Talk me into or out of an ipad

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Looking at a used ipad. I have a MacBook pro 17" laptop and an iphone 4.
I love the iphone and think it is the best thing I have ever bought in the computer world. I an finding myself drawn to the ipad, but I don't know if it would fit in to my life or not.
I like the idea of the larger screen for my apps and as a iplayer for my little girl. I had thought it would make a great complement to my Canon 40D, but I don't know if it would connect.
I almost get the feeling it will be too restrictive. Of an evening, I surf on the MacBook, but this is a little too big to drag around all the time, the iphone is great as it fits in my pocket, but the screen is a little too small for real hard use.
So, guys with ( preferably to those who don't have one but have to knock ) a ipad, sell it to me or convince me to put the money else where.
 
If you want to use it just for surfing on the sofa at the evenings you will love it, you should buy it for this reason alone.

You will probably end up the same as i was, using the iPad all the time and hardly touching the Macbook, the browsing experience is just glorious.

If you go for the first iPad this will be great for your needs if you can afford the iPad2, go for it, it only gets better.
 
Carbonangel said:
If you want to use it just for surfing on the sofa at the evenings you will love it, you should buy it for this reason alone.

You will probably end up the same as i was, using the iPad all the time and hardly touching the Macbook, the browsing experience is just glorious.

If you go for the first iPad this will be great for your needs if you can afford the iPad2, go for it, it only gets better.
Click to expand...

Exactly right... I love mine, barely touched the laptop since I got mine.
 
jmsjabb said:
Have you found a way to use it with your 40D?
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Just get the Apple SD card adapter and slide the SD card in, import the pictures right onto the iPad, also comes with a USB connector so you can use the cable from cameras what use CF for example.
 
jmsjabb said:
Have you found a way to use it with your 40D?
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You can use the camera connection kit to view/transfer your shots from any USB camera (40D included) - the iPad2 can view jpeg or raw files.
There are editing apps available but i've not played with these yet.

I'm still doing my editing on the laptop though, not sure I'm going to stop any time soon - Lightroom, masses of storage and a calibrated monitor still give it the edge.
For general email, twitter, Internet, video, and a bunch of other stuff the iPad wins hands down - it's just so easy to pick up and use!
 
Carbonangel said:
Just get the Apple SD card adapter and slide the SD card in, import the pictures right onto the iPad, also comes with a USB connector so you can use the cable from cameras what use CF for example.
Click to expand...

No SD card on the 40D so you need the USB bit to plug the camera in - it's a bit tricky to find cf card readers that work with the iPad kit.
 
I have one - which will be up for sale soon. The only reason for that is that I've just ordered 15 of the iPad 2 through work, and I will be having one of those!

Otherwise you wouldn't be able to prise it away from me.

The iPad 1 does everything that the 2 does for me - I don't want cameras etc, but it just takes a little longer. There's no way I would be upgrading if I was paying.
 
barneyrubble said:
I have one - which will be up for sale soon. The only reason for that is that I've just ordered 15 of the iPad 2 through work, and I will be having one of those!

Otherwise you wouldn't be able to prise it away from me.

The iPad 1 does everything that the 2 does for me - I don't want cameras etc, but it just takes a little longer. There's no way I would be upgrading if I was paying.
Click to expand...

Plus you can jailbreak the ipad1 so that it can do all sorts of fun things, no jailbreak looking likely for the ipad2 any time soon.
 
i got a couple of ipad 1's and find them a great little gadget
brilliant for showing off pictures round friends and familys that you wouldnt usually bother with
great for a bit of surfing on the sofa in bed etc
my son uses it in the morning before work for a quick browse without having to boot up the laptop
 
Agree with all of the above... And battery life is phenominal! Ok I don't do anything to intensive, but I only charge once a week - if that - and it never gets switched off as standby seems to use pretty much nothing. I managed to get one through work as it is not something I ever really desired having, but now I love it!

I'm by no means Mac biased, but I think this is one of the only Apple products that really competes in price. Normally you seem to pay a premium for their stuff, but I don't really see any viable competitors...... Yet!! Though the new breed of Android tablets ( and Windows 8 when it is released) might shake things up a little :D
 
OK, after a time in PC Hell, I am sold on a ipad 2.
Now, anyone with any tips on how to find a cheap one?
 
Don't want to be the bearer of bad news, and I may well be wrong, but I'm not sure you can get them any cheaper. My dreams of cheap Apple products were shattered by our Apple supplier at work, who basically said that vendors make very very little profit on reselling Apple products :( Apple offer discounts to employees of certain companies. I work for Virgin (not that they checked) and got a 'massive' 7% off a Macbook Pro, though every little helps I guess.
 
jmsjabb said:
OK, after a time in PC Hell, I am sold on a ipad 2.
Now, anyone with any tips on how to find a cheap one?
Click to expand...

cex sell used ipad/ipad 2 with 12 months warranty i picked up an ipad 1 64gb with wifi and 3g for 425 because it didnt have a box ......i was never going to use the box anyway!!!

imo an ipad will do what you want so save some money and use it for accs case/adapter/keyboard etc
 
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I just went through a similar process - I had an iphone 4, but craved the larger screen. I managed to get the ipad2 3G 32gb with smart cover from the US (my brother happened to be travelling back from there) about £120 cheaper than the equiv in the UK (make sure you get AT&T version). Works fine with a pre-paid 3 sim (which are great data deals btw, about £4 for 1GB data per month and no contract).

In short, it's awesome. Perfect for photography. Some of the recent apps are really beginning to make much more use of the tablet format. Check out snapseed for example (Scott Kelby has a recent review on his blog), and if you use lightroom, then Photosmith as well (lets you rate/keyword on the pad then sync to LR later). Plus I think you can shoot direct to the pad now (forget which app), using a eyefi card, so clients can get instant review.

For me though, I just like sharing my photos with friends - and the pad is a brilliant device for this (the wife loves it). I have lightroom automatically export to an ipad folder for syncing, and it batch resizes / sharpens etc specifically for this screen size. Nice and easy, esp if you use an "ipad" collection.

W
 
So Wil, how much did you pay?
Did it need registering in the US?
 
Nah, it didn't need registering in the US. You just plug it into itunes (in the UK) and follow the usual process to register it to your account. Then pop your sim in.

If my memory is correct, cost about £525 with the exchange rate at the time. That's for the leather cover and sales tax (8%) as well. It would have been about £640 or something for the same over here I think.
 
i`m getting one as soon as i have the money together for it:D
 
Surprised no one has mentioned another excellent use for the iPad, and that is digital copies of magazines. The app will show any .PDF file in the iBooks app as well. After browsing and email, it's my most used app.
 
I have been going through the same thoughts about getting a iPad. I am in the same situation, got MacBook pro, 40D and iPhone and thinking about getting iPad.

have decided not to just because I would only use it for surfing the rest I would do on the MacBook like editing my website, pictures that I have taken etc. plus I do alot of astrophotography so need the processing power for the rendering of the pics etc.

Saving the money for the new iPhone 5 when it comes out.

www.aaron.tweed@talktalk.net
 
One of my most used apps is Reeder. I've set up my google reader acc to follow A LOT of photography blogs / news feeds / websites, and every morning Reeder will cache the latest posts (incl images, for offline use) and present them in a very nice format for me to digest on the train into work (which is where I'm writing this right now). It's a VERY efficient way of keeping up to date and learning about photography. This can be done on the iPhone, but it's not as good as the images are too small.

W
 
The lack of flash is absolutely shocking, lots of websites are basicly uselss on an IPAD.
 
Went away on holiday and one of my mates brought his iPad2 - we didn't have wi-fi so couldn't comment on what it'd be like for web browsing, but as a photo album, a games tool using apps, and as a music player it was brilliant and was sooooo much more portable and communal than a laptop. Very impressed by the handling and build and for less than the missus' MB 13" cost, it pretty much does the same thing....

Davo7 said:
The lack of flash is absolutely shocking, lots of websites are basicly uselss on an IPAD.
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I take it the iPad is akin to the iPhone in that respect?.....


EDIT: maybe the laptop won't be getting ditched yet :)
 
Got mine about 8 mths ago and never regretted it. Hardly used my laptop since.
Never go anywhere without it and can't imagine not having it now. GET ONE!
 
But ipad is just like an iphone but bigger right? Surely u can do everything u can do on iphone?
 
kenny_ip_2000 said:
But ipad is just like an iphone but bigger right? Surely u can do everything u can do on iphone?
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Yes and no.

Yes, because the ipad runs exactly the same operating system (iOS 4.3 in my case) as the iphone, so essentially it has exactly the same features etc. But no because, in reality, there are some apps that are only developed for the ipad (and vice versa), so you miss out on whatever it is they do. Also, many apps have an ipad and iphone version, and I've found that some of them suddenly become a lot more useful on the ipad than they were on the iphone. Take the app "GoodReader" for example, which syncs with my google docs account and lets me view .pdf files etc. While you can read a pdf or word doc on the iphone, it's not particularly easy, like it is on the ipad.

My personal opinion is that this divergence will only get bigger in the future, as more and more app developers take advantage of the larger screen on the ipad. Remember that tablets are only relatively new devices, so it will be a while before we get the most out of them.
 
Davo7 said:
The lack of flash is absolutely shocking, lots of websites are basicly uselss on an IPAD.
Click to expand...

Another un-informed person slating something they don't understand, or probably haven't even tried an iPad

If you really REALLY cannot live without the pain that flash is, download the Skyfire app which is a flash enabled browser.
 
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As if i wasn't tempted to get an iPad enough, i've just seen that my apple wireless keyboard can be connected to it (I've even just connected it to my iPhone because I could) for more extensive typing. That's pretty cool!
 
On a slightly related note (sorry to the original OP for hijacking this thread), I talked myself into an Ipad yesterday, and have ordered one - I haven't picked up a case for it yet, but I guess I would like one that protects the screen (ie some kind of film, or similar) and one that protects it when I drop it drunk/when my toddler uses it as a rectangular frisbee).

Suggestions peeps???
 
My personal opinion is that adding a case to a thin, portable device like this is not worth it. I see some people on the tube with cases so big they might as well be holding a small laptop. That's why I have the smart cover for my ipad 2 - it protects the screen without adding to the bulk. The screen is worth protecting, but the back is mostly aluminium and quite durable, and even a case won't stop the electronics being jolted if dropped from a height.

This is a tool that's there to be used - like my camera - so the odd scratch on the back over the years isn't going to bother me. Yeah, it will drop the resale value slightly, but the ipad 3 will do that far more, and I'd rather have the extra portability now. I do understand though that some people want piece of mind having spent £500 odd on a pad. My advise ... get a case as slim line as possible.

W
 
Which one have you got Will - does it protect the screen?
 
I've got the black leather official Apple smart cover for ipad 2. It protects the screen but nothing else. It's quite cool - it's magnetic so snaps shut (and stays shut), plus there's no need to lock/unlock the pad as it knows when the cover is removed/replaced and does this automatically ... hence "smart" cover.
 
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