Need help on I-Pad

[LaRue Medlin]

Our 27th wedding aniversary is coming up next month and Rose wants an IPad 2,(in lieu of a cruise) ( for now):banana:,,,,,,,,, she has a mini laptop that she does all he facebook, farmville, and net crusing. But she "wants" the new thing. My only problem with it is,,, is has no usb ports for her wi-fi adapter. But anyway,,, who has one and what are the pro's and cons. What about other tablets.......

 

[Richard L]

LaRue,

I thought the I-Pad as well as all the new tablets have a built in WiFi?? So you would not need to plug in an external WiFi card unless your are talking about a USB cellular AirCard, like from Verizon, or AT&T, etc?



...Rich

 

[LaRue Medlin]

Well Richard, it does,, but Rose's air card (MI-FI from Verizon) can recharge through a usb. She does have the car and house charger though. So I guess that wouldn't really matter... I still don't see the benefit of a tablet other than size and convenience. I definitely don't want to have to buy a tablet and pay for a service line. Wi-fi is good enough.

 

[Doctor CAD]

Get the Samsung, Acer or Toshiba Android tablets. They all have USB and WIFI and all the goodies that Android can provide.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Yes, the iPad and iPad 2 has built-in WiFi.



If Rose is a big Facebook user, especially a user of the mini-games on Facebook, games like Farmville and the like, then an iPad *IS NOT FOR HER*!!! (did I make that clear).



The reason?



Well, those games are Adobe Flash applets, and Apple purposefully does not support Flash in its products, iPad included. The reason they claim is for security reason, but the real reasons is that it is a competitive application development standard, one that allows anyone to deploy a rich application and do so WITHOUT going through the iTunes AppStore. That means outside of the Apple purse strings. Apple doesn't like that.



So, if you want a Flash-enabled tablet, look at the Blackberry or one of the Droid variants.



TJR

 

[LaRue Medlin]

Farmville is her life...................:banghead::banghead: I guess she can just keep her mini...........:boohoo::boohoo:

 

[Richard L]

LaRue,

I agree. I have a small older laptop w/12" screen and an Acer netbook w/8.9" screen and I love the netbook. It is absolutely perfect for traveling. I have about 500 MP3 songs recorded an it's handy for downloading photos off your digital camera. I have the standard battery and a large capacity battery that last for 8 hours on a single charge. I flew from Dallas, to LAX and then on to Kona, Hawaii and had the netbook on most of the time listening to music and playing solitare, etc. and I still had plenty of battery power when I got to the condo in Hawaii. I have not used the laptop in about 3 years.



When I was working as an IT Administrator the company gave me a Dell Latitude E6500 with 17" wide screen, and all the bells, buttons, and whistles, but it was so big and heavy I still prefer to travel with the netbook. I think the Power Converter for the Dell weighs more than my whole Acer at only about 2.5 lbs. :grin:



I had thought about upgrading to a new 10" netbook, which is still the same size as my 8.9" netbook, but I don't think a 1" increase in the screen size is worth the extra money.



...Richard

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Costco has 11" Acer netbooks for $220 now, if memory serves, or maybe it was $320.



TJR

 

[LaRue Medlin]

I bought her a HP mini 110 for Christmas. She has a Verizon Mi-Fi card to go with it. Paid $250 directly from HP. I'll never buy another Acer computer, Bought 1 in 06.... new HD in 4 months and the MB power supply went bad in 14 months. $500 to fix, $300 to replace...

 

[Richard L]

LaRue,

I would not blame the computer manufacturer for a HD failure....That's the fault of the HD manufacturer and can happend to any computer or HD maker. HD's only have a life expectancy of 3-5 years. The new Netbooks can be bought with a solid state hard drive...usually smaller capacity but much more reliable.



The last company I worked for used Dell's and we got a corporate discount. Dell's service was great, but they did sold a lot of Opti desktops that had some serious motherboard, cpu fans, and power supply problems. They had a bunch of capacitors (little can shaped components) that would puff up and cause all kinds of weird things to happen...video goes blank, cause thermal shutdowns.



HP has also had their share of problems as well, even in some of their upscale servers. My daughter had two HP's and they were junked in about a year...She switched to a Dell laptop about 4 years ago. The Dell still runs fine but it's old technology and she complains that it's too slow now..:cry: I think she is hinting that she wants a new laptop for Christmas..:grin:



I have had two Acers over the past 15-20 years and had great service out of both of them.



The first was a desktop that I used for nearly 4 years, never needed any repairs, it just got to0 slow. I cleaned the HD, installed an upgraded version of Windows and gave it to my nephew about 10 years.



My little Acer Netbook is going on 3 years old now and runs like it was brand new.



Of course all the big brands are making little netbook PC's including ASUS, HP, DELL, TOSHIBA, Samsung, etc., but in my opinion, they are all about the same.



...Rich

 

[Kevin Palmer]

LaRue,,,



TJ mentioned something that I was going to make sure you understood. I LOVE my iPad,,, let me say that again,,, I LOVE my iPad.

But if you visit Flash type web sites on a REGULAR basis, then do not get the iPad.



I bought a hard metal case for mine due to my travels. Case has some dings and dents but the iPad is in perfect condition.



I know you get the wifi device from Verizon. Did you get the MiFi or the 4g LTE?



If you have the MiFi, go back to Verizon and they will sell you the 4g device at a discount AND give you a mail in rebate form. The 4g is MUCH better than the MiFi.



Further, the iPad is faster than most computers for the simple fact that it is not doing several other things in the back ground.



Apple is selling the 1st Generation model iPad through there refurbished web site. Comes with the original warranty coverage and is in new or like new condition. It will be 100 to 150 dollars less than the same version of the 2nd generation. I just bought a 32 gig (Not 3g, just wifi) for $375.00 for my girlfriend from them.



The only difference between the 1st and 2nd generation is...

A camera (which is ok at best).

Longer battery life, (which I use my 1st gen on flights for SEVERAL hours a day and have never ran out of battery). I flew home from Amsterdam yesterday. It was a 8hr 20 min flight. I used my iPad for more than 7 hrs and I STILL had 68% battery left. I watch 4 movies and played apps the entire time.

And it is a bit lighter / thinner.



For me, getting the refurbished was a no brainier...

 

[LaRue Medlin]

Thanks guys,,,,,, Rose will be living with her HP mini...NO IPAD.. Kevin,,, Verizon says 4G is not here in Sumter yet, so I will wait a while longer before upgrading her MiFi...................

 

[Kevin Palmer]

LaRue,,,



When the 4G is there, it is the way to go.



Both faster and cheaper...