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All iPads iPad for kids?

R

rlu929s

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 17, 2011
132
2
We're thinking of getting a couple iPads for the kids. They currently have and old iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.

These would be dual purpose in that we'd use them for educational and non educational games, reading, and movies on long drives.

We're doing a 32 hour (round trip) drive at the end of the year and thought we could get these rather than investing in a in-care DVD system.

The problem is we want to make sure they can handle playing the games as the 3GS and 4 they have are starting to struggle on the newer games.

The movies will be the biggest pain. With data caps there will be no streaming and a 16GB iPad won't hold much, but the larger versions get pricey.

I can't fathom spending this much. Any suggestions?

Will an iPad 2 handle most current games? Or should we go mini to get newer hardware for less price?

Maybe we get an in-car DVD system and use the iPads for games/books.

Just brainstorming and wondered what everyone has done?
 
The Mini and Air are thinner and lighter and as such may not handle the daily grind of kids using it. My iPad 2 plays most of my games just fine and it's built solid. An iPad 4 maybe a better way to go as it has better specs and is built like the iPad 2.
 
Retina mini would probably be the best value for you, although you may want to consider a used 1st gen mini.

I'd advise against the iPad 2 at this point in time, especially for the current price. Perhaps second hand would be okay.
 
Get the 32 or 64gb refurbs from the apple store and watch for sales at best buy and target
 
I'd personally try to find a deal on an iPad 4th gen if I was you. Ideally 32gb. I have the original mini and it can struggle sometimes. My kids use the air all the time. As for movies, not sure what movies you're specifically looking at but my kids are in to Disney movies at the moment. With the new Disney movies anywhere app and linking it to my iTunes to download my iTunes purchases, I've found that instead of the movie size being an average of 1.7GB (standard definition) or 3.7GB (HD), downloading the movies within the app only average 1GB each at good quality. It's a good option to maximize space if you're short.

If you have multiple kids though and you're trying to install games you're probably better off with the wifi hard drive to store the movies on centrally and using the internal storage for games.
 
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My kids each have a 1st generation Mini. Both devices still work great and every game they play works fine on them. However, they are 10 and 7 so they don't play any real intensive games.

They just have the 16 GB Minis. What we did for long travel was load movies onto our laptop and sync up the iPads periodically removing and adding movies. Not the most convenient thing in the world, but considering they saved their allowances to buy them, no since making get them more expensive ones when 16 GB is plenty when we are not traveling.
 
I just saw 64GB iPad 2's on eBay for $250. Used, of course... but $250 for 64GB is a good price. I actually just bought a 32GB for $230 for much the same purpose from the same seller; here's hoping all's OK. :)
 
My 8 year old girls have iPad Minis. One had won an iPad mini for a school promotion, so being twins, I was on the hook to buy a second one :cool:

Anyways they take care of them, they're careful and don't abuse or mis use the tablets. Since I mostly have my rMini with me, they usually ask for that especially out and about, since I have the cellular model, they can watch youtube and/or listen to pandora. Of course isn't that always the case, wanting what the parents have :)
 
Get yourself a wifi enabled ext HDD and fill it with movies. Most come with an app that you can use to access those movies. Then get yourself a refurb ipad mini (1st gen). Plug the USB wifi ext HDD into a power outlet in the car. Turn on, connect the ipad to it. Problem solved. I would recommend some extra charging cables in the car for powering the ipad(s).

I use this in the car with a 64 GB MicroSD card.
http://www.sandisk.com/products/wireless/flash-drive/

Picked it up around christmas for $40. It came a 32 GB microSD card. I purchased the the 64 GB card afterwards for about another $40 or so dollars.

limited on storage space but for the car it works great. We use Netflix, and the Disney XD type apps once we have wifi in a hotel or at my parents house so between the USB drive and those options my kids have plenty to watch.
 
Regarding the 16 GB, (although my iPad boasts a higher capacity) I got myself the $99 iUSBPort from HyperDrive, it makes your regular external HDD WiFi enabled so yo don't have to buy some WiFi enabled new ones, it lets you hook up two of them, even thumb / flash drives and a MicroSD card (I don't use the card feature).
Additionally it serves as an external battery to your iOS device.
Battery life is about 8 hours I believe.

It has serve its purpose perfectly to me letting me go about unworried about disk space and mostly if I am given a flash drive in any business meeting or situation.

It has its own iOS app to access the files.
 
I've seen all kinds of games that supposedly run on the iPad 2 hardware (same as iPad Mini 1 hardware) but which user review after user review says doesn't actually work-won't get past the title screen, or crashes more and more the further into the game they get.

My feeling is if you're buying something new, you'd only want the newest iOS platform, namely an iPad Air or iPad Mini with retina (which are exactly the same 5th gen iPad platform).

That said, for games to me a couple of Nintendo 2DS/3DS or Vita systems would make more sense, possibly combined with something else for media, as they're better game systems, you own games for them, they're a stable platform that gets supported for years (vs. iOS where there's fragmentation and newer games won't run on older hardware well or at all), and they have actual controls.

EDIT: Oh, and for media, yeah, 16GB is super stingy. I'd personally go with at least a 32. They really gouge you buying larger sizes. I've ended up going back to an iPod Classic for media which gets around the issue LOL
 
The iPad 4 seems to be the best deal. It will run pretty much any game that's out for a while longer and it can be had for a decent discount on Apple's Refurb store. You can get the larger sizes for basically the same price as you'd pay to get the 16 GB of the iPad Air.
 
As long as you block your kids from reading Macrumors.com, any iPad you buy should be fine. :D

They are just kids. They don't care how many pixels or how much RAM a device has.

Cowboom.com, a BestBuy affiliate, sells quite a bit of used iOS devices. Their normal prices suck. But if you catch a sale you can get a decent price on a used device.
 
Ok thanks for the tips. We'll keep an eye out and will see what the environment is like after the new iPads are announced. We won't purchase till the end of the year when our trip is.

Kid's are 7 and 5.
 
Your comment is refreshing.

Typically whenever someone mention iPad and kids in the same thread, the comments implie kids are reckless.

Many are better at taking care of things better than some adults, especially things that mean a lot to them. Think about it, they don't go around jamming their fingers in doors, running head first into walls. Fingers and heads are things too, and yes they mean a lot to the kids.

Besides, what is a better opportunity to teach them how to take care of their things than given them something that they really want. For sure, demonstrate to them how breakable screen is (use an egg), or perhaps have them take care of an egg for a week to demonstrate that they can take care of fragile things. I am sure most of them will show you how good they are at taking care of things given the chance.

I just hate the stereotype that kids are reckless. Perhaps many are because that's what many people assume they are and the idea gets constant reinforcement.

At the end of the day if the iPad get broken, perhaps it's a very good lesson learnt for the kids.

maflynn said:
My 8 year old girls have iPad Minis. One had won an iPad mini for a school promotion, so being twins, I was on the hook to buy a second one :cool:

Anyways they take care of them, they're careful and don't abuse or mis use the tablets. Since I mostly have my rMini with me, they usually ask for that especially out and about, since I have the cellular model, they can watch youtube and/or listen to pandora. Of course isn't that always the case, wanting what the parents have :)
Click to expand...
 
meistervu said:
Typically whenever someone mention iPad and kids in the same thread, the comments implie kids are reckless.

Many are better at taking care of things better than some adults, especially things that mean a lot to them.
Click to expand...

This is totally true. I was certainly very careful, and never wrecked anything, which included a lot of electronics. (Although electronics that were probably more reliable than today's are.)

Still, I was no less careful than I am now...well, except when I was <1 and fed oatmeal to a tape player LOL.
 
meistervu said:
Typically whenever someone mention iPad and kids in the same thread, the comments imply kids are reckless.

Many are better at taking care of things better than some adults, especially things that mean a lot to them.
Click to expand...
True. My 10-year old goddaughter is far more careful with her electronics than I am. She babied the iPod Touch I gave her a couple of years back and I expect she'll probably do the same with the non-retina iPad Mini I recently gifted her. :p
 
I've got some BB Reward bucks to spend, so I'm thinking about having BB price match Sam's at $260 for a 1st Gen Mini and using my reward bucks. Can pick it up for under $200.

I do worry some of the newer games won't work though, but really our budget is no more than $500 to buy new new iPads (whatever design) for out kids.

Should I wait till they announce the next lineup soon. Maybe Monday? And hope they remove the 1st gen and make the 2nd Gen w/ Retina the new cheap option?

Those that have the WIFI enabled drives. Do you just copy over the itunes movie files and they work? Or do you need another format like MKV etc?
 
rlu929s said:
I've got some BB Reward bucks to spend, so I'm thinking about having BB price match Sam's at $260 for a 1st Gen Mini and using my reward bucks. Can pick it up for under $200.

I do worry some of the newer games won't work though, but really our budget is no more than $500 to buy new new iPads (whatever design) for out kids.

Should I wait till they announce the next lineup soon. Maybe Monday? And hope they remove the 1st gen and make the 2nd Gen w/ Retina the new cheap option?

Those that have the WIFI enabled drives. Do you just copy over the itunes movie files and they work? Or do you need another format like MKV etc?
Click to expand...

They wouldn't make any changes in the iPad lineup in June, typically that happens in the late fall. And there are tons of games that work fine on older iPads, I wouldn't worry about not being able to play the latest games.

And it would be best to copy the movie files from iTunes to the wifi drives. Other formats do work, but you'd need third-party apps to use them. If you already have them in iTunes format there's no point in fiddling with other formats.
 
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