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What CAN you actually do with an iPad?

N

nampramos

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 14, 2010
451
32
Hi guys!

I will be buying the new iPad 3 in the end of April and I would like to ask you some questions which will reflect on the model I will buy (WiFi 16, 32 or 64 GB).

I have searched around and tried to find out what can and cannot be connect to the iPad.

One major concerns I have is not having enough space for storage, as many of you might have as well.

Can I connect an external HDD to the iPad?

What about that Seagate GoFlex Satellite? I saw a video review of that HDD with built-in WiFi and it was disappointing to see that you cannot write onto the HDD via WiFi. Instead, you will need to connect the HDD via USB to write data into it.


Share your views guys. Thanks!
 
nampramos said:
Can I connect an external HDD to the iPad?
Click to expand...

No. If your Movie/TV Show library is over the maximum size (since music can be played via home sharing), you should look into a media laptop, like an HP Envy Beats (GREAT multimedia laptop)
 
Yeah, although the iPad is a really powerful tool, it doesn't serve as a full computer replacement for all users.
 
I use my iPad to read, and watch movies / tv shows... You can use Home Sharing to stream the videos to your iPad. You could also use Netflix and things like that.
 
nampramos said:
Hi guys!

I will be buying the new iPad 3 in the end of April and I would like to ask you some questions which will reflect on the model I will buy (WiFi 16, 32 or 64 GB).

I have searched around and tried to find out what can and cannot be connect to the iPad.

One major concerns I have is not having enough space for storage, as many of you might have as well.

Can I connect an external HDD to the iPad?

What about that Seagate GoFlex Satellite? I saw a video review of that HDD with built-in WiFi and it was disappointing to see that you cannot write onto the HDD via WiFi. Instead, you will need to connect the HDD via USB to write data into it.


Share your views guys. Thanks!
Click to expand...

The Seagate GoFlex Wifi drives are intended to simply extend your storage if you want to carry your media library around and use your storage on the iPad for apps. I've used one and it streams very well. I find the benefits of ease of connecting to large amounts of data that fit in small HDD I can take with me far outwiegh the negative aspect of needing to load it via another computer. Considering the fact your iPad only has a fraction of the storage capacity of the HDD's off loading media seems rather backwards in a sense.

I hope we see a 128gig option and eventually 256gig as SSD chip prices drop. You can never have enough storage imo, I have had a 16gig wifi and constantly ran out of room with only apps, with a 64gig I could load a few movies, my music and have room for apps but I had to think about what I wanted to load when going on a trip, so bottom line, I buy as much storage as possible. The wifi external drives helps with the pre trip decisions, I just take it all and decide later.

As for the title of the thread which has nothing to do with your post.

Everyting...not even sure I can list them all. I haven't used a laptop in well over a year. I use my iMac for my daily work, photo/video editing and the iPad for most of my browsing, casual gaming, news, sports and other magazine reading, HBO GO, Max GO, Slingbox, movies, iMessage, Facetime, shopping and on and on... I find very little I can't do on the iPad that I had done on my laptop prior. It's lighter, better battery and I find myself taking it with my to many more places I never bothered taking my laptop. Battery life alone is huge in making something useable without having to carry along a charger all the time.

And yes I can play flash and visit flash websites if I choose (there's an app for that too). Not to even mention Airplay's ability to mirror my iPad to the ATV2 and have a nice large canvas to share photo, video and websites with family that come over.
 
I use my iPad mainly as a media consumption device. Netflix, Youtube, browsing, and sometimes books until my son gave me a Kindle Fire for Christmas, so books are now read on the KF. I don't see my iPad as a replacement for my laptop, however I do spend far more time using my iPad than my MBP because its just so convenient to pick up and carry around. I don't think an iPad needs to totally replace your computer, rather it enhances it... Put what you need on there, as needed and don't expect more than its meant to be and you will love it. Now i'm starting to sound all fanboish so Ill just leave it at that. :D
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I use my iPad to run my eBay store. Also for email, web browsing, music, and video entertainment. I also destroy
Zombies in COD Black Ops.
 
Gorion said:
I use my iPad to read, and watch movies / tv shows... You can use Home Sharing to stream the videos to your iPad. You could also use Netflix and things like that.
Click to expand...

So you can stream a 1080p from a laptop to the iPad for example?

But only stream right? I cannot copy anything via home sharing? Or even write to the laptop from the iPad?
 
You can do a good bit with the iPad but it excels as an Internet appliance.

The iPad could be so much more but Apple keeps it in a closed loop which prevents it from being what it could be. This is why android and the new Win 8 tablets will always be of great interest to so many.
 
nampramos said:
So you can stream a 1080p from a laptop to the iPad for example?

But only stream right? I cannot copy anything via home sharing? Or even write to the laptop from the iPad?
Click to expand...

Well, I don't think iPad displays a video in 1080p, so it will get converted on the fly to 720p, I think, but yes, you can stream video from laptop to the iPad. I like to use Air Video for this, but there are other apps that do the same thing.

As for writing data from the iPad to a laptop, exactly what kind of data are you talking about? I have an app called File Browser that can connect from the iPad to any networked hard drive, including those on other networked computers, so if a file can be accessed through the "open in" function, you open it with File Browser and copy it to the hard drive. The problem is, most in-app data can't be accessed by the "open in" function. But I find it handy for downloading files from the web.
 
there are lots of apps out there to do what you want, thats the strnegth of the idevices from apple, hense the slogan "there's an app for that!".

I have all my media on a NAS and I use multiple apps to access them such as DSFile, ACEPlayer etc.

to copy files from your ipad to your laptop you could use the Dropbox app which I highly recommend. I use it to move files between my iphone, ipad, and pc at home.
 
Cool guys, thanks for the feedback.

A lot can be done but now everything.


Imagine I go on a trip for 2 weeks and only take my iPad.

I record video with a GoPro that does 1080p.

When I want to transfer it to the iPad I use the SD adapter.

But then how do I move those 1080p video files to an external HDD if I have no network to connect to?

The Seagate GoFlex does not allow writing via WiFi and I can't connect the iPad to the HDD via cable.

Impossible, right?
 
It's nowhere near as flexible as a notebook, but it isn't supposed to be. I plan to use mine mainly as a consumption device, as others have said... web, email, IRC, MUD, IM...
 
The iPad is a consumption device for me first. You can't plug a hard drive into it straight out of the box.
 
nampramos said:
Imagine I go on a trip for 2 weeks and only take my iPad.

I record video with a GoPro that does 1080p.

When I want to transfer it to the iPad I use the SD adapter.

But then how do I move those 1080p video files to an external HDD if I have no network to connect to?

The Seagate GoFlex does not allow writing via WiFi and I can't connect the iPad to the HDD via cable.

Impossible, right?
Click to expand...

Not sure why you can't wait until you get back from your trip to move those videos to a hard drive, but if this is really important to you, then you could consider jailbreaking the iPad -- last I checked, jailbreaking allowed you to connect an external storage device to the iPad and write to them, but the external device needed its own power source. I also remember hearing about some devices that transfer videos directly from a camcoder to hard drives. Perhaps that is more what you need?
 
Night Spring said:
Not sure why you can't wait until you get back from your trip to move those videos to a hard drive, but if this is really important to you, then you could consider jailbreaking the iPad -- last I checked, jailbreaking allowed you to connect an external storage device to the iPad and write to them, but the external device needed its own power source. I also remember hearing about some devices that transfer videos directly from a camcoder to hard drives. Perhaps that is more what you need?
Click to expand...

This June I will be spending 2 weeks in The Maldives on a surf trip.
During all that time, I will be living on a boat.
If I didn't need to take my laptop with me, would be great.
Imagine filming 5-6 hours of 1080p video a day, for 2 weeks.
How many GB will that be at the end?
I'd say much more than any iPad can handle ;)

But I understood now that this is a very unlikely event. I'll have to carry with me my MacBook anyway.

Thanks for all the insight guys!
 
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