Well....I bit.

A

Azazel90x

2[H]4U
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Finally got an iPad. Took maybe a few weeks to justify it, then another to track one down, every best buy in my area seemed to be out, but i finally managed to find one that just got in 5 cases of the 32gb, 3g version. So i snagged it, and a belkin case, and the keyboard dock.

But anyways, what im getting at is, Whats the best apps for the iPad, Wheres the best place to get iPad wallpapers, and what are must have accessories for it?
 
Liver said:
Clearly you have / had a function in mind. Let us in on it.
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I wanted something for college, but i didn't want a fully featured laptop because I already had one, but I didn't want a netbook. I needed something small, portable, and with great battery life. I needed it to mainly browse the web, check my email, watch videos and read ebooks and comics with, and play the occasional game, and maybe type out a few papers with and a presentation or two. I looked around and was mainly intrested in the tablet pcs and the small android tablets, But none of them seemed to have everything I was looking for, I went to best buy, and tried out the ipad, and at first, it just seemed like an oversized ipod. I left, and I was just on the internet one day, and i looked deeper into the ipad, and pretty soon, i realized how much better then an ipod this was. The apps went much deeper, and i saw that this filled that little niche inbetween a smartphone and a laptop, I guess you could say i saw what steve jobs saw, but that sounds a bit too corny lol. So thats why i setttled on the ipad, and so far its been amazing, but im still trying to find all the must have apps and accessories lol, I hope this answers your questions, feel free to ask any more you might have :D
 
I'm actually thinking of doing the same thing. I want something light weight and with a large battery life that I could take notes with as well as do some surfing and stuff.

I just bought a G73, so I don't really want to buy another laptop and my MBP is pretty much gone (dead ram, needs a new HD and the screen is going to crap). I don't want a netbook, so I'm considering the iPad and a keyboard doc.

Tell me how yours works out, I think I might be in the same boat.
 
Eragon Dragonslayer said:
I wanted something for college, but i didn't want a fully featured laptop because I already had one, but I didn't want a netbook. I needed something small, portable, and with great battery life. I needed it to mainly browse the web, check my email, watch videos and read ebooks and comics with, and play the occasional game, and maybe type out a few papers with and a presentation or two. I looked around and was mainly intrested in the tablet pcs and the small android tablets, But none of them seemed to have everything I was looking for,
Click to expand...

Just curious, while a convertible Tablet PC is heavier and doesn't the battery life and everything you mentioned I do all the time on my tm2 so was getting the iPad about ergonomics because functionally a TPC does all these things.

To me a TPC is a FAR superior device for college students are its the note taking abilities and nothing can handle papers and presentations like Office 2010. Just asking and not trying to say the iPad was a bad choice or anything.
 
heatlesssun said:
Just curious, while a convertible Tablet PC is heavier and doesn't the battery life and everything you mentioned I do all the time on my tm2 so was getting the iPad about ergonomics because functionally a TPC does all these things.

To me a TPC is a FAR superior device for college students are its the note taking abilities and nothing can handle papers and presentations like Office 2010. Just asking and not trying to say the iPad was a bad choice or anything.
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Grammar aside, I think there are other reasons to getting an iPad than just what he's listed. It's not necessarily about being able to do these things, it's the ease of use and how it's done. Compared to a table, an iPad would be much better for taking notes, in my opinion, because of it's form factor. While a tablet my only be slightly bigger, if you're trying to balance a text book or some papers along with a table on a lecture hall half desk thing, it can get difficult. But from trialing my friends, I found that with an iPad it can be much easier.

The iPad is a very smooth, non clunky, all around device. It's a sort of jack of all trades, but definitely the master of none (outside of maybe portability and battery life).

Office is ideal for papers and presentations and I don't think the OP is trying to replace it, just have a sort of back up or on the fly solution for when he's not near a PC.

So the tablet does the same things as an iPad, it really comes down to taste. I'd much prefer the ease of the iOS and it's quickness vs. having a full install of windows on a tablet, for note taking and class room purposes.
 
Actually an iPad at 9.56 × 7.47 × 0.53 in compared to something like tm2 at 11.9 in (L) x 8.7 in (W) x 1.03 in (min H)/1.55 in (max H) is only smaller by approximately the size of a post card which can be useful in the tightest of spaces but of course the screen is smaller so that's kind of a wash, depends on the situation. A convertible tablet is much better at laying on a surface since its flat on the bottom. The big difference to me in the note taking area is ink, there's just things that you can't do without it, math, science and technical notes and there's nothing even close to OneNote 2010 on the iPad yet.

The one thing I strongly disagree with is the ease of use of an iPad, even with touch, over Windows 7. Windows is used by a billion people, it ain't rocket science. The iPad does have a better UI experience over Windows 7 touch in many ways but if you know Windows, it would take you about 20 minutes to get used to touch on a TPC. Pretty simple stuff overall, a more complex device but if you can use Windows you can use a TPC, it IS Windows after all.

Plus its nice to have one device instead of two in certain situation, I don't need a tm2 AND a laptop since a tm2 functions as both, But sure, its about what the particular individual needs. I'm just curious how people come to their conclusions as I have been using these types of devices for a LONG time and its interesting to see what newcomers think.
 
The iPad has a higher quality and significantly more responsive display on top of a superior touch UI. I can rattle off dozens of things that Microsoft needs to tweak and tighten with their touch UI, and that's before we get into physical hardware issues like the TN display, actually seeing the touch sensitive layer for the pen, etc etc. There are numerous reasons why convertibles don't sell well and why many PC manufacturers have en masse dumped Windows 7 for tablets and are going to alternatives like Android or WebOS. HP acing the highlight of Microsoft's CES keynote and spending billions on Palm for WebOS has got to be embarrassing...

We all know you love the tm2, seems like half your posts are about it ;), but my experiences with the device have been far from positive. I'm with the majority, get a real laptop if you're going to get one at all, otherwise an iPad is stellar for web/email and media consumption. About the only thing it is lacking IMHO is a super-high DPI display like the iPhone 4. I was fine with it until that damn thing came out, now all I see are pixels everywhere. ;)
 
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I needed it to mainly browse the web, check my email, watch videos and read ebooks and comics with, and play the occasional game, and maybe type out a few papers with and a presentation or two.
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This is what the ipad is used for, once you settle into this and realize that it doesn't replace a laptop/desktop it is a great device.

The only thing (from my experiece with mine) is that I do not think I could type out a paper or presentation on it.

With some of the pen programs you could eliminate the need for anything but the ipad in a lecture course (wish I had something like this in college).
 
Serpico said:
The iPad has a higher quality and significantly more responsive display on top of a superior touch UI. I can rattle off dozens of things that Microsoft needs to tweak and tighten with their touch UI, and that's before we get into physical hardware issues like the TN display, actually seeing the touch sensitive layer for the pen, etc etc. There are numerous reasons why convertibles don't sell well and why many PC manufacturers have en masse dumped Windows 7 for tablets and are going to alternatives like Android or WebOS. HP acing the highlight of Microsoft's CES keynote and spending billions on Palm for WebOS has got to be embarrassing...

We all know you love the tm2, seems like half your posts are about it ;), but my experiences with the device have been far from positive. I'm with the majority, get a real laptop if you're going to get one at all, otherwise an iPad is stellar for web/email and media consumption. About the only thing it is lacking IMHO is a super-high DPI display like the iPhone 4. I was fine with it until that damn thing came out, now all I see are pixels everywhere. ;)
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Yes the iPad has a better screen than a tm2 and the touch UI is overall superior and I've conceded that point many times. However how can an iPad with only its built-in touch screen be a better device for note taking compared to a device with not only a touch screen but built-in keyboard, mouse, and pen that runs OneNote? I just don't see how that's possible and on this task this far better suited overall on a Tablet PC.

Tablets don't sell well? Sure not like the iPad but better tell that to HP, they just upgraded the tm2 even after they canceled their Windows 7 slate apparently. And to be honest the HP Slate had stiff compeition coming in the form of machines like the ExoPC and Toshiba has an intresting device that they will sell in limited numbers with dual screens. For a platform that doesn't sell well it is amazing how long and how many people had sold them with with a number of new players coming into the mix. And yes this has been spurred on by the iPad which is one reason I like the iPad.

If you want to see a Tablet PC with a SUPERIOR screen to an iPad check this out: http://www.motioncomputing.com/products/tablet_pc_j35.asp. The display on this thing is so good that it can be used outdoors in bright sun light without any significant reduction in its viewing. Yes, I know this a VERY EXSPENSIVE device but this is the BEST SCREEN in a tablet slate device out now period.

You love your iPad I get that and that's cool. But the iPad like all things has its relative strenghts and weekeness. Note taking would be a weekness. The other acvitivities like web browsing, email, eBooks its much stronger in.
 
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heatlesssun said:
The other acvitivities like web browsing, email, eBooks its much stronger in.
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Actually, I'm not using [my mom's] iPad for browsing as much as I thought I would because it has weak support for switching tabs. You can't open tabs in background, and switching between them takes at least 1-2 seconds (plus it often requires the page to be reloaded).

My netbook & desktop win in that regards, and get more use. ;/

Edit: When I surf, I usually read one page and open all the interesting links in new tabs (in background), then close it and read the tabs. This is not practical to do on the iPad. ;\
 
Hell, I like my iPad but it's tough as hell to find the camera kit. 4 to 6 weeks delivery time based on the Apple website. That's really the only item I want at this time.
 
shurcooL said:
Actually, I'm not using [my mom's] iPad for browsing as much as I thought I would because it has weak support for switching tabs. You can't open tabs in background, and switching between them takes at least 1-2 seconds (plus it often requires the page to be reloaded).

My netbook & desktop win in that regards, and get more use. ;/

Edit: When I surf, I usually read one page and open all the interesting links in new tabs (in background), then close it and read the tabs. This is not practical to do on the iPad. ;\
Click to expand...

I've heard the Atomic Browser helps with the tabs if IIRC. The iPad's touch interface makes surfing nice but damn its slow to load sites in my testing compared to my tm2 and switching between tabs in the task bar is sweet. But a killer for me and web surfing on the iPad is not only the lack of Flash but ANY plug-in support. I use the OneNote plug-in in IE all the time, its just extremely use to be able to put web data into my notebooks with the click of a button. Any time I come cross web pages I want to keep I just hit the OneNote button and now I have access to that info via Windows Search locally that gets synced with my main OneNote local respository when I get home, or even over the web. I simply cannot stress how fantastically useful and powerful this setup is. Combing web data, text, images, video, audio and handwritting into your own personal free form database instantly searchable, simply a tool that anyone who deals with lots of information shouldn't be without.
 
Well, this is a pretty standard iPad thread so far:
  • Guy buys iPad. Apparantly quite satisfied with iPad, but looking for suggestions on what apps to grab
  • More discussion re: iPad ensues
  • heatlesssun says guy should've bought a Windows TPC instead
  • Debate ensues re: iPad vs. Windows TPCs
 
phide said:
Well, this is a pretty standard iPad thread so far:
  • Guy buys iPad. Apparantly quite satisfied with iPad, but looking for suggestions on what apps to grab
  • More discussion re: iPad ensues
  • heatlesssun says guy should've bought a Windows TPC instead
  • Debate ensues re: iPad vs. Windows TPCs
Click to expand...

  • And phide follows and ALWAYS misrepresents everything heatlesssun said.
You didn't read the thread, the OP bought up Tablet PCs and made the initial comparison, not me. And I NEVER said he should have bought a Tablet PC.;)
 
Eragon Dragonslayer said:
I wanted something for college, but i didn't want a fully featured laptop because I already had one, but I didn't want a netbook. I needed something small, portable, and with great battery life. I needed it to mainly browse the web, check my email, watch videos and read ebooks and comics with, and play the occasional game, and maybe type out a few papers with and a presentation or two. I looked around and was mainly intrested in the tablet pcs and the small android tablets, But none of them seemed to have everything I was looking for, I went to best buy, and tried out the ipad, and at first, it just seemed like an oversized ipod. I left, and I was just on the internet one day, and i looked deeper into the ipad, and pretty soon, i realized how much better then an ipod this was. The apps went much deeper, and i saw that this filled that little niche inbetween a smartphone and a laptop, I guess you could say i saw what steve jobs saw, but that sounds a bit too corny lol. So thats why i setttled on the ipad, and so far its been amazing, but im still trying to find all the must have apps and accessories lol, I hope this answers your questions, feel free to ask any more you might have :D
Click to expand...

I manged to get my hands on one for a couple hours and of 4 text books I tried to find in e-book variety, I found 0. Thats the only killer feature this thing offers and if someone wants to pay to digitize Network+, Unix the textbook, and C++ classes and data structures, I'd be more than inclined to buy one, and sooner or later I'm certain thats going to happen...

But it hasn't yet. So far I'm inclined to agree with Microsoft Fanboy (albeit reasonable fanboy but fanboy no less) Paul Thurott; wait for V2.

but I do have a question for you; if you're like me (as in broke college kid), why go with 3G? Every single campus on every single college across the entire of the province of BC has several varieties of wireless, most with a wireless N format. Every starbucks, Blenz and Waves has public wifi, and you cant possibly be a member of these boards if every piece of property you own isn't crawling with wifi (hah, appended sig), so why go 3G?
 
phide said:
Well, this is a pretty standard iPad thread so far:
  • Guy buys iPad. Apparantly quite satisfied with iPad, but looking for suggestions on what apps to grab
  • More discussion re: iPad ensues
  • heatlesssun says guy should've bought a Windows TPC instead
  • Debate ensues re: iPad vs. Windows TPCs
Click to expand...

You summed up my thoughts exactly. Congrats on the iPad OP. You'll love it. I'm at Cisco Live this week and have only been carrying my iPad for session slides, notes, Twitter, email, and browsing. It's perfect. Runs all day.
 
NetJunkie said:
You summed up my thoughts exactly. Congrats on the iPad OP. You'll love it. I'm at Cisco Live this week and have only been carrying my iPad for session slides, notes, Twitter, email, and browsing. It's perfect. Runs all day.
Click to expand...

Glad you like your iPad. Please point out where I told the OP to get a TPC. The OP bought up TPCs and I simply like to know where people are coming from.

As for 3G, I don't like using public WiFi much anymore for security and privacy reasons and using a device in motion while in a car or on the bus or anywhere is just neat.

Enjoy your iPads again, it's quitin' time, time to enjoy some nV Surround beauty!:D
 
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haha Heatless you finally bit... though I have a feeling your wife is going to use it alot more than you will. As for Apps,

Logmein (best remote software on the ipad... i have 5 comps that I can log into at any time. they have other RDC's but logmein doesn't require windows pro and you can have someone install it ona remote comp and remote in without an account on their comp for basic troubleshooting)

Airmouse (2 of the 5 are media centers which I can control from my ipad doesn't take over the screen)

Airvideo (allows you to stream on the fly all your avi's mkv's and mp4's, transcodes the first two formats, I've archived my whole blu-ray collection and stream it to my ipad and my iphone, works over the internet/3G)

MediaLinkPlayer lite though stream2me may be better to stream my mp3's, aac's, and photos

Dropbox to send files back and forth from my server to my ipad

Connect to access my google docs

Pandora, radio.com, tunemark for internet radio

I also have a bunch of games PvZ, Fieldrunners, Worms, great little turn based rpg The War of Eustrath

If you have any questions lemme know :p Glad you bit... though like I said you're wife and kids may be happier.
 
heatlesssun said:
But the iPad like all things has its relative strenghts and weekeness. Note taking would be a weekness. The other acvitivities like web browsing, email, eBooks its much stronger in.
Click to expand...

Yup, and I've said as much many times, despite the growing number of productivity apps out there.

As I've said here and in every other thread, if you want to do content creation and hardcore work, get a real notebook. The iPad excels at the other things mentioned. The "in-between" solutions at the moment are all halfass IMHO.

I also believe the Amazon Kindle is still the best e-reader out right now, but that's a whole other discussion, and thread derailing is more your forte. ;)
 
Serpico said:
I also believe the Amazon Kindle is still the best e-reader out right now, but that's a whole other discussion, and thread derailing is more your forte. ;)
Click to expand...

Agreed overall. Not sure how I derailed this thread when the OP himself compared an iPad to Tablet PCs and THEN I taked about Tablet PCs.;)
 
MrWizard6600 said:
I manged to get my hands on one for a couple hours and of 4 text books I tried to find in e-book variety, I found 0. Thats the only killer feature this thing offers and if someone wants to pay to digitize Network+, Unix the textbook, and C++ classes and data structures, I'd be more than inclined to buy one, and sooner or later I'm certain thats going to happen...

But it hasn't yet. So far I'm inclined to agree with Microsoft Fanboy (albeit reasonable fanboy but fanboy no less) Paul Thurott; wait for V2.

but I do have a question for you; if you're like me (as in broke college kid), why go with 3G? Every single campus on every single college across the entire of the province of BC has several varieties of wireless, most with a wireless N format. Every starbucks, Blenz and Waves has public wifi, and you cant possibly be a member of these boards if every piece of property you own isn't crawling with wifi (hah, appended sig), so why go 3G?
Click to expand...

The only reason I went with 3G is because it was the only one in stock within 200 miles of where I live, and it has turned out to be an extremely useful feature and I don't think an non 3G iPad would have as much use as mine has had, I'm even thinking about just cancelling my phone data plan all together because I haven't used it at all since I got this iPad. Just the fact that I know wherever I go, I will have Internet, is a comfort.
 
Eragon Dragonslayer said:
The only reason I went with 3G is because it was the only one in stock within 200 miles of where I live, and it has turned out to be an extremely useful feature and I don't think an non 3G iPad would have as much use as mine has had, I'm even thinking about just cancelling my phone data plan all together because I haven't used it at all since I got this iPad. Just the fact that I know wherever I go, I will have Internet, is a comfort.
Click to expand...

+1. I've had 3G on my TPCs for four years now and I can live MUCH easier without my phone's 3G than my TPC's.
 
After using the iPad for a week now, I can truly say its amazing. I absolutely love it, and its perfect for my needs. The lack of flash hasnt hindered my web browsing at all, its all seamless to me, Ive only seen the missing flash logo a few times, and each time it wasnt really something i wanted to see, I think Html5 is great, videos play extremely smooth, they load up quick, and most of the websites i visit have converted quite a few of their things to html5, which works perfectly. I found the perfect case for my iPad, its called the Sena ZipBook. Its very good, Quality construction, Looks professional, and provides ample protection.

I am looking for a good iPad video converter though, and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations? Would like it to be less then 30 dollars if possible, Thanks, and feel free to ask any questions you may have :D
 
my wife loves the iPad also...
we just traveled to India and back and the 14 hr flights were very long.... and iPad gaming and videos was nice.

my notebook HP DM3T is much better for videos since my 160gb SSD and ability to play all codecs is much easier to use than the iPad (this is where apple loses IMO)

the star walk app is really cool
 
Eragon Dragonslayer said:
I am looking for a good iPad video converter though, and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations? Would like it to be less then 30 dollars if possible
Click to expand...
Just use Handbrake, MediaCoder or any number of other free encoding front-ends. There's no need to invest in specialized software. Lifehacker has some iPad presets for Handbrake that should work fine.
 
Skip the Lifehacker presets and just download a Handbrake nightly build. I've been using that plus the iPad presets (with video width set to 960) to convert videos for my iPhone 4.
 
congrad
been searching for months trying to get 16gb ipad at worstbuy but they keep running out
I got a gift card.

:/
 
I just use MyFi on my iphone 3GS and let my ipad sync up with that. Always online + I do not have to pay for another data plan (one is enough).
 
Also bestbuy seems to always be out of stock. If you call your local apple store (if you have one), just put your name on a waiting list. I just put my name down for a 32GB wifi + 3g and the very next day I got the email saying it was ready for pickup... And this was during the mad rush to get one...
 
darktiger said:
I just use MyFi on my iphone 3GS and let my ipad sync up with that. Always online + I do not have to pay for another data plan (one is enough).
Click to expand...

Yea, as of right now though, Im currently using a Nokia e63 and I'm waiting for the white iPhone4 to be available, so i wasnt able to tether yet, hence why i got the data plan :)

darktiger said:
Also bestbuy seems to always be out of stock. If you call your local apple store (if you have one), just put your name on a waiting list. I just put my name down for a 32GB wifi + 3g and the very next day I got the email saying it was ready for pickup... And this was during the mad rush to get one...
Click to expand...

Best buy takes a bit of time, they get shipments from Apple intermittently throughout the week, The Best Buy where I got mine, just got in 5 cases of the iPad 32gb 3g version. You just have to check the best buy site every day for availability and one should have it within the week or two.

One other question, Is there any reason to jailbreak an iPad yet? I havent really seen anything that tickled my fancy, and this new Frash, doesnt play videos yet.
 
Not really. I did it for the tethering, multitasking, and customization. Sbsetting was important so I can turn off/on features that suck up battery life. While I enjoy the stock iPad, it kind of sucks until it's jail broken. Sortof like buying a corvette and going 55mph all the the time. It looks good, but what is the point. But that is my view about it.
 
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