Posted on 03/27/2011 7:16:27 PM PDT by Swordmaker
While it can perform many of the functions of a PC or Mac, Apple's iPad— including the new iPad 2—lacks two of the most common and frequently used features of a traditional computer. It has no standard USB port for connecting a flash drive or external hard disk, so you can't move files into and out of it from these devices. And it doesn't have a systemwide, user-accessible file system like those on traditional computers.
The iPad lacks a USB port and can't accept a flash drive or external hard disk. So how do you get your files on it? Walt Mossberg gives a primer for retreiving Microsoft Office files or Adobe PDFs from a computer or cloud services.
These omissions have led many readers to ask me how you get files—especially Microsoft Office files and PDFs—into and out of iPads. They have bolstered the contention that the popular tablet is really just a "consumption device," not a productivity tool.
So, here's a brief primer on how to get such documents into and out of an iPad, and how to view, edit and create them on the tablet. This isn't an in-depth product review, though I've tested every product and method I will mention here. It's merely a quick, practical guide to how to work with documents on an iPad.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The whole article is about creating content such as Word documents on your iPad. I have been making the case that a netbook or 13 inch laptop is a better bet for that. There are ones with 5-7 hour battery life too.
Gizmodo got six hours pushing the original iPad as hard as possible. That included constant alternated streaming Netflix video and 3D games, WiFi on, and brightness and volume maxed. The new one will likely do better given its more powerful GPU (Apple leverages it for just about everything multimedia-related) and dual-core.
As far as just playing local video, which is what Endgadget used to get the 2.6 hours on the Dell, PCWorld had an original iPad running a movie for 11.5 hours, and Apple only claims 10. The 4:10 battery life for the Dell in Laptop Mag was a "WiFi web surfing" time, not exactly a stress test (I'll bet they avoided Flash), and still under the manufacturer's stated life. Dell probably does its battery life numbers with WiFi off and the system sitting idle.
I’d say the creator/consumer line is getting blurred just as the netbook/notebook one is. For hard-core typing content creation, none of those are any good, as you need a full-sized keyboard. I’m a fast touch typist, I still think every computer keyboard is vastly inferior to the IBM Model M, a compromise you have to live with. For anything, the basic rule applies:
What YOU are comfortable living with.
The iPad is fully capable of content creation. The iLife and iWork suites for are completely customized for touch (word proc, presentation and spreadsheet), and even editing music and movies appears to be quite easy. It definitely has the power and the software. The only question is whether the form of your interaction with the software (touch) is comfortable for YOU.
The situation also matters. Between home and on the road, portability required for both, battery life required, what extra you don’t mind carrying, etc. The solution that is perfect for you today may not be tomorrow because your day-to-day habits changed.
I could never trust an online company with handling my personal stuff.
If it folds, your stuff is in the ether. Or, if at some point, you try to access it, you could get a message saying, “You want it? Send us money.”
The tablet form is a great form for media purposes: reading media, watching videos, playing games, and taking notes.
It’s not a form that lends itself to serious research or productivity. You still need a laptop for that.
If you’re a serious gamer or movie watcher, the tablet form, because of it’s smaller screen and lack of connections, is inadequate here as well.
DROP BOX - BETTER THAN FLASH DRIVE
It all completely depends on the person and situation. Productivity depends on your specific case, what your product is. The iPad could be perfect for you, or anything short of a sixteen-core workstation with twin 30" monitors could be lacking.
My wife is a "serious" gamer, plays the hell out of those PopCap-style games, exactly the kind that are available on the iPad in vast numbers. If you're a "serious" 3D FPS or such gamer, few full-size notebooks will be good enough for you.
Video, that's great on the iPad, 11.5 hours of HD on one charge. Plug it into a TV if the screen's too small for you, which you'd be doing for a laptop too. You do need an HDMI adapter cable, but then no notebooks come with an HDMI cable either AFAIK.
I apologoze if I’m going to sound dismissive, just because I am going to be dismissive. :)
Serious gamer cannot be defined as one who plays those self-contained time filler games just because you play a lot of them. That is like saying you’re a serious car-modder because you finally got around to replacing your 8-track player with a CD player, because you play a lot of CD’s.
A serious gamer is one who has the surround sound, 24 inch high definition monitors, and requires 8 gigs of ram or more, because he wants the simulated blood and violence to look as real as possible.
Anybody else, myself included, aren’t considered serious gamers. I’m a wannabe in this category.
You're saying a serious car modder is only people who deal with 4-liter V8s and up. Those who spend an equal amount of time becoming extremely proficient at tuning 1.8 liter 4-cylinder engines aren't really serious. The quick thinking, reaction time and precision aiming some of these games require is amazing, and unlike a good bloody FPS, they don't let up, you can't hide around a corner for a couple-second breather when you want. You get a breather when you finish the level.
I’m just saying that your wife is a gamer and I’m a gamer, but we are not serious, hard-core gamers.
Would that actually be a Nook color? If so I have a question or two about that, as I'm really close to just going ahead and rooting mine.
Once you've loaded Froyo on it, does it still function as well as a reader? Does it adversely affect any account setup you might have with B&N?
I may not know exactly how it might work, but I do know that if I have to rely upon an internet company for any type of storage, that is the scenario that a person can face at some point.
As described above, it's better than a flash drive, because it all happens behind the scenes, and it does all of the synchronization for you without any manual intervention (except in the rare case where you make changes from two different computers while one of them was offline, and then you have to merge the results).
What's more, you can even create a group folder and automatically sync your work with co-workers or collaborators, and get their changes as well.
As an example: I'm working with other folks on a role-playing game project. (It's a hobby, what can I say?) I keep all of my working documents in Dropbox so I can edit them from whatever computer I happen to be at. Draft versions of those documents get put into the "group" folder, so my fellow authors can see the latest changes, and I can see the latest drafts of the documents each of them "owns".
Best part? As long as you can work with a 2 GB footprint, it's free. (Even with all of these documents and my other personal files, I'm currently using less than 40% of that.) And if you can work the "referrals" game, you can increase that to up to 8 GB (an extra 250 MB per referral). I can't say that I find the convenience worthwhile enough to pay the annual rates for the larger data sizes (starting at $100/year for 50 GB), but the free storage can't be beat.
I’m just saying that because someone’s equipment sucks more electricity doesn’t make that person a more hard-core gamer. It’s in the attitude. I’m definitely not serious or hard-core, regardless of hardware.
You just have to love the names these open-source projects come up with.
On the Froyo(Android 2.2) install that I use, Nook for Android version 2.5 is included as another app. It is designed to run on any Android device. This is different from (and somewhat inferior to) the stock eReader that is optimized for the Nook Color ( There's probably a way to load that back on, but I haven't bothered).
Both apps interact with the B&N account and library the same way.
My suggestion - the first thing to try would be to run a bootable image from microSD card. This does not disturb your stock OS or settings. You can try almost any distribution this way (Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb).
If you like the look and feel of your original setup but want to be able to do a little more, then rooting the stock OS is preferable.
I use the Nook Color as an Android tablet with eReader capability rather than vice-versa, so replacing the OS was the right choice for me.
The IBM Selectrics had the best keyboards in existence anywhere, ever, so I'd understand. If you were actually serious, you could be using an IBM 2741 terminal, which is basically a Selectric modified to work as a printing terminal, with an RS-232 cable for connectivity. It shouldn't be too much of a geek project to get one working with a modern computer.
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