How do you get around not having a USB Port?

[max2]

iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive. 128GB perhaps isn't that much compared to, say, my desktop, with three 6TB drives on it (main drive plus two Time Machine backups). But for an iPad, nothing I do gets that big anyway. Not editing one hundred 20 megapixel photos on it...

Music - I can store some locally and stream the rest. Movies - load a few that I'll watch on the road. Stream the rest or change them out when I get home. Transferring files to others - AirDrop or link to DropBox or OneNote. Occasionally someone will have a file on a USB drive, but it's becoming more and more uncommon. I'll just shoot them an email and ask for a link or give them my public Dropbox link instead.

Honestly, it hasn't been much of a problem. Far less hassle than when Apple dropped floppy drives off the Mac, that's for sure.

This is mainly why I got the 16 GB iPad Mini 4. I can load just a couple, about 3 to 5 max, movies for a road. I don't need more than that.

 

[sparksd]

After reading this over a few times I came to a conclusion. My 'guess' is.....

You Sir, are living the future of computing.

Like it or not, many of us on this forum (the minority compared to the masses) are rapidly becoming 'old school' in the way we've always done and think about computing.

I think the days of 'needing' terabytes of storage on your mobile device are fading as Cloud solutions become more developed and implemented. The pendulum is starting to swing the other way. No longer will it be how many Gigabytes of storage can I get crammed into a device but rather how little storage do I actually need anymore. 128Gb will seem like overkill in the future.

My Gen X niece is constantly on her mobile devices. She, and all her friends live in the mobile information highway. She won't even own anything that isn't mobile and has grown up living in the iOS environment. She came by one day and saw me with my MBP sitting on my lap and asked when I was getting an iPad. She said couldn't imagine owning such a 'heavy' and 'bulky' device (much less a desktop computer) and that none of her friends own anything other than a smart phone or tablet (most of them having an iPhone and iPad).

At first I was like, whatever, she doesn't know what she's talking about. Later, I realized she DOES know what she's talking about. Unlike me (I'm 56), she has practically grown up with a mobile device in her hands. She just 'naturally' talks more 'techy' then I ever did at her age. She knows the capabilities and functions of her computing devices far beyond what I currently know about mine.

As I've said before. The iPad Pro is poised to usher in the future to the rest of us. Today, it's just a way overpowered iPad with some new cool features, and unfortunately this early on that's all many can envision it to ever be. However, in the near future, when a maturing iOS and pro level apps in development catch up to and are able to exploit it's powerful hardware, the Pro true intent and place in the future of computing will become more and more apparent.

Just a hunch.

I'm old enough that I'm retired and I agree. However, being retired I have the opportunity now to travel and I'm finding that there are large swaths of this country with zero wireless access - it gets real sketchy outside the cities and towns. And when you leave the country, data plans become expensive and access a lot more complex. That's why I still want/use alternatives to cloud-based solutions.

 

[max2]

Another +1 for FileBrowser. Works great with my PCs and NAS on my network and also with the attached USB drive & SD card when using the FileHub. I like that they added video streaming through other apps as I like to use Infuse.

Oh wow I didn't know FileBrowser now supports other apps for video streaming that is pretty cool.

Not sure if it is for me though. Sense I already use AirVideo HD for streaming, the best out there, my movies. With Infuse 3 pro used for all my local movies and tv shows.

 

[max2]

I'm old enough that I'm retired and I agree. However, being retired I have the opportunity now to travel and I'm finding that there are large swaths of this country with zero wireless access - it gets real sketchy outside the cities and towns. And when you leave the country, data plans become expensive and access a lot more complex. That's why I still want/use alternatives to cloud-based solutions.

That is very true. I wish wireless access was better but sometimes it just sucks.

 

[artfossil]

After reading this over a few times I came to a conclusion. My 'guess' is.....

You Sir, are living the future of computing.

Like it or not, many of us on this forum (the minority compared to the masses) are rapidly becoming 'old school' in the way we've always done and think about computing.

I think the days of 'needing' terabytes of storage on your mobile device are fading as Cloud solutions become more developed and implemented. The pendulum is starting to swing the other way. No longer will it be how many Gigabytes of storage can I get crammed into a device but rather how little storage do I actually need anymore. 128Gb will seem like overkill in the future.

My Gen X niece is constantly on her mobile devices. She, and all her friends live in the mobile information highway. She won't even own anything that isn't mobile and has grown up living in the iOS environment. She came by one day and saw me with my MBP sitting on my lap and asked when I was getting an iPad. She said couldn't imagine owning such a 'heavy' and 'bulky' device (much less a desktop computer) and that none of her friends own anything other than a smart phone or tablet (most of them having an iPhone and iPad).

At first I was like, whatever, she doesn't know what she's talking about. Later, I realized she DOES know what she's talking about. Unlike me (I'm 56), she has practically grown up with a mobile device in her hands. She just 'naturally' talks more 'techy' then I ever did at her age. She knows the capabilities and functions of her computing devices far beyond what I currently know about mine.

As I've said before. The iPad Pro is poised to usher in the future to the rest of us. Today, it's just a way overpowered iPad with some new cool features, and unfortunately this early on that's all many can envision it to ever be. However, in the near future, when a maturing iOS and pro level apps in development catch up to and are able to exploit it's powerful hardware, the Pro true intent and place in the future of computing will become more and more apparent.

Just a hunch.

Well, I'm a female.

But I do aspire to be nimble and mobile. I'm doing all I can to get to a position where, if I have to have a laptop, it will be the new MacBook or its future iteration.

I also aspire to live in a Tiny House. To prepare, I'm not just getting rid of physical items, I'm culling my digital archives and thinking carefully about what I really need to archive and how and what I really need access to and how.

The most expensive classroom in my university building is a digital lab with new Mac Pros and dual monitors. It's interesting to watch the students in the digital arts classes going back to the model of, if you need to use a computer, you go to the lab, otherwise you work on your mobile device.

 

[Codeseven]

Well, I'm a female.

Doh! Sorry 'bout that Kinda rolled the 50/50 dice on that one

Went back and corrected it.

 

[JT2002TJ]

I'm old enough that I'm retired and I agree. However, being retired I have the opportunity now to travel and I'm finding that there are large swaths of this country with zero wireless access - it gets real sketchy outside the cities and towns. And when you leave the country, data plans become expensive and access a lot more complex. That's why I still want/use alternatives to cloud-based solutions.

This is sooooo true. It isn't even outside cities, this includes WIFI in almost EVERY hotel. Even high dollar hotels have slow network speeds. The last hotel I stayed in for a work conference was $550+ a night in downtown DC, I found myself opting for LTE over their WIFI, and that was one of the fastest WIF speeds I've ever seen in a hotel.

 

[max2]

This is sooooo true. It isn't even outside cities, this includes WIFI in almost EVERY hotel. Even high dollar hotels have slow network speeds. The last hotel I stayed in for a work conference was $550+ a night in downtown DC, I found myself opting for LTE over their WIFI, and that was one of the fastest WIF speeds I've ever seen in a hotel.

I disagree about WIFI in hotels. Found them fast enough and once downloaded 1 TB of data from one.

 

[sparksd]

I disagree about WIFI in hotels. Found them fast enough and once downloaded 1 TB of data from one.

Most of the time that's true but often enough it isn't. On my last trip, the wireless in my room was terrible but they still had an active Ethernet outlet so I plugged in my FileHub and created a local network that had an excellent signal

 

[JT2002TJ]

I disagree about WIFI in hotels. Found them fast enough and once downloaded 1 TB of data from one.

This is something I discuss with my Brother (a FedEx Pilot who essentially lives 30%+ of his time in hotels world wide). It is known that hotels/motels are much slower than average home's high speed.

For example, I have Fios 75/75 and get a true 75+ in both directions. With LTE I typically get 50/30 walking around, you will never get those speeds in a hotel...

 

[BrettJDeriso]

Synology CloudStation. Full suite of apps to compete with Google Drive (or iCloud, or drop box, etc.) and EverNote.

 

[xraydoc]

This is something I discuss with my Brother (a FedEx Pilot who essentially lives 30%+ of his time in hotels world wide). It is known that hotels/motels are much slower than average home's high speed.

For example, I have Fios 75/75 and get a true 75+ in both directions. With LTE I typically get 50/30 walking around, you will never get those speeds in a hotel...

Hotel wifi often sucks. It's one reason that I always buy LTE iPads. Even my original iPad was a 3G model.

 

[lucynethel]

I just began using Amazon unlimited cloud for $5.00 a month. I swore I never would but for $60.00 a year with "unlimited EVERYTHING"? just too cheap to ignore now and given all my backup failures I just felt it time to change my thinking.

 

[sparksd]

I just began using Amazon unlimited cloud for $5.00 a month. I swore I never would but for $60.00 a year with "unlimited EVERYTHING"? just too cheap to ignore now and given all my backup failures I just felt it time to change my thinking.

I got 1 year free unlimited Amazon Cloud with a purchase I made and have played with it a bit. Have you been able to use it in conjunction with other apps? e.g., I can't see it in FileBrowser but I can access DropBox and Google Drive there.

 

[Floris]

Every once in a while I go through my media and keep what I want to keep. Throw away the rest. Then I sync to the system if DropBox hasn't done it already. Once it's on my iMac/DropBox and on my iMac/Backup, I remove the files I no longer need on the iOS devices. Keep certain ones like profile pics I might want to use etc.

 

[Jessica08]

This is something I've always pondered. I periodically plug my iPad and iPhone into my Mini to update my music playlist, buy songs, update my phone or iPad software, and I save my backup to the Mini then use an external hard drive to back that up. I'm 29, but I still haven't got the hang or trust the Cloud stuff to get away from owning a desktop (I dislike laptops, but I've never owned a MacBook so maybe that would change my mind). I like to think I'm tech savvy, but looking at all these posts I'm a total newb.

 

[ZombiePete]

I disagree about WIFI in hotels. Found them fast enough and once downloaded 1 TB of data from one.

Like almost everything else in life, it varies. I've been in hotels where it was as fast as you could possibly want it, and others where it might as well not even have been offered. Just last week I was on a business trip in a smaller town and the hotel I stayed at offered wifi but it was so slow that I was never even able to load a web page so I just resorted to tethering the entire time I was there.

 

[AdonisSMU]

Since built in storage costs so much, and 128GB isn't really that much, how do you guys get around using an iPad, or iPad Pro without a USB port?

I would like to be able to access files, like pictures and music on an external drive.

I don't know how any of the tablet manufacturer's expect a tablet to replace a desktop/laptop without a USB port. The Surface Pro is the only one I know of that has a USB port.

So, how do you guys get to your large files without a USB Port?

Thank you

I haven't used one in ages TBQH....