Ipad Rant

[Sakeopete]

My son's school requires he has an I-pad, my 3 y/o daughter likes it too so I bought her one also. The school loaded education apps on both which I think are great. My beef with the dam_n things is the itunes. What a hassle it is getting an account setup and not to mention having to convert my avi videos before they can be loaded onto the machine.

Honestly I don't see why people like them so much, I am an android person myself. It is so easy not having to use a silly itunes type program, dragging and dropping videos/music of any format straight into the Galaxy xxx is so much easier. Samsung tablets and phones are better performers all around.

I'm guessing people who use ipads have never used android so they are comfortable with them but now that I have used both I don't see the appeal of them.

Rant over thank you for reading it, I feel better.

[Tywais]

A friend of mine just got the latest iPad and showed it to me. He was able to put video files on it and play them without iTunes. Not sure which app he used but I've found these.

http://itunes.apple....d384098375?mt=8

http://itunes.apple....d416756729?mt=8

http://www.airplayit.com/

Some info here - apcmag

//edit - have to admit I was surprised considering all I've heard about iPad and iTunes requirements.

[meand]

itunes is simply just a vehicle to make more money. I totally agree with you. If apple wanted to make things really easy, they could, it isn't about that though. It is really an interesting, and new, business model i feel...... build pretty much the best product (i'm talking more about my ipod as i have more experience with that than ipads and phones), you must then open itunes to put media on it... itunes then connects to the internet without asking you (free marketing), then your file types you may add, especially video, seem to be very specific. if you could not add mp3 to ipods i mean the thing would be a worthless piece of trash. instead of satisfying the customer to the maximum extent, they are going for controlling the customer to the maximum extent. im sure this business model isn't new, but i'm with you, it pisses me off.

[rijb]

A friend of mine just got the latest iPad and showed it to me. He was able to put video files on it and play them without iTunes. Not sure which app he used but I've found these.

http://itunes.apple....d384098375?mt=8

http://itunes.apple....d416756729?mt=8

http://www.airplayit.com/

Some info here - apcmag

//edit - have to admit I was surprised considering all I've heard about iPad and iTunes requirements.

Those are all great apps. You might also want to try Air Transfer Pro.

There's no single app that will make people like Apple. They're too big of a target now. Reminds me of the Microsoft days.

[richard_smith237]

Using iTunes I simply populate my VLC player folder with a simple drag and drop of my movie file (any format).

The VLC folder (or O Player if you use that) appears at the bottom of the screen in the APPS section of iTunes when your device is connected.

It's really very simple.

[GooEng]

there's a great app called good player that i use - like a vlc type - plays just about anything on the ipad - files can be loaded into the app via itunes.

richard - do you have vlc on the ipad? i bee trying to get it but keep ending up at the applidium site which takes me to the french itunes, then i get lost in french .... any tips on how to get it (in english)

[nikster]

I'll give you dropping videos - that should work like on Android in iTunes, weird that it doesn't.

The advantage of converting video to iPad format is that playback will be hardware accelerated and so the batteries will last way longer. HandbrakeBatch makes conversion very easy.

There are rumors Apple is going to break up iTunes into several different programs - would make sense as it's grown into an unwieldy monster. It was originally the best mp3 management app, then came the iPod and iPod syncing was added to it, later phone and iPad syncing as well, and that's when it really broke. It's doing too many things, and it doesn't make sense all these things should be inside iTunes. Managing phone backups from my mp3 music player? Sound like a good idea? I think not.

I imagine they'll have a iPad / iPhone sync app which can pull music from a music-only iTunes, photos from the photos app, and files from the file system.

As far as managing music and media is concerned iTunes sure is a hell of a lot better than dragging around hierarchical file structures.

[Sakeopete]

Thanks for the suggestions but I can't even get apps off the store. I don't know if it is because I tried using my Canadian CC and address or some other problem. First I had an error saying it could not connect, that lasted a few days now it says to contact itunes <deleted>. I see from searching the web many people have the same problem all over the world. I don't mean to boast Android but dam_n they make things easy.

[g00dgirl]

I also like to use goodplayer and just stream any content over my local network (from my NAS or shared folders on other computers).

[Jimi007]

avi files will play in the free app flexplayer without any conversion or streaming.

[cheeryble]

I find the iPad very limited indeed.

Strangely, it still goes everywhere with me.

I wonder if there's a place for a Transformer like mini laptop where thescreen oart could be taken apart to read like a book in bed.

I left the bad script in the last paragraph to show why I hate the iPad.

it's not jsut that typing mistakes are easy to make.......it's how slow and fiddly it is trying to correct them.

[nikster]

I find the iPad very limited indeed.

Strangely, it still goes everywhere with me.

I wonder if there's a place for a Transformer like mini laptop where thescreen oart could be taken apart to read like a book in bed.

I left the bad script in the last paragraph to show why I hate the iPad.

it's not jsut that typing mistakes are easy to make.......it's how slow and fiddly it is trying to correct them.

There's tons of Bluetooth keyboards for the iPad out there - many work like you described, Google for it.

I still think though that the added hassle of the keyboard is probably not worth it, even though, as you said, typing on the iPad is far from ideal. A perfect solution has not been found yet.

A friend of mine recently tweeted about a new book - I knew I'd like it. A minute later I was reading it on the retina iPad.... it's amazing, and so far I am loving reading on the iPad. It's a bit heavy compared to a book - but on the plus side, I don't need a reading light in the dark, and I can continue reading on the iPhone - it automatically syncs the page I am on via internet. Reading on the iPhone 4 is surprisingly comfortable, never thought I'd do it that much but the phone is always with me, and the text is super sharp.

[nikster]

Just found this - the best iPad keyboard solutions

http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/9/3229047/best-ipad-keyboard

[cheeryble]

I find the iPad very limited indeed.

Strangely, it still goes everywhere with me.

I wonder if there's a place for a Transformer like mini laptop where thescreen oart could be taken apart to read like a book in bed.

I left the bad script in the last paragraph to show why I hate the iPad.

it's not jsut that typing mistakes are easy to make.......it's how slow and fiddly it is trying to correct them.

There's tons of Bluetooth keyboards for the iPad out there - many work like you described, Google for it.

.

Thanks Nikster

Yes there are........but I tried one....the Apple wireless keyboard....once and found even with the keyboard there is for example no forward delete (so nice for corrections), no keyboard shortcuts for cut copy paste etc that make things so much easier, and no rich text, no italics even. (maybe my memory fails about keyboard shortcuts?)

Will now check out your next post link and probably be proved wrong!

Ps....now checked your link some quite nice ones there fancied the Logitech Ultrathin but m hands are big don't help Not to mention Last time I looked finding cases let alone. Keyboards. For the iPad 1 was impossible.

Cheeryble

Edited August 13, 2012 by cheeryble

[cheeryble]

AFter another day of mainstream apps regularly crashing or freezing, i had a mail freeze today....could not send or cancel/save. This is not abnormal, but the amazing thing today is when I copied to Notability for safety then rebooted, there was no N on the bottom row of the keyboard!!

No N!!

It was replaced with a "!" !!!!!!!

Yet when I pressed the "!" it did make the N!

So I had two "!"s, just an inch and a half apart. bizarre.

The worst type of freezing seems to me that it,s nigh impossible to finish filling comments in a comment box.

Naturally it never seems to screw up unitl oy've already wasted five minutes....s..which is quite a bit of purgatory on that dam_n keyboard.

Cheeryble

Edited August 17, 2012 by cheeryble

[Jimi007]

My wife loves her iPad! It's great that it has both English and Thai keyboards, but I hate trying to type on it. She never watched Thai soaps, but now she's a uTube addict...