Thursday 13 December 2012

Using an iPad in the garage workshop

An iPad in the old cars workshop? Surely not? We play with old cars and like to use classic tools to tinker with the cars. But once in a while a new gadget catches the eye and shows potential as a good workshop tool. And yes, I think the Ipad and other tablets could find a place in the workshop. I have shelves full of workshop manuals. I like them a lot, but how cool would it be if you could search them with keywords? On line with your tablet you can search a great cache of useful car related data. In some cases even whole manuals are available on line. 
Of course I wouldn't get rid of all my rare manuals, but it saves time to search on line. You could keep an old pc in the workshop, but it's so much easier and more comfortable to do your search in the comfort of the living-room and saunter to the cold workshop with your data and start working. A pc is not very portable and a tablet is. You could use a netbook too, but they seem to have gone out of fashion, so they might be harder to find nowadays and for some reason the current tablets are easier to use, as it's just point and poke to get your information. Another possible use for your tablet is to replace that old transistor-radio. Yes the one that you only plays that one local station with the music you don't like or the hosts who keep making embarrassing prank calls. With your tablet you can roam the radiostations of the world and listen to the programs you like. You can even listen to Click and Clack on Car talk to get in the mood for your car repair jobs. Just watch those greasy finger prints if you borrow your kid's tablet!