Should I Buy an iPad ?

[Stunsworth]

...Apple took a 30% cut. Yes, a whopping 30%

Is that a large cut though? I would have thought that most printed book sales result in less than 70% of the selling price going back to the publisher.

As a buyer the 'agency' model that Apple and Amazon have adopted with some publishers is annoying. It makes little sense for an electronic edition of a book to be more expensive than the printed version.

[Beef Oven]

As you have probably heard, the US government is suing Apple over the price fixing of e-books. The story goes that Apple cut a deal with the major US publishers whereby the publishers could specify the price they wanted the e-books to sell for and Apple took a 30% cut. Yes, a whopping 30%.

This then formed a pattern for the whole of the e-book industry, with the likes of Amazon raising their prices accordingly.

So, we might well see the price of e-books falling as a result of the US court case.

court case? you mean book case, surely?
/

[teamsaint]

the apple case is interesting. I am not aware of such agreements in the UK.

Regardless,I would still expect the retail price of most ebooks to remain somewhere near that of paper editions.

Publishers have to recoup origination costs, royalties, marketing costs, and retailers have to make money, and there is VAT on all of it.

some mass market titles will continue to be aggressively price promoted, to build market share, and as a marketing tool, but overall, I don't think e prices will move too much.it's not in publishers, retailers or authors interests.

[Stunsworth]

the apple case is interesting. I am not aware of such agreements in the UK

If you browse Kindle books you'll often see some text indicating that the price has been set by the publisher. These are the books that Amazon doesn't discount as they\ve been priced using what's known as 'the agency model'.

Looking at the royalties for Kindle books the publisher has two options. To receive 35% of the list price regardless of how Amazon discount the book, or to receive 70% of the selling price, i.e. those royalties are based on the _selling_ price, not the price set by the publisher.

[Dave2002]

I completely agree. I am a passionate Mac person too (Macbook Pro, iMac, iPod...), and am sure the iPad's great - but exactly as you point out, I have no use for it. I think it all depends on lifestyle. I cycle into work and back. I have a computer at work and others at home. I would simply never use it. If I need a computer for a journey, I would want one that is more versatile than an iPad (i.e. with a proper keyboard). So I've never been remotely tempted.

If I commuted by train, on the other hand, I would have had an iPad like a shot - remembering my commuting days, it would have been a godsend.

I am quite tempted by the smallest Macbook Air. My 17" Macbook Pro is actually quite large and comparatively heavy. I've taken it on short trips eg the Eurostar, and it materially eats into hand luggage space. The little 11" Macbook Air is about the same size and weight as an iPad but would suit me more, I think. That said, I don't feel sufficient need to get one.

Some people find the battery lifetime of the iPad to be a significant factor. iPads go for much longer than the Macbook Airs (at least twice as long), which can be very useful, and avoids some conflicts about the use of power sockets at conferences etc. The iPad is also light - in its basic form, even with a cover. Again, some people use a cover with embedded keyboard. This puts the weight up, and also reduces the battery life, as the keyboard uses Bluetooth. The battery life is still good though, but the weight then does become similar to that of the Airs.

I didn't think I'd use an iPad. It presents quite a few problems - e.g it's rubbish for typing without a keyboard.
Despite that I use it all the time.

People who have iPhones (I'm too mean for one of those) or an iPod to access wi-fi might find that they have most of the functionality they need for mobile work, so would have less need for an iPad.

Another issue is whether to have the 3G. I'd say "yes" definitely. This makes it much more useful for mobile working, and also even within areas where there is wi-fi, it raises the reliability. It also provides better navigational support, with GPS.

At the end of all this, did our OP - gamba - get one?

[Globaltruth]

Another yes vote

Some people find the battery lifetime of the iPad to be a significant factor. iPads go for much longer than the Macbook Airs (at least twice as long), which can be very useful, and avoids some conflicts about the use of power sockets at conferences etc. The iPad is also light - in its basic form, even with a cover. Again, some people use a cover with embedded keyboard. This puts the weight up, and also reduces the battery life, as the keyboard uses Bluetooth. The battery life is still good though, but the weight then does become similar to that of the Airs.

I didn't think I'd use an iPad. It presents quite a few problems - e.g it's rubbish for typing without a keyboard.
Despite that I use it all the time.

People who have iPhones (I'm too mean for one of those) or an iPod to access wi-fi might find that they have most of the functionality they need for mobile work, so would have less need for an iPad.

Another issue is whether to have the 3G. I'd say "yes" definitely. This makes it much more useful for mobile working, and also even within areas where there is wi-fi, it raises the reliability. It also provides better navigational support, with GPS.

At the end of all this, did our OP - gamba - get one?

Ive also been surprised by how useful I have found it...
For example:
* Some great (grand)
children's apps from Toca Boca - Swedish, educational, fun but not in that dreadful worthy way
* speaker better than expected - listen to (even more) music, esp when travelling
* Mrs GT's favourite computing device - she can get to her emails by lifting the lid and clicking. Once.
* Twitter (pauses for intake of breath from several regular members) Twitter app works well
* battery life does seem exceptionally good
* have committed to iCloud which means not only is my music there (still on HD too) but also contacts & calendar too. One calendar synchronised across 4 machines makes life easy...

I bought it in the first place to use Apple Tv which I already had, mainly for iPlayer. This works extremely well. The new Spotify app is also AirPlay enabled.

Gets my vote. Will replace my clunky Android with an iPhone too when appropriate. I just want a simple techno-life (as a former Fellow of the BCS this hasn't always been the case) - Apple gives me that.

[MrGongGong]

what I really want is one of these

http://www.owlproject.com/iLog

[Globaltruth]

what I really want is one of these



http://www.owlproject.com/iLog

What a lovely site. When I've worked out what they could be used for I may want one too...

[arancie33]

Apologies if this has been posted before. Almost on par with the fly swat one.

http://m.wimp.com/dadipad/

[MrGongGong]

What a lovely site. When I've worked out what they could be used for I may want one too...

You make music with them ........ (and jolly nice people as well )

this is rather good on the ipad

http://singingfingers.com/

[Globaltruth]

You make music with them ........ (and jolly nice people as well )

this is rather good on the ipad

http://singingfingers.com/

Yes, I worked out the music part, but they seemed to be an adjunct rather than an instrument in their own right?

Thanks for the Singingfingers, looks like a lovely app for the grandchildren. I'l let you know....

Can't offer much in return, I think I may have posted this one before...it is available as an App.

http://simplynoise.com/

[Resurrection Man]

I've not read the entire thread and so apologies if what follows has already been covered.

I bought a secondhand iPad purely as a short term backup for my and my wife's cameras while we were on holiday in Japan. It was also going to be used as a gateway to upload the images on a daily basis to my Flickr account. As we were driving around the country, in an emergency I proposed to use it as a sort of SatNav even though I knew that the data costs would prove ruinous. So how did it go?

Backing up images worked perfectly well (up to a point) as I knew it would having pre-tested interconnectivity beforehand in the UK. I used Apple's Camera Connection kit but also had a much cheaper adapter as a backup. During UK testing, the one thorny problem that was eventually resolved was getting my wife's Sony camera to be recognised by the iPad. Sony use their own proprietary memory cards and adapters are few and far between. The recommended way is to use the supplied USB cable. Only the iPad said 'this device not supported'. Googling and the web proved unsuccessful and it was only the serendipity of finding a chap in our local Apple dealership who used to work for Sony that resulted in him sorting the problem out. The answer for those in a similar position is to change the Sony camera interface to PictBridge.

I said it worked well up to a point. While backing up photos from the SD card was fine, uploading the photos from my wife's camera was distinctly buggy. Because I wanted to keep the original photos on the camera, it meant that during the backup sequence I was prompted whether or not I wanted to re-import those images already uploaded. My response was 'No'. Trouble was, that as the import program went through flagging up those photos that were being imported each time, to my consternation I found that images that were supposed to have been backed up in previous imports were showing up as being imported this time round. So if they were imported on a previous occasion and I told the ipad not to re-import then why were they being imported this time round? It did not inspire confidence in the integrity of the system.

Backing up worked well but therein lies the rub. Photo management on the iPad is non-existent. They all ended up in the same bucket. Hundreds of them. Trying to multiple select photos is impossible. There do seem to be various kludges out there on the web but from feedback by others, sometimes these work and sometimes they don't. They didn't for me. And it is in this area that for me the iPad falls down so so badly. There are so many instances of things that you'd like to do that come as second nature with a proper computer. Like left click and right click. You end up scratching your head on how to achieve this functionality on the iPad, you google all night and get nowhere. Basically for day-to-day general purpose actions the iPad sucks.

Uploading to Flickr? A nightmare. Not the iPads fault, just that the Flickr Uploader needs rewriting. You can only upload ten photos at a time. But because if the lousy photo management on the iPad, you end up using the Last Imported folder as your only practical source for Flickr. So 100 photos to upload before I can then backup my wife's camera. Ten at a time. So you select the first ten...they're the easiest as you start at the beginning and select 1,2,3...10 and click Done. And wait while the Uploader prepares them. Then you add your tags and then upload them...and wait. Then you select the next ten and go through the same procedure. After about four goes, you've forgotten just how far you've got and it really is a drag counting 1,2,3...29,30...41....49 each time. Then the Flickr Uploader decides to become unresponsive. You can tap the screen to try and select images all night but nothing happens. The only way is to reset the ipad and start again. It redefines the phrase 'Flakey'. Dinner seems hours away.

So here I am now back in the UK. I still have the original SD cards...but discovered that my aged SD reader won't recognise them. I'd like to get them onto my iMac. I know that the Apple camera connection kit will read them only the iPad already has them....and my wife's...all in the same photo album. If I upload them from the iPad I have to upload them all and then try and identify which are my wife's. A nightmare. Even deleting the existing backups on the iPad is proving almost impossible as there seems to be no easy way I can find to multiple select the photo's. They expect you to select each photo one by one and 'are you sure you want to delete'. Life is too short. I resent having to pay out more money to buy a 2GB SD reader although they are cheap.

So my conclusions.

iPad...design...8 out of 10. Functionality and ease of use....2 out of 10. Next time I'll take a laptop.

[Frances_iom]

iPad...design...8 out of 10. Functionality and ease of use....2 out of 10. Next time I'll take a laptop.

no try an Android tablet (eg Acer series) much better connectivity - no hassle with Apples walled garden approach

[Stunsworth]

The card reader probably only supports SD cards not SDHC. If the cards you have are larger than 2 gig they're likely to be SDHC. You'll need to buy a new card reader if thats the case. Nothing to do with Apple or your camera, older card readers can't handle SDHC cards.

If you want to delete multiple photos on the iPad, go to the photo app and tap the box with an arrow coming out of it on the top right of the screen. They tap on the photos you want to delete and a tick will appear on them. When you've selected all the ones you want to delete tap the red 'delete' button on the top left of the screen and they'll be deleted.

[Don Petter]

A minor point among all your woes, but you imply your own camera is not a Sony. If so, wouldn't identifying your photos from your wife's be possible by the files having names in a different format?