.
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@scottalanmiller said:
ownCloud might be. I've had some complications getting OC hosted PDFs to move easily into the Apple Book program. So test that process before going down that road. Also, running your own ownCloud for such a trivial task might be overkill. The DropBox account you would need for this would be free. Or a free OneDrive account too. So while ownCloud freaking rocks and I love it, I think it sounds like overkill here by quite a bit unless you have other need of it and just adding this on as a freebie.
Understandable. With O365 we have OneDrive access.. so might not be worthwhile bothering with OC.
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OneDrive for Business works, even normal OneDrive would work for this.
