iPad: 16GB iPad users, how are you utilizing your space?

[Chocolatemilty]

So I went from an original 32GB wifi iPad to a 16GB Mini, after evaluating exactly how I used that space and if it was worth the extra $100. I'm now realizing the benefit would have been great to be able to put almost everything sans my large music library, but that I was truly carrying around things I didn't really need. Now, I am seriously considering iTunes Match in order to have my music anywhere and everywhere on both my iPad and iPhone so I can free that space up on local storage. My iPad has gone from an almost-everything-on-it to a media streaming device, but it's not as bad as I thought it could be.

Again, if you can get the higher storage model, it's great, but many of us just couldn't (like me), and 16GB works wonderfully with a small bit of management. I'm not skipping a beat having some senior year from high school pics or those albums I haven't listened to in ages!

How are you 16GB users doing with your iPads?

[Trat]

Why didn't you just buy the 32GB model then?

[Chocolatemilty]

Originally Posted by Trat

Why didn't you just buy the 32GB model then?

Price. $100 sometimes doesn't seem like a lot, but when you're a penny-pinching grad student, it was. Sold my original to subsidize the cost and that's what I could do.

[darthque]

no offense bro, but only 16gb can be a serious pain in the @$$, if you know what i mean. If you are interested in saving space, I'd recommend using dropbox for some of your files. Box is pretty good too, and every now and again, they will offer you 25gb for free. In fact there are a lot of free cloud services out there that you might find useful. Try googling it and see what you come up with.

Personally, im not a fan of itunes music match service. Its buggy, and my iphone has this annoying thing where it uses the internet to initiate the music, even when its already been downloaded. Its crap, and i dont think i will use it again. However, google offers a free music cloud service, which is supposed to be decent. You may want to explore that or Amazon's cloud service.

Hope this helps. Good luck with school!

[LanEvo]

I have 8gb free on my 16gb Mini, aside from documents for classes, I have one or two games, handful of apps for school and notes along with about 100 songs on it. And I am still good on space, iBooks has been a wonder though, keeps all my PDF lectures on file.

[northernbaldy]

like a 32gb surface user

[Trat]

Originally Posted by Chocolatemilty

Price. $100 sometimes doesn't seem like a lot, but when you're a penny-pinching grad student, it was. Sold my original to subsidize the cost and that's what I could do.

Sounds to me you should spend your money on more important things.

[tpr007]

I went from a 32gb 3rd gen wifi and cellular model to a 16gb wifi mini!

I restored it from my old ipad backup and still have space. With wifi hotspot on my phone for the rare occasions that wifi isn't available it's perfect.

If Apple weren't so greedy with the jump from 16 to 32 I probably would have gone for a 32, but £100 for 16gb is taking the proverbial!

[Claefer]

I went with 16 GB because I don't store many videos and I'm not a big video gamer and my music collection is about 3 GB. For me, my iPad, like every other computer I've owned, is really a glorified typewriter.

But in a perverse way I prefer the 16 GB because it forces me to discriminate between quality and junk so I end up keeping only the stuff I think matters instead of holding on to everything "just in case."

[corvus32]

I've learned to use the cloud more, and retrieve stuff as needed.

I let Pandora handle most of my music needs, and Flickr houses the bulk of my photos and videos. I only download the books I'm currently reading, and let the rest stay in the iBookstore - the same goes for apps in the App Store. I also have a Dropbox account that I can store files to and share between my iPad and desktop.

Stuff like that.

[aleni]

i manage it by streaming video with air video ap from my macbook air, when i travel, i copy 2-3 movies just in case i need to watch.

for music, my 12gb of music library is sure nice to have it all on the ipad, but in real life, i dont have time to listen them all, so i make a playlist for the current listening songs and sync that instead.

and for pictures, i always upload pictures taken from the camera to picasa web album, and access the photos via unofficial picasa application that u can buy on the appstore.

[palpatine]

I bought a 32 GB iPad 3. I could easily do with 16 GB, though. That's what I had for the iPad 1 and iPad 2. Next time I upgrade, assuming I get an iPad (I am still tempted by the Google Nexus 10, and probably by whatever comes after it), I will get the base model. For me, at least, 32 is too much.

How do I utilize the space? I mainly have PDFs for research. I've found that there isn't much point in having a couple of hundred on the iPad when I have easy access to Dropbox.

[iHawaii]

Originally Posted by Claefer

I went with 16 GB because I don't store many videos and I'm not a big video gamer and my music collection is about 3 GB. For me, my iPad, like every other computer I've owned, is really a glorified typewriter.

But in a perverse way I prefer the 16 GB because it forces me to discriminate between quality and junk so I end up keeping only the stuff I think matters instead of holding on to everything "just in case."

Totally agree with this post. My iPad is for current use, not a suitcase. Personal preference, of course.

[jedolley]

I have the 16GB right now, but will be exchanging it for an LTE when I have the chance. I have not decided if I am going to up it to 32GB yet, but I am thinking I won't need to.

My mini is mainly used for gaming, browsing, and reading. I don't have any music on it and any videos would be streamed. So far I have about 3.5GB free... I think I might be good on 16GB, but close enough to consider 32GB.

[jamesschmidtke]

Originally Posted by Chocolatemilty

So I went from an original 32GB wifi iPad to a 16GB Mini, after evaluating exactly how I used that space and if it was worth the extra $100. I'm now realizing the benefit would have been great to be able to put almost everything sans my large music library, but that I was truly carrying around things I didn't really need. Now, I am seriously considering iTunes Match in order to have my music anywhere and everywhere on both my iPad and iPhone so I can free that space up on local storage. My iPad has gone from an almost-everything-on-it to a media streaming device, but it's not as bad as I thought it could be.

Again, if you can get the higher storage model, it's great, but many of us just couldn't (like me), and 16GB works wonderfully with a small bit of management. I'm not skipping a beat having some senior year from high school pics or those albums I haven't listened to in ages!

How are you 16GB users doing with your iPads?

darthque is right about itunes match but amazon is worse. Here's the thing though itunes match probs were only with my 3g iPhone 4, with my old ipad 3 it worked flawlessly. I also went from 64 lte, retina apps are huge but i keep some of the the small stuff like flixster and my bank apps can stay on my phone. Kept netflix, procreate, dj apps, kindle and my mags. My mags are the worst, they are like a 700mb each. but that is my only real prob is managing those. I'm a graduating senior as well, and obviously i spent near 1000 on the 64 lte model and yeah going to an ipad mini which is below 400 has me ecstatic. The ipad is almost essential for students and I invested so much in my apps, subscriptions and media over the years when mine broke I needed and iPad but also like the idea of 600 cash goin towards my bills. So I think you made the right choice, these devices are not forever, you can do everything with your 16gb that you could do with a 64gb. 64 would never have held my entire media anyway. side note though, I don't undertsand why the evolution of flash i devices hasnt progressed past a 16gb starter

[N0ddie]

I have nothing but a few pics of our 17month old son on our 16Gb mini.

The use for this iPad is just for browsing the web and streaming videos so its not an issue. We have an iPad 2 64Gb for loads of pics, movies and music.

[Chocolatemilty]

Thanks for all of your responses, everyone! It looks like iTunes Match wasn't ready for primetime from some of your experiences, so I'll hold off on that. Amazon isn't that great, either? Has anyone used Google music on their iDevices? I have an unlimited data plan (more like 3GB, but I feel like that's the max I'd get at streaming vs. local storage) and I've been using Pandora on my mini, which I liked more than I thought I would since I'm discovering some great music and artists. I also use Dropbox a lot for my school files and PDFs, and I was wondering if anyone uses it for picture hosting. It pops up every time I connect my iDevices to my computer, saying it can give me extra space to upload them. However, my picture collection is around 6.5GB (lots of pics of family, yesteryear, and my abroad travels), and I'm wondering if Dropbox would be a seamless integration since I already use it, or if I should go with something like Picasa or Flickr. It would be wonderful to be able to access all of my pictures without it having to be local.

[Fruit Cake]

I'm a64gb user and only thing I can suggest is to start new fresh and only put things on there that you use. You'll be surprised how much junk you gather when you have an abundance of space at your disposal

[motty2307]

Don't have any issues with the 16GB. I use it primarily at home so I don't load music or movies on to it. If I'm flying I'll throw some stuff on for the flight but other than that I just use it to surf the web, check emails and read.

[Defender2010]

Originally Posted by Chocolatemilty

So I went from an original 32GB wifi iPad to a 16GB Mini, after evaluating exactly how I used that space and if it was worth the extra $100. I'm now realizing the benefit would have been great to be able to put almost everything sans my large music library, but that I was truly carrying around things I didn't really need. Now, I am seriously considering iTunes Match in order to have my music anywhere and everywhere on both my iPad and iPhone so I can free that space up on local storage. My iPad has gone from an almost-everything-on-it to a media streaming device, but it's not as bad as I thought it could be.

Again, if you can get the higher storage model, it's great, but many of us just couldn't (like me), and 16GB works wonderfully with a small bit of management. I'm not skipping a beat having some senior year from high school pics or those albums I haven't listened to in ages!

How are you 16GB users doing with your iPads?

ITunes Match is great. I really recommend it if you are a 16gb user. I have 9 GB of apps and 100 books (150mb) no films, no tv shows. iCloud is here so you don't need more capacity.