Should I Buy an iPad ?

[gamba]

One of my sons was demonstrating his iPad to me. I am still recovering from the experience !

Press the right keys & there ( should you wish ) were hundreds of Bach Cantatas plus a vast selection of rare music played on my namesake - ' gamba', both to see & to hear !

I could also take Ha Na Chang with me wherever I go !

With decent headphones the sound was fine. Not having to go & sit in front of a computer screen in another room was an asset, or tolerate the extra bulk ( & cost ) of a laptop.

As a recent & reluctant convert to matters digital , I'm wondering why everyone hasn't got one - after all they're not that expensive. ( although my wife may not agree ).

[Don Petter]

Do you really need an iPad to do that? There are plenty of 7" tablet PCs around now for much less than £100, which I would have thought can do the same streaming. Perhaps a techie can spell out the pros and cons.

My Android tablet, bought a year or two ago for about £120, does me well for web browsing and emails when I'm on the road, and can store and play a lot of sound files if you want use it for that. I've never bothered to explore streaming on it, but see no reason why it shouldn't cope.

[doversoul1]

gamba
Do you really want to have music playing into your ears wherever you go and whatever you are doing?

[Resurrection Man]

From my own experience, the answer is No to any sort of 'Pad. As a dedicated Mac person (with scars to show from forays into the murky world of Microsoft et al), the iPad was a no-brainer. We are going away to Japan in May and I wanted a device to back up my wife's camera (being a Sony, it has Sony's proprietary memory card and there is no simple backup option...believe me, I looked). Other benefits would be keeping in contact email-wise, being able to find out where we were (as we're driving around) plus other travel related Apps. All loaded, tested and ready to go. That was two months ago. Since then, it has sat on my desk buried underneath a pile of paper.
So when we come back, I will be selling it! Nothing wrong with it...a brilliant piece of kit...just that I won't use it.

I too was wowed when I first got it.

[MrGongGong]

If you have good eyesight then there's little you can do on an iPad that the Iphone doesn't do or even the iPod touch
though I have a pathological hatred of iTunes
it is a nice piece of kit but the lack of connectivity without spending huge amounts on a suitable interface means that i'm not going to get one (yet !)
unless I can have this with it

http://liine.net/en/products/lemur/

[Stunsworth]

Bought the latest iPad a couple of weeks ago to replace the 1st generation one I had. I use mine every day, in fact I'm writing this on it. I find it much easier to look at than a small phone screen - I also have an iPhone.

With the addition of an Apple tv it's very easy to stream whatever is playing on the iPad through a HiFi and tv - that of course includes programmes on the iPlayer.

Battery life is around 8-10 hours of continual use.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yes

[johnb]

Over Christmas a friend was demonstrating his iPad to me. It is certainly a beautiful object and very impressive

BUT

I really couldn't justify spending a minimum of £400 on something like that.

[Don Petter]

I really couldn't justify spending a minimum of £400 on something like that.

That's why I was hoping that someone would explain what it can do that an ordinary £60-£70 tablet can't.

[gamba]

Keep going folks - I'm all agog !

With grateful thanks for your advice.

gamba

[gamba]

gamba
Do you really want to have music playing into your ears wherever you go and whatever you are doing?

Come now, doversoul, do you really expect an aged member of this highly selective & discriminating community to tolerate music playing into their ears ' morning, noon & night ' ( Ah ha, I feel the need to write an overture coming upon me )

[scottycelt]

That's why I was hoping that someone would explain what it can do that an ordinary £60-£70 tablet can't.

Dunno really ... but isn't it just another computer toy?

I'm not one for all this new-fangled touch-screen stuff, anyway. Kids have it too easy nowadays ... they learn to touch something and it just works ... no wonder many of them can't be bothered to even read or write proper.

Stick to what you have ... the iPad will be superseded by something else shortly, anyway, in a bid to attract the gullible and impressionable ... not so long ago 'they' were all raving about something called a Blackberry.

I'll stick to my boring old Desktop(s) which are much more powerful, have infinitely greater storage, and I can upgrade to my own needs and specifications ...

[Bryn]

Do you really need an iPad to do that? There are plenty of 7" tablet PCs around now for much less than £100, which I would have thought can do the same streaming. Perhaps a techie can spell out the pros and cons.

My Android tablet, bought a year or two ago for about £120, does me well for web browsing and emails when I'm on the road, and can store and play a lot of sound files if you want use it for that. I've never bothered to explore streaming on it, but see no reason why it shouldn't cope.

Agreed. I have been very pleased with the Arnova 7 G2 which I managed to get from an HMV shop for under £80 recently. The sound is good, it can handle videos such as those of the Krivine Beethoven Symphonies downloaded from YouTube. It plays mp2s, FLACs and APEs, etc. (which the iPad toy can't), and it takes MicroSDHC cards up to 32GB (which again the iPad has no built in facility for). It also has very good charge life.

[Oh, and for just £7.50 including p&p) you can fit it out with a tough leather effect folder case replete with USB keyboard (though you do also need to spend another couple of £ on a USB to mini-USB adapter - I got mine in Maplins). For the Case/keuboard, just search amazon.co.uk for "7" tablet keyboard case". The case fittings are not purpose made for the Archos/Arnova tablets, but a couple of strips of self-adnesive Velcro do the trick.]

[Flosshilde]

Stick to what you have ... the iPad will be superseded by something else shortly, anyway, in a bid to attract the gullible and impressionable ...

Probably by another version of iPad. Why anyone is taken in by the Apple con I don't know. It might look nice, but it doesn't do anything that other computers/IT doesn't do, & is over-priced. The company isn't any less capitalist than any other IT company (how much did Steve Jobs put into charitable foundations?). I wouldn't touch any i-nonsense with a barge-pole.

[Don Petter]

Thank you for those last two posts. I'm inclining to be pleased I seem to be among the Philistines, rather than the Davidsbündler.