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16gb, 32gb or 64gb?

Chupa Chupa said:
6 books at avg 500mb each (3GB)
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The Kindle 2 has 2GB flash memory - like 1.6 available for books. According to Amazon's that's good for 1,500 books. So 3GB of books is 3,000 books, not 6. Close though, only 500x off :p

A 100-page color PDF issue of Macworld I happen to have on my system is 6MB. So you can pretty much not bother counting books or even magazines as a factor, unless you want to have keep an actual library's worth of literature on your iPad. To fill the 16GB model you'd need 150,000 (non-color) titles.
 
Going to go for 16gb Wi-Fi I think

Using air video + spotify for all my music and videos

Only really need room left for apps and photos then
 
nightfly13 said:
The Kindle 2 has 2GB flash memory - like 1.6 available for books. According to Amazon's that's good for 1,500 books. So 3GB of books is 3,000 books, not 6. Close though, only 500x off :p

A 100-page color PDF issue of Macworld I happen to have on my system is 6MB. So you can pretty much not bother counting books or even magazines as a factor, unless you want to have keep an actual library's worth of literature on your iPad. To fill the 16GB model you'd need 150,000 (non-color) titles.
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Yeah, I'm being extremely liberal in my estimating b/c iPad books are different than Kindle books (plain b/w text) or PDFs (static) in that they can contain embedded "extras" like video and interactive demonstrations. Since we don't really know how much space these will take up I'm just assuming worst case.
 
"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)"


I think 2GBs for 8 hours of movies may be low: I captured a 1/2 hour TV show using EyeTv and converted it to AppleTv format and it took about 800 MB.

Also, another use of onboard storage is to backup pictures &/or videos from a camera while traveling.
 
Did I miss something?

Do we have any indication that iPad books are going to be categorically different than Kindle books or PDFs? I'd think iBooks will be, you know, books. Text. Digitally tiny. I didn't watch the keynote all through (although I've seen enough parodies to get the gist) but I don't think we saw any multimedia wizardry during the iBooks demo, just pretty page turning animations (a la Keynote 2006).

It is curious how much more the idea of swiping my finger to turn the page appeals to me than pressing the 'next page' buttons. I have no logical explanation for why that experience is so unsatisfactory.
 
nightfly13 said:
Do we have any indication that iPad books are going to be categorically different than Kindle books or PDFs? I'd think iBooks will be, you know, books. Text. Digitally tiny. I didn't watch the keynote all through (although I've seen enough parodies to get the gist) but I don't think we saw any multimedia wizardry during the iBooks demo, just pretty page turning animations (a la Keynote 2006).

It is curious how much more the idea of swiping my finger to turn the page appeals to me than pressing the 'next page' buttons. I have no logical explanation for why that experience is so unsatisfactory.
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http://www.podcastingnews.com/2010/03/02/sneak-preview/

(scroll to 55:25) http://stream.qtv.apple.com/events/jan/1001q3f8hhr/1001908r5ft6dswz_9_220_ref.mov

Ruby110 said:
"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)"


I think 2GBs for 8 hours of movies may be low: I captured a 1/2 hour TV show using EyeTv and converted it to AppleTv format and it took about 800 MB.

Also, another use of onboard storage is to backup pictures &/or videos from a camera while traveling.
Click to expand...


Certainly it will depend on how you encode, but with some handbrake tweaking 500-600MB per hour video is doable. It's not anything a videophile would watch, but perfectly fine on a small screen. But even Apple's own SD movies are 1GB per hour. So worst case 4 movies would be 8GB. That still leaves plenty of space unless you are going to be storing a lot of other media.

Also you can buy a 32GB SD card for under $100, so why spend $100 for the extra 32GB on the iPad + another $30 for the connector kit?
 
Chupa Chupa said:
http://www.podcastingnews.com/2010/03/02/sneak-preview/

(scroll to 55:25) http://stream.qtv.apple.com/events/jan/1001q3f8hhr/1001908r5ft6dswz_9_220_ref.mov




Certainly it will depend on how you encode, but with some handbrake tweaking 500-600MB per hour video is doable. It's not anything a videophile would watch, but perfectly fine on a small screen. But even Apple's own SD movies are 1GB per hour. So worst case 4 movies would be 8GB. That still leaves plenty of space unless you are going to be storing a lot of other media.

Also you can buy a 32GB SD card for under $100, so why spend $100 for the extra 32GB on the iPad + another $30 for the connector kit?
Click to expand...

You bring up an interesting point... has their been any indication you can import a movie from the SD card to watch or is this more for pictures only? I took it as the "camera kit" would be to move pictures on and off the iPad. It would certainly change how I decide which storage is enough if this SD accessory will in fact let me dump a movie onto the iPad.

** Well not even thinking about this as an option I read the tech spec's and while it says video I guess that is a viable option, mmm that changes my thoughts on the 64gig version for sure :)
 
Chupa Chupa,

I was thinking of backup. I have two, 8GB SD cards which had about 12 GBs on them during a recent trip. I have no way of copying the pictures & videos on them to another SD card.

I agree, $100 for 16GB is expensive storage but backups can be invaluable. Now, $200 for an additional 48GB to take the iPad to 64GB is less expensive per GB but drives the cost to about $800 with case, connector kit and tax!

On another note, videos in H.264 should play but AVCHD format, I don't think so. So playable videos will use even more storage. The 12 GB I mentioned earlier included AVCHD videos.

I am still undecided. Since this is iPad 1.0, I should probably get the 16GB as I had planned. But then again ...

Bob
 
Was originally going to get 64gb wifi but the more I think about it the more I just want to go with 16gb wifi because it's really starting to seem they will come out with a second revision of this pretty quickly with a better processor, camera etc... in it. So I will probably go with 16gb for now and then if I like the device enough will go bigger with the next revision.
 
This thread is also convincing me to go with 16GB, against my earlier inclination to go whole hog.
 
dagomike said:
$499 gets people into the show room, but most, particularly the early adopters, will likely buy up.

I'd bet the 16 GB model won't see the end of the year before it's gone from the lineup. Something to think about for resale.
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Buddy i sold my 4GB iPhone 1g for $250 just a few weeks ago. Whateva
 
M87 said:
I'm with Leo Laporte, I think the 16GB base model makes the most sense. I don't think you need 3G or tons of storage on this thing. It's a coffee table computer.
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You see, smart people who have great knowledge get a 16Gb. Im telling you people don't waste money on useless space that can be erased over and over again.
 
It is worth thinking about this a bit more. It is not as easy as saying $499 to get them in the door. Once you think about your personal needs, it starts making sense to add up what is needed. This might be the first purchase where I actually know why I need 16g or 32 g.
 
32gb for me as most of my music will stay on the iPhone.

macduke said:
Especially if I get the camera kit for full sized photo downloads.
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When you import photos I assume they will go straight into your Saved Photos album. Anyone know (guess) if you'll be able to edit your photo albums on the iPad and move photos from one album to another?
 
man i cant choice between 16 or 32!!!! you people keep pushing me back and forth!!!!

question. how much memory is a average movie?

and same for a tv show?

and while we are at it books?
 
goobot said:
man i cant choice between 16 or 32!!!! you people keep pushing me back and forth!!!!

question. how much memory is a average movie?

and same for a tv show?

and while we are at it books?
Click to expand...

I'll hazard some estimates: I have a 1:06:05 iTunes bought episode of the Colbert Report. It's standard def and takes 750mb. If you make your own video (ie. download and re-encode or whatever) then you can pretty much get it whatever size you want (and correlating high or low quality) but I estimate that iPad-optimized (576P self-encoded from HD) movies will be roughly 2.5-3GB each.

The only iTunes-bought TV shows I have are kids animations that run 280MB for 24 minutes.

Books are tiny. The article/video that Chupa Chupa linked (top one) suggests that, for now, book publishers are going to sell fancy next-gen interactive, content-rich 'books' as apps, not as books. Color magazines aren't all that huge, either, it's only when they get interactive and animated that you're going to have size issues with literature.

The SD card slot thoughts seal the deal for me and the 16GB unit. It's only for long-haul travel that I'd need more, and then I can load up a few extra movies on an SD card slot and voila, we're golden.

Realistically, with my habits, this'll seldom get far away from my Macs. I don't think it'll type quickly enough for it to replace my laptop for working trips, once I start bringing a dock and power supply and keyboard I might have well brought my laptop, carry-space and weight-wise. Couch surfer that's also great for kids apps, a decent eBook reader, awesome new-book media device, and great digital photo frame/album. That warrants $500 in my family.
 
nightfly13 said:
The SD card slot thoughts seal the deal for me and the 16GB unit. It's only for long-haul travel that I'd need more, and then I can load up a few extra movies on an SD card slot and voila, we're golden.
Click to expand...

I wonder why they didn't include an SD slot on there, plenty of room for that.
 
nightfly13 said:
I'll hazard some estimates: I have a 1:06:05 iTunes bought episode of the Colbert Report. It's standard def and takes 750mb. If you make your own video (ie. download and re-encode or whatever) then you can pretty much get it whatever size you want (and correlating high or low quality) but I estimate that iPad-optimized (576P self-encoded from HD) movies will be roughly 2.5-3GB each.

The only iTunes-bought TV shows I have are kids animations that run 280MB for 24 minutes.

Books are tiny. The article/video that Chupa Chupa linked (top one) suggests that, for now, book publishers are going to sell fancy next-gen interactive, content-rich 'books' as apps, not as books. Color magazines aren't all that huge, either, it's only when they get interactive and animated that you're going to have size issues with literature.

The SD card slot thoughts seal the deal for me and the 16GB unit. It's only for long-haul travel that I'd need more, and then I can load up a few extra movies on an SD card slot and voila, we're golden.

Realistically, with my habits, this'll seldom get far away from my Macs. I don't think it'll type quickly enough for it to replace my laptop for working trips, once I start bringing a dock and power supply and keyboard I might have well brought my laptop, carry-space and weight-wise. Couch surfer that's also great for kids apps, a decent eBook reader, awesome new-book media device, and great digital photo frame/album. That warrants $500 in my family.
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thx. i think ill go with 16 gig and use the 100 bucks to buy a keyboard dock. and if i need more memory ill just get gen 2 with more memory. heck maybe gen 2 will come standard with 32:D
 
SchneiderMan said:
They can still charge for it
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Just blindly speculating, but I bet with a built-in SD card slot (a 'pro' feature in the Apple universe) they'd lose their $100 markup on bigger capacity iPads. Make it slightly harder to add the SD and people will just spend the extra money to get that capacity built-in.

I haven't thought a lot about Photo management. Will the Photos app be more like the iPhone photo app, or a variant of iPhoto. The main purpose of the SD slot is to import pics from a digicam. That's not something my iPhone does or really needs to do. I'm assuming it'll be smart enough to copy any new photos from the iPad back into my Mac's iPhoto library, syncing everything. This is an area where the line between a peripheral device (a la iPhone/iPod) and computer blurs. Is the iPad the host for the digicam, or just a display device syncing with your real library (the Mac/PC). Yes, I think I've mixed enough metaphors :p
 
goobot said:
thx. i think ill go with 16 gig and use the 100 bucks to buy a keyboard dock. and if i need more memory ill just get gen 2 with more memory. heck maybe gen 2 will come standard with 32:D
Click to expand...

+1 I think you can bet on it that 2nd gen will have 32gb as the minimum.
 
WLS said:
+1 I think you can bet on it that 2nd gen will have 32gb as the minimum.
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I think Apple will keep the 16GB b/c its a useful amount of RAM, unlike the 4GB iPhone which was more of a "get 'em in the door" model -- and really worthless. Instead I'd bet that Apple will reduce the iPad's price by $50-100 across the board once the holiday season kicks in.

Current prices are for early adopters, but Apple has indicated they'll get more aggressive with pricing. To me that says they've built-in a price cut for the holiday season. $499 is a decent price, but at $399 it really does shut the barn doors.

It will be interesting to see what Kindle III looks like, i.e., a refined K2 or an iPad clone.
 
I've struggled big time with this question myself.

16GB is just barely enough for my ipod touch. So, I think iPod touch becomes *mostly* music player and iPad becomes mostly video, apps, iWorks, browsing, etc. Maybe 16GB is enough then for iPad

The Problem is will the current standards of size be the same in 6 months? a year? Two?
Will movies optimized for the iPad take up more room?
Will apps for the iPad take up more room?
Will the coming interactive books be size hogs?
Will I want to store more media on the iPad than on the iPod? (Certainly, the photos I carry will grow exponentially, as I'll be able to use the iPad as a portfolio for work as well.)

Since I normally don't find the need to run out and buy every new rev (still am quite happy with my 1st gen. iPod Touch - usually not worth buying a whole new product for 1 o 2 extra features) and I can afford it (although I hate to waste money) I think I will have much greater peace of mind if I max out and get the 64GB. Better to leave myself room to grow than be constantly juggling my content and cursing myself for being cheap.

As the wise man said: GO BIG OR GO HOME!!!
 
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