iPad (2 Viewers)

[Polish Hammer]

So I'm a married guy in his mid-thirties with two kids about to turn 4 and 6. In my house we have:

1. Home PC in the office.

2. 17" laptop in kitchen the wife uses most of the day and occasionally at night. It's pretty well outfitted (a "gaming" laptop from Gateway) but heavy with not great battery life.

3. Asus Netbook I use during business travel.

3. Wife and I each have an iPod Nano

4. Wife likely to be getting an iPhone soon, I may also get one from work.

What would be the reason(s) to get an iPad? Or to not get one? I feel like having one would be nice because I'm sure there are things we could use it for to help educate the kids, but I don't know what that is. When we take family trips it would obviously be good to keep kids occupied. It would potentially be easier to surf the net at home on the sofa while watching TV (certainly lighter than the laptop). What else does this give me that I'm not thinking about?

My wife takes lots of pictures with the kids. Does the iPad allow for some functionality with those that we wouldn't get with a regular computer? Is an iPad able to read files from my backup HDD that I have connected to the office PC (where we store all the family photos)? What are some limitations I'm not thinking of?

 

[SkyRattlers]

7 Reasons Apple’s New iPad Could Replace Your Games Console

I'd be fine with that so long as:1) They provide a hand held controller

2) Allow easy and flawless streaming to my 50" plasma.

3) Have comparable or better hardware specs to whatever the current consoles are.

Since those three things should be very easy for Apple to achieve I don't see any reason why the 4th generation won't be an extremely dangerous competitor to Microsoft and Sony for the next generation of consoles.

Apple is going to have the advantage of being able to improve their hardware every year while the Xbox 720 and Sony PS4 will be restricted to whatever hardware they launch with.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Cream leather smart cover has arrived.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

iPad3 benchmarked. 1GB RAM.

http://www.reghardware.com/2012/03/13/apple_ipad_3_tablet_benchmarked/

 

[Aaron Rudnicki]

my ipad is just sitting in Nashville, hanging out.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

my ipad is just sitting in Nashville, hanging out.

Yea, mine has been in Middleton, PA since March 10.

 

[CrossEyed]

my ipad is just sitting in Nashville, hanging out.

Yea, mine has been in Middleton, PA since March 10.

Weird, I ordered mine about the same time you did, and mine just left China on it's way to Louisville this morning.

 

[RJS113]

my ipad is just sitting in Nashville, hanging out.

Yea, mine has been in Middleton, PA since March 10.

Mine too. I actually thought about calling Fed Ex and seeing if I could schedule a pickup yesterday (less than 2 hours away) but decided to just wait til Friday.

 

[D-Day]

7 Reasons Apple's New iPad Could Replace Your Games Console

I hate console or arcade type games on my iPhone though. Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, stuff like that works great. But things that have the touch screen joystick or control pad? I hate that.

This is one area where Android > iOS. The ability to plug controllers into your tablet via USB is a fantastic feature. iOS will have to adopt it at some point.

I wonder if there is a way for a PS3 bluetooth controller that can match up w/ an iOS device for gaming on the iPad?

 

[cstu]

iPad3 benchmarked. 1GB RAM.http://www.reghardware.com/2012/03/13/apple_ipad_3_tablet_benchmarked/

More disappointing is the clock speed. Some folk had hoped the iPad 3's A5X chip, a tweaked version of the dual-core A5 found in the iPad 2, would run at a higher speed than before. Not so, it seems.The Geekbench score, then, matches what we've seen from the iPad 2.So, if you're buying an iPad 3, you're buying for the screen upgrade, not a performance boost

 

[goonsquad]

my ipad is just sitting in Nashville, hanging out.

Yea, mine has been in Middleton, PA since March 10.

Just thinking, if Apple is "officially" releasing these in stores on Friday, maybe the delivery schedules are set for then (or close to). Might explain why some seem to be sitting in distribution warehouses.

 

[goonsquad]

iPad3 benchmarked. 1GB RAM.http://www.reghardware.com/2012/03/13/apple_ipad_3_tablet_benchmarked/

More disappointing is the clock speed. Some folk had hoped the iPad 3's A5X chip, a tweaked version of the dual-core A5 found in the iPad 2, would run at a higher speed than before. Not so, it seems.The Geekbench score, then, matches what we've seen from the iPad 2.So, if you're buying an iPad 3, you're buying for the screen upgrade, not a performance boost

Keep trying, cstu.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

my ipad is just sitting in Nashville, hanging out.

Yea, mine has been in Middleton, PA since March 10.

Just thinking, if Apple is "officially" releasing these in stores on Friday, maybe the delivery schedules are set for then (or close to). Might explain why some seem to be sitting in distribution warehouses.

That is definately whats going on. Status is "future delivery"

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Hereis a really dumb question. To "rip" a bluray, does my laptop drive need to be bluray? Im not trying to watch it on the laptop, just get data files.

 

[Aaron Rudnicki]

Hereis a really dumb question. To "rip" a bluray, does my laptop drive need to be bluray? Im not trying to watch it on the laptop, just get data files.

how would your laptop drive be able to read it if it's not blu-ray compatible?

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Hereis a really dumb question. To "rip" a bluray, does my laptop drive need to be bluray? Im not trying to watch it on the laptop, just get data files.

how would your laptop drive be able to read it if it's not blu-ray compatible?

Thats what I assumed and why I said it was a dumb question. Didnt know if there was some super nerd work around. Now i will have to use the fiance's laptop which i wanted to avoid.

 

[culdeus]

iPad3 benchmarked. 1GB RAM.http://www.reghardware.com/2012/03/13/apple_ipad_3_tablet_benchmarked/

More disappointing is the clock speed. Some folk had hoped the iPad 3's A5X chip, a tweaked version of the dual-core A5 found in the iPad 2, would run at a higher speed than before. Not so, it seems.The Geekbench score, then, matches what we've seen from the iPad 2.So, if you're buying an iPad 3, you're buying for the screen upgrade, not a performance boost

The tweak of the X is to allow quad core graphics to be utilized. It is not a speed improvement in a benchmark sense. There is always a tradeoff of power/battery. This is an interesting development to watch technology wise. I mean you at some point need to compare it to a PS3/XBOX GPU for performance as that is the main reason to have such a GPU (Games). A5 should have been able to render movies just fine on the new panel. Serving the pixels doesn't have the overhead of lets say, a FPS.

 

[CrossEyed]

OK, mine's in Anchorage...getting closer.

I think it's pretty clear what's going on here. Someone at Apple is making sure that you guys don't get yours before mine gets here.

 

[Mario Kart]

No money off of an iPad 2 if you are an educator, huh? Darn.

Anyone have any experience with refurbs from Apple? Might just have to wait a bit longer. Oh well.

 

[CrossEyed]

No money off of an iPad 2 if you are an educator, huh? Darn.

Anyone have any experience with refurbs from Apple? Might just have to wait a bit longer. Oh well.

My MacBook Pro was a refurb. I've had it for a little over three years now. Wouldn't hesitate to buy a refurb from them again.

 

[Mario Kart]

No money off of an iPad 2 if you are an educator, huh? Darn.

Anyone have any experience with refurbs from Apple? Might just have to wait a bit longer. Oh well.

My MacBook Pro was a refurb. I've had it for a little over three years now. Wouldn't hesitate to buy a refurb from them again.

Thanks, Cross. I am thinking $350 is going to be the lowest I see for awhile unless I can buy used from FBG or someone I know. Craigslist are all priced like new and some robberies going on as well.

 

[CrossEyed]

No money off of an iPad 2 if you are an educator, huh? Darn.

Anyone have any experience with refurbs from Apple? Might just have to wait a bit longer. Oh well.

My MacBook Pro was a refurb. I've had it for a little over three years now. Wouldn't hesitate to buy a refurb from them again.

Thanks, Cross. I am thinking $350 is going to be the lowest I see for awhile unless I can buy used from FBG or someone I know. Craigslist are all priced like new and some robberies going on as well.

Yeah, at least if you buy a refurb from Apple you get the full warranty with it.

 

[dal_boys_phan]

My iPad has been "Preparing for Shipment" since Saturday.

Ordered mine (32 GB Black + Verizon 4G) on the day they were available to order at around 8PM EST, for what it's worth.

 

[Green94]

Just a few more days...

 

[CrossEyed]

My iPad has been "Preparing for Shipment" since Saturday. Ordered mine (32 GB Black + Verizon 4G) on the day they were available to order at around 8PM EST, for what it's worth.

That doesn't seem right. Is it still saying delivers on 3/16?

 

[Aaron Rudnicki]

mine says the same thing. FedEx (or whoever) is holding these to deliver on or near the release date. Nothing to see here.

 

[CrossEyed]

mine says the same thing. FedEx (or whoever) is holding these to deliver on or near the release date. Nothing to see here.

I took it as saying "Preparing for Shipment" on Apple's site. Mine has said "Shipped" since Sunday.

 

[joffer]

I'm in Nashville

 

[Aaron Rudnicki]

mine says the same thing. FedEx (or whoever) is holding these to deliver on or near the release date. Nothing to see here.

I took it as saying "Preparing for Shipment" on Apple's site. Mine has said "Shipped" since Sunday.

Yours is coming from China though.

 

[CrossEyed]

mine says the same thing. FedEx (or whoever) is holding these to deliver on or near the release date. Nothing to see here.

I took it as saying "Preparing for Shipment" on Apple's site. Mine has said "Shipped" since Sunday.

Yours is coming from China though.

True. I wonder why mine seems to be the exception of the folks in this thread.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

So what ipad apps are must haves? What are good interactive books or graphic novels?

Do the link to your pc apps work well?

 

[CrossEyed]

So what ipad apps are must haves? What are good interactive books or graphic novels?Do the link to your pc apps work well?

According to cstu, all of the apps are gonna suck on the new iPad.

 

[cstu]

So what ipad apps are must haves? What are good interactive books or graphic novels?Do the link to your pc apps work well?

According to cstu, all of the apps are gonna suck on the new iPad.

C'mon...all I'm saying is that it's an iPad 2 with an amazing screen without apps that take advantage of it yet.

 

[CrossEyed]

So what ipad apps are must haves? What are good interactive books or graphic novels?Do the link to your pc apps work well?

According to cstu, all of the apps are gonna suck on the new iPad.

C'mon...all I'm saying is that it's an iPad 2 with an amazing screen without apps that take advantage of it yet.

 

[CrossEyed]

Was holding out hope for a Thursday arrival, but it got to Louisville last night and sat there all night...still there. So looks like Friday.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Are all books available for Kindle also available for iBooks? Are there often price differences?

I know there is a Kindle App, but how do you get your Kindle Books into iTunes? Or do you have to purchase all Kindle Books through the app on your device, rather than Amazon.com? And then you are stuck with it on your device and/or can only read it when you have an internet connection or something?

 

[culdeus]

Are all books available for Kindle also available for iBooks? Are there often price differences? I know there is a Kindle App, but how do you get your Kindle Books into iTunes? Or do you have to purchase all Kindle Books through the app on your device, rather than Amazon.com? And then you are stuck with it on your device and/or can only read it when you have an internet connection or something?

no, the kindle app syncs to your amazon account. and you can read offline.

 

[CrossEyed]

Are all books available for Kindle also available for iBooks? Are there often price differences?

I know there is a Kindle App, but how do you get your Kindle Books into iTunes? Or do you have to purchase all Kindle Books through the app on your device, rather than Amazon.com? And then you are stuck with it on your device and/or can only read it when you have an internet connection or something?

Ebooks are pretty small files. Unless you are storing a bunch of them on your device they shouldn't take up much room.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Are all books available for Kindle also available for iBooks? Are there often price differences? I know there is a Kindle App, but how do you get your Kindle Books into iTunes? Or do you have to purchase all Kindle Books through the app on your device, rather than Amazon.com? And then you are stuck with it on your device and/or can only read it when you have an internet connection or something?

no, the kindle app syncs to your amazon account. and you can read offline.

So I can go to amazon.com on my PC. Purchase the Kindle version of something. Then when I open the Kindle App, it will automatically sync to my amazon account and DL the book to my device where I can read it off-line if desired?Thanks!

 

[Mr. Ected]

Are all books available for Kindle also available for iBooks? Are there often price differences? I know there is a Kindle App, but how do you get your Kindle Books into iTunes? Or do you have to purchase all Kindle Books through the app on your device, rather than Amazon.com? And then you are stuck with it on your device and/or can only read it when you have an internet connection or something?

no, the kindle app syncs to your amazon account. and you can read offline.

So I can go to amazon.com on my PC. Purchase the Kindle version of something. Then when I open the Kindle App, it will automatically sync to my amazon account and DL the book to my device where I can read it off-line if desired?Thanks!

If you have the Kindle book file on your computer, you can add it to the kindle app in iTunes. In the app section of the iPhone/iPad synch pages, you can add the Kindle docs to the Kindle app easily. Not Automatic unfortunately, but still easy.

 

[GreekFreak]

I just got the shipped email.

Woohoooo

 

[culdeus]

Reading the modmyi article on the data packages at&t offers is funny. 1 single 1080p video will eat their max package. Of course I can't really see someone doing such a thing, but it's worth noting how much a ripoff the data packages are right now.

 

[CrossEyed]

Reading the modmyi article on the data packages at&t offers is funny. 1 single 1080p video will eat their max package. Of course I can't really see someone doing such a thing, but it's worth noting how much a ripoff the data packages are right now.

Glad I stuck with Verizon until they got the iPhone. I'm grandfathered in on the unlimited plan. Just went wifi with the iPad.

 

[The Commish]

Reading the modmyi article on the data packages at&t offers is funny. 1 single 1080p video will eat their max package. Of course I can't really see someone doing such a thing, but it's worth noting how much a ripoff the data packages are right now.

Glad I stuck with Verizon until they got the iPhone. I'm grandfathered in on the unlimited plan. Just went wifi with the iPad.

until they decide you aren't

 

[CrossEyed]

Reading the modmyi article on the data packages at&t offers is funny. 1 single 1080p video will eat their max package. Of course I can't really see someone doing such a thing, but it's worth noting how much a ripoff the data packages are right now.

Glad I stuck with Verizon until they got the iPhone. I'm grandfathered in on the unlimited plan. Just went wifi with the iPad.

until they decide you aren't

True. But so far, so good.

 

[CrossEyed]

Any of you use a stylus with your iPad for writing/note taking?

 

[CrossEyed]

Still sitting in Louisville. This thing better start moving soon in order for it to arrive tomorrow.

 

[One]

Any of you use a stylus with your iPad for writing/note taking?

I tried for a week, but ended up giving the stylus back. Felt too awkward, plus the page zooming and panning you had to do became annoying. This was a year ago though, there might be something better now.

 

[CrossEyed]

Any of you use a stylus with your iPad for writing/note taking?

I tried for a week, but ended up giving the stylus back. Felt too awkward, plus the page zooming and panning you had to do became annoying. This was a year ago though, there might be something better now.

I've read that some note-taking apps (writing, not typing) are better than others. Anyone have a recommendation?

 

[goonsquad]

Any of you use a stylus with your iPad for writing/note taking?

I bought one for sketching but I'll admit that I don't really care for it. Doesn't do well with writing/note taking either. I wouldn't recommend bothering, they just haven't perfected a way to make them work well with the capacitive screen.