As a result of seeing it on QVC - - - - >

[bella_bambina]

I have an android tablet and my mum has an ipad and we use both constantly! You can store photos etc on them and store it to an online server what they call "the cloud" and you can access the photos anywhere. The decision to whether to get an android or apple product is tricky but what you have to think about is what "ecosystem" suits you better.. which operating system do you think would suit you better and prefer? If you have other apple products they all work together well. If you use a lot of google products (android is google's operating system) you might prefer an adroid tablet as they work better together.
It is on personal preference and budget to some extent as well. I think they are both great options. The nexus 7 is the best android tablet around at the moment, get that if you are looking for an android tablet. Great little device.

 

[stratobuddy]

I am still struggling with the ipad and the need to use itunes.

Took 3 hours yesterday to install latest itunes, admittedly the PC is about 5 years old and on XP.

I was ready to throw it in the bin yesterday, SO frustrating trying to use it.

The only instruction leaflet that came with it (not much bigger than a stamp) said to download the user guide. But how?????? In any case, it should have been pre-installed.

After lots of fiddling around, I got a PDF version, but could find no way of saving it, so it kept disappearing. So I had to keep downloading it, using up my low download allowance each time. Eventually someone told me how to save it, did this, had an icon on the screen. But when I clicked on it to read some more, it STILL downloaded itself again. On a 1/2MB connection this takes ages as well as eating into my limit (£5 charge if I exceed it).

Re the Lidl case/keyboard, I will look out for this. I visit Lidl every week, but have never seen it.

I also find the ipad UNCOMFORTABLE to hold for more than a few minutes, as all the edges are fairly sharp and dig into my hands.

I've spent TWO DAYS trying to get some music onto it, totally ridiculous! I've finally done it, but what a palaver. Drag and drop would have taken minutes, but you can't do that with an ipad, you are locked into itunes, and constantly having to put passwords in, which have to be at least 8 long and include upper case, lower case, and numbers, so a real pain to remember and type in.

Somehow today it asked me to speak to it (but wouldn't know how to do this again). I said "Where am I?" and it actually told me lol.

 

[Akimbo]

I feel your pain, I only use about 1% of my ipad's capabilities! Because I do most of my browsing at home, I mostly just use my laptop, my kids and OH use my ipad more than I do, so it invariably is out of battery whenever I want to use it!

Jude xx

 

[stratobuddy]

I am totally fed up, mainly with itunes.

I've been in all day staring at the PC and ipad, lovely sunny weather outside!

On my itunes library, EVERY track is there twice, and no obvious way of doing anything about it except going through 14,000 tracks and deleting 7000 duplicates.

On top of that, I have been trying to add some recent tracks from my PC onto the ipad by manual syncing, it seems to work but nothing gets onto the ipad.

What a waste of a day :-(

 

[Tiddlywinks]

Strato - so sorry to hear you are having such a hard time with your new toy.

Write a list of questions and then go to the Apple store on the high street and sit down with one of the staff - they are usually really helpful.

Also, the Apple helpline is free to use in the first month - I used it a month ago when I did something stupid with my iPhone and couldn't work out how to undo it. The guy was really patient and not in a hurry to get rid of me. He talked me through my problem and a couple of others.

Give it a chance... It is different, you just need to get used to the "apple" way.

I know what you mean about holding the iPad - I use a Griffin Survivor case because it has rubber ridges and is easier to grip (carpal tunnel and arthritis in both hands) and the protection is good too. Only thing is that is makes the iPad bulkier.

 

[lynnonthelake]

Poor Strato I feel your pain lol
Lynn

 

[caretodiffer]

My brother in US bought me an Apple i-Pad last June when I visited him......it is a lot cheaper there. I am a proper techidiot, I didn't touch it till last Friday when my niece asked me to use facetime. ... so I could speak to them.
In the end I went on Skype on my Laptop, it was much easier for me I managed to get my emails on it and I have put it away as I feel so much more at ease with my laptop:happy:
My little nephew of 4 yrs over there knows a lot more than I do:sad: The younger ones seem to understand and work it so easily.

I got a Samsung galaxy phone for my birthday and between you and me, it is wasted on me:sad: I will try and learn things about it though, as it is a good phone :happy:

 

[lynnonthelake]

I really love my Ipad but have never tried to put music on it.
Lynn

 

[Weathergirl]

The time I tried to put music on my iphone I had to go onto itunes and work out what to sync. Once I finally found where I should be and ticked and unticked the right boxes it worked. However I absolutely hated it, and only did it once. My husband ended up losing precious photo's off his (taken at the hospital when our daughter was born) because they were lost forever when he synced his iphone for the first time without knowing what to do. Luckily I had some taken on my phone but we have never forgiven apple for having such an awful system in the first place that allows that to happen.

 

[iloveshopping]

D

There's an ipad browser called Puffin which supports Flash. The free version allows you to "road test" it for a while before you buy (sorry, can't remember, but it might be a couple of weeks), and it's not expensive to buy the full version.

Thanks for the info about Puffin. Just looked and it is available for android too. I may buy it though some reviewers say the trial version is better than the pay version. Pay version for android is £1.93. The trial version with adobe and can be extended to 4 weeks if you use someone else's code. The codes are listed in the reviews.

 

[stratobuddy]

I found some FREE software online to download which claimed to remove duplicate tracks automatically from itunes.

So I downloaded and installed it, then ran it. It found all the duplicate tracks (but itunes does this anyway). Then it said "click here to remove the duplicates".

So I clicked it, and the FREE software then said I would have to buy it for £12-50 to do this!!!

I cannot believe that itunes can find the duplicates (7000 in my case) but does not have a way of deleting them.

I even uninstalled and reinstalled itunes, but my original duplicated tracks were still there as soon as it started to run:-(

 

[deanos]

do you have all your music in one folder ?

 

[stratobuddy]

Yes I do, in fact, I have recently copied it from an old PC to a newer one via an external disk. There was no music on the new PC before this, and I put it all in the same folder. Then itunes looked for music files, and that must have been when it duplicated everything.

I am thinking of deleting EVERYTHING from itunes, then seeing what happens, but don't want to risk losing any actual music from my PC.

The tracks are not duplicated in the music folder.

 

[PJ.]

I know you hate iTunes but I would stay a million miles away from software like that.

The good thing is even if you do delete all your music on pc and iPad, it will always be available to you and you won't pay twice.
PJ