Is it time for me to buy an i-pad?

[OffWithTheirHeads]

Ive got an HP Pavilion running XP. I think by now it must be 10 years old and is getting really slow but heck, it still works! I bought an i-phone early in the year and I'm just blown away by how much it will do. I've analyzed what I do most with my puter and it really boils down to two things. DU and e-mail. Sure, I've got a brazillion bookmarks and I occasionally write a letter in Word but really...DU and e-mail.

I'm concerned about a few i-pad things however. Lets forget for starters that it really sounds like a feminine hygiene product because this seems to be an industry trend what with the Nookie or whatever that book thingie is called. I expect any day now to see the Microsoft Vagina introduced so whatever.

Best as I can tell, the i-pad is really just a big i-phone without the phone. It seems that the i-pad has no usb ports so how do you hook up a printer, import photos, charge your i-phone or even your e-cigarette for that matter. Can you hook up speakers?

Then there is the matter of memory. My i-phone is 16 gigs and I've got more crap on it than I will ever actually use but I've only used up about 1/8th of the storage space. Do I really need more? what would be the advantage of springing for the 3G option aside from another monthly expense. The ap where you hold it up to the sky and get a star chart looks really cool but do you need 3G for that? I like the kindle book reader idea and since a base i-pad is only about twice the cost of a nookie or whatever it seems like a no brainier to spring for the i-pad but do I really need a Maxi-pad or is the base tampax model good enough?

As an aside, I bought an i-phone for my wife about six months ago. She is 72 but she might as well be 14. She is on that thing almost every waking hour, texting her grandkids, playing games, probably having online affairs for all I know. All I know is that if she is awake, she's on the i-phone. I figure if I buy her an i-pad first, I can bring a stable full of floozies through the house and she will never even notice so maybe that's the first thing I should do. (Buy her an I-pad, not the floozies).

So, If you have an i-pad, do you love it? Hate it? and should I just hold out for the next gen?

Your input is appreciated.

[hobbit709]

1. Wipe and reinstall XP on the HP

They don't physically slow down, they just get cluttered. A clean reinstall will make it as fast as new.

Everybody thinks because it's old it slows down. The cpu runs just as fast, it's the Windows clutter that slows them down.

As far as the ipad goes, I have no worthwhile opinion.

[HopeHoops]

3. Agreed. An HP will have a D: partition with a clean system image.

You can restore it to original factory state - which means "much faster than it is now". All of the M$ OS flavors slow down with time. I'm pretty sure that's intentional so they can get people to upgrade or buy a new machine with a newer version. Hell, I've still got Win 98SE systems running and they're fucking fast at a lot of things compared to Vista and Win 7. Sure, the machines are faster, but they've also got bloated operating systems. And here I thought Win 95 was bloated.

Keep in mind that the first fully multi-tasking windowing operating system on a home computer was that of the Commodore Amiga (Note to Atari ST lovers: yes, it was close and in some ways better, but it still couldn't claim full multi-tasking). It booted and ran from a 720K floppy disk with 512K of memory in the machine. My Amiga 500 still works just fine after all of these years. So does my C=64 and my Apple II+, and my collection of my grandfather's Timex Sinclairs.

Getting back to your machine issue, do you really want something like an iPad (feminine jokes aside) or do you want a laptop or desktop? If you're still a keyboard and mouse sort (like I am), reinstall your OS. You'll of course need to back-up everything and make sure you have the software and product keys for anything you want to put back on it, but you can do it pretty easily if you have those things handy.

[NewJeffCT]

2. Don't see a point to an iPad if it doesn't have a phone

and, no USB port would be a drawback as well. I would assume if you have no USB port, you have to connect to a printer wirelessly, or else through another sort of port.

[Betty88]

4. I used an iPad at work for a few days

as a trial.

It is cool but for the money I would rather have a new, fully functional laptop. The memory/storage issue is a big one and without a USB you can't hook up a external drive for storage. I guess you could hook up a wireless printer if you had one. If you have a wireless network at home you really don't need the 3G (unless you are going to take it out a lot) If you don't have wireless you will need to buy a router anyway, no network port. The reader is very nice, but the glossy screen probably is unreadable outside. Also its not lite. One of the things everyone here at work said about it was that if you were holding it up for more than a few minutes it starts to feel heavy. I have a nook reader I can hold for hours, the iPad would last about 15 or 20 minutes before I would be looking for something to lean it up against.

It can only do one thing at a time, for simple web/email I'm sure that would be ok. Netflix works great and looks very good, however we had trouble with youtube and hulu.com if I remember correctly.

What I tell people is that if someone were to give me one I would love it but if I had to pay $500 for it I would not be impressed. What makes me laugh is that you can buy a keyboard and stand for it, doesn't that make it a laptop?

If you are going to get one I would hold out for the next gen.

Hope that helps, if you can get to an apple store go in and try it out you may love it.

[soleiri]

5. I just got one

My two sons and i were sharing my laptop, and i can't afford another computer right now. I'm still getting used to it. I got the cheapest one, i figured there's always atleast a starbucks nearby if i need the interwebs.

[WinkyDink]

6. I'm just glad I have a PC to have read your post! :-)

[cbayer]

7. I just got one and I really, really like it.

You can certainly do email and DU, but the touchscreen keyboard makes typing long pieces of text difficult. You can buy an optional keyboard for that though. One other possible drawback is that it runs only one application at a time, but apps open and close so quickly that it's easy to switch between them. The upside to this is that everything runs seamlessly and without any conflicts.

The iPad hooks up to other devices either through a USB port, bluetooth or airport. The cord that goes from the iPad to other devices and also for charging has an iPod type connection on one end and a usb on the other. So it easily hooks up with any USB port. There is a a mini-Phillips port for hooking up to speakers - again, very easy.

The GPS option is worth it. You need it for any kind of navigation, the star identifying software or maps/directions. You get that with the 3G option, but you do not have to sign up for the ATT plan. You can easily hook into any available router anywhere. There are several free apps for book reading, all of them good, IMO.

In addition, there are tons of free apps, as well as very low cost one's. The NPR, pandora, BBC and netflix apps are great.. My husband likes the musical apps for reading, writing and playing music. It's also great to have photos and videos to share with others. The battery life is an unbelievable 10 hours, so leaving the plug at home is the way to go. We bought it specifically for marine navigation and an AIS (ship identification) program and are delighted with both.

I am not sure about the memory limits yet. So far, so good. It is really simple to download and later remove apps, so I think you can keep it really clean.

One of the things I like best is how quickly everything happens. No booting up or shutting down.

So.....I am loving it.

[Generic Brad]

8. I love my iPad, but it is not a replacement for my computer

It is a supplement. It's great for reading, watching Netflix, Stumbling, listening to the radio, looking up recipes, etc. I have a keyboard docking station and use it as a back up word processor when my iMac is in use. But be realistic - it will disappoint you if you are planning to use it as a stand alone computer. I am glad I have it when my daughter has to use the iMac for homework. I would never consider it as a primary computer.

So next generation will probably allow for video phone calls through Skype. Is that worth waiting for to you? If not, the current iteration functions fine.

[retread]

9. Your choice of "feminine protection" should be personal and private. This video can help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFNQE_TzQNI

[PVnRT]

10. I believe you have to buy a special dock to hook up the iPad to stuff

[av8rdave]

11. Time to buy an iPad? Sure, but I don't think the Apple store opens until 9

I have one and love it, but it is NOT a computer replacement. I keep my MacBook at home, and take the iPad on my trips. It's great for showing off my pictures, handling email and company scheduling issues, but I save the heavy lifting for the MacBook.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

12. As usual, the good people at DU come through.

Thank you all, once again for the excellent and diverse advice.

I think I will sort of take all of your advice.

Thank you Hobbit and Hopehoops for reminding me that there is really nothing wrong with my laptop that can't be cured with a little maintenance although I personally don't really know how to go about it. The only thing I've ever backed up is my car and my plumbing so I don't really know how and as to wiping the hard drive, I used to know how to do that back in the MS-DOS days but wouldn't know where to begin today. I've talked to a couple of trained professionals about this and they tell me they could do this for me for under $200.00 but I will spend some time searching the internet tubes to see if it is something I can do myself. I'm sure I can but not sure how much time I am willing to invest in the process. But the idea of milking this computer for several more years really appeals to me cause, like I said, it still works and I've reached an age where I don't buy new stuff unless there is a really compelling reason to do so.

Thanks to all the rest of you for the I-pad info. Actually, It sounds like it will do everything I use a computer for, DU, e-mail, recipes, netflix, internet radio, etc. very well. I just retired and don't really need any heavy lifting computer work done. No spread sheets, no power point, no daily reports back to the office, no real work at all (and I'm loving every minute of it!)

I think I will hold off on an immediate i-pad purchase but I have a strong feeling that Santa will be bringing one for my wife this year.

Again, thank you all. Every time I ask a question like this here I always get excellent input.

[erinlough]

13. I have one and love it.

First I think it depends on how you like to use the Internet. I see the Internet as the best library in the world and it's right in my home. I learn about new things, I consume media of all types, and I read opinion blogs like this one. Additionally I have a job where I move from room to room and I need to access files and websites as I go. The iPad is good at everything I need and use it for. The apps are so good it is amazing. I have a habit of handing it to anyone who asks about it, even children, and I have never had anyone hand it back with a negative comment. You have to actually use it to understand how good it is. I will bet you will never regret the purchase.