Hi all,
We've just had a question come in via Twitter that we thought we'd pass along for your thoughts.

Any advice on or experience of using an iPad with Parkinson's? Thinking of buying one as a gift. Can anyone help?
http://bit.ly/STRNZy

I know that a few of you are using them. Have any thoughts to share?

You can post here or send us a tweet to @ParkinsonsUK

Thanks!

Hi everybody, I'm half back, been having a ROUGH TIME!! I'm trying to get back on my bike instead of lying in the middle of the road, hoping someone will run me over with a great big steamroller!

Ezinder, Yes I use and iPad,it's extremely portable, I use it to do jigsaw puzzles while waiting about in waiting rooms as we pd folke seem to doo quite a lot of that!. I also use it for emails, I do not have a sim card in mine so can only use it where there is free WiFi. Buut the app called 'Astro puzzle' is really good and I use it to try and get a grip on eye hand coordination.
It's a great peice of kit and you can get an office app, I have 'docs to go' You have to link it to a pc toupload any docs,

It's not as good as a laptop as there are somethings you can't do because 'Apple' won't allow it, typical of anything 'apple' but still very usefull and as I said compact and bizuet( excuse the spelling)I take mine most places as it's easier to cart about than my hefty laptop.

Hope this is of help to you

Hi ezinda
I have an iPad and iPhone which interact with each other.i like the iPhone best because of the apps you can set reminders when you leave or arrive at a place which is very useful.also brain games ,notes,kindle everything you can do on an iPad and more.if you struggle reading small print there's a magnify with light, a night torch the list is endless.if youve got written work to do you can do it anywhere.basically the iPhone is more mobile and fun it even measures how much your trembling o you know it's not in your mind.hope that helps a bit .twins99

Puddley and Twins99,

That information is really helpful. We'll pass it along to Holly, who asked the question on Twitter.

Thanks so much!

Hi Ezinda,

I use an iPad one, with the large memory, which makes it kind of expensive for most pockets - mine came as a combined family birthday present.


I also use a quite powerful laptop, because the iPad simply can't do everything i.e. it has serious limitations, but having said that, I love it.


It starts up so quickly, and it's great for music ,catch up tv mand films, plus lots of other stuff! all in HD.

The big problem I found, as a Parkinson's sufferers is the touch screen, as I can sometimes be a little clumsy with my hands and either touch 2 keys at the same time or not press hard enough for a key to register.

There is a solution however ' a stylus' just like a soft nib pen or pencil , which eliminates the above.

Once again, not cheap, so another birthday present.

Would I recommend an iPad to anyone - you betcha !!!


Regards,

Mike.

Thanks mike 700! Much appreciated.

Hi ezinda i don`t know much about i pads although i have had a play on my sons and found it quite hard to use. As a pwp i find swiping really difficult and frustrating especially mobile phones. Recently my computer decided to die on me and was beyond repair so my husband did some research on tablets. We decided to buy a tablet called an Asus Transformer, this is tablet with a detachable keyboard so it acts like a mini laptop/tablet. I find the keyboard really useful but i can also use touch screen which is really handy. It can do most things that an ipad can do and is android compatible. I`m not very technically minded so i`m still getting used to it but i highly recommend buying one.

C

Just reading Big C's reply, and remembered that a separate keyboard is available for the iPad.

I have limited direct experience of the iPAD or iPhone but I am a big fan of speech recognition. I carry a very small but fairly powerful laptop with me most places I go. It is more powerful than an ipad but much less compact. The Laptop (Toshiba Portege R600) is cute and useful but not breath takingly gorgeous.

I run Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software on the laptop.

I know that there are versions of Dragon for iPad/iPhone and Android. Dragon on tablets & phones differs from the versions that run on Windows or Mac computers. The computer version runs standalone whereas the tablet/phone versions rely on data connection back to a server.

I am tempted to buy an iPhone to complement the laptop

EF

Hi EF


I have the free Dragon Dictation app on my iPad -works well as you indicated.

Regards,

M.