I Got an iPad: now what??

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MerpsMom

MerpsMom

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
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Leawood, Kansas USA
Help! What are the best and funnest uses for it? I've already d/l'd the Kindle App and found out it's a fair e-reader.

Now? This is the one dependent on simple wifi and does not need ATT.

Cathie
 
I've heard they're very good as a tray for serving assorted cheese and crackers. :)
 
MerpsMom said:
Now? This is the one dependent on simple wifi and does not need ATT.
Cathie
Click to expand...

As much as I hate Apple, I wouldn't turn down an iPad . If you have WiFi at your house or shop there a zillion apps you can get for it.

If you don't have Wifi then:

1. Get WiFi .............. or
2. Do as Paul suggests. Also works well as a beer coaster. :beer:
 
What about a browse through the software at www.apple.com

The Apple-haters here above like their struggling with viruses and worms and their grey worthless pc.

Many apps to find for fun and for clever use. The iPad is so simple in use that older people and even people with handicaps, can use it. For some a new world opens. You need wifi around for internet and connecting to a Mac for interaction. Commands go much faster and it's ideal for business travelers.
 
Peter Odems said:
The Apple-haters here above like their struggling with viruses and worms and their grey worthless pc.
Click to expand...

Now now, let's play nice :)

Just because virus writers don't target a relatively small segment of the market (apple is 5%) doesn't mean they are any less vulnerable than pc's. If they grow in popularity, this WILL change. Malware writers want their payloads to target the biggest pool possible, which is why they make email attachments and things which will go after the PC users.

My understanding is that "OSX" is pretty much FreeBSD (a different OS that has many exploits), modified with an apple skin and pretty GUI on top. Many of the exploits that have been patched in the true FreeBSD are yet to be patched in the OSX variation. Apple does eventually do so, but much later.

Some infections make themselves obvious, while others just silently harvest your keystrokes and collect personal information about you. (credit cards, contacts, emails, logins to websites, browsing habits, etc) Mac users should have protection, too, IMO.

The ipad was a huge hit this holiday season, and was market ready before many of the competitors. I know a lot of people who got them, and they're very pleased. It should be interesting to see all the models coming out in 2011, too, to see how this progresses. (Android and IOS will be the key players, just like in all the new smartphones) I think these are here to stay, and will replace laptops and desktops for many people.

Enjoy !

Mike
 
I got an iPad: now what?

Mail it to me!!:shutup:

Congtrats on the neat new toy!! An artist customer of mine uses it to paint and has come up with some good stuff.
 
framah said:
Congtrats on the neat new toy!! An artist customer of mine uses it to paint and has come up with some good stuff.
Click to expand...

What, he uses it as a palette?

824palette.jpg


A tablet, iPad, Android or whatever is the last thing I would use to paint with. With great Mac or PC paint programs why would anyone want to paint using a tablet? Except maybe for idle doodling.
 
Hmmmmm.........I'm still digesting that comment about old people and the handicapped. :)

Yes, we do have wifi at home: my laptop is my business computer and it's in the lower shop.

I'll play with the thing a lot, but one of the coolest deals is d/l-ing the Kindle app. With that, I can sample books from Amazon before buying by sending a snippet to either the iPad or my EVO. Being fair, I didn't take enough time with iBooks to see what I could like, but frankly, I find iTunes quite fiddly: our techie son synced it up from my old library to the new toy, but it took even him a long time. They keep asking me for the same danged info over and over: not intuitive at all.

However, one can't have too many toys, can one? And I really did not want a Kindle as they're too small for two pages at a time! So with a house divided (grown kids have iPhones and Macs as well as PCs), I'm sure I'll be fine.

Cannot fault the resolution of the thing: it's beautiful. Now....how to surf....

Cathie
 
i do a lot with it

I find that apple is so intuitive and does a lot of things.
I use to have apple computer, iphone and ipad.
I syncronize all my calendar easy with mobile me
the same with the contacts.
I use it within my shop to show photo to customers, and i have bento database on it with the price of quite all my products
You buy a good thing
 
I use an iPod classic for music and audio books. I use my Android phone for the mobile apps (and sometimes to make and receive phone calls.)

I use the iPad for the visual stuff. I watch movies and TV series. I read several news sources and a few e-magazines. I use the Kindle app. (My Kindle hasn't been used for six months or more.) I keep my favorite photos on the iPad. I do my email and web surfing on the iPad.

I'm using it right now to surf TG.

Later I'll list my most-used apps.
 
Well, I guess I'll keep it then? :)

We have a big Apple store right around the corner. I think I'll beg for a little help with it, acting like the dumb blonde I appear to be about the thing.

Ron, what I can't get is how to browse with it: it keeps defaulting to the last page I surfed. But you make it sound neat, so a little time with it is needed. Looking forward to your app selection.

Cathie
 
My step bro and his daughter both got them for Christmas as well and they were having fun with slide shows. Granted they were still both kind of picking their way carefully around the things, but IMHO, the screen seems awfully small to do any kind of typing on.

But I see people texting all the time on much smaller devices.

Have fun with it, Cathie - remember you have come a long way in the tech world!
 
Atelier said:
I find that apple is so intuitive and does a lot of things.
You buy a good thing
Click to expand...

Atelier,
Welcome to The Grumble! :icon21:

MerpsMom said:
Well, I guess I'll keep it then? :)

We have a big Apple store right around the corner. I think I'll beg for a little help with it, acting like the dumb blonde I appear to be about the thing.

Cathie
Click to expand...

Cathie
You don't HAVE to beg for help at an Apple Store. The store takes appointments (walk-ins may have to wait a short time) to help you with any and all your questions. My Apple store has a whole slew of super nice, patient, energetic people that don't make you feel stupid at all. They truly want to help you! What a concept.

They also have great information and tutorials on their website also. To get you started with a specific topic - http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/work/.
Also - http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=search&src=support_site.kbase.search&locale=en_US&q=ipad help
These may get you started to answer some questions you have now.

I think you will grow to love your new toy! Good luck!
Gail
 
I got an iPad from my wife: she got one from me.

We’re not a two iPad family, so I took mine back today at the Apple Store. Those “Apple Experts” are, indeed, experts. The employees at the Apple Store have multiple levels of certification, so there will be lots of people there to help you. Even today, just at the tail end of the NE blizzard, there were over thirty people in Apple shirts trying to help only a dozen customers. I have never seen such good customer service.

It is a cool toy and can do just about anything a laptop can do, but the interface is a lot “funner” with the tap, pinch and zoom. The Apple Store also has classes that will teach you the basics and also some things you’d probably never find on your own. I assume you have to book times in advance, though.

I haven’t checked all the titles for their iBook application, but from what I have heard you can get a applications for the iPad that will allow you to download the titles that Amazon, Kindle and Nook offer, too, but I haven’t checked that out, yet.

The only thing that I will only give 4-1/2 stars out of 5 is that their word processing app and spreadsheet app isn’t nearly as full bodied as AppleWorks or MS Office.

Keep the iPad and enjoy the heck out of it.
 
Yeah, the "guess I'll keep it" comment was more tongue-in-cheek than anything. I'm a hopeless gadget freak and this is one more.

I d/l'd from iBooks the "manual" for the iPad: now time to read it, but first I need to play with it. I visited our Apple store today: it's 43 and sunny here so you can imagine what the place was like. Everyone in Johnson County got an Apple product for Christmas. (And if you're into people watching, it's simply hilarious: lots of those "old and handicapped" users looking lost and a little stunned. :p Guess their kids were trying to introduce them to computing with an easy slide: some of them weren't assimilating quickly!)

I'm sure there are many apps I don't know about as I'm an Android Market user, but the other uses such as word processing would be new.
 
Sorry when you associate my phrase about "old and handicapped" at yourself. I think I noted it wrong, but I just noted that also older people and people with physical handicaps, can have many profits by using the iPad. I know about a man who gave his mom (92) an iPad and now she is very happy and can communicate with all. In fact people with only 2 fingers can communicate with using the iPad and OS4.
 
Peter, I was teasing. :D. You can't pass up chance like that if you're over 50.

My newest question is whether or not the iPad has an alternate keyboard like Swype. This is quite large so one can use almost like a regular typewriter but Swype would be great!

I checked the app store but nothing showed up.
 
MerpsMom said:
My newest question is whether or not the iPad has an alternate keyboard like Swype. This is quite large so one can use almost like a regular typewriter but Swype would be great!

I checked the app store but nothing showed up.
Click to expand...
I don't know what Swype is, but there are all kinds of gizmos you can add to the iPad including an add-on keyboard.
 
Favorite iPad Apps

Yours will be different, but this will give you a start.

You can save up to six apps in your "task bar" so they will appear at the bottom of each page. My six are:

1) My Hotmail email
2) My Gmail email
3) The dog forum I moderate
4) The Grumble
5) Facebook
6) Settings

You can also save up to 20 apps on each page. My "home page" apps are:
1) Calendar
2) Contacts
3) Notes
4) Photos
5) Videos
6) App store
7) Amazon Kindle
8) Docs to Go (can synchronize with Excel and Word documents on your computer)
9) Amazon.com (where I can order, with one click, nearly anything I need and lots of stuff I don't)
10) ABC News
11) CBS News
12) Fox local news
13) NY Times
14) USA Today
15) Google
16) Packers online
17) ESPN score center XL
18) The Weather Channel
19) Weather Bug
20) What's On? HD (TV channel listings)

The Calendar, Contacts and Notes all synchronize with MS Outlook on my PC, which is pretty much the only reason I use Outook. Happily, these also sync with my phone, so I can make changes on the PC, the iPad or the phone and keep them all in sync.

On other pages, I keep various cook books, a few more news apps, some additional sports apps and a very small selection of games. I rarely play games. Mostly I read, I surf, I send and receive emails and I watch movies.

You can make homepage links to important sites, like TG, a couple different ways. If you find a site in a Google search that you'd like to return to regularly, you'll first want to tap the two liitle down arrows in the upper right corner and select Open in Safari. Once it's opened in Safari (the Apple browser) you can tap the plus sign toward the upper left and select Add to Home Page. You can assign any name you want and you'll end up with a desktop icon that you can save on any page you want (or even in the "taskbar.")

Don't pay too much attention to the iPad naysayers. Mostly, they are people who've never had their hands on one for at least 15 minutes. The iPad is not a productivity tool. It's too awkward to print from it (but there are work-arounds.) It is a fun tool, for surfing, exploring and having fun.

So have fun and let me know if you're trying to do anything specific and need some direction.

BTW, I gave Diane a Netbook a year ago for her birthday and it nearly drove her crazy. It took forever to boot up, it frequently locked up and the battery life was horrible. So this year I gave her and iPad, loaded some apps I knew she'd like, set up a Gmail account for her and then invited family members to email her birthday greetings. She loves it. When I shot Sarah's engagement photos, I loaded them on Diane's iPad. I put her favorite music on there and a link to her online banking.

What she does most often is check the Wisconsin lottery results. :icon11:
 
I think Swype is an Android-specific thing - not for the iPad.

I have a cordless iPad keyboard and I've never taken it out of the box. The touch pad keys work just fine. I have become fond of using a stylus (the one I bought is made by Targus and was ridiculously expensive, but works very well) for some applications.

You'll also want one of those screen protectors. Apple makes a folio case that offers nice protection and makes it possible to stand up you iPad in either portrait or landscape mode. All these accessories cost 4x as much as they should, but there are more after-market items becoming available as the iPod becomes more mainstream.

When I bought mine, in about April, I had a really hard time finding one in stock. Now Target and Wal-Mart both have them in stock.
 
Larry Peterson said:
What, he uses it as a palette?

824palette.jpg


A tablet, iPad, Android or whatever is the last thing I would use to paint with. With great Mac or PC paint programs why would anyone want to paint using a tablet? Except maybe for idle doodling.
Click to expand...

Here's the first thing she created on her iPad:

 
Ron, that's terrific info on the thing. I'm goofing around with it when time permits as the update to my cellphone garbaged up a bunch of stuff which now needs fixing. (Reading through the Android forums takes at least an hour.)

Does anyone else think these devices are rather like taking on a new pet?

You are right that it's useful, and I also feel probably unnecessary in my case. But by Golly, I have it and I'm going to use it! :icon9:

Also just saw that I can use Overdrive from the library for e-reading books from their stacks. Hmmmmmmmmm
 
framah said:
Here's the first thing she created on her iPad:
Click to expand...

Nice. How the heck did she draw that on an iPad? Most artists would be hard pressed to draw that on a PC/Mac using a great paint program and a top of the line Wacom.
 
Peter Odems said:
Step into an Apple-store and try the iPad yourself. Push your hate for Apple aside and investigate.
Click to expand...

Been there, done that. My dislike of Apple has nothing to do with any of their products, per se.

It has everything to do with their closed architecture and closed hardware. Open hardware, open source, open API and unrestricted apps; that's what does it for me.

As long as Apple keeps this up; and it will as long as Der Furher is running the company, I will never own an Apple product.

The day that Apple allows unrestricted access for hardware additions, doesn't need to approve apps for iPad, iPhone, etc, opens there software architecture to system (not app) developers, then maybe I might reconsider Apple.


The iPad along with the iPhone are fine devices. I will just never own one. I will wait for a decent Android tablet before I buy a tablet; but with my new laptop, that maybe a long time coming.

And my Android phone has convinced at least iPhone owner to switch. Yah!!!
 
Larry Peterson said:
Nice. How the heck did she draw that on an iPad? Most artists would be hard pressed to draw that on a PC/Mac using a great paint program and a top of the line Wacom.
Click to expand...

Not really sure.. I remember her telling me that she enlarges the area where she is working and used her fingers to create what she wants. Not being an artist in that sense, I'll take her word for it.
Here's another:

 
Okay, now. We simply must know who that's done. Sounds like an awful lot of fun, but I'm with Larry: how the heck?!

Cathie
 
MerpsMom said:
Okay, now. We simply must know who that's done. Sounds like an awful lot of fun, but I'm with Larry: how the heck?!

Cathie
Click to expand...

well, I know who it's done just not how it's done!:shutup:
 
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