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16gb, 32gb or 64gb?
- Thread starter Robin4
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Now that we have a concrete date for ordering and launch date, the decision must be made. 16gb, 32gb, or 64gb?
The debate rages on. I think I will spring for the 32gb, with the expectation of upgrading in a year or two and passing the Rev1 to my wife or other. I don't mind syncing content as I don't have a need to have 10 different movies on my iPad at all times. Mostly pics, apps, and music with occasional movies especially when traveling.
Looking forward to it! Another month!
The debate rages on. I think I will spring for the 32gb, with the expectation of upgrading in a year or two and passing the Rev1 to my wife or other. I don't mind syncing content as I don't have a need to have 10 different movies on my iPad at all times. Mostly pics, apps, and music with occasional movies especially when traveling.
Looking forward to it! Another month!
I agree that the $499 model is just to get peoples attention and then upsell them as that model has the least profit for Apple. But if you figure you are going to buy the gen2 when it comes out then the question is how much can you sell it for on ebay. You can always sell it there if the price is cheap enough so which model would result in the least loss the $499 or the $599? Will you get $100 bucks more on ebay for the more expensive model? I don't think so. So if you plan to sell it anyway in a year I think the $499 model will depreciate less and you will be more willing to move on.
I decided to buy the 16gb Touch when they first came out and it was quite expensive but I thought I would keep it for a couple of years and might need the extra memory. The problem with that was the new generations had new features that I liked but I was locked in by depreciation costs to upgrade. I still have my original touch with extra memory I have not even used and probably will for this year again. A new Pad will probably have some features that will further depress the value of the first gen models.
Moral is that it's better to buy just what you need and move on as your needs increase and new models come out.
The 16GB model is the best buy but if you really need the 32 go for it but the 64gb model is just going to cost you when you want to upgrade to gen2 in a year.
I have a little over 50 GB of books, comics, and music, and video. So, the 64 GB (Wi-Fi) for me. I might wait, though. Didn't Apple give a rebate to early iPhone purchasers?
I don't know why people are counting music into their iPad data storage needs. Are you really going to whip your iPad out to plug headphones in and listen to something? Are you going to get rid of your iPod once you have an iPad?
Currently, on my 16gb iPod touch I have about 7gb music, audiobooks, and podcasts, about 1.5gb each for apps and reading material (eBooks and comics), which leaves me about 4.5 gb for movies - which even at the DVD quality, 5.1 surround sound containing format I rip them in (for my ATV, but I don't reencode, so they go on the iPod that way too) is three feature films, 2 hour long TV shows (minus commercials) and 2 half hour shows. 7+ hours of video in all.
Since I don't plan to put any/much audio on the iPad (I'll use an iPod just for audio content), that frees up another 7gb of space in a 16gb allotment. Figure 1gb for documents, 1 for bigger/more apps, 1 for more reading material (magazines and newspapers, etc), and that still nearly doubles my space left for video content, so 13 or 14 hours worth of TV shows and movies.
This would get me through ANY week or two (when added to the 200 hours+ of music, audiobooks, and podcasts I'd have on an iPod) of media consumption without resyncing, which is adequate in my opinion. I know everyone has different requirements, but I can't see needing the 32gb let alone the 64 model, considering that up to half of the media you'd want to put on it s much better suited for use on an iPod anyways.
Yea but they are unlikely to make that mistake again. I seem to recall that there were some screen issues with the Touch at first.
I still say the smart thing to do is wait till the early production issues are worked out and it comes with 4.0 software installed. That would be sometime in June most likely. Not that long a wait.
YES there is no need to put all your music or audiobooks or podcasts on the pad. It's better to have that on an ipod. Can you imagine trying to walk or jog with an Ipad strapped to your arm or on your belt! That's just silly. It's not an ipod so don't think of it as one! Don't think you have to load it with all your ITunes music.
eBooks, 576p video size etc.
I'm guilty of scanning this thread from around page 3 onward, but I wanted to chime in from a pixel-counting geek perspective.
Video optimized for the iPad (1024x576 pixels - for 16:9 content) should run 2-2.5GB for a normal (2h or less) movie. This is assuming mp3 stereo sound (as opposed to 5.1 AC3 streams that most 4.3GB 720p MKVs have). Assuming the same frame rates, there will be roughly 1/3rd fewer pixels, and smaller audio - and it'll look stunning. I used to run my home theater from an XGA projector on an 8-foot screen and it's very HD-ish.
eBooks are not big, at least not until they're full color magazine downloads with lots of pics (and inlaid video!?). On my Kindle, the biggest books I've bought are 3.5MB (English translations of the Bible). Most are 100-250KB. Obv photos and color would increase that significantly, but 1GB seems really generous.
I'm leaning toward the 16GB. I know I can easily make 16 work, as I managed an 8GB iPhone for years. The only reason for heavy archival is for travel, and then it's mainly for my kids, who are pretty content to watch the same limited selection over and over. Heck my son still gets exited to watch his shows on the 2" iPod Nano screen - 8GB is plenty on that unit, too. When I travel I'll have the Nano, 1-2 iPhones, MBP, the iPad, and my Kindle. I might bring some deodorant, too
For photos, on my Phone I just sync my 'Last 2 months' photo album, and it's the biggest it's ever been after an epic, photogenic vacation, but optimized for iPhone it's 430MB, I'd guess 1GB would be plenty for a normal 'last 2 months' optimized for iPad.
The only unknown that gives me pause in settling for 16 is the question of awesome killer apps for iPad that are bigger than equivalent iPhone apps. Some awesome games I haven't realized I'm going to want that take a few gigs each, that'd be trouble.
I'm guilty of scanning this thread from around page 3 onward, but I wanted to chime in from a pixel-counting geek perspective.
Video optimized for the iPad (1024x576 pixels - for 16:9 content) should run 2-2.5GB for a normal (2h or less) movie. This is assuming mp3 stereo sound (as opposed to 5.1 AC3 streams that most 4.3GB 720p MKVs have). Assuming the same frame rates, there will be roughly 1/3rd fewer pixels, and smaller audio - and it'll look stunning. I used to run my home theater from an XGA projector on an 8-foot screen and it's very HD-ish.
eBooks are not big, at least not until they're full color magazine downloads with lots of pics (and inlaid video!?). On my Kindle, the biggest books I've bought are 3.5MB (English translations of the Bible). Most are 100-250KB. Obv photos and color would increase that significantly, but 1GB seems really generous.
I'm leaning toward the 16GB. I know I can easily make 16 work, as I managed an 8GB iPhone for years. The only reason for heavy archival is for travel, and then it's mainly for my kids, who are pretty content to watch the same limited selection over and over. Heck my son still gets exited to watch his shows on the 2" iPod Nano screen - 8GB is plenty on that unit, too. When I travel I'll have the Nano, 1-2 iPhones, MBP, the iPad, and my Kindle. I might bring some deodorant, too
For photos, on my Phone I just sync my 'Last 2 months' photo album, and it's the biggest it's ever been after an epic, photogenic vacation, but optimized for iPhone it's 430MB, I'd guess 1GB would be plenty for a normal 'last 2 months' optimized for iPad.
The only unknown that gives me pause in settling for 16 is the question of awesome killer apps for iPad that are bigger than equivalent iPhone apps. Some awesome games I haven't realized I'm going to want that take a few gigs each, that'd be trouble.
Yes.
I'm counting music into the storage because for the times I'm using the iPad at an airport or something, I can relegate the iPhone to my pocket and listen to music/surf the web all on the iPad.
Also, when it comes to digital files, you can never have it stored on enough devices.
Same with me. However, I was calculating it out
3G 32GB - $729
iPad Case - $29
Dock/Camera Accessory (I haven't chosen yet) - $39
+ tax = like $870.
So I'm going 3G 32GB def ;-)
True enough, music is not really a must. Maybe a few songs will be enough to make the reading experience even more enjoyable. My iPhone always goes wherever I go and it has all the music I would ever want.
We might have to think outside the box though, i.e.
What about Netflix, TV streaming, the MLB (baseball) application featured in SJ's presentation? Will these eat up a lot of memory?
We might have to think outside the box though, i.e.
What about Netflix, TV streaming, the MLB (baseball) application featured in SJ's presentation? Will these eat up a lot of memory?
True enough, music is not really a must. Maybe a few songs will be enough to make the reading experience even more enjoyable. My iPhone always goes wherever I go and it has all the music I would ever want.
We might have to think outside the box though, i.e.
What about Netflix, TV streaming, the MLB (baseball) application featured in SJ's presentation? Will these eat up a lot of memory?
yea, if money is no issue, go for the largest. I see myself constantly challenging my harddrive with stuff I add, and stuff is getting bigger.
I just want anything Apple that is NEW for under 500 bucks!
I recently bought the little iBook G3 800 w/ 640 mb RAM and a 30 gig h/d that I am posting this reply with using, "GASP" dial-up.
I bought it on eBay for a hundred and fifty bucks, bought a hundred bucks worth of software also from eBay - including MS Office and still have 23 gigs of hard drive space left!
I am a newbie to Macs - the main reason is that in the past they have been too pricey for me. I just bought a new Toshiba Satellite 350 series 17" notebook fully loaded w/ software for under $400 from Circuit City.
That being said I am using this little iBook as a travel tool that is a lot less bulky than the Toshiba which I use mainly as an office tool. Learning about Apple was such an interesting experience that I bought some Apple stock around 4 months ago.
Now that the Apple stock has gone up, I can afford to buy the minimal little iPad for under 500 bucks!
Yeah - and I'll wait for the second generation of the iPad to come out to see what's cooking! Multitasking capabilities I Hope!
I recently bought the little iBook G3 800 w/ 640 mb RAM and a 30 gig h/d that I am posting this reply with using, "GASP" dial-up.
I bought it on eBay for a hundred and fifty bucks, bought a hundred bucks worth of software also from eBay - including MS Office and still have 23 gigs of hard drive space left!
I am a newbie to Macs - the main reason is that in the past they have been too pricey for me. I just bought a new Toshiba Satellite 350 series 17" notebook fully loaded w/ software for under $400 from Circuit City.
That being said I am using this little iBook as a travel tool that is a lot less bulky than the Toshiba which I use mainly as an office tool. Learning about Apple was such an interesting experience that I bought some Apple stock around 4 months ago.
Now that the Apple stock has gone up, I can afford to buy the minimal little iPad for under 500 bucks!
Yeah - and I'll wait for the second generation of the iPad to come out to see what's cooking! Multitasking capabilities I Hope!
I hope this doesn't come off as condescending, but I think you're confusing memory and storage. Easy to do as both are measured in MB/GB. In a normal computer you've got memory (RAM) in solid state chips and the easy way to understand its purpose is to see it as how many things the computer can think about at one time - more memory then you can simultaneously run more programs and more complicated programs without bogging down the computer.
Storage generally has to do with hard disk space and it's not something the computer has loaded into the system constantly, but has to go retrieve. So a new MacBook Pro has 4GB memory, but 320GB storage space. If you want to load one archived photo or song or video file then the hard disk spins up and it pulls up the file from storage.
The iPad (and iPhone) has only solid-state flash memory, but it's separated out into RAM and Storage. So my old 8GB iPhone actually had that 8GB of solid state chips divided into memory (maybe 1GB, I don't recall right now) and then 7GB left over for me to load apps and media files.
Now that I hopefully cleared that up, the iPad won't take much storage space to hold a Netflix app or MBL or whatever it is, as it's only the software to play the streaming content. The bulky content itself will come through a data connection (3G or WIFI) so the short answer is for streaming apps the size doesn't really matter much.
Go for the 64GB, because you anyway can't upgrade later on. And because it is a mobile device, take 3G as well I will go for the high end.
I will go for the high end.
A couple of years ago I modified an IBM x41 Thinkpad to use a flash memory card instead of its slow HDD. Worked great, but I only had 8gigs of 'system' memory to play with. So I watched it like a hawk.
One thing I noticed was that when I streamed Netflix movies it ate into my memory like crazy - 1 to 2 gigs worth. So in that case streaming movies did have an impact on 'storage' memory. I don't know if this would be the case with the iPad (or if it will even be able to stream Netflix movies) but it's something to consider.
Originally I was in the 32GB camp but quickly moving to the 16GB side. It occurred to me the iPad's storage will be used more like a camera than a computer, i.e., constantly offloading old content and uploading new content. I won't be "archiving" media on the iPad. Once I see a movie or read a book or mag, off it goes. I'll keep a few songs maybe, but generally I'll use my iPhone for portable music. And "i apps" are measured in MBs, not GBs like Mac apps.
So what will 16GB store:
4 two hour movies or 8 1 hour TV shows or 16 30 min TV shows (2GB)
500 songs @ 256kbps (5GB)
50 apps at avg 10mb each (500 MB)
6 books at avg 500mb each (3GB)
5 mags at avg 100mb each (500MB)
Total storage used: 11GB. If you follow the 10% rule that leaves you about 2GB of space for even more media of your choice before hitting the wall.
That's plenty for a long vacation and if you are not far from the computer probably overkill -- how many books can you read; movies watch at one time?
So what will 16GB store:
4 two hour movies or 8 1 hour TV shows or 16 30 min TV shows (2GB)
500 songs @ 256kbps (5GB)
50 apps at avg 10mb each (500 MB)
6 books at avg 500mb each (3GB)
5 mags at avg 100mb each (500MB)
Total storage used: 11GB. If you follow the 10% rule that leaves you about 2GB of space for even more media of your choice before hitting the wall.
That's plenty for a long vacation and if you are not far from the computer probably overkill -- how many books can you read; movies watch at one time?
Interesting analysis.
I think required storage will depend a lot on the owner. I have a 16GB iPhone that has about 12GB free on it at the moment. But I also have several friends who have twice the capacity and have it totally filled. When I ask them 'with what?' they inevitably say something to the effect of 'movies I don't watch' and things like that.
So if you are a 'neat' person 16GB will indeed probably be sufficient. But I don't know a lot of people who fit that description
So if you are a 'neat' person 16GB will indeed probably be sufficient. But I don't know a lot of people who fit that description
I don't know if "neat" has much to do with it -- maybe cheap. At least for me. Personally, I'm just not in the mood to spend an extra $100 for storage that isn't vital except to enable my inherent computer organizational laziness. Sure 16GB compels you to be efficient, but that's not such a bad habit to be forced into, especially if the savings will buy you a b/t keyboard or a weeks worth of groceries.