I am thinking of buying an Apple ipad,
I do not understand the 3G bit of the package,It says it picks up the internet where ever you are, how can it do this? do you have to pay for mobile internet to be able to do this? I really don't want to pay twice for the internet,if I go on hoiliday and I take my Laptop with me I normally pay the owner of the place I am going to for access to theirs.Is there a better way?
Thanks
The 3G bit is basically a sim card that goes in to your apple ipad (like a mobile phone sim) .......... you pay for it either on a contract or you buy an amount e.g. 12GB for £75 but you must use it within the agreed period of the contract or you lose it ................. once again just like a mobile phone contract. If you want this option to maybe use this facility on your ipad, the ipad will cost you £100 more PLUS the charges to your mobile network supplier
If you don't want to connect 3G you can still connect wireless exactly the same as you connect by laptop.
If at a later date you decide you do need to connect to the internet in the middle of no where and wished you had bought a 3G version, you can get round this problem by buying a MIFI. This is about the size of a fag packet that has a mobile internet sim card in it .............. you then connect wireless to the MIFI
All I would say to you is throughly investigate the Apple ipad first, as it does have some limitations (no usb) and you may find it is not for you.
The 3G works like a mobile phone, as The Eagle said. You can have a contract or pay-as-you-go. I occasionally use 3G and just buy enough for a day for browsing, which costs about £3. If you wanted to download a huge file on 3G you might need to spend more, but just for browsing it doesn't cost much.
When I am at home or in range of wifi I use that. If you are with BT for your home broadband there are lots of free hotspots you can use, such as in Cafe Nero. The iPad connects seamlessly with wifi, so it's very easy.
Thank you both for your replies,I might just stick with my laptop!
I did not realise there were no usbs,and also at the moment I can reboot my laptop with a disc,im assuming there is no way I could reboot an ipad other than getting an expert to do it?
I don't know whether you are aware that the tablet market is split into two main providers: Apple with the iPad and the rest (Samsung, HTC, Dell ...)* with Google Android powered devices.
Which is best? Amongst geeks this is a religious question with one being the ideal and the other the work of the devil. And there is a furious global court room battle between the two camps.
In general Android devices are cheaper than Apple. However Android products range from cheap and nasty plastic rubbish to the best hardware on the planet. The Android software also ranges from an ill-advised use of the phone based version 2.x to the tablet orientated versions 3.x & 4.x.
Of couse the product is only as good as applications available. If you just want to do email and web browsing then Android is better (nearly all devices support flash movies which is a blackhole for the iPad). If its 'Apps' the situation is more complicated.
Android has more, and more are free. However a lot are of poor quality and some organisations only produce expensive iPad versions. Also the iPad business model is to make a lot of money by premium pricing its product and then a lot more by virtually locking it into the iTunes market so you keep paying for content (and Apple takes 30% of what you pay to others). That's before you think about paying for 3G.
In other words the iPad is a revenue engine. However, it has to be said, that for ease of use, getting service without thinking about it and for coolness - then the iPad is unbeatable. That is why it still has 50% of the market. To someone who wants to fiddle and do there own thing than the Android powered devices are more attractive with less 'lock-in'. But the Android is a confused market and if you don't know more then you might be advised to stick with the two most highly regarded brands: Samsung or Asus. They have a range of products from the smaller 7" devices to the slightly large 10" screens. But they ain't cheap either.
* The third contender is the Blackberry Playbook being ridiculously firesaled at £169. The problem is everybody expects Blackberry to go bust or be swallowed up, there are few apps and they screwed email.
What do you use your laptop for? If it is mainly for browsing online, email etc, then an iPad is great.
If you use your laptop for word-processing etc. an iPad is not ideal, unless you are away from home a lot and load your documents into the Cloud so they are accessible everywhere. Also an iPad will not store lots of things like photos and music. Apple are moving towards having everything on the iCloud. My iTunes library and iPhoto library are there rather than stored on either my laptop or my iPad. To access them, I have to be online but that's okay because I almost always am.
Why would you need to reboot the iPad? An iPad is not a small laptop, it's a different sort of thing. I don't miss having a usb on the iPad. Anything you want to load on the iPad you do by syncing it with your laptop or over the internet. I don't use the usb on my laptop much these days either - everything is done online.
If you need to regularly reboot your laptop from a disk, I suggest getting your laptop sorted out first!
Hi,
I use my laptop to browse the internet/E.mails and also store music/photos/files and also to type letters etc, I don't re-boot the laptop often,but I like to know I can.
I was thinking about buying an ipad and giving my laptop to hubby.
Tablets of any sort are not very good at doing things. They are much better at viewing things. Even creating emails can be challenging if you are doing much cut'n'paste.
As for storing large numbers of pictures or movies - that rules out an iPad. the maximum internal storage is 64GB for everything and that is that (for £500+). Android devices generally have a USB and or SD port which means you can attach exchangeable external storage allowing almost unlimited storage. More use if you are taking movies to watch on the train/plane.
Tablets are really additional to laptops/netbooks. More convenient to hold, instant switch on (no booting). But for working on - you will rapidly become frustrated. None replaces the other.
I presume in your home you have wifi. Any tablet will connect to that wifi and you will be able to browse the internet in exactly the same way as your laptop.
AOL used to have a unique email system but since it got taken over by CPW/TalkTalk I assume you can connect to AOL email by POP or IMAP. Both Android and iOS (iPad) can do that.
Out of the home you will be reliant on finding a free WiFi service (such as at Sugahill or The Dolphin in Sydenham). Again connect and go.
If you want to connect on the street/bus then you will need either the 3G version or a 3G MiFi device as recommended above. These cost about £35 on eBay and a preloaded data SIM will cost you about £5 per month again off eBay. You can use this with your laptop too. Something you can decide on later maybe?
My honest suggestion is to try, go borrow one from a friend for a day or two. That will give you a good view of how useful it will be for you. Downside is those of us who have them - can't live without them - like the mobile phone!
