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It is incorrect to assume that every app will be 2-3 times bigger once they've been updated to include higher res graphics. People have dug into the iMovie app, which is what set this panic off, and found that 17mb or so of the extra file size is from graphics while 300+mb is application code and other resources. Retina-quality graphics aren't the only new feature in these apps. Calm down.
 
I just submitted an app for app store approval two nights ago. Up until the iPad announcement the app was ~3.8MB. I spent the weekend updating the artwork and the new binary weighs in at ~34MB. This is for a relatively small (graphically speaking) app.

Jeez man, compress some stuff eh, its people like you who are killing my 16GB iPad buzz :p
 
I think you guys are missing the point. The apps are larger now then they were on your iPad 1 or 2 because of the retina graphics. I read an article that said that just the base apple apps have increased in size by 2-3x. I guess what you're saying will work as long you only keep what you plan on using and deleting the rest, but the balancing act would probably get old after a while.

Lets use me as an example.

At a minimum I have 10GB free always. Not balancing. Have been doing this since release day of iPad 1 and release day of iPad 2. Takes all of 30 secs to delete a couple movies and wirelessly add more once or twice a week.

If files doubled or tripled worse case I'd be at like 6GB free. Not really valid though because the bulk is my media which will remain the same size. So worse case we're talking 8GB free.

The size of apps only matters to the extent of how many large apps you're using. If I was at 2GB free now that'd be another story.

Apps like iSSH or GoodReader aren't going to go from 14MB to 600MB.

Everyone has a different situation.

My kids literally filled up their iPad 2 taking pictures and videos over time.
 
I wouldn't say so at all... depending on how you use it, of course.

With my 16GB, I never went over 10 or so GB. So even with the possible bump in app size, I will be fine.

I had about 6GB of photos, 500MB of books, 2 gigs of games and apps and about a gig of comics.

For video and music, I just streamed everything (airvideo, netflix, hulu, spotify, etc). I would never store videos I had a 32. If I did have a few loaded, I would most likely delete after watching (or save on my computer instead). As for music, at most, a few albums I am listening to, which would take up 500MB. but I would still rather use a streaming or cloud service.
 
I don't get the whole engraving thing cause you pretty much screw yourself for resale. But anyways 16GB is enough depending on how you use it... if your just using it to stream movie from your computer to it, surf the internet and apps your fine but if you want to store many 1080P movies well then your ****ed. Personally I've been fine with 16GB WiFi because I use it for web surfing and if I want to watch something on it I'll just stream it from my MBP using Air Video or Splashtop. I also don't see why one would watch many movies on it when you have a TV for that and if you need more space for travel you can always pick up a wireless HD to store all your videos. I use my iPhone for my music and I have iTunes Match so the iPad as all my music in the cloud.
 
It really depends on how you use it. My 1st iPad was 16GB and for the past 8 months I was constantly deleting and managing the storage and that was without having any movies or my music on it. My husband had a 32GB and he was slowly running out of space too.

When I ordered my new one, I decided to get 64 GB so I wouldn't have to go through the deleting and juggling. But I'm a little lazy and have some hoarding tendencies. :D

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Lets use me as an example.



My kids literally filled up their iPad 2 taking pictures and videos over time.

This is what ate up a lot of the space on my husband's iPad....the videos that the kids made. If you have kids, BEWARE.
 
I tend to look at this much as I look at other storage solutions.

In the past, "back in the day" on my computer I would download tons of movies, music, etc, and store them on my computer. Then I'd run out of space (whether I had 100 GB HDD or 500 GB HDD, didn't matter), and I'd go out and buy an external hard drive and fill that up. Then I'd buy another, and another. Then I'd never look on the drives, never be able to find what I was looking for, etc.

Eventually I started uploading all of my images to Flickr when I was done sorting/processing them and then deleting the originals (I do archive super important photos and negative scans). I delete movies once I've watched them because I'm never going to realistically watch them again. I rate my music 1-5 stars, delete anything that's less then 3.

Now, the same basic ideas I now apply to my iPad and iPod Touch (I'm an Android person as far as my phone goes, for cheaper data and free tethering).

I have a 16GB iPad, and I only sync my 5 star music (songs I'm really going to want to listen to). I manually add movies if I want to watch them, and then delete them when I'm done. I've purchased a TON of apps, but only keep the ones that I find myself using regularly, which for me means things like Mint, iMovie, GoodReader, It's Playing, and maybe 10-15 other applications. If I buy a game I like then I normally play that game for a week, or a month, until eventually I beat it or get bored of it, then I delete and move onto whatever is new. I also have netflix which I use to watch a lot of video content.

Now of course if you consume media different then I do then you might have more problems, but I'd try to move towards this direction as I find it more sustainable then solving the problem by purchasing larger storage space. Leverage the cloud (feel so stupid saying that) as you can (another example of this is that I upload videos that I've taken to YouTube directly from my iPad/iPod Touch, then delete them. If it's an absolutely critical video this might not work for you, but for most videos YouTube is 'good enough" to store them).

The one thing I can see bothering me is video - if I actually take many 1080p videos, then I'll probably need a fair amount of empty space just to allow me to record 10-30 minutes of video without issue (not to mention processing with iMovie and saving). With my iPad 2 I found it pretty easy to stay around 50% capacity though, so I'm guessing with the iPad 3rd generation it will not be too impossible.
 
You'll be fine. Don't panic unless you have to. When I bought my iPhone 16GB 4s, I thought I made a mistake since it had the "new" camera and HD video. I would surely have a ton of pics and video. Almost 6 months later I still have 10GB free on my phone.

With a little maint you can easily manage your space for long enough to decide if it works for you or not. I personally don't want to wade through 3000 pics to find one every time. I prefer streamlined and organized. It's all about personal preference.
 
I just submitted an app for app store approval two nights ago. Up until the iPad announcement the app was ~3.8MB. I spent the weekend updating the artwork and the new binary weighs in at ~34MB. This is for a relatively small (graphically speaking) app.

Binaries should weigh the same, actually. :rolleyes:
 
Hmmm... while I'm not panicking. I am concerned with just how much I will be able to keep on my iPad. I bought a 32GB after changing my mind on the 16GB. After the order was processing, I thought about calling and switching to the 64GB, but with it being my first ever iPad, I figured 32GB should be enough.

Now, with the last few posts concerning books, I have to ask just how large are typical book files? I mainly like to read for my own enjoyment. However, I also read to learn a subject from time to time and during those times, can easily cross reference information between 3-5 books. One of the lures for me with the iPad was to be able to "flip through" the different books without having so many physical books surrounding me. But with 2GB files for just a few chapters? Maybe that won't be happening.

If this is just for one particular app or certain books, then ok. Otherwise...

Regular books should not be over 20MB each. Enhanced books (with embedded audio, etc.. are 100-400MB each. iTextbooks are the ones that are huge due to embedded multimedia files. If you don't plan on using iTextbooks specifically, I wouldn't worry about it.

Example:
 

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Ok, my .02 cents? I already have my 32 GB iphone mostly full. I think 16 GB is doable but you'll have to balance a lot. It also depends a lot on what you want to use it for how efficient you can be (and also your personality, I tend not to like erasing stuff unless I have to. I have picture/video/music collection that has spanned across several computers I've had on my computer).

I'd say if you can return it, I would definitely return/exchange it. But if you cannot return it, you'll just have to be conscientious on what you keep on your iPad. If you can't return it, try not to worry too much that you might have done better with a bigger iPad because that ship has sailed and there is no point dwelling on it. Just focus on what you are getting :).
 
You will be fine. You have 14 days to decide, like a couple of people already listed. My father ordered a 32GB LTE, but had the same panic after I told him I was probably going to get the 64 just to be safe, though I'm guessing he will not even hit 16. After calling to check, since he had his company name engraved, they told him (and me) it would be fine, (I also asked more than once) since they replace refurb panels anyway.
They e-mailed a return form, and he ordered a 64gb right afterwards. Customer service even encouraged him to open it and have some fun, since the 64 is coming in a few days later. We also live by three  stores, and I believe you can bring online returns in. I will probably use the 14 days to see if I can find a buyer on ebay/ CL, who of course doesn't mind engraving of a stranger. I know it would be easier without an engraving, but some people don't care, and replacement backs can be found online.
 
I've been ok with a 16 GB so far in the first two generations but now I'm considering whether or not my 16 GB iPad 3 is going to cut it. I figure I've got some time to play over the weekend and see how it goes next week if I want a 32 GB White Verizon. White might be the issue.
 
Knowing app sizes would be increasing (because of new graphics and/or features) is precisely the reason I went from 16gb to 32gb even though I'm currently only using half my storage. When news came out today that confirmed apps were going to be up to five times larger, I knew I made the right choice.

When you consider an app like iMovies is increasing from 70mb to 404mb, it won't be long before some users who previously didn't have storage issues...might now.
 
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even 64GB can't store all of your movies collection, so why bother. just buy a seagate goflex satellite hard disk and store all the movies on it. :D
 
I'd say yes mainly because of the increases in size for apps that now have retina display support.

Keynote from 115MB to 327MB
Numbers from 109MB to 283MB
Pages from 95MB to 269MB
iMovie from 70MB to 404MB

Textbooks can go up to 2.80GB right now so with retina display support it could be over 3GB.

Games like Infinity Blade II, Real Racing 2, FIFA 12 could go quite big.

Personally I think for the next iPad Apple should just ditch 16GB. Maybe have a 7 inch tablet with 16GB as a replacement.

If you dont mind constantly deleting apps then you should be ok or if you dont plan to download apps at all. Remember that when you get the new iPad it doesn't start with 16GB, it usually starts with like 14.5GB.
 
Although everyone is certainly entitled to their own opinion I myself believe, as others have stated, It all depends on how a person uses the device. I personally keep ALL of my machines clean and tidy and uncluttered. If I don't use it regularly, It goes or is stored on my 1.5 TB PC Hard Drive. Agreed if you need or desire to keep a large amount of content on your slate you will probably need much more storage. That said, Folks that use their device for simple everyday tasks probably won't require as much. My biggest point is this, If Apple thought there was going to be such a huge increase in the size of these apps, to the extent that you could hardly keep anything on the machine without constantly deleting it why would they have not eliminated the 16GB model in the first place. I may be wrong, But I personally don't buy it. I think most folks will be fine with 16GB, With some common sense of course. :)
 
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I'd say yes mainly because of the increases in size for apps that now have retina display support.

Keynote from 115MB to 327MB
Numbers from 109MB to 283MB
Pages from 95MB to 269MB
iMovie from 70MB to 404MB

Textbooks can go up to 2.80GB right now so with retina display support it could be over 3GB.

Games like Infinity Blade II, Real Racing 2, FIFA 12 could go quite big.

Personally I think for the next iPad Apple should just ditch 16GB. Maybe have a 7 inch tablet with 16GB as a replacement.

If you dont mind constantly deleting apps then you should be ok or if you dont plan to download apps at all. Remember that when you get the new iPad it doesn't start with 16GB, it usually starts with like 14.5GB.

This just killed 16gb for me. I use half of my storage now with limiting podcasts. These app sizes will make it even more difficult to fit everything.
 
No you didn't screw yourself.
Unless you need a lot of video and music on your iPad. For music just use iCloud.
These articles are overblown page view whoring linkbait articles. Most don't mention that the Apple apps are bigger because they contain more content.
Just install apps that you actually use and don't install apps that you don't need or rarely use.
Its the same things as my MacBook Air with 256GB drive. I just put large files or things I don't access every day on an external and I'm not even using half of the drive.
 
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Precisely the reason why I ordered a 64GB model.

I just don't see how 16GB capacity can be of use (to me, personally) given the fact that some content like advanced 3D games and iTextbooks can take up to 4GB in size (the "retina" versions of which will be even larger).

All this, however, will depend on what you, personally, plan to do on the iPad.

I mean, that's great and all that you can afford to plop down $699 + tax (assuming you got wifi) but honestly it's overkill. If 16GB is all you can afford, then I'm sure you'll find a way to make it work.

Just don't store all your stuff on there at once.
 
As further evidence that the retina file size issue is overblown (or at least depends on the kind of apps you use): apparently, the retina-updated Kindle app grew by a whopping 0.8 MB (less than 10% increase). I wouldn't be too worried.
 
As further evidence that the retina file size issue is overblown (or at least depends on the kind of apps you use): apparently, the retina-updated Kindle app grew by a whopping 0.8 MB (less than 10% increase). I wouldn't be too worried.

Well Kindle app is pretty basic...

But a good chunk of apps, many well popular apps will have quite an increase.

If you could manage what you use than I guess 16 GB is ok, but for $100 more the 32GB just seems a better deal.
 
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