How to connect and use an USB external HD to the iPad

[Ripplinghurst]

http://time-more.com/ipadMax Shay blog with detailed instructions.


Looks a little too involved, but if one is really determined it can be done. Not sure you can play music and videos from it though.



[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB9gQgaVJsw&feature=player_embedded]YouTube - Spirit Jailbroken iPad: Mount External HFS or FAT32 Drive[/ame]

 

[Bremen]

All that is well and good, but with cloud computing expanding like it is.... I really don't see this kind of thing being as big a deal as it would have been even 2 years ago.

As I have said before.... To me plugging in keyboards, monitors, hard drives ......etc.... Kinda defeats the whole point of the iPad..... But, to each their own

 

[Ripplinghurst]

Well, AFAIK this cloud computing thing is very good at home or office.

But if you want to take your ipad to the road, cross country or whatever, chances are your cloud computing network you setup so dearly are simply going up in smoke.

There's no 3G everywhere, and even when you have, on the move, in a car, 3G is not all that it's supposed to be. Also, if you setup your server at home, chances are your upload speeds are not that great either. So watching last night show streaming via 3G on a road trip at 75mph...nah...forget that. It would be much simpler to just plug in an usb drive, don't you think?

Another scenario, you go visit grampa out of state, he has no wifi of course, and 3G is spotty. How can you play him the movies you just recorded in your fancy camera? His old tv is not an option, but the ipad is right there...wait...this won't work either.

Now if you could grab your 640GB tiny USB drive, fill it up with your mp3 and movie collection or your HD camera files, then you'd be back on business, great screen to show off whatever you want. However, Apple does not think about things like these.