Apple Virgin - Need Advice On Ipad Purchase Decision

[davejonesbkk]

So Ive been thinking about getting an ipad2 for a while now. This will be quite a luxury purchase for me and Im probably looking at getting the cheapest option at 15k for 16G wifi. The main reason I want to get an ipad is that Im a fan of graphic novels and obviously they are impossible to get over here but I can download them online and read them as they are meant to be read on a pc tablet.

Is there anything I need to know or take into consideration before buying this? I know, for example, that they dont have usb ports so if I want to transfer data from my laptop to the ipad I will have to purchase the Apple usb connector cable.

I dont want to bother with a 3G model as Im also thinking of purchasing a 2nd hand iphone 3gs soon, which leads me onto my next question:

I have read that I can tether a 3G capable iphone to an ipad and then use 3G on the ipad, what do I need to do to enable this?

A friend of mine recently got an iphone 3GS second hand at MBK for 6k which seems like a good price, anything one should be aware of when buying a 2nd hand iphone? Will it become obsolete and unusable after a certian amount of time too?

thanks!

[floridaguy]

I read every night on my iPad and I love it. I have finished probably 10,000 pages on it and I will say it is great, as probably any tablet would be, but, after and hour lying in bed reading it can get a "little" heavy, but I am not really complaining, just the only downside.

You don't have to buy the cable, it comes with the iPad. You just unplug it from the wall (for charging the iPad) and plug it into you laptop. It won't charge plugged into a windows laptop, only a mac.

Yes you can tether with the iPhone 3GS. I have the 64GB wifi iPad 2 and I tether with my iPhone 4. Works great. If you update to the latest iOS on the 3GS it will have tethering built in, so you just have to turn it on in Settings.

As for the 3GS, I would get a second hand iPhone 4 if you could, or wait if you can and get it alot cheaper after September when the iPhone 5 comes out and many trade in their 4's for a 5. The 3GS will not be able to run iOS 5 or beyond, so it is now going to be stuck on iOS 4.xx, which could render it functionally obsolete as soon as you buy it.

[davejonesbkk]

thanks.

How do you find the lack of flash when browsing websites? Its a bit of a sticking point for me as im weighing up the possibility of getting a samsung galaxy tab instead, this video is a good comparison:

[Gippy]

thanks.

How do you find the lack of flash when browsing websites? Its a bit of a sticking point for me as im weighing up the possibility of getting a samsung galaxy tab instead, this video is a good comparison:

Doesn't bother me in the slightest. I initially thought it would and held off buying an iPad until I needed one but I can't say I notice the lack of flash or miss the annoying adverts it is mostly used for. Of course if all your favorite websites are flash heavy you will miss out unless they have an iPad app instead.

[nikster]

^^ what floridaguy said.

I use my iPad 2 now as morning newspaper, using the free FlipBoard app. I can't believe how awesome this app really is - imagine a high-gloss magazine, where you can pick and choose the content ("cars", "tech", etc); where you can add Facebook and twitter feeds. And where all the information is brand new up to the minute like on the web. That's Flipboard on the iPad.

Now it's easy to say you get the same content on web pages - of course you do. But you can't sit there at your breakfast, and it doesn't look or feel half as good. Flipboard is pure genius. It actually makes printed magazines obsolete.

Graphic novels - match made in heaven right there. I am sure there's plenty of free reader apps for that comic book format (or formats - didn't follow this very closely), and you can download anything you want of course... just transfer from the PC to the iPad via USB.

For a used iPhone, make sure it's a factory unlocked one. The alternative is a locked/hacked one which works fine when you get it but as soon as you do an update you get into trouble. Unfortunately many of the used iPhones for sale are hacked ones. Factory unlocked means it works with any SIM card, and will continue to work with any SIM card even when new firmware updates come out. The 3GS is old now, but for 6k baht... it's a pretty good deal, I have to say!

What they also like to do in Thailand is "set it up" for you - don't do that as you'll have to wipe it again later anyway. Your iPhone must be connected to your own iTunes account. If it's connected to the shop's iTunes account... it works, but it's a major pain. You can't keep the apps and whatnot the shop installed for you when you switch to your account. So all that "free" stuff they give you - it's just a sales spiel. Don't fall for it. Pretty much all iPhones friends bought at the little shops were set up this way.

[VerbalKint]

When buying a 2nd hand iphone make sure that wifi and bluetooth are working. There are a lot of them where the wifi/bluetooth chip died when updating the software.

(google: wifi greyed out)

[floridaguy]

thanks.

How do you find the lack of flash when browsing websites? Its a bit of a sticking point for me as im weighing up the possibility of getting a samsung galaxy tab instead, this video is a good comparison:

I don't really notice it. The only thing I do notice is that I can't watch Youtube videos from the web browser, but there is a dedicated Youtube app for it anyway. Also, there are replacement web browsers that handle flash, such as 360 Browser and Atomic.

[nikster]

thanks.

How do you find the lack of flash when browsing websites? Its a bit of a sticking point for me as im weighing up the possibility of getting a samsung galaxy tab instead, this video is a good comparison:

I don't really notice it. The only thing I do notice is that I can't watch Youtube videos from the web browser, but there is a dedicated Youtube app for it anyway. Also, there are replacement web browsers that handle flash, such as 360 Browser and Atomic.

Not really true. While actual YouTube site links are redirected to the dedicated app - which isn't much of a difference - all inline YouTube content plays fine inside the browser these days. The reason is that YouTube is serving HTML5 video content when accessed by an iPad so there is no Flash involved.

The way it looks like now is that Flash is getting killed by the iPad / iPhone. If you want an iPad compatible website, you have to dump it, and people are realizing that pretty much anything they wanted to do with Flash can be done with HTML5. Adobe has just released a full blown HTML 5 editing system that works pretty similar to its Flash editors. The writing is on the wall for Flash. Good riddance!

[davejonesbkk]

ok thanks for all the answers, Im definitely getting an ipad this week!

One thing is though, I just found out that the iphone 3G aND 3GS does NOT have a flash on the camera, thats a purchase decision breaker for me as I only usually take pics at night when Im out with friends.

So....is it possible to tether none Apple smartphones that are 3G capable so that I can use 3G on the wifi only ipad model and anything I should be aware of about this?

[Crushdepth]

thanks.

How do you find the lack of flash when browsing websites? Its a bit of a sticking point for me as im weighing up the possibility of getting a samsung galaxy tab instead, this video is a good comparison:

I don't really notice it. The only thing I do notice is that I can't watch Youtube videos from the web browser, but there is a dedicated Youtube app for it anyway. Also, there are replacement web browsers that handle flash, such as 360 Browser and Atomic.

Not really true. While actual YouTube site links are redirected to the dedicated app - which isn't much of a difference - all inline YouTube content plays fine inside the browser these days. The reason is that YouTube is serving HTML5 video content when accessed by an iPad so there is no Flash involved.

The way it looks like now is that Flash is getting killed by the iPad / iPhone. If you want an iPad compatible website, you have to dump it, and people are realizing that pretty much anything they wanted to do with Flash can be done with HTML5. Adobe has just released a full blown HTML 5 editing system that works pretty similar to its Flash editors. The writing is on the wall for Flash. Good riddance!

I think Apple canned flash in IOS just so that their customers would be unable to view the Nokia website :-)

[nikster]

I think Apple canned flash in IOS just so that their customers would be unable to view the Nokia website :-)

That's unlikely ... Nokia was already stale and old, but the iPhone marked the true beginning of the end. It's going to be a classic tale for MBA students around the world: First, Nokia technicians and management saw the iPhone tech demo 6 months before it was released and simply didn't believe it would be possible to make such a phone. Once the phone was actually out, on schedule, they publicly stated that their goal was to copy the iPhone. And it looks like it took them until September 2011 to make that happen - the meego N9 looks super slick. It's just quite likely too late.

Steve Jobs published his thoughts on Flash: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

And while there's a certain amount of bias and spin in his point of view, the main points he makes are hard to argue with.

I think the true reason they didn't include Flash was of a technical / political nature: Adobe doesn't give out its code, the format is proprietary. So were Apple to support Flash, they would rely on Adobe to make it work. They'd have to live with Adobe's technical difficulties, their schedule, and their willingness to make Flash good. They had played this game on the Mac for over a decade and it turned out very bad for Apple: Flash on Mac was always a CPU hog, always slow (compared to Windows), and the cause for 90% or so of web browser crashes. And all that in a piece of software Apple had no control over. No wonder they didn't want that mess on the iPhone.

I know you meant it tongue in cheek no idea why this response got so long

Edited August 8, 2011 by nikster