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iPad no longer third device, but THE device. Sorely in need of a file system?

iSingandiDance

iSingandiDance

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 24, 2010
581
0
As much as Jobs and co. want to continue to tout how iPads are the third tweener device it's becoming more and more apparent that users the world over consider it their primary device. As such, the affinity to pull out their respective Mac or PCs has diminished significantly. Therefore, the need for a dedicated, centralized file system - not a better processor, more RAM, nor pristine camera quality - should be at the very forefront when it comes to future iterations of the product, namely the iPad 3.

Of course there are ways to get around this, but since there are many different interfaces and equally as many incompatible apps, there needs to be a My Docs type deal that can house all stored media and work with all apps.

What are some reasons do you think why Apple hasn't included a file system up to now? Will they finally sucede that iPad is more than just a third device, and one that can replace the other two, without cannabilization of course?
 
they will not do this because apple likes to limit and put restrictions on things.
 
Apple won't do this because they see it as a 'post pc device'

They are trying to reinvent the wheel, and make things easier, simpler and more intuitive.

Obviously they are not there yet in terms of functionality, and there are things that the iPad can't do that maybe it should.

But Apple are not considering a file system to fix these problems, they are thinking outside the 'pc world' and into their vision of the future.

If they succeed or not is to be seen.

In the mean time, you can jailbreak to get your file system.
 
There are quite a few apps that work well on the iPad regarding "my" stuff......for example...the "folder" app can store anything you wish, and open it in the appropriate app to view or edit (if a doc)....dont see why people dont use apps like this to store their docs and files or whatever it is they want to store. I often use it to store any kind of file and perhaps go to a friends house and then transfer it from the app to a friends computer....very simple (if they use iTunes, which a lot of people do). This solution works fine at the moment until something else comes along.
 
jabingla2810 said:
In the mean time, you can jailbreak to get your file system.
Click to expand...

I have jailbroken a few phones for a couple of features in the past, but have not kept up much on the iPad JB scene.

How well does it work? I really wish I could just drag&drop file instead of uploading through each individual app.
 
Well I have "goodreader" for ipad and it works great. I can manually download and store PDF, word files, small apple movie files.

Than I can email those files from my ipad to other people.

Sure Apple has limited the ability to truly have a file system but Goodreader and similar apps work well with the ipad.
 
I've always championed this.
We don't need access to the full file system, but merely a default, 1st party, 'Files.app', where everything can be downloaded and uploaded, to and from, especially in the browser.
Files, projects, email attachments, anything should be stored, firstly, in this single, sandboxed repository, where you could add folders, etc, without ever getting into the real file system.
When you click 'browse' in a web page, it should jump to the Files app, to up/download.
From there, you should be able to add files to whatever app you wish.

Trying to upload an image from my library to a wallpaper thread, is impossible.
 
iSingandiDance said:
As much as Jobs and co. want to continue to tout how iPads are the third tweener device it's becoming more and more apparent that users the world over consider it their primary device.
Click to expand...
Its a bit premature to consider the iPad as a primary machine for the majority of users. Perhaps in some isolated circumstances it has. Apple has always catered to the masses instead of developing a product for some small niche group.

What are some reasons do you think why Apple hasn't included a file system up to now? Will they finally sucede that iPad is more than just a third device, and one that can replace the other two, without cannabilization of course?
Click to expand...
Because apple does not cater to niche groups, and they like to have full control over nearly aspect of the iDevices. You'll not see a file system on the iPad either for an extremely long time or more likely never.

Personally, the iPad is still a "tweener" device as you call it. I can surf the web, do email and some document editing and/or creation (Very light document creation/editing).

I cannot run multiple applications at the same time like I can on my desktop, where I have a word document open, a spreadsheet open, an FTP session running, VMware open and running and various other apps to do my job. So if you want to just surf the web and do email, yeah the iPad can be your primary device. If that is your usage you don't need a file system at that point either.
 
BergerFan said:
I've always championed this.
We don't need access to the full file system, but merely a default, 1st party, 'Files.app', where everything can be downloaded and uploaded, to and from, especially in the browser.
Files, projects, email attachments, anything should be stored, firstly, in this single, sandboxed repository, where you could add folders, etc, without ever getting into the real file system.
When you click 'browse' in a web page, it should jump to the Files app, to up/download.
From there, you should be able to add files to whatever app you wish.

Trying to upload an image from my library to a wallpaper thread, is impossible.
Click to expand...
THIS is exactly what I meant(better explained).
 
The problem with the current methods is this:

Get a file from an email
Open it in GoodReader.
Decide you want to edit it
Open it into Pages

Now the most current version of the file is in pages. But it also exists in GoodReader without your edits. There is no simple way to get your edited file back into GoodReader, other than emailing it back to yourself or uploading it to a WebDAV server and downloading it again.

Secondly, when you need to move multiple documents to another app. Open document, open in, double tap home, tap original app, go back, open document 2, repeat x4.

I'm all for simplicity, but computers are supposed to make tasks easier and this is one area of iOS that just does not.
 
As someone who's been using an iPad as my primary computer from Day 1 (see my signature...) I've long pondered how to get from here to there.

The issues surrounding multiple copies/instances of files, getting them cleanly from iWork back to Goodreader or the like, are real. Things have obviously gotten much much better over time. But we're obviously not quite there.

I appreciate the balance that Apple want to strike between simplicity and power. But the current solution is neither here nor there. For example, I have 50 something document in Pages. The only way to find one is by swiping through them one at a time. Thats obviously unworkable.

If SJ doesn't want nested folders on the iPad, fine. But the way things are now is not sustainable long term IMO.
 
You are thinking in a "PC" way. You have to change your thinking. The iPad is a post-PC device. File systems are sooo 1986. Welcome to the 21st century.
 
Depends on your computing needs. For a lot of people on these forums, an iPad is not going to replace their MacBooks.
 
JRoDDz said:
You are thinking in a "PC" way. You have to change your thinking. The iPad is a post-PC device. File systems are sooo 1986. Welcome to the 21st century.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Any file system on the iPad will probably be via a "cloud" system that interacts with your Mac or web-storage center.
 
Charlie Sheen said:
Trust me a file system would kill the ipad
Click to expand...

Do you really think so?

I was jailbroken before iOS 4.3, and the application called iFile worked very well.

I understand and grant you that an inexperienced user could make some mistakes that would affect his experience with the device, but something like iFile, if it were available to us, would help out most of us.

64GB of memory and no way to manipulate files easily is kind of a waste.

iDisk works great. Dropbox works great. But sometimes you just want to move one file on one device.

It's not a killer issue for me, and I wouldn't climb a soapbox over it.

But if anybody's taking votes, my votes for a better system of manipulating files, even if we're only allowed to manipulate "safe" files, user-owned files, in the normally accessible user flash memory.
 
PatriotInvasion said:
Agreed. Any file system on the iPad will probably be via a "cloud" system that interacts with your Mac or web-storage center.
Click to expand...
Then what is the point in 64GB of flash memory on the iPad?

I use iDisk (MobileME) and Dropbox, so I understand that the cloud systems work great.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

My conspiracy theory is that Apple wants to control our data through the cloud aka Mobile me. Just buy out Dropbox and roll it into MobileMe.
 
Defender2010 said:
There are quite a few apps that work well on the iPad regarding "my" stuff......for example...the "folder" app can store anything you wish, and open it in the appropriate app to view or edit (if a doc)....dont see why people dont use apps like this to store their docs and files or whatever it is they want to store. I often use it to store any kind of file and perhaps go to a friends house and then transfer it from the app to a friends computer....very simple (if they use iTunes, which a lot of people do). This solution works fine at the moment until something else comes along.
Click to expand...

I never even knew that this application was available in iTunes.

Thank you for mentioning it.

I'm going to give it a try. It's only 99 cents and available for both the iPhone and iPad.
 
freeman727 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

My conspiracy theory is that Apple wants to control our data through the cloud aka Mobile me. Just buy out Dropbox and roll it into MobileMe.
Click to expand...

To some extent, Dropbox and the iDisk application of MobileME seem to do the same thing.
 
aneftp said:
Well I have "goodreader" for ipad and it works great. I can manually download and store PDF, word files, small apple movie files.

Than I can email those files from my ipad to other people.

Sure Apple has limited the ability to truly have a file system but Goodreader and similar apps work well with the ipad.
Click to expand...

I just read up on this app and I'm definitely downloading this when I get home from work today. Thanks :cool:
 
I don't understand this way of thinking.

Apple introduces a device that fundamentally moves the computing paradigm into a totally new level. Customers adopt this new device and paradigm in huge numbers.

And you want to drag us back into the world of hierarchical file folders? Madness.
 
jabingla2810 said:
They are trying to reinvent the wheel, and make things easier, simpler and more intuitive.
Click to expand...

There is absolutely NOTHING "intuitive" about using iTunes to add/delete files from the iPad's various apps. Its the most amateurish effort I've ever seen on any device, pre- or post- PC world notwithstanding. A full year after its introduction and there has been virtually zero work done to make it more intuitive.

You can use gestures to "drag and drop" entire video's from the iPad using Airplay, but for some reason, you can't do the same to drag and drop a file from your Mac over to your iPad? Seriously.....they have the paradigm already in place. Why not make use of it?
 
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