Dads dilemma

[Legendts]

The iPad Air 2 is a very good tablet. I would question why the user wants a Pro, other than it being called "Pro"... like I said, it doesn't really offer features that are significantly better for the intended purpose.

Why do you need to question a persons choice? It is, after all, a personal choice and not yours to question at all. The OP asked a simple question which required an answer that others gave but you went off on your own agenda questioning rather than answering. No offence, but it annoys me when someone asks a question and then posters that don't know the answer have to go right off topic and dilute the real answers. JMHO?

 

[ShermanC]

Hiya all, I need some help, my dad loves his apple products and wants to upgrade his old iPad to an iPad Pro.

The issue is that he likes to download movies and watch them on his devices. Therefore he needs to plug an external USB device into his new device, we therefore considered a surface pro but we just feel the iPad Pro would be a better bet.

Is it possible to connect an external USB device to the iPad Pro without a big kerfuffle?

Thanks

Iain

I bought the "Lexar microSD to Lightning Reader" and put movies, pictures into a MicroSD card. After downloading the Lexar app from the app store, your iPad would be able to play movies directly from the microSD card through the Lexar app.

 

[case2001]

The new iPad should have all the capabilities he currently uses. I see no reason he wouldn't love the new iPad. If he doesn't like it return it.


The Surface is a beautiful machine but it's a laptop and around the same size of 12.9 iPad Pro. If you are trying to decide between the 12.9 iPad Pro and Surface, then I would say it comes down to needing laptop functions and a full OS. I love my iPad Pro 12.9. It is a phenomenal tablet!

 

[NT1440]

[doublepost=1493760770][/doublepost]The question is, can I us an external USB device or not. If not the next I'll need to move away from apple.

You said he's replacing the iPad he has now....so why don't you have him use the process he's already been using?

 

[paulryp]

If it was me...i would go for the latest samsung tab with expandable memory & OLED display. Its very nice. and if you want a budget option go for the tab s2 which is pretty much an iPad air 2. The play store is very grown up now and looks pretty much like the apple store and most big apps are platform agnostic.

 

[Mistry]

If it was me...i would go for the latest samsung tab with expandable memory & OLED display. Its very nice. and if you want a budget option go for the tab s2 which is pretty much an iPad air 2. The play store is very grown up now and looks pretty much like the apple store and most big apps are platform agnostic.

The S3 looks really good with a great specification, and it does have the ability to add movies using the MicroSD. I'm not yet convinced that adding movies to an iPad using a usb adaptor is a simple as some people think it is.

I will buy an adaptor today and let you all know how easy or difficult it is.

 

[rui no onna]

I'm not yet convinced that adding movies to an iPad using a usb adaptor is a simple as some people think it is.

I will buy an adaptor today and let you all know how easy or difficult it is.

Quite honestly, using external storage with the iPad is clunky. It simply wasn't designed with that in mind. One can make it work, it's just not gonna be elegant or easy.

 

[Gjwilly]

I will buy an adaptor today and let you all know how easy or difficult it is.

You can get an adapter but you can also just get an external drive that already supports Lightning

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/co...pi=1876,{creative},{keyword}&is=REG&A=details

Still not sure why he needs external storage.
How is he downloading the movies? Why is he able to download but not able to use iTunes to manage them?

 

[bufffilm]

Hiya all, I need some help, my dad loves his apple products and wants to upgrade his old iPad to an iPad Pro.

The issue is that he likes to download movies and watch them on his devices. Therefore he needs to plug an external USB device into his new device, we therefore considered a surface pro but we just feel the iPad Pro would be a better bet.

Is it possible to connect an external USB device to the iPad Pro without a big kerfuffle?

Thanks

Iain

As you will probably discover once you have sampled a few of the existing products out there now...iOS doesn't quite has the ease of Android or Windows, when it comes to the sheer convenience of transferring movies, etc to the iPad.

You will have to decide which is better for your dad - ease of transfer and managing the media (Android and Windows) or long battery life and better (for now) App store.

Apple definitely could do more to make this easier, but so far iOS is not as open as Android/Windows.

 

[Badrottie]

I agreed with Millydog that is why I bought a Seagate GoFlex Satellite. It is so wonderful wireless hard drive. I don't need USB device to iPad Pro because I will need it to charge my iPad while watching movies.

 

[jeremiah256]

How are these movies obtained if he's putting them on a thumb drive? Because instead of downloading to the detached storage, he could probably save them to a cloud storage provider (iCloud, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive), save/sync the app folder with the movies on the iPad locally, then use an app like VLC to watch them.

 

[bufffilm]

How are these movies obtained if he's putting them on a thumb drive? Because instead of downloading to the detached storage, he could probably save them to a cloud storage provider (iCloud, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive), save/sync the app folder with the movies on the iPad locally, then use an app like VLC to watch them.

Classic example of what I alluded to in my post...added complexity with iOS to put movies on the iPad (compared to the simplicity of Android).

I love my iPad, but in this regard...it's only a step up from stone-age mentality.

 

[MyopicPaideia]

Good points brought up by all. The files are on a computer somewhere in the first place however they are obtained, so a desktop or laptop is being used as a starting point.

My two-pennies worth:

Why not plug in the iPad directly to the laptop/desktop if you have to plug in an SD card or USB stick anyway, you're just creating an extra step, regardless of whether you are using an iOS device, an Andriod device, or a Windows tablet. However, why even do that?

Much better, assuming the OP's dad has WiFi in the home, why not simply use a documents app such as FileBrowser, Documents, or similar to connect wirelessly to the laptop/desktop in question, and download whatever you want into them at any time, directly, without the need for an adaptor or external drive or USB stick or SD card? Then just open the file using the share sheet in whatever video app you prefer?

Seems a lot more simple, straightforward, and modern to me to do it that way. All these physical connections and external storage hang ups are barely a step up from stone age mentality.

Here's FileBrowser with season 9 of the classic cartoon Smurfs, for my kids: