Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Is it a good idea?

Martin29

Martin29

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 25, 2010
348
120
Quimper, France
I am thinking of buying my wife an iPad for Christmas.

She currently uses an hp laptop, but she's not a heavy user.

Emails, browsing, posting items for sale on ebay, the occassional letter, downloading photos from her windows phone and sony camera, uploading same with her ebay ads..

Do you guys think it would be a good idea, or should I let her stick with the windows laptop?
 
Or you could just buy her a scarf and spend the 489€ on yourself??


But yes, the iPad is perfect for light use. My wife does everything on it, from the grocery shopping, online shopping, house hunting, twitter, email, looking at photos, watch catch up tv / vod... awesome device.
 
bp1000 said:
Or you could just buy her a scarf and spend the 489€ on yourself??
Click to expand...

Not a bad idea, but might harm my chances of persuading the good lady that I really do need a new MBP? :D

I seem to remember hearing somewhere that the iPad couldn't post pictures to the net. Is this true? If so it could be a deal breaker for her.

I suppose the other question is about whether she would need to access my iMac to register the iPad and to maintain it up to date? Or does the iPad deal with all that as a stand alone?
 
Martin29 said:
I seem to remember hearing somewhere that the iPad couldn't post pictures to the net. Is this true? If so it could be a deal breaker for her.

I suppose the other question is about whether she would need to access my iMac to register the iPad and to maintain it up to date? Or does the iPad deal with all that as a stand alone?
Click to expand...

Most popular photo sharing sites have apps that can be used to upload photos from the iPad to that site. Smaller sites may be a problem, so you should check to see which sites your wife uses, and then see if those sites have iPad apps.

Since iOS 5, iPads are "PC free." So you don't need a PC to setup and maintain an iPad, but depending on what you want to do, it might be more convenient or you might get additional functions if you sync with a computer. For instance, if you have music/videos that you have obtained from sources other than the iTunes store, you'll need to sync with a computer to get them on your iPad.
 
Thanks for that.

She's not likely to want to post photos to the photo sharing sites, it's more likely to illustrate items she sells on ebay or other online sales sites. Is this still going to require specific apps, or will one app allow her to post to any such site?
 
Martin29 said:
Thanks for that.

She's not likely to want to post photos to the photo sharing sites, it's more likely to illustrate items she sells on ebay or other online sales sites. Is this still going to require specific apps, or will one app allow her to post to any such site?
Click to expand...

I don't sell items on ebay, so I'm not familiar with how that works. If you can't upload pics directly to a site from iPad, you should be able to upload it to a photo-sharing site like flicker, or to a file-sharing site like Dropbox, then link to the pics once they are online. At least, that's how I do it when I want to post pics to sites that don't have an iPad app. ebay does have an iPad app, so I'd check that first.
 
Don't listen to the fanboys here who will blindly tell you to buy the iPad. They will always recommend the iPad to anyone who asks regardless of the circumstances. And that helps no one.

Yes the iPad is a nice device but what you need to do first is ask yourself why your wife isn't using her laptop as much as she should. If it's because of portability or mobility reasons, then an iPad may help with that. If it's purely an issue of time and/or usability, an iPad may simply be a waste of money. If her primary use is selling things on eBay, then it usually doesn't get much simpler or easier than a desktop or laptop PC.
 
Martin29 said:
Thanks for that.

She's not likely to want to post photos to the photo sharing sites, it's more likely to illustrate items she sells on ebay or other online sales sites. Is this still going to require specific apps, or will one app allow her to post to any such site?
Click to expand...

She can use the eBay iPad app.
 
If she uses her Windows phone to take pictures and the uploads those to eBay I don't think she will be able to do it with just an iPad. She will have to connect her phone to her computer to off-load them and transfer them to her iPad or upload them to some online site first. My husband sells a lot on eBay and he won't use his iPad to post items. But he does like it to monitor his auctions.
 
donnaw said:
If she uses her Windows phone to take pictures and the uploads those to eBay I don't think she will be able to do it with just an iPad. She will have to connect her phone to her computer to off-load them and transfer them to her iPad or upload them to some online site first.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. If that Windows Phone saves the photos to an SD (or microSD) card, then you may be able to use the Apple iPad camera connection kit. Alternatively, if it's just a few photos at a time, then just email the photos from the WP to the iPad.
 
ftaok said:
Not necessarily. If that Windows Phone saves the photos to an SD (or microSD) card, then you may be able to use the Apple iPad camera connection kit. Alternatively, if it's just a few photos at a time, then just email the photos from the WP to the iPad.
Click to expand...

And how do these methods make it easier on the iPad than a laptop, exactly?
 
IllIllIll said:
And how do these methods make it easier on the iPad than a laptop, exactly?
Click to expand...

It doesn't. I never said that it did. I was just pointing out that there are alternative ways of getting photos onto the iPod that don't involve the use of a PC/Mac. I didn't want the OP to have the impression that it's a big PITA to get photos onto the iPad.

The OP is asking whether the iPad would be sufficient for his wife. If the only stumbling block is getting photos off of a WinPhone so that she can post stuff onto eBay, then it seems that the iPad may be a winner for her. Provided that the pluses outweigh the minuses in the other use cases (e.g. surfing, writing documents, etc).
 
ftaok said:
The OP is asking whether the iPad would be sufficient for his wife. If the only stumbling block is getting photos off of a WinPhone so that she can post stuff onto eBay, then it seems that the iPad may be a winner for her.
Click to expand...
A winner for her? How so? The OP never provided any compelling reason why an iPad would be a better fit for her than her current laptop.
 
I never provided a compelling reason because I am unsure whether it is the right solution.

She needs a tool that just works.. Nothing complicated, otherwise all her stuff will be waiting for me when I get home in the evening.

I think what's worrying me most is the idea that an iPad can't upload a photo to the web without site specific apps? If for example she wanted to upload a photo (or any other file) to my own site why can't the iPad simply do that? She uses a number of different sites to sell items and they are unlikely to all have apps for the iPad, even if they did, why should she need one per site?

Surely if a site accepts a specific file type from a Mac or a Windows machine, it should also do so from an IOS device?

If not then this seems a real weakness for the future of the iPad.
 
The reason uploading works that way is because of Apple's strange obsession with separating the user from the filesystem. The last thing they want you to be able to do is poke through a list of the files on the iPad, which is what upload pages on the web want you to do to pick a file. IMO, this is the one truly major flaw in iOS and Apple's approach in general. And the fact that they haven't at least provided a workaround that works for all websites, rather than needing a separate app for each one, is ridiculous.

That said, I think it still might be a good choice for your wife, if she can go through a photo sharing sites for anything that doesn't have its own app. I have managed to kick my desktop entirely out of my photo workflow, and I love it. Editing photos on the iPad is great, much better than with a mouse. An Eye-Fi card does the uploading work for me, then if needed I pick the photos to download to the iPad, edit, and reupload to various sites. The portability of an iPad vs a laptop is just no contest - even just for around the house. It's hard to explain til you've got one, because you just don't carry a laptop around the house the way you do an iPad.

If she does need to upload to sites that don't have apps, and can't work around that with photo sharing sites, then no, the iPad won't work for that. And it's ridiculous that apple has made it that way. But otherwise, it might take a little time to work it into her workflow like any new tool, but once she does it is much more pleasant to use than a traditional laptop.
 
I think that it would be a great idea. I think that she would not only love it, but she would really use the features on the ipad. Good Luck!!!
 
I think, in general, the iPad is a great supplement to a desktop/laptop computer. But for most people, it won't completely replace their main computer. So if you go in thinking the iPad could be your wife's only computer, you'll likely be disappointed. To make the most out of an iPad, you need to be willing to explore, be open to getting used to a different workflow, to accept that many things that you do on a desktop won't translate directly to an iPad. There are a lot of things that the iPad does much better than a traditional computer, in an easier and more fun way, but there are also things that makes you want to hit your head against the wall, where a simple task on the desktop - like uploading files to websites - require a convoluted work around. I know people who can use iPad as their only computer - my mother, for instance, says she wouldn't need her desktop if she didn't have to use Word for work. Our boss could probably do all his computing on the iPad, but then, he hardly uses the computer to begin with. In other words, anybody who can use an iPad as their only computer never needed a computer in the first place. For the great majority of people, the iPad is a great supplement, and it might do 90% of what they need computing wise, but there'd be that 10% of computing tasks that would need to be done on a desktop / laptop.
 
op..

your wife can use the camera connection kit to directly connect her phone to the iPad it will pull the photos off no problem what so ever.

the ebay app allows posting of new sales etc and its very simple to use!

as for other sites if it dosnt have an app then your wife cn just sign up to photo bucket or another photo uploading type site and use the app to pot pictures its a very simple process.

for what she uses it for she will find the iPad ideal, it will also save her waiting half hour for her windows machine to boot do a virus scan download 50 updates and reboot half way through posting a sale on ebay!
 
Gav2k said:
for what she uses it for she will find the iPad ideal, it will also save her waiting half hour for her windows machine to boot do a virus scan download 50 updates and reboot half way through posting a sale on ebay!
Click to expand...
See, this statement is what I originally alluded to in my first post on this thread - there are tons of fanboy trolls here who will blindly recommend iPads to ANYONE who asks.

It does NOT take a Windows machine 30 minutes to boot and download virus scan downloads, nor does it ever force you to reboot immediately. In fact, I'd say that my Win7 box boots faster than my MBP does. And when Win8 comes out, it'll be even faster.

Unfortunately you'll have to separate the wheat from the chaff like this unhelpful poster.

----------
Apple... said:
YES!!!

Need we say more? :cool:
Click to expand...

And this one too. See what I mean? It's hard to get really constructive information here.

----------
Martin29 said:
I never provided a compelling reason because I am unsure whether it is the right solution.

She needs a tool that just works.. Nothing complicated, otherwise all her stuff will be waiting for me when I get home in the evening.
Click to expand...
That's a perfectly valid concern, and that's exactly why all the blind "YES OMG BUY AN IPAD SHE'LL LOVE IT" posters are completely useless. Like I said, first find out the reason why she doesn't use her laptop as frequently as she should. Is it because it's slow? Does it freeze/lock up often? Or is it because she simply can't use the laptop in the environment she wants? If it's the latter, then YES - an iPad may be a more useful tool for her. But if you don't figure out why she doesn't use her laptop, there's no reason to believe she'll use an iPad more.

That's why you need to determine what the reason is. Once you do, you'll have a better idea if an iPad is the right solution.

----------
jmjoh122 said:
I think that it would be a great idea. I think that she would not only love it, but she would really use the features on the ipad. Good Luck!!!
Click to expand...

...And you know for a fact that "she would really use the features on the ipad" how?
 
Just remembered another thing that iPad doesn't do quite well as you would expect it to: print.

To print from an iPad, you need one of the printers on this list:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4356

If your printer isn't on the list, then there may be a third-party app that works for you, but you would have to hunt around for it.

I really love the iPad for what it is, and it is the device I use the most often - I have with me almost everywhere I go. That said, it definitely isn't for everyone, and you need to really research and go through each and every one of your computer usage and double check to make sure they can be done with the iPad. There are some things that seem so obvious, one wouldn't even think to ask about - like printing - that the iPad cannot do.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back