iPad reviews

[HewenttoJared]

Yea me too. What do you use to tether it? The apps I had have been less than impressive.

[BBatesokc]

On a downer regarding book and the iPad and Kindle ~ Apparently you can't 'checkout' e-books from libraries to read on either of those two devices right now. OKC library electronic loaners can be downloaded to 'regular' computers and some cheeper knockoff e-readers.

[metro]

Bates, how do you use your MyFi wireless SD card to stream photos to your iPad. I just bought one but have yet to stream them.

[Lord Helmet]

Yea me too. What do you use to tether it? The apps I had have been less than impressive.

I use MyWi. You have to jailbreak to install it. It works great. I also use My3g...FaceTime over 3g works really well, and you can DL any app any time no matter what size it is.

[metro]

So you have FaceTime on your iPad?

[Lord Helmet]

Sorry, no. I got off on an iPhone tangent. I tether my iPhone's 3g connection to my iPad. My comment about face time was regarding my iPhone. Apple and AT&T don't allow FaceTime over 3g...but you can install My3g on the phone and do it.

[flintysooner]

I bought a 64 Gb iPad about a week ago. Using it now in fact and becoming pretty accustomed now.

I was surprised by several glaring deficiencies and characteristics. It is heavier than I imagined and pretty difficult to find a comfortable hold position. The latter is aided considerably by employing a cover such as ZooGue. The email client is very disappointing and under some circumstances has proved unusable. The Safari browser is terribly disappointing but buying Atomic Browser ameliorated this for me. The most glaring problem is the lack of multi-tasking. However I am pretty confident most of these issues will be corrected in Apple system updates.

It is also very slick and prone to fly off the passenger seat or otherwise fall from random places. Good reason again for a cover.

Typing isn't my favorite but one does gain a surprising level of skill rather quickly. Reading in the sun is bad.

But reading text is better than a desktop or laptop but not as good as Kindle to me. Reading stuff with images is really good though.

It is truly outstanding for images. The 3G wires exceptionally well. There are some really good apps. It is fantastically convenient for most of the stuff I do.

All in all a pretty impressive device that definitely is useful for my purposes.

[Lord Helmet]

The email client is very disappointing and under some circumstances has proved unusable. The Safari browser is terribly disappointing but buying Atomic Browser ameliorated this for me. The most glaring problem is the lack of multi-tasking. However I am pretty confident most of these issues will be corrected in Apple system updates.

Interesting. I find the mail client to be really good, and have no problems with Safari. what specifically didin't you like about those two applications?

As far as multitasking goes, the next update includes that (better described as fast app switching in most cases).

[flintysooner]

Interesting. I find the mail client to be really good, and have no problems with Safari. what specifically didin't you like about those two applications?

As far as multitasking goes, the next update includes that (better described as fast app switching in most cases).

The mail client doesn't consolidate multiple accounts and is just way behind what I've become accustomed to on iPhone 4. The worst problem I've had is trying to forward a message with an attachment and including the attachment - think it was a PDF. When the party received the forwarded message it was blank. So I resent from iPhone 4 and it worked fine. I'm confident they will fix this to be more iPhone 4 like.

The Safari problems are numerous for me. Atomic Browser let me have true Firefox like tabs and quite refreshing every time I moved from one to another plus the different search options and several other features. It seems a bit faster to me as well but still pretty sluggish over all. Lack of extensions that I've come to depend upon is pretty upsetting but that is comparing iPad to Firefox on laptop or desktop. I read that Mozilla was working on an app but not sure what that means yet.

On Multi-tasking if they can get it somewhere around the iPhone 4 that would be really good for me.

But it is still really impressive. I've been able to use maps on 3G pretty much in the boonies.

[metro]

The only thing I don't like about Apple products is the calendar as it only lets you select from preselected times for a reminder, maximum of only two days out. What if I want a reminder a month or a week in advance?

I agree, I have no problems with Ipad mail or Safari.

[metro]

Another question, have any of you purchased a car mount for iPad? That is my next want, but wanted to hear some local reviews. I've read some reviews on iPad forum.

[Eep]

Interesting. I find the mail client to be really good, and have no problems with Safari. what specifically didin't you like about those two applications?

I consider the mail client "adequate" as opposed to "really good". I'll be happier with it when the iPad gets the IOS 4 client with the unified inbox and threading. I would really appreciate the ability to view full email headers though, and AFAIK that's not in the pipe. Also, IMO I should be able to swipe right or left to go to the next/previous message rather than pressing those little buttons, but that's pretty minor.

Regarding Safari, the truth is that I'm not a huge fan of it on the desktop either (lack of advanced configurability and ad blocking), but the mobile version is even worse with no tabs. The craptastic caching is what drives me up the wall the most though. I also don't understand why all browsers, especially those designed for smaller screens, don't integrate the search and address bars (or at least make this an option). Yes, I've looked at Atomic Web Browser, but bad UI design just kills me, and I haven't seen any indication that it solves the caching problem.

As far as multitasking goes, the next update includes that (better described as fast app switching in most cases).

I use backgrounder + multifl0w for this (jailbreak).

[Lord Helmet]

I use backgrounder + multifl0w for this (jailbreak).

I do this as well, but most people aren't going to be interested in JB'ing their devices.

[flintysooner]

I consider the mail client "adequate" as opposed to "really good". I'll be happier with it when the iPad gets the IOS 4 client with the unified inbox and threading. I would really appreciate the ability to view full email headers though, and AFAIK that's not in the pipe. Also, IMO I should be able to swipe right or left to go to the next/previous message rather than pressing those little buttons, but that's pretty minor.

Regarding Safari, the truth is that I'm not a huge fan of it on the desktop either (lack of advanced configurability and ad blocking), but the mobile version is even worse with no tabs. The craptastic caching is what drives me up the wall the most though. I also don't understand why all browsers, especially those designed for smaller screens, don't integrate the search and address bars (or at least make this an option). Yes, I've looked at Atomic Web Browser, but bad UI design just kills me, and I haven't seen any indication that it solves the caching problem.

For most stuff the email client works but the problem with attachments has been awful for me. It may be something unique to the message or something but it does work in the iPhone 4 for me.

Atomic Browser works pretty good and was worth the small price I paid. It doesn't refresh just switching from tab to tab. But if you close and then come back it has to refresh every tab which is annoying.

I don't want to jailbreak really.

[Eep]

For most stuff the email client works but the problem with attachments has been awful for me. It may be something unique to the message or something but it does work in the iPhone 4 for me.

Yeah, the mail client does do some weird stuff with attachments. When I experience attachment problems, which is most often when attempting to forward single-page PDFs, this is my workaround (YMMV if your "attachment issues" are different than mine):

1. Open the problematic attachment in GoodReader. You can do this from the mail client by clicking and holding the attachment's icon in the original message and selecting 'open in "GoodReader"'.
2. In GoodReader, go to your "My Documents" list (top left button). Select "Manage Files" from the right pane. Choose the document(s) you want to send from the left pane, then hit the "E-Mail" icon in the right pane.
3. The default iPad email client will launch, opening a message with the attachment from GoodReader in it, and you can choose your recipients and send as usual. Despite the fact that it visually appears to be doing the exact same thing, the attachments will come through intact.

The primary drawback to this, besides the extra 15s it takes, is that you get the attachments to the recipient, but they're no longer associated with the text content of the original email (since you're not actually forwarding the message).

[flintysooner]

Yeah, the mail client does do some weird stuff with attachments. When I experience attachment problems, which is most often when attempting to forward single-page PDFs, this is my workaround (YMMV if your "attachment issues" are different than mine):

1. Open the problematic attachment in GoodReader. You can do this from the mail client by clicking and holding the attachment's icon in the original message and selecting 'open in "GoodReader"'.
2. In GoodReader, go to your "My Documents" list (top left button). Select "Manage Files" from the right pane. Choose the document(s) you want to send from the left pane, then hit the "E-Mail" icon in the right pane.
3. The default iPad email client will launch, opening a message with the attachment from GoodReader in it, and you can choose your recipients and send as usual. Despite the fact that it visually appears to be doing the exact same thing, the attachments will come through intact.

The primary drawback to this, besides the extra 15s it takes, is that you get the attachments to the recipient, but they're no longer associated with the text content of the original email (since you're not actually forwarding the message).

Thanks - I'll try that next time.

[BBatesokc]

If you own an iPad, you really need to sync it with your computer and iTunes so you can get the major software update that was released this week! Just being able to create app folders is reason enough for me.

Word of caution though. Back up your iPad to iTunes BEFORE upgrading. My upgrade had issues and I had to do a 'restore' which erases everything on the iPad.

I actually like to do a backup and restore once a year on all my Apple devices.

[HewenttoJared]

Just updated the 4 and the iPad today. Does it auto-discover any wireless printer? Haven't been around one to test it yet.