Just got an i-Pad2

[CycleRob]

It's my wife Ann's. A WiFi black one for $369 plus 7% state tax from Fry's. It qualified as "Store pickup Only" so we took the bike the next day and picked it up rather than waiting 4--6 days for Amazon to ship it. It beat Amazon by $6 and we had a nice 83 mile (133.6 km) round trip ride in 63F (17.2C) with 2 Widder vests warming our old bones.

She just needed basic portable Net access, E-Mail and other stuff (pictures) but we got SO much more. I looked at the other brand 10" tablets because of the i-Pad's lack of a USB port to connect my NetBook's external DVD slimdrive and FlashDrives for storage/transfer, but they (Samsung) were more money. They had less overall useful capability needed by a truly wonderful, easy to live with woman that, like many women our age, are "easy to frustrate computer neophytes". Those reviews also had too many people that regretted their choice made, away from the i-Pad. The $500 for the latest/newest i-Pad (3) was too much, and after reading many reviews we also did not think it was worth the extra $$$, so she bought the previous i-Pad2 model. Upgraded the iOSv5 to version 6 with the free 30 minute D/L.

Wow, what an amazing piece of fast, useful, compact, highly advanced technology her new toy is!! Configured and logged on to my always-on WiFi/n in minutes, needing ONLY the lengthy password. No other info needed. You do have to spend time reading the On-Line i-Pad manual and learn the 1, 2, 3, and 4 finger movements/taps to get everything/anything done -but- once that is learned, wow is it fast!! It also makes a lot more sense than using a Mouse. She loves it more than her Kindle, because unlike a PC, it NEVER bothers her with pop-up windows asking for a potentially dangerous or just plain annoying decision. It also has, by comparison, Star Trek futuristic powers. Instant on, get to any website a few seconds later. A 10 hour battery, 16GB SSD, LED backlighting with no heat, no noises and no waiting. All in a compact, almost buttonless package. Even the shipping/storage box it came in is comparable to what you'd get with a beautiful $300 box of premium chocolates. The count down timer I set sounded it's configured "barking dog" alarm even when the i-Pad was turned off! Extremely business/schedule friendly applications, synching, backups, ALL integrated with your other Apple products in the cloud, 5GB for free, automatically without any noticeable intervention. Absolutely amazing!

Apple doesn't seem to want anyone getting into the file system or adding on non Apple programs. As far as I know, none of my many USB flashdrives can be used as storage for it. There are some free programs in the Apple Store and I D/L'd a few like the scientific calculator and a few games. It's built-in camera/video takes beautiful pictures and super video. Even in very dim low light. I gave her 1 of my two 10" NetBook carry cases to store it in. Spent a few minutes adding BookMarks/Folders to HGTV shows and Ina & Giada recipies/books/videos on the FoodChannel that she needed access to. Even years of full video show episodes. I was impressed how quickly everything worked. The D/L, the video, the resizing, the manually fast forwarded video restart, etc.

It's not often you really REALLY get your money's worth in a new product. It's no wonder Apple is the most successful/profitable company in the world. They just passed Exxon-Mobil as #1.

[mnnden]

Thanks for the report, we have been thinking of getting one & for the same reason (wife) she has also been looking at the small portable computers, not sure just what they are called, but I think it will be one of the pads, I am going to have her read your post, very helpful, thanks Den

[CycleRob]

mnnden, Rather than add another post, I edited the first one to include it all in 1 place for the 2 or 3 copy-n-paste or print out fans that have sent PMs.

[mnnden]

Thanks for the update, Yes the lack of a usb port is of some concern, but when we talked about it we decided it really isn't that important. we have other venues for that. the ease of use & portability are things we are most concerned with ( women are not the only ones that get frustrated ) & I am sure I will be taking my turn using it also. It would appear that you got a pretty good price! The search begins!! Thanks again, Den

[CycleRob]

A few more things:

--The Instant On occurred because I did not realize pushing the Off button only put it into Sleep Mode. To turn it off you have to hold the Off button about 3 seconds, until the "slide (arrow button) to power off" screen appears, then it shuts off.

--After a shut off, the 3 second power button press starts the 21 second boot-up, then the "slide (arrow button) to unlock" shows the desktop icons 1 second later.

--The 720p HD video camera is amazing!! It works in low lighting and all colors are rich high quality images. After the .avi video is created, a long string of very tiny thumbs appears at the top of the page where you can touch to select a crystal clear full sized picture from any part of the movie.

--The Safari browser is very basic, without the multitude of useful functions I got SO used to in FireFox, now in version 16.0.2. There certainly will be a replacement for Safari.

--I find myself using it 1--4 times a day to quickly access things like the weather RADAR animation, local gas prices or investigating something from a magazine, the radio or TV.

I thought the 128GB Samsung SSD in my WinXP DeskTop PC was fast (it IS), but the iPad's 16GB SSD, Apple's iOS-6 and it's more advanced dual core processor smokes it.

The On-Line "i-Pad User Guide" covers a lot of areas, but not in very deep detail. The pop-up keyboard is missing the Home, End, Left/Right/Up/Down arrow and Tab keys. Maybe there's an App for that.

I finally cleaned the screen today of it's 200 fingerprints with a water wet corner of a micro fiber polishing cloth. Just a few wipes and they were gone. No window cleaners allowed or the coating will degrade. For all the i-Pad2 specs, go here:
http://www.apple.com/ipad/ipad-2/specs.html

[Boxer]

I just got a new 32GB Blackberry Playbook which suits me fine and costs about $200. It's the size of a Kindle so I can easily carry it around on long rides to keep up with all you guys. Who knows. I may get a Triumph or Honda motorcycle next. LOL

[omg1010]

Rob,how about this one? http://www.snotr.com/video/8965/So_papa ... we_got_you

Brgds
Oliver

[angellr]

Rob,how about this one? http://www.snotr.com/video/8965/So_papa ... we_got_you

Brgds
Oliver

Oliver, very funny! Thanks for sharing.

[CycleRob]

Hello all. We are still using it many times a day. She even buys books and stuff on-line. Having her own E-Mail address she can quickly access has improved her connections with the garden club and choir group events. I use it often for 11 comic strips at gocomics.com to continue what I lost when we dumped the too liberal Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper.

The best part of it by far is Face Time, Apple's fast, full screen HD version of Skype video conferencing. We connect QUICKLY with friends and family 700+ miles away . . . For free! The latest episode was when my brother got a new I-phone 5 and called my land line to talk. I mentioned we should use Face Time and powered up the I-pad. The new iOS 7 apparently automatically put all her E-Mail addresses into the Face Time contacts list, so it took ONE TAP to select Face Time and ONE TAP to select his E-Mail address. About 3 SECONDS LATER his face in HD popped onto my screen. It was so fast it startled me and we laughed out loud! Do I have to say what a 10 minute fiasco, if you are lucky, that it would be to accomplish the very same first time thing using Windows? I even went outside on the deck, using the front camera, following our new Jack Russell mix puppy as he was racing around the yard carrying a crushed gallon milk container in his mouth. That was real entertainment that was enjoyed by all.

I used it for this post, but I don't usually because of the keyboard mode changes needed to access numbers and these characters:;#~-()@&'%+. Then there are the times where I need to link to pics on PhotoBucket.com and it is so annoying dealing with the syntax hassles when the OS tries to correct that I end up doing a copy-n-paste of what was written so far and E-Mail it to my address so I can finish it much easier on my desktop PC. Other than those times, it's fast, quickly accessible and the battery life seems unchanged after over a year of daily use. We only recharge it when it goes below 7% and below . . . Like right now.

[Jed]

--The Instant On occurred because I did not realize pushing the Off button only put it into Sleep Mode. To turn it off you have to hold the Off button about 3 seconds, until the "slide (arrow button) to power off" screen appears, then it shuts off.

--After a shut off, the 3 second power button press starts the 21 second boot-up, then the "slide (arrow button) to unlock" shows the desktop icons 1 second later.

Rob,

No doubt you've figured this out by now but the iPad is designed to be "Always On", hence the Sleep mode. In "normal use" (used multiple times a day) the unit need not be powered off and in fact is designed to go into low-power-consumption Sleep mode rather than being "powered down". If the battery doesn't last long enough for you in sleep mode it's easy enough to put the unit into "airplane mode" which turns off all the radio/wifi stuff and then put the unit to stand-by / sleep. Apple used to list the stand-by battery times, but I couldn't find anything for the iPad 2. The battery should last a couple/few days used in this way, I would think.

The OS is the same as the iPhone. Mine phone only gets shut off when I need to reset / restart. For me this is pretty rare, maybe once every other month. Other than that my phone is on 24/7. I probably recharge the phone every 3rd or 4th day depending on use. I'll be picking up an iPad Air for work soon. Looking forward to seeing how it works as a GPS/Map for my R12R.

cheers,