Ipad 3

[Buzz Billsberry]

Good afternoon chaps

I need a bit of info on the new iPad 3 I'm looking to buy one with my £500 tax rebate so I'm looking for guidance ...the usual things spec etc. I believe you can now use an external drive? I have a West digital my passport will that be compatable

my usage will I guess be the usual:

Portability

Photos

Apps

Music (can I use itunes and whats the limits on size/no of songs etc) I'll probably stick with the ipod

surfing

email

Word Nothing too huge reall just notes and no novels

wi-fi

Are they easy to set up?

What accessories would you recco up and above protective cover and carrying sock/bag

I've seen various sizes 16/32/64Gb which one is applicable/best? what’s everyone bought/recco'd

Is worth buying from an apple shop or just buy it off tinternet? I guess buying it from the shop is a higher price but they'll set it up I guess?

Who's doing best price at mo?

To name but a few not sure weather to have phone facility but probably not

I appreciate I may have to add some wedge to get the right spec etc

Any help with this will seriously be of great assistance. I can't believe how much IT/media has change since I left Sun Microsystems 12 years ago ! IT/Media just p*sses me off that’s probably why I left Sun !

Cheers

Buzz

[Hammy]

I wouldn't consider one for word processing the key pad is not ideal for lengthy typing and I'm unsure you can get Microsoft office as an app !

It would be worth you checking the App Store and reviews before you buy

[Dodgey]

Hi. Im an IT professional that usuall swears by PCs, but for portability , battery life, and sheer covenience the iPad is untouchable... Or is it? :-)

Antivirus - no , you dont need any. There are no ipad viruses.

Which model? Well it depends on how many photos and tunes you intend to install. I have a 16gb ipad 3 wifi. I use my android phone tethered when there is no wifi, and all my photos are online, and my music on my phone. This way 16gb is more than enough for me.

As for apps you can get word, though without a hard keboard you wont want to be typing novels. You can use google docs online apps for free. There are also plenty of free word type apps in the app store.

Setup is very straight forward. IOS is designed to be logical and easy to use..

Apple hardware prices are the same online as in shops. They dont really do discounts.

I have a smart cover for my ipad but i just bought my mother a faux leather case with magnetic flap for 3 quid on amazon and its just as good.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TG-Cases%C2%AE-IPAD-LEATHER-QUALITY/dp/B004RTM9MM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1348673923&sr=8-2

[Buzz Billsberry]

Thanks for the quick replies guys as for word Hammy it would be just to make notes its more for portability surfing the net, a few of my latest picks etc etc Thats why I was pleased it could handle a external drive. The idea been to store all my pickys on the external drive and view them from the ipad.

Its good to know that the prices on the web arn't diffrent to the stores at least I can have a touchy feely before I buy.

Cheers Buzz

[Captain Colonial]

How many photos are we talking about?

[chippo]

349 pound with groupon .16gb latest one

[Buzz Billsberry]

Photo wise probably 2 gb I would imagine

Buzz

[JOCKER]

They are simple to setup and so easy to use. If you need to do a lot of typing you can connect a Bluetooth keyboard to them. The apple ones are small and smart.

I have a 16gb and wished I brought the larger size as I upload movies onto mine fir when I'm out and about.

If its a few photos and a few albums only . The smaller size is ample

Cheers

Jocker

[Crash test dummy]

Mine doesn't like transferring photos from the PC. A known problem with them and VERY annoying. I have to use Dropbox which works OK for photos but IMHO they don't display that well. OK for dumps from your camera though.

[Dodgey]

With photos the PC link can be a pain. To easily get them off the iPad you just access the ipad as a USB disk in Windows as you would any USB disk, though all the photos are in many folders and just have numbers for names. To get photos to go the other way - on the iPad - I haven't tried much, though I have put a few MP4 videos on, and for that, I coped them to my camera's SD card, then pushed it into the camera connection kit and it imported them no problems.

None of this is really an issue though as I've moved online for all my media some time ago (after deleting 4 years of photos by mistake!)

I pay £5 a year for 80Gb of storage with Google. All of my photos and videos on my PC automatically upload to the web via the Google Picasa software. This happens in the background and is automatic and not intrusive. This means I have full resolution, uncompressed copies of my photos and films on my LAN Disk at home, a backup (auto once a week overnight) to a usb disk hanging off my LAN disk, plus a backup online - at Google. Three copies. Nice.

The real beauty of this is my media is now available everywhere.

On my iPad I have an app called "Web Albums" - this is a very pretty front end to access local and online photos, hosted by just about every provider out there. It looks like the photos (and movies) are locally on my ipad when you are connected to the internet. You can set it to auto-cache photos (with a set limit) so it keeps local copies of photos you have viewed - so you can view them offline. You can also tell it to cache entire folders / albums. I tend to do this with recent stuff so it is available to show friends offline etc.

I also plug my digital cameras directly into my iPad and transfer my pics and movies to it. Once there, the app, Just Pictures, syncs with my Google online storage (Picasa) just like the Picasa desktop app does, so all my photos still end up in the same place.

Consequently I use very little space. I have an iPad 16Gb with LOADS of apps, and I'm still 8Gb free at present.

Finally, I have an app on my Android phone called "Just Pictures" - which does exactly the same as "Web Albums" on my iPad :-)

If Apple were not such miserable gits about what you can and can't plug into the iPad via USB, I'd be able to plug my Tascam DR-05 digital audio recorder into my iPad and then stitch together my track day videos in iMovie whilst sitting in my camper van at track days :-p

[Captain Colonial]

FWIW, I have an iPad 1 - or at least I occasionally do when Dame MemSec isn't on it, which seems rare.

2Gb of photos is relatively nothing. Mine syncs up photos just fine and I've got more than 3,000 photos on it, along with 2,000+ songs - no issues.

iTunes is on the iPad as standard, no issues there - you get apps from the same iStore as the music.

Word will definitely be a problem, although you can get Pages as an app for about £5 IIRC, which is the Apple slant on word processing. However, as has been said, it's not as quick as a standard keyboard.

WiFi is, of course, standard.

Printing is a big issue, however. Unless you have one of the few compatible WiFi printers, basically you can forget it.

I'm not an Apple tart (geddit?), but I do like the product. My recommendation is to get at least 32Gb of memory and 64Gb if you can afford it - with all the apps on mine, I'm at about 35Gb at the moment. IMHO, forget the 3G/4G SIM card option, as you can get free WiFi in so many public places - use the money you'd save to buy more memory. Should you get an Apple Care package? That's up to you - I've never had an issue with my iPad, but my grandson had one with his MacBook Pro and they were brilliant over the phone. Also depends how close you live to an Apple store.

Nice thing as well about an iPad is that people also have something to buy you for birthdays and Christmas - an iTunes gift voucher so you can buy more apps.

[zvezdochka]

Hi, I am also looking at iPads - just wanted to double check, can i connect a USB Hard drive?

Thanks, Rick.

[Captain Colonial]

No, you cannot connect a USB.

Let's be clear here - an iPad will not replace your home computer, but it will unchain you from it around the house and elsewhere in many respects. It's a very handy tool for portable music, photos, email, Internet, videos, and many, many excellent apps. But it will not replace your PC IMHO. Nearly in many respects - but not quite.

Few last things - it doesn't support Flash, so quite a few Internet videos will be unavailable to watch (there's a YouTube app already loaded, though); and not all the tools on the WSCC forum are available - you cannot change post fonts; you can't create "links"; you can't directly use emoticons or bold or italics or that sort of thing (you can type them in if you remember the keyboard lettering!); and you cannot "Like" a post - these are not the fault of the web team but limitations of the forum provider and the Safari browser version on the iPad.

[Dodgey]

Printing is easy to any airprint wifi enabled printer - which all the new ones are. £40 printer really. It's all in the ink :-)

As for browser limitations - I run Atomic browser - which I can set to emulate IE7/9 /Firefox etc etc - so websites serve you the full desktop version instead of the mobile version. I also have Google Chrome installed - which means all my favourites are synced across pc, phone and ipad.

[Captain Colonial]

True, but people need to be aware a new printer may be required.

Thanks, wasn't aware of Atomic, going to give that a try - once I prise the thing from Dame MemSec's hands...