iPad experts, i need your advice...

hi guys,
i am thinking about buying an iPad. i was wondering if i could get some input on your experiences with the following:
1. how hard is to get used to the keyboard? i went to the apple store and tried it myself for few minutes. it was extremely difficult to type using 10 fingers without accidentally punching in the wrong letter. is this something that is just a matter of getting used to or is everyone typing with 2 fingers?
2. at school i will need to be able to occasionally open powerpoints and word documents, including those nasty docx. is there an app to view those. if not, is there a way to quickly convert those documents on ipad?
3. PDF support is a must...am i going to have issue viewing large PDF files? how small is the font on PDFs? is it readable?
4. is there a search feature that will search the entire iPad? i oftentimes will have to search for a keyword within hundreds of PDFs. will i have to go to each PDF one by one or is the search feature universal?
5. iPad and windows. i don't use iTunes (and i am not planning to) and i don't own a mac. will i be able to manually put files on my iPad?
6. i have picasa web albums. will i be able to sync between ipad and web albums?
7. how did you prevent you gf from taking over your iPad?
matt

1. no time at all.
2. there are the iWorks apps for it that will let you open up files from iDisk. Has worked for me flawlessly.
3. there are pdf apps for viewing pdf files. The one I use is called "GoodReader" and works real well, and is simple too.
4. Well of course there is. It's simple too! What you do is press the home button once, then slide your finger to the right to go to the farthest left screen, which opens up the ipads search screen, from there, you can look for EVERYTHING that you have on your ipad.
5. ahh...that I'm not sure of. But I'm willing to guess your effort of trying to do things without itunes will be a lot harder than just using itunes.
6.as long as you can sync them with idisk/mobileme.
7.I smack her with it

5. If you're not going to install iTunes, I would strongly discourage you from purchasing an iPad. iTunes "is" what you will use to sync from your computer.

Yeah, iTunes cannot not be part of the equation. It is part and parcel of the iPad, and indeed all apple products.

Well actually you can have the place where you purchase your iPad activate it for you (unless you buy it online) and then you really don't need iTunes at all... technically. But syncing does more than transfer stuff from back and forth between your iPad and your computer; it also backs up the contents of your iPad.

If you ever have to restore your iPad for whatever reason, you would pretty much be screwed. You could download all your apps again at no charge, but you would lose ALL of your music and other data tied to your apps.

And don't even think about jailbreaking! Almost everyone I know who has done this has had to restore their device at least once (if not more!) and without iTunes on a computer, this would be impossible.

Honestly, you should probably just get a laptop or netbook. It may not be as cool or "sexy" as an iPad, but you will be able to do all the stuff you need it to do.

And you are on your own with the g/f thing!

4). If you jailbreak ( I know some of my other forums members will say it's over rated but there are some useful apps) There is iFile which is great for just what your asking for and it's free.

5). Again if you Jailbreak there are several apps available to help solve this problem.
I have never once had a problem with my iPad Jailbroken, the A4 processor can really handle most anything you throw at it.

Suggesting that someone jailbreak without having a way of backing up their stuff is like handing your father a belt and saying, "Here, beat me with this!" It is a total recipe for disaster, IMHO.

1991-C4 said:

Suggesting that someone jailbreak without having a way of backing up their stuff is like handing your father a belt and saying, "Here, beat me with this!" It is a total recipe for disaster, IMHO.

Click to expand...

I'm just going based on my personal experience and not what someone else told me, I have jailbroken every iPhone & iPad I have ever owned. Never once had a problem. In the very rare event the OP had to restore it's not a problem who doesn't know someone with iTunes on there computer these days.

One last question have you personally jailbroken anything before?

Even with jail breaking, I find it a little hard to believe that ifile would search the contents of all PDFs contained without opening them. Which I'm fairly sure is impossible on the iPad.

bargsbeer said:

I'm just going based on my personal experience and not what someone else told me, I have jailbroken every iPhone & iPad I have ever owned. Never once had a problem. In the very rare event the OP had to restore it's not a problem who doesn't know someone with iTunes on there computer these days.

One last question have you personally jailbroken anything before?

Click to expand...

Having a friend with iTunes means a lot less if you haven't been using their computer to backup your stuff. My one venture into jail breaking ended with the iPad unresponsive and needing to be restored, which would have screwed me if I hadn't already backed up.

bargsbeer said:

One last question have you personally jailbroken anything before?

Click to expand...

Yes, I have jailbroken Apple mobile devices before. But then again, I pretty much know what I am doing and I also fully understand the benefits AND risks of jailbreaking.

Unfortunately, I read many forums where people have jailbroken their device and don't have a clue about what is going on when they do this. It doesn't take long for them to get to the point where they have "fubar'ed" their device and the only recourse is to restore.

I am just trying to be pro-activce with this guy. Obviously he has very specific requirements and is unwilling / unable to buy an iPad and a computer. Even if someone does not intend to jailbreak, "flying solo" with an iPad is not a very smart idea, IMHO.

You may want to take a look at the App Store in iTunes without it there is no way to take
full advantage of the iPad and what is it that you don't like about iTunes besides it will be
required to sync from time to time.

If you want the iPad, but don't want itunes and all of it's capabilities...which is a a lot, why do you want an ipad? There are a lot of other tablets out there that don't require itunes!

1. how hard is to get used to the keyboard? i went to the apple store and tried it myself for few minutes. it was extremely difficult to type using 10 fingers without accidentally punching in the wrong letter. is this something that is just a matter of getting used to or is everyone typing with 2 fingers?
- In landscape mode, you can get just about as quick as you can with a real keyboard, although to an extent you have to trust the auto-correction. Even so, you can buy a real keyboard for those occasions when you really want to type a lot.


2. at school i will need to be able to occasionally open powerpoints and word documents, including those nasty docx. is there an app to view those. if not, is there a way to quickly convert those documents on ipad?
- There are a few apps. The iWork suite, OfficeHD, Quickoffice, DocsToGo and others. I find that DocsToGo preserves the formatting of docx better than any of the others (better even than Pages) - even if it can't render a table or a font, it will preserve it, so when you re-save the document and open in it Word on a PC or your Mac, the format is not lost. When you export with Pages or OfficeHD, all the formatting is lost.


3. PDF support is a must...am i going to have issue viewing large PDF files? how small is the font on PDFs? is it readable?
- Yes... GoodReader or Sundry Notes are the best apps for viewing offline, although iBooks is OK too. Even Safari do a pretty good job, but not offline.

4. is there a search feature that will search the entire iPad? i oftentimes will have to search for a keyword within hundreds of PDFs. will i have to go to each PDF one by one or is the search feature universal?
- The first answer in this thread is unfortunately misleading. Although you can search for files, addresses, iCal entries etc, currently it does not search for keywords within files (except eMails). This may be a future enhancement.

5. iPad and windows. i don't use iTunes (and i am not planning to) and i don't own a mac. will i be able to manually put files on my iPad?
- Many of the apps allow you to use Google Docs or Drop Box to open, edit ad re-save files (again, DocsToGo and OfficeHD support this). You can also email yourself files and open them with any app that supports the file. You will need iTunes though to update the software on the iPad and for backup.

6. i have picasa web albums. will i be able to sync between ipad and web albums?
There's an App for that... Web Albums for iPad ($2.99).

7. how did you prevent you gf from taking over your iPad?
- Buy her one for herself.

thank you everyone for your responses. i have 3 more questions.
1) so far i got 2 different opinions about PDFs. someone in here said that i can search within PDFs via the iPad search option and another person said that I cannot. this feature is really important to me so i don't mind paying for third party application if i have to. please clarify this.
2) is it possible to back up large files onto iPad (4GB and up), it restricted to only documents and media files? can i do it manually (i don't mind jailbreaking) or is all handled by iTunes.
3) i have noticed that iPad doesn't have any way to explore folders with your files. is there any application for that?
sorry for all those questions. i really love the beauty and simplicity of iPad however i would like to be able to get really deep into the core of this thing from time to time. and iTunes, i guess i will have no choice but to use it, hopefully it is not as buggy on windows as it used to be.

UPDATE:
ok i did some binging/googling and i found this application:ReaddleDocs
http://ipadmodo.com/554/readdledocs-for-ipad-lets-save-attachments-and-view-documents-on-ipad/
it suppose to be a file manager (explorer) and allow saving attachments. i still need to know whether i can search multiple PDFs at once. this application appears to be supporting searching inside of a PDF file while it is open - which obviously will not work for me.

1) so far i got 2 different opinions about PDFs. someone in here said that i can search within PDFs via the iPad search option and another person said that I cannot. this feature is really important to me so i don't mind paying for third party application if i have to. please clarify this.
- I know I already gave a answer, but you CANNOT do this currently outside of an app. I know this, because I have the same requirement and haven't figured it out. Some apps let you do this within the app itself, such as PDF Reader Pro Edition, and probably others, but only if that ap has already opened and saved the PDF within its own file system.

2) is it possible to back up large files onto iPad (4GB and up), it restricted to only documents and media files? can i do it manually (i don't mind jailbreaking) or is all handled by iTunes.
- It's easier to do it via iTunes for supported files, but the iPad is not a very economic storage device to be honest.


3) i have noticed that iPad doesn't have any way to explore folders with your files. is there any application for that?
- It doesn't have that concept, you're right. However, if you use drop box or MobileMe or even connect it to a server, you can browse a file system just as easily as you could with a PC or Mac.

Make no mistake, the iPad is not a PC - there are restrictions, so it's good to be asking these questions before buying.

you confirmed my fear that there is no explorer. i have seen however this app:iFile
iFile · Cydia
is it a stable app? anybody had any problems with it. i have no fear of jailbreaking but i know from my windows experience that many times 3rd party apps cause unusual system slowdowns and other problems. i guess i there will have to merge my PDFs into 1 BIG file and search within.
i have a kindle but it also cannot search multiple PDFs...

I don't know how many different ways you want to tell you that the iPad is not right for you and probably never will be, and that what you need is a real notebook computer, but here it is again.

I KNOW YOU LIKE THE IPAD, BUT IT WON'T DO WHAT YOU WANT. The end.

matt_90036 said:

you confirmed my fear that there is no explorer. i have seen however this app:iFile
iFile · Cydia
is it a stable app? anybody had any problems with it. i have no fear of jailbreaking but i know from my windows experience that many times 3rd party apps cause unusual system slowdowns and other problems. i guess i there will have to merge my PDFs into 1 BIG file and search within.
i have a kindle but it also cannot search multiple PDFs...

Click to expand...

Ifile is a great app.

chas_m said:

I don't know how many different ways you want to tell you that the iPad is not right for you and probably never will be, and that what you need is a real notebook computer, but here it is again.

I KNOW YOU LIKE THE IPAD, BUT IT WON'T DO WHAT YOU WANT. The end.

Click to expand...

Chase although I agree with you,the iPad is not the ideal choice in this situation. there is no need to be rude to the OP.

perfect, so the problem is solved.
the last issue that might be on board will be the stability of iTunes on Windows 7. i known that on XP iTunes never worked that well, hopefully those issues are resolved by now.
the PDF search function, i think i will get around it by combining all of my PDFs into one huge 500mb file. once i open that file i should have no problem searching for what i want.
for saving attachments, etc, i found ReaddleDocs
how to save attachment into ipad - Google Search
it might cost me 5 bucks but along with iFile should make this device do what i want it to do while still retaining Apple's simplicity and beauty.