Apple IPAD Owner's Thread

[rockymtnhigh]

Not the ipad mail app from Apple? You like all the mail being dumped into a single folder? Or did you figure out how to add folders? I read a process for doing that but it didn't work. I get too much spam, maybe.

I am curious about your rave review on the ipad vs. the Galaxy Tab. You are one of the few who can speak from first hand knowledge on both so tell us what's better on the ipad than the Tab? Whats worse too.

On the tethering problem- I had trouble with tethering losing connection when I used a free tether app on my Windows smartphone but switching to a purchased one, that had lots of features really helped. The paid app never went down but I did need to keep the phone on charger. I never tried the Verizon tether app because I didn't want to pay the monthly fee for it.

On the Thunderbolt the tethering is much better and I actually ran the phone on battery for 2 hr 20 minutes tethered to my ipad as a test of the battery drain. Plus the LTE tethering is just so fast I can watch netflix HD movie or HD slingplayer and the phone only gets to 106 ° F. It has its' own temp monitor when I tether. You might want to look for a new tethering app or an LTE phone.

The mail comes into a combined inbox, but it is very easy to move emails I want to their proper folder,and for most of them, it is simply hitting the delete key.

I need to try a different tether app to see if it is the problem. Most of the time if I am tethering it is not a problem. the hotel wifi I attribute to spotty wifi more than anything. Too bad they don't have an iPad to Ethernet connector, as that would have eliminated the problem in my room entirely.

My wireless tether program has a temp gauge. On the train yesterday it ran for 2 hours non stop, had no problems, and the temp never rose above 32 c. But I was plugged in, and often the DX will heat up tethering on battery, and it will drain quickly.

The review is coming, I wanted to give it a few weeks of usage.

Sent from my iPad using SatelliteGuys

 

[Foxbat]

the hotel wifi I attribute to spotty wifi more than anything. Too bad they don't have an iPad to Ethernet connector, as that would have eliminated the problem in my room entirely.

Apple does. It's called the AirPort Express. It's roughly the same size as the Mac Book's power supply that plugs into the wall. It's biggest drawback is you need a Mac or PC to change the configuration to match your needs. If Apple had an AirPort app, that would be perfect.

It's like the Swiss Army knife of gadgets. You can plug it into your stereo and stream music to it from your iPad or iTunes using AirPlay. You can set up a Wi-Fi hotspot by plugging it into an Ethernet port and using it like a router. Or, you can reverse it and use it to connect to a Wi-Fi signal and access the wireless LAN through the Ethernet port (I used this to put Ethernet into my family room setup before I ran CAT5e cable to that location). The Refurbished Store at Apple usually has them for $69 (they're currently not available).

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Thanks Roland, now I am aware of this really small, easy to plug in wi-fi access point. There goes another $100! Well, not quite yet, but I can definitely see the benefits of it, and I did some reading on it. You can create 5 different profiles for it, but I am not sure how it would know which one you wanted without a PC/mac to talk to it. Unless, you can do it through the browser of the ipad.

Anyways, the reason for this post... I spent some time playing tonight with the ipad. I wanted to find out how to really be able to better access my files with it, and not having to use itunes for it. I already had DropBox, which is great to view stuff, and I can edit with Documents to Go, but Docs to Go is pretty plain jane in terms of actual writing.

So after doing some digging, I figured out that there is a way with something called "DropDav" to use a WebDav server to skip the dropbox system itself to access your data, and if you have Pages, Numbers, or Keynote, you can access files - and save files - using it. I knew Pages had a much nicer interface, even though I had not bought it. So, after much debate, I dropped the $10 (Apple is very good at finding ways to get you to drop $10 here, and $10 there!) on Pages for ipad.

Wow -- that is the best damn tablet word processor imaginable. Extremely easy to use, and really designed for touch screen. Really uses multi-touch, and is just very easy to use. PLUS, you can save and open files to Dropbox, using that trick. The only downside is that while it will open DOCX files, it will only save them as DOC files (same with Numbers with XLSX and Keynote with PPTX). But you can also save in the native format and as PDF. And yes, ultimately I clicked that "buy app" button twice more. And now have the full suite. Each app is REALLY well done. Better than 90% of the other apps I have seen. Almost magical.

But even with that downside (of saving in Office 2003 and not 2007/2010 formats), I now have easy access to pretty much every file I could possibly need. I created a basic presentation in Keynote and saved it to PPT format to see how it looked and worked in Windows - and it was pretty decent, but it didn't have exact fonts, so there were some issues with it.

I still need to take existing PPTX files and move them to Keynote to see how they work and function on the ipad, as that is one of the things I want to be able to do -- to run presentations through a projector via ipad. (Not on a daily basis in class, but just when I need to).

I think the DropDav tool is very neat, and makes it really easy to incorporate Dropbox for actual word processing, quick presentations, and light spreadsheet stuff on the ipad, without having to give Apple $100 for a MobileMe account.

Now, if I could only figure out how to easily print stuff ( and no, I am not going to buy a new HP AirPrint-enabled printer!). But that is minor.

 

[TheForce]

Try Print Pro lite if it works for you then buy the app Print pro. I tried several and Print pro was the most straight forward to access your networked printers. I have two Both are wifi connected One is a MFC color laser and the other is a MFC color inkjet. Both print well from my ipad.

 

[bhelms]

My iPad is "orphaned"! My daughter moved out taking her computer and related. What now remains of my "network" is the DSL modem, WiFi router, and my 'Pad. Went to use it last night and nothing was loading. I was getting a Windstream error msg. that the OS was not supported (!!) I thought I checked everything after the sync last week and again right after the computer was pulled but maybe not sufficiently. About 30 mins. on the phone w/ a Windstream tech. got me "reconnected"...for the moment. Guess I need an Air Play printer now as a minimum addition. I'm planning on another laptop purchase but I'm not in a hurry. (I can still sync as needed at my daughter's new residence.)

Anyone else with only their 'Pad in their LAN ?? Other than syncing, what other problems can I expect?

 

[TheForce]

Without a computer, you will have trouble accessing your router's configuration page. You will be able to use any networked printer. Don't need an AirPlay. They cost more. shared printers on a computer can also be accessed by the iPAD aps using Printer Pro

 

[rockymtnhigh]

And we have achieved MULTI-TOUCH GESTURES without jailbreaking or finding a Mac OSX machine to install XCode on. I did it by downloading itunes backup manager, and following these instructions: Enable Multi-touch Gestures on iPad without jailbreaking

Basically I had to do a backup, then open up the backup manager, find one file, add two lines of code, save it, and restore the ipad from the modified backup. And now I have gestures.

Four fingers up, opens the multi-tasker. Four fingers down, closes it. Four fingers to the left or right, switches to the next program running. Four finger pinch, close the app, and go to home screen. Awesomeness. I love it! Completely eliminates the need for the home button.

I looked at jailbreaking, but saw no real benefits for me, and this was very easy. The only thing this fix does not have (that xcode does) is the ability to turn the gestures off. To do that you'd have to delete the two lines of code, and restore again. But I can't see any reason why I would ever do that.

 

[mperdue]

The multitasking gestures are very handy and seem to be very stable. I wonder why Apple didn't enable the option in the latest release.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

The multitasking gestures are very handy and seem to be very stable. I wonder why Apple didn't enable the option in the latest release.

Yeah, totally stable. I have NO idea why they left it out. Just does not make sense, considering that it makes the ipad even more magical. (Sarcasm actually not intended, given how much I like this device )

 

[dangue]

Yeah, totally stable. I have NO idea why they left it out. Just does not make sense, considering that it makes the ipad even more magical. (Sarcasm actually not intended, given how much I like this device )

I have to say, I never imagined you'd be one to drink the Apple koolaid. But your conversion does reaffirm that my satisfaction with my original iPad is not craziness on my part.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I have to say, I never imagined you'd be one to drink the Apple koolaid. But your conversion does reaffirm that my satisfaction with my original iPad is not craziness on my part.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

Me either, but I am sold on this device.

 

[Frank Jr.]

I would have never thought Rocky would have liked his iPad 2 as much as he does. I wasn't liking my iPad when I first got it, especially being tied to iTunes. I still don't care for that, but that is the way it is.....

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I would have never thought Rocky would have liked his iPad 2 as much as he does. I wasn't liking my iPad when I first got it, especially being tied to iTunes. I still don't care for that, but that is the way it is.....

I access all of my files through dropbox and only use iTunes to sync video and music. I'm pretty much using the app store on my iPad. I access photos through picas and Facebook, so I have found ways to minimize my reliance to iTunes.

Sent from my iPad using SatelliteGuys

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Don asked me this in a different thread, thought I'd answer it here.

Now that you have the ipad in use a lot, how do you like the keyboard and spell checker? I shut off the spell checker because i got tired of it guessing the wrong spelling of simple words. But some other things like cap I for i doesnt work and auto insert of ' for doesnt gets shut down with auto spell shut off. I recall the older version of the OS we originally had with the ipad worked much better.

I still miss swype. In horizontal mode, I think it would work great. I try to type in landscape mode more often, and the two finger typing is ok, but I don't love it. I am getting better with it, but it's still not great. The spell check is ok, but does screw up a lot.

I also hate that when using Facebook, the shift-enter to put in a blank line does not work in comments.

Once I finish my taxes this week I will start writing my review. Looking forward to writing it.

Sent from my iPad using SatelliteGuys

 

[rockymtnhigh]

One strange thing. Why does the volume control bring up a box called ringer?? Hello, this is not an iPhone, it's a tablet. Couldn't they fix that?

Sent from my iPad using SatelliteGuys

 

[rockymtnhigh]

iPad 2 accessories starting to come out. I ordered a plastic case for the back of the iPad that works with the smart cover. Weighs 2 oz. Snaps on, and will take any scratches instead of the iPad itself, I got it from the Joy Factory, about $30. A tad over priced, but par for the course. Out of curiosity I weighed it and compared it with the smart cover, which weighs 0.4 oz.

My wife was really confused when a package came from The Joy Factory, . ;D

Sent from my iPad using SatelliteGuys

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Could post this in the Blu-Ray forum, but so annoyed. Got the Harry potter 7 Blu-Ray with digital copy, downloaded the digital copy (1.5GB) to the ipad, and the video quality looks like its designed for a 3" phone. At some point the publishers need to start making "digital copies" have choices for different resolution screens. A lot of Standard Defintion video on itunes looks great on the ipad, but this was total crap.

ok, rant done.

 

[Big Dawg 23]

Could post this in the Blu-Ray forum, but so annoyed. Got the Harry potter 7 Blu-Ray with digital copy, downloaded the digital copy (1.5GB) to the ipad, and the video quality looks like its designed for a 3" phone. At some point the publishers need to start making "digital copies" have choices for different resolution screens. A lot of Standard Defintion video on itunes looks great on the ipad, but this was total crap.

ok, rant done.

I have transferred many movies via digital copy. As an example I out on Toy Story 3, which looks awesome. In fact I even stream it via Component to a tv.

I have also transgress Dark Knight, Rambo IV, and Princess and the Frog. All look great. Not sure why yours suck so bad.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I have transferred many movies via digital copy. As an example I out on Toy Story 3, which looks awesome. In fact I even stream it via Component to a tv.

I have also transgress Dark Knight, Rambo IV, and Princess and the Frog. All look great. Not sure why yours suck so bad.

Most of them look great, but the pq of HP7 was horrible. No idea why.

Sent from my iPad using SatelliteGuys

 

[diogen]

Picture courtesy of ABC

Finally, a camera with 10" viewfinder. Just to make sure I hold it right...

Diogen.