To Buy iPad Air 2 or Not to Buy?...

[Michael#IM]

I'm going to get a Air 2 64 gb in the coming week for half price

 

[SquireSCA]

i dunno if this is right place put this or not. Im going sell my ipad i won this 100 dollars off any ipad with verizon so gonna add one to my account. They have the mini 3 which spec wise is identical to my air from what i see. But wondering if going from the air to mini 3 would be mistake because of size wise ?

If the Mini 3 has 1GB of RAM, steer clear of it. It's laggy and iOS 9 will probably make it worse.

Apple puts the absolute minimum amount of RAM in all of their devices in order to run the CURRENT version of iOS. They do this intentionally, so that as they release new products and the new version of iOS, your existing devices slow down a LOT, forcing you to consider upgrading your hardware.

There is no real reason why they can't put an extra GB of RAM in there, as it costs Apple less than $1, literally. They won't add the extra RAM though, as part of their "planned obsolescence" business model... They want you to use it for a year or so, and then buy the new one. Oftentimes it isn't the newer processor that makes the new tab seem faster, it is the increase in available RAM, so that it isn't constantly reloading things or running out...

Get the iPad Air 2 if you can, or something with at least 2GB of RAM.

 

[WeAreAllUnique]

Thanks everyone for all the advice! I'm probably going to get the silver iPad 64gb. I'm also curious on what everyone mainly uses their iPad for?

I use my iPad for everything. And I mean everything. Generally, I don't use my iPhone unless I'm out and about. But once I'm indoors at work or at home, my iPad comes out and it is my primary device.


Sent from my iPad Air 2 using Tapatalk

 

[SquireSCA]

I would love to use my iPad for everything, but there are so many things that it just doesn't do well.

eg. I have some files stored on my Google Drive, in compressed .RAR format.

I want to download and view them. On a PC or an Android device, the process is the same. Click on the file, select download and it downloads it to my desktop or a "downloads" folder on the phone, and I can just navigate and click on it, and the appropriate app will uncompress it and then open the files with the appropriate viewer, automatically in like 4 clicks and 4 seconds.

On my iPad, I download it, but where does it go? Now I have to go and find an app to uncompress it, and then manage to get the app to find the file, which is not easy because there is no physical download section or folder that one can easily navigate to... I tried 3 different apps, none of them could open the file, and if they did, I would still have to take the unarchived file and get it over to whatever file I would need to open and view it, and it won't remember file associations so every time I do this I have to jump through hoops to open a stupid file...

So there are lots of things I would love to do on my iPad, but the reality is that iOS is so antiquated and non user friendly, that simple tasks take more steps and more time than I am willing to invest, in light of the fact that there are so many better options available...

The iPad is and will always be just a glorified eReader, until Apple decides to get with the program and put a real OS on it... The hardware is all there to do whatever we want, but the OS severally cripples it's abilities...

 

[Evilguppy]

My iPad gets more and more use, my MBA gets less and less:
Because I hurt my back and neck, being in the recliner with my iPad in my lap is way easier than trying to negotiate the laptop.
I have a zillion PDF files, maps and who knows what on my iPad, I can send multiple attachments easy, it does everything I need and want.
Right now what I want is to shop online, hehehe...

 

[WeAreAllUnique]

I don't think that I would buy a laptop again. My iPad seems to be able to do everything I need it to. And it is a lot more convenient for me to use the iPad than anything else.


Sent from my iPad Air 2 using Tapatalk

 

[Evilguppy]

I don't think that I would buy a laptop again. My iPad seems to be able to do everything I need it to. And it is a lot more convenient for me to use the iPad than anything else.


Sent from my iPad Air 2 using Tapatalk

Yep, I'm in the same line of thought:
My MBA is very nice, works well etc, but it is slower than my iPad, and as such, on the increasingly rare occasions when I'm on my laptop, I usually find myself reaching for my iPad anyway.
I never ever EVER take my laptop on business trips anymore.

I am curious to see what Apple will do with the next iPad, though.

 

[SquireSCA]

See, I don't know that I could replace a laptop with an iPad, let alone a desktop...

If I have a bunch of files in different locations... Let's say I have a PDF, two excel spreadsheets and some Word docs... and I want to .zip them all up and attach them to an email... How do I do that?

On my phone, I put all the files in one folder, I highlight them all, and clock "add to archive" and it zips it up, and I email it. Just like I would on a PC, or you would on your MBA, right?

How do I do that on the iPad? If someone sends me a zip or rar file with multiple files inside, I can't just click on it once and extract it to a folder and then just click on each file and have it automatically open with the preferred viewer... Maybe there are ways to do it, but it clearly requires extra steps and some jumping through hoops. It is nowhere near as easy as Android, MacOS and Windows and even Linux do it...

That is my only real complaint... I can get over the lack of customization and all that... But there are a lot of normal, everyday things that people are used to doing, and the iPad is not set up to do them... Which is a shame, because the tablet clearly has the muscle to do anything you want... The OS holds it back and that was a conscious decision on Apple's part, and I still maintain that they did it that way to keep the iPads from cannibalizing MacBook sales...

If Apple can do it on their laptops and PC's, and they do, then they can do it on the iPad as well. If they don't, it is by choice. And I cannot think of a single other reason why they wouldn't want the same power and ease of use on the iPad, other than intentional market segmentation... Can you?

 

[WeAreAllUnique]

See, I don't know that I could replace a laptop with an iPad, let alone a desktop...

If I have a bunch of files in different locations... Let's say I have a PDF, two excel spreadsheets and some Word docs... and I want to .zip them all up and attach them to an email... How do I do that?

On my phone, I put all the files in one folder, I highlight them all, and clock "add to archive" and it zips it up, and I email it. Just like I would on a PC, or you would on your MBA, right?

How do I do that on the iPad? If someone sends me a zip or rar file with multiple files inside, I can't just click on it once and extract it to a folder and then just click on each file and have it automatically open with the preferred viewer... Maybe there are ways to do it, but it clearly requires extra steps and some jumping through hoops. It is nowhere near as easy as Android, MacOS and Windows and even Linux do it...

That is my only real complaint... I can get over the lack of customization and all that... But there are a lot of normal, everyday things that people are used to doing, and the iPad is not set up to do them... Which is a shame, because the tablet clearly has the muscle to do anything you want... The OS holds it back and that was a conscious decision on Apple's part, and I still maintain that they did it that way to keep the iPads from cannibalizing MacBook sales...

If Apple can do it on their laptops and PC's, and they do, then they can do it on the iPad as well. If they don't, it is by choice. And I cannot think of a single other reason why they wouldn't want the same power and ease of use on the iPad, other than intentional market segmentation... Can you?

But I believe that is the difference between a user like me and someone like you. I have never had anyone try to send me a zip file of any sort. Anything that I need to email from my iPad I can. I have never had an issue. But like I said, my computing needs are such that an iPad is more than adequate.


Sent from my iPad Air 2 using Tapatalk

 

[SquireSCA]

Possibly, but I think that there is a chicken and an egg thing at work here... And I have seen it personally many times, due to my using both platforms...

What I see more often than not, is that Apple users don't see the need for certain things, and as Apple customers are not asking for those things, Apple doesn't need to provide them. However, I have see more often than not, that Apple users don't think they need things, or don't want them, because they have never had those things as an option, let alone used them. So their need conform to whatever limitations the platform places on them.

Which is why so many Android fans scratch their heads... because we argue with apple fans about something that we have and they claim is stupid or not needed... but 2 years from now when Apple gets around to offering it, those same people arriving 2 years late from the party are all excited by the "cool new feature"... LOL

So it is a chicken and the egg thing, because sometimes you don't know what you don't know. If you grew up in Amish country with horses and buggies, you would see nothing wrong with them. I mean afterall, they are not "broken"... they work as they always have. You might not see the need for that "crazy unsafe gasoline thingie"... However, once you see how much faster you can haul your corn to market, suddenly the lightbulb comes on, right?

I see a lot of Apple fans that way. They are not bad or stupid or anything like that... But they got on the train early on in most cases and stuck with it, and they often mold their usage patterns to conform to the platform at hand, and if that platform is limited, so too will be their usage patterns... You tend to not worry or even think about things that simply are not an option for you... And when someone who has that stuff tells you about it, the most common response is, "Why do you need that?"

But once Apple gives it to you, suddenly you "get it"... We all want the same things in the end, some of us just get to the finish line sooner, that's all.

 

[WeAreAllUnique]

I will have to disagree with you there. As someone who has had many android devices, the latest being the Nexus 6, I used it in the same way. So it isn't that I have conditioned myself to be limited. My computing needs are just different. You don't have to justify why you need the devices you need. Your habits and needs are just different from mine. The things you speak of, I haven't needed for many years.


Sent from my iPad Air 2 using Tapatalk

 

[SquireSCA]

Hence why I said "more often than not". It does allow for a majority, but clearly not all encompassing statement. ;-)

I cannot even begin to count how many times I have personally spoken to Apple fans and listened to them talk about some new feature that they are all jazzed up about, and they have no idea that the feature has been industry standard on other platforms for 12-24 months... hehe

Or even told them about something and have them give 99 reasons why it is dumb or not important, only to have them turn around a year later and be all pumped about it coming to Apple.

A lot of my gripes with iOS, and that is where my gripes are... the hardware of the iPhone and iPads are fantastic... my gripes are with the OS, that touts itself as "so user friendly", and yet I can put together a laundry list of simple, common everyday tasks, that the iDevices are just plain difficult or poor at...

I think that the iPad is a fine device, so long as you stay in the strict confines of the sandbox that Apple constructed for it. For many folks, those looking to replace a full laptop experience with a tablet, won't find that with the iPad. They will like the convenience and battery life, but you are making some significant sacrifices to get those, that's all.

 

[olegoil]

To buy! to buy! ))