ACORD Forms in the iPad - Part 2

My iPad arrived just about 10:00 AM Saturday. The UPS truck looked like that was all they were delivering that day.

So do ACORD Forms work on the iPad. No - not ours using Adobe Reader to present the forms as fillable PDF forms. to be clear, PDF's do open on the iPad, but not as fillable forms. You can not enter information and save or print it. I have purchased the Adobe Acrobat Reader Pro for iPad. I will test it later and let you know if it changes this.

How does this make me feel about the iPad asks the psychologist?

I still love it, but I don't think it will be a killer device as it is currently set up.

I do think the type of device - a tablet computer - has finally shown us what personal computing will become over the next year or two. But Apple has intentionally limited the iPad so badly - I assume to protect it's other product lines - that as Android based devices are released which do not impose these artificial limitations on their hardware and software, those devices will replace my laptop and my iPad.

Here are the limitations which keep me from loving the iPad...

1. Browser limitations which keep the whole World Wide Web unavailable to me. The very same web sites I can visit on my iPhone and iTouch I can not see using my iPad browser. Not acceptable in any way. I couldn't order take out last night from my iPad. I had to use my iTouch iPod. This is just stupid.
2. No USB port. I need to move stuff on and off my iPad without having to get Apple's approval first. That kind of control ended in grade school when I had to get permission from Miss Frothingham to go to the bathroom.
3. No camera. OK, now I'm just complaining because the other stuff - especially the browser - are so disappointing.

Do I like my iPad. Hell yes. Am I going to keep it. You bet. Will I be buying an Android based tablet when they come out. Probably more than one.

I agree with the reviewer who said they felt like they were holding the future in their hands.

I also understand the reviewer who called the iPad an iPhone without the phone. But I disagree. It is an iPhone without the phone or the full browser.

It is fortunate for Apple they got to the space first. If this device came out after the first well done Android device it would be another Apple Lisa. Oh yes, I have one of those also.

ACORD Forms on the iPad

I have to admit I am pretty excited about the arrival of my new iPad. I think it is the perfect tool for an insurance agent to take with them into the field to work with forms and customers.

Assuming I receive my iPad this Saturday - April 3rd - we will have all the ACORD forms available on the iPad by Monday, April 5th. I will be posting video of how it works about the same time.

Why do I think it is better than a laptop? I think when you are sitting at a table, showing documents to a customer, the iPad is much closer to the experience of actually showing a paper document.

1. It is one flat surface - a laptop is two surfaces and the screen is limited related to the angles you can view.
2. Like a piece of paper, you can lay the iPad flat on the table and turn the page to face your customer, but you can still read it upside down. Try doing that with a laptop.
3. I hope you will be able to have your customer sign their name with their finger right on the screen. Not sure this is available, but wouldn't that be the best electronic signature ever?

I don't think you will use your iPad to complete the bulk of the information in an ACORD form, but making selective changes will be easy.

I know that using a program like our Cap Dat ACORD service, most of the time the things you are doing are not keyboard driven, but are mouse driven. The touch screen is so much better than a mouse you will not believe you ever used a mouse.

Keep a note to check back here on Monday morning to see how I feel after a few days of actually using the iPad with our ACORD forms services.