iPad backup without iTunes?

[seajay96]

Ok, I know a full backup isn't possible, not even jailbroken. But, I'm trying to find the most convenient method to have a backup of all of my documents, music, videos, etc...

I will be doing some extended traveling with just the iPad and I'm a little worried about being able to easily recover my files in the event of damage or theft. Carrying a netbook or MBA defeats the purpose of traveling light, so it's not really an option I want to consider.

My email, contacts, documents and books are already cloud based with Google, MobileMe, Dropbox and Amazon and I can redownload apps from the appstore. But, what to do about media, since you can't pull anything into the iPod app from the cloud?

So, two questions:

1. Has there been any recently added evidence to support full cloud syncing to the semi-mythical server farm in North Carolina?

or

2. Is there an iOS disk explorer program that can be run from a thumb drive? Something that doesn't require iTunes or any other linked files or registry entries on the host computer so it could be run at an internet cafe (think Windows PC's)? Maybe even a Linux version that I could run from a LiveUSB version of Ubuntu?

Thanks for any other insights or ideas.

 

[Night Spring]

1. I wouldn't call the server farm mythical -- we do know it exists! But it just doesn't seem to be doing anything much right now. And if there is any news or rumors about it, I'm sure we'll see it on the front page of MacRumors.

2. I'm not sure what you are trying to do with a thumb drive -- are you thinking about hooking one up to the iPad with the camera connection kit? If so, with 4.2.1, you can no longer do this. Apple changed the power level available through the camera kit, so a thumb drive no longer gets enough power to run.

Even on 3.x, there was no way to run programs from the thumb drive, but if you were jailbroken, you could use an app called iFile to copy files from the iPad to the thumb drive. You should still be able to attach an USB drive with its own power source and use iFile to copy files to that USB drive. However, you will need to take along the USB drive and its power adapter.

 

[seajay96]

1. I wouldn't call the server farm mythical -- we do know it exists! But it just doesn't seem to be doing anything much right now. And if there is any news or rumors about it, I'm sure we'll see it on the front page of MacRumors.

That's why I said "semi-mythical" in that it exists, but no one knows why, yet

2. I'm not sure what you are trying to do with a thumb drive -- are you thinking about hooking one up to the iPad with the camera connection kit? If so, with 4.2.1, you can no longer do this. Apple changed the power level available through the camera kit, so a thumb drive no longer gets enough power to run.

Even on 3.x, there was no way to run programs from the thumb drive, but if you were jailbroken, you could use an app called iFile to copy files from the iPad to the thumb drive. You should still be able to attach an USB drive with its own power source and use iFile to copy files to that USB drive. However, you will need to take along the USB drive and its power adapter.

I want a program like iPhone Explorer saved on the thumb drive but is independent of iTunes and linked files/registry settings so it could be run from any Internet cafe computer...which would in all likelihood be a windows PC. Unfortunately iPhone Explorer requires iTunes.

As another option, I could probably use a LiveUSB build of Ubuntu with such a program. Perhaps Banshee? Anyone ever try that?