I need help with my IPad.

[johnda]

Hi all,

This is my first post and I am sorry it has to be like this! I just hope some of this community can help me to like this thing!

My wife and I offered ourselves the latest and best, retina display, 64gb, wif fi and mobile for Christmas. We were so impatient to open it on Christmas day, but what did we find?

A wonderful display and a wonderful display and a wonderful display! Very expensive for a screen.

On the downside, one single button, no "back button", not even a "menu button".
One single cable that does not seem to connect it to anything properly
No apparent means of printing anything
No usb socket, no sd card reader
No way of having any control over what happens and what goes where (no equivalent of "windows explorer")
One tiny sheet of paper as a user's handbook (a joke!)
Free software is generally pretty pathetic and some software IS free on a browser, but when you try to download it, the ipad refuses to connect to the server.
If you eventually figure out how to import photos with itunes, you have to import the whole lot and then cannot deleted any of them or even delete the whole folder.
So you go and buy a silly piece of kit called a photo transfer kit or something. that works when it feels like it, as long as you rename every single file to a name the ipad will accept. And you can't use it to export files or import other files (.doc etc). The USB part just does not work at all (says not compatible or too much current or something)
There is no problem transferring the superb photos and videos from my excellent Galaxy S3 to my PC etc but no way to get them onto the ipad or get the ipad things onto the pc.

We are utterly frustrated. I have been wasting all my free time trying to figure out how to do the simplest things such type a letter and print it! I've tried "dropbox" and that is pathetically slow and things go into "dropbox" and i can't seem to be able to put them where I want them. One seems to need a work-around for everything. How can Apple make the simplest of things so complicated or plain impossible! Oh how we regret buying the thing! As if we didin't have better things to do than spend hours trying to figure out how to put a file on our computer (or vice versa) with no cable, no usb key, no cd, no memory card, no normal permanent WiFi connection!

Sorry for all the rant, but it is good to get it off my chest and perhaps, some kind soul will get us on the right track to be able to use this thing with no hassle and end up liking it!

Many thanks in advance for your replies.

 

[evohicks]

Welcome to the world of Apple!

Seriously you should have read up on the iPad before taking the plunge. Apple hardware is very restricted and its definitely not for everyone. I couldn't use it as a replacement for my PC or my Android phone as it just doesn't cover my needs but I do love the ipad for what it's intended for.
Give it more time definitely if this is your 1st experience with Apple but like I say, it's not for everyone.

 

[skimonkey]

Hi--just to start you off on a more positive note, I have edited the title. By the way, Welcome to the forum.

I have to ask whether researching the ipad before purchase was done. Unfortunately there is no USB within the iPad.

There is a back button when you are using the safari browser. It is located in the upper left corner of the screen.

You can swipe back and forth from one app to another by doing a 4-finger swipe.

AirPrint support can be found here:
AirPrint basics

And a wifi to print thread here: http://www.ipadforums.net/airprint/38017-wi-fi-printing-ipad.html

Downloading any app from the AppStore has not been a problem.

iPads do have drop down me is depending on the app used. For instance, I have many drop downs when I use my word processor app, Pages.

I use Dropbox and it syncs well between my PC and my iPad. Is your wifi connection strong enough?

Hopefully others will help you here.

 

[johnda]

Hi--just to start you off on a more positive note, I have edited the title. By the way, Welcome to the forum.
I have to ask whether researching the ipad before purchase was done. Unfortunately there is no USB within the iPad.

Many thanks for the reply.

No USB, but it seems every effort has been made to keep the ipad in its own little world and making communicating as difficult as possible.

ou can swipe back and forth from one app to another by doing a 4-finger swipe.

Ah! I didn't know that. Thanks!

AirPrint support can be found here:
AirPrint basics

And a wifi to print thread here: http://www.ipadforums.net/airprint/38017-wi-fi-printing-ipad.html

Airprint doesn't work with my printer (of course!) but my pc has no problem with the wifi printer connection. I'll look at the thread. Thank you, but it is just another work-around, like for everything!

iPads do have drop down me is depending on the app used. For instance, I have many drop downs when I use my word processor app, Pages.

Yes of course. No I meant a "menu" button for a general menu as on the androids.

I use Dropbox and it syncs well between my PC and my iPad. Is your wifi connection strong enough?

Never had any problem up to now. Yesterday, getting a 10 second video from my Galaxy S3 to my Ipad took 20 minutes!

Many thanks again.

 

[johnda]

Welcome to the world of Apple!

Many thanks evohicks!

Seriously you should have read up on the iPad before taking the plunge.

Actually, the choice was somewhat dictated by an App (Skydemon) only available for Ipad and I did not know Apple, but never imagined there could be such problems.

I do love the ipad for what it's intended for.

What is it intended for? My galaxy S3 seems to do more, better and more easily. If I could just plug it into the Ipad and use the latter as a monitor, it would be nice! Just joking, but not a totally unfounded remark!

Give it more time definitely if this is your 1st experience with Apple

I don't have much choice Thanks again for your reply

 

[skimonkey]

Many thanks for the reply.

No USB, but it seems every effort has been made to keep the ipad in its own little world and making communicating as difficult as possible.

Ah! I didn't know that. Thanks!


Airprint doesn't work with my printer (of course!) but my pc has no problem with the wifi printer connection. I'll look at the thread. Thank you, but it is just another work-around, like for everything!

Yes of course. No I meant a "menu" button for a general menu as on the androids.
Never had any problem up to now. Yesterday, getting a 10 second video from my Galaxy S3 to my Ipad took 20 minutes!

Many thanks again.

I'll bet you once you get more familiar with the iPad and its tips and tricks you'll have a different view on things. Being an android tablet and droid phone owner, I became very tired or the drop down menus that resulted in many unnecessary steps, IMO. Funny, I felt the same about my android tablet as you do with your iPad.

Have a look at this iOS 5.0 - 6 iPad Manual: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/ipad-user-guide-for-ios-5/id470308101?mt=11]Connecting

Also: http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-os/49581-ios5-tips-tricks.html
http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-general-discussions/21590-tips-tricks-those-us-who-dont-know.html
http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-help...rtcuts-helpful-places-people-new-ipad-5.html#

See if these are helpful.

 

[johnda]

I'll bet you once you get more familiar with the iPad and its tips and tricks you'll have a different view on things. Being an android tablet and droid phone owner, I became very tired or the drop down menus that resulted in many unnecessary steps, IMO. Funny, I felt the same about my android tablet as you do with your iPad.

Have a look at this iOS 5.0 - 6 iPad Manual: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/ipad-user-guide-for-ios-5/id470308101?mt=11%5DConnecting

Also: http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-os/49581-ios5-tips-tricks.html
http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-general-discussions/21590-tips-tricks-those-us-who-dont-know.html
http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-help...rtcuts-helpful-places-people-new-ipad-5.html#

See if these are helpful.

Thanks again Skymonkey,

I'll look at the links tomorrow (off to bed now as it is twenty to one in the morning here -- in the UK)

Cheers!

John

 

[micmar]

Dear John and all others interested. I also am less satisfied with the iPad controls and lack of interface, the way to connect to printers etc. When I first got the ipad I downloaded a couple books and a couple games but now my $400.00 toy sits on the table next to my sofa in the living room most of the time. I tried reading out on a sunny day but the screen was not the greatest in the sun light. The other day I thought I would get the angry birds game because I can't think of much else to use it for. But I had not used it in such a long time I could not get it to down load the game. I tried and tried and I know that if I fool around with it enough I will figure out how to down load the games again. But I just don't have the time.
I wish the surface machine would have been out when I bought the iPad. I do have to agree with one thing though the retina display is wonderful. On the other hand maybe you and I can learn to like this thing! What do you think about the surface?

 

[buerkletucson]

This thread and any others like it IMHO are based on the user doing zero research before purchasing a product.
You need to find out the details, what it's intended use is, and what it's good at or not good at doing.

If you don't do the research and find it doesn't perform like a desktop or laptop computer then nobody can be blamed but yourself IMHO.
My iPad is a purely pleasure device.............surfing the web, emails, games, tinkering, and just plain having fun.

If I need to do any serious work, forget it. I grab my laptop or hop on the desktop.

I can't imagine plunking down $500 - $900 for a device without researching the heck out of it first, so there are no surpirses once you get it.
Information is very easy to get and plentiful these days.....

 

[talon90]

Welcome to the forum.

It seems to me that the first and likely biggest part of your frustration is that you are trying to make the iPad adapt to the conventional ways of doing things with a computer. It just isn't designed to work that way and it was never intended to be a computer. If you can put aside those stereotypes that you must use it that way, you will realize how beautiful a concept it is. I am an engineer and travel extensively for work and only take an iPad with me on my business trips. I am an avid photographer and only take my iPad with me along with a camera connection kit with me on vacation. It is quite possible to do all of the things that you are trying but it isn't a computer and it will never work like one in the conventional means of doing things. If there are specific tasks that you want help with there are a number of people on this forum alone that will be able to help you use your iPad to accomplish pretty much anything that you wanted to do with it with the exception of turning it in to a PC. If that is what you need, you might be best served to simply return it and get a laptop.

The iPad was originally designed and intended to be a consumption device (music, media, internet, email.) It has evolved through apps and developers in to a useful tool and creation device but that isn't what it is out of the box. It is incredibly intuitive to use for its intended purpose of consumption. Once you get comfortable manuevering the interface and structure of the iPad in it's out of the box state you can start to see ways to accomplish the things you want to do.

Through the use of third party applications from the iTunes App store you can compose music, share files back and forth from a PC, you can import and export photos and documents. With an AirPrint enabled printer or with a connected printer and a web print app you can print documents and pictures. You can add a bluetooth wireless or USB wired keyboard to make typing and document creation faster and easier.

 

[runningbear29]

A lot of research before buying into how the iPads work and just what they will work with and won't work with is helpful. If one thinks an iPad is going to be just like a computer, it's not. There is many things an iPad can do and do very well, but there are some things it just will not do in really replacing your computer. Making a trip to your local Apple store if you can, and getting some real first hand information is my advice.

 

[johnda]

Welcome to the forum.
It seems to me that the first and likely biggest part of your frustration is that you are trying to make the iPad adapt to the conventional ways of doing things with a computer. It just isn't designed to work that way and it was never intended to be a computer. If you can put aside those stereotypes that you must use it that way, you will realize how beautiful a concept it is. I am an engineer and travel extensively for work and only take an iPad with me on my business trips. I am an avid photographer and only take my iPad with me along with a camera connection kit with me on vacation. It is quite possible to do all of the things that you are trying but it isn't a computer and it will never work like one in the conventional means of doing things. If there are specific tasks that you want help with there are a number of people on this forum alone that will be able to help you use your iPad to accomplish pretty much anything that you wanted to do with it with the exception of turning it in to a PC. If that is what you need, you might be best served to simply return it and get a laptop.

Hi talon,

Many thanks for your welcome. Yes, I can see that I have to see the ipad through Ipad-tinted glasses and not PC-tinted glasses! But even so, it is really exasperating when the simplest tasks are thwarted, even tasks that it claims to do like downloading pictures via the connection kit. I am referring to the apparent need to jump through a ton of hoops like modifying the file name of every single photo to a name that it will accept of exactly 8 characters usually with a letter or two at the beginning and the rest in numbers! After doing this, one has to copy the files onto an sd card in a folder previously named DCIM and insert the sd card into the photo connection kit! What a load of hassle for something the IPad is intended to do.

The iPad was originally designed and intended to be a consumption device (music, media, internet, email.) It has evolved through apps and developers in to a useful tool and creation device but that isn't what it is out of the box. It is incredibly intuitive to use for its intended purpose of consumption. Once you get comfortable manuevering the interface and structure of the iPad in it's out of the box state you can start to see ways to accomplish the things you want to do.

Yes, I must try to do it that way... in fact we already are, but it is a lot of money for a very basic INTERNET browser, which is presumably its main purpose.

Through the use of third party applications from the iTunes App store you can compose music, share files back and forth from a PC, you can import and export photos and documents.

I have not found iTunes very user friendly and could do with some advice about what to do with it. For photos, it is terrible because you cannot even delete any of the photos when they arrive on the ipad.

With an AirPrint enabled printer or with a connected printer and a web print app you can print documents and pictures

Again I could do with some help here too. It is another thing it is supposed to do but with more hoops to jump through (I have a canon Pixma WiFi printer but it is not on the list. Why on earth not? No trouble using anything else to access the printer!

You can add a bluetooth wireless or USB wired keyboard

Yes, we were going to buy one of those, but as we can't seem to even manage to get .doc files onto the ipad or transfer things out or connect to a printer, we thought "what's the point?"

What I should have done is point out what we really need it for. Maybe we were too ambitious.

1) something my wife can surf the Internet on on her lap with one eye on the television.
2) something to view our photos on (photos) from a variety of sources including from a Galaxy S3 -- also a few video clips
3) a platform for flight planning (light aircraft) and en route navigation linked to built-in GPS
4) an MP3 player
5) a reader for a variety of PDFs, Kindle books etc
6) a replacement computer ONLY WHEN TRAVELING for
a- typing shortish texts and saving them on a ??? card??? to give to someone to print or save
b- accessing bank, aviation weather, filing flight plans
c- contacting our son via Skype
d- basic copying and pasting between different docs
e -occasionally using simple excel type spreadsheets

So you can see, we are perhaps not completely off the mark for what we want, but it is the awful transfer problems that really upset anything we try to do.

Many thanks again for your interest and hopefully for your tips that you or others can give.

John

 

[KevinJS]

I can give you a few suggestions for apps now we have a clear idea where you are going.

Skype works very well for both video and voice calls. It will also link to a BlueTooth earpiece so you can use it hands free. I use the Jabra EasyGo for this.
Pages is your word processor option. It costs $10 and is file compatible with MS Word. Files can be transferred to you PC by file sharing, or simply emailing them to yourself.

Numbers similarly is file compatible with Excel. Another $10. There are free offerings out there too.

MotionX GPS HD is a great app for route planning. I use it for off road driving. I see no reason why it wouldn't be as useful in a flight scenario. Perhaps one of the best features is the ability to record your track. Again, you can export your tracks to your PC for archiving. There is a handy distance tool which you can superimpose on the map. You could calculate each leg of your flight plan etc.

Most sharing of notes etc is best accomplished by email. The iPad is intended to be a mobile device, which may explain in part why it's physical connections leave something to be desired.

Whether you view things as solutions or workarounds, there is usually a way of achieving a desired outcome, but you have to leave the PC file-centric viewpoint behind. The iPad is a different beast.

 

[talon90]

Let's break them down a single task at a time.

Websurfing, the iPad should work out of the box. It takes some adjustment to not use a mouse but once you get used to it, it is very easy and very intuitive.

Setup iCloud on your iPad and PC. Apple - iCloud - Your content. On all your devices.

With iCloud enabled, you will be able to simply copy photos to the photostream on your PC and they will appear on your iPad. No renaming, no resizing, no camera connection kit. If you have photos on your PC and you want them on your iPad, this is the easiest way to accomplish this. The camera connection kit simply stated, is intended to be used along side a camera. Take a picture, plug the camera connection kit and use either the USB direct to your camera or the SD card reader with your camera's SD card directly. Trying to use it as a thumbdrive and copying and moving from a PC is frustrating to say the least but understandably so as it is an exploit that someone found, not the intended use of the kit.

Download the free Kindle reader app to your iPad. Install the iBooks app on your iPad. Kindle books will appear on the device as soon as you register the Kindle app with your Amazon account. For PDF's, email a copy of the PDF to an email address that you can access on your iPad and click on the attachment. You can choose to read it directly in the email using the iOS native PDF reader or if you want to save it, Click on Open in iBooks and it will be copied directly to your iPad's internal storage and available anytime you need it, online or off line.

MP3's can be added through iTunes either by dragging and dropping or sync'ing with your PC and iTunes. Of course you can also purchase and download thousands of mp3's directly from iTunes to your iPad via the iTunes app on the home screen of the iPad. Any music you have all ready purchased through iTunes with your existing iTunes ID can be redownloaded to your iPad free of charge directly from the app via your login. They will showup with a small cloud icon next to them letting you know that you own them and they are available for download.

I would then recommend the Documents to Go app. This will allow you to view, create, open and edit MS Word, MS Excel and MS Powerpoint documents directly on the iPad and they will be able to be saved locally, on Dropbox or other cloud based storage. Of course there are also the productivity apps from Apple called Words, Numbers and Keynote.

For printing at home, and since you all ready have a Wifi enabled printer, have a look at a third party app like PrintDirect here on the App store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/printdirect-for-iphone-ipod/id425652042?mt=8
In the future if you need to upgrade or replace your printer, look for one that is Apple AirPrint enabled.

Printing, particularly when travelling is a challenge. The most uniformly easy way to do this is to rely on emailing the document to an email account that you can access via a webmail app (like Yahoo, AOL, GMail, etc.) Virtually every hotel now has a public computer and printer available to guests. Email yourself the message that you need to print and open it and print it using the Hotel's computer and printer. Here's another little trick for anything that does not have a native print or mail function built in to the app. When the document, image, webpage, map, directions, etc. is open on your screen. Pinch and zoom to a resolution that is readable and contains everything you need to show on the screen. Now, take a screen capture of it by pressing the Sleep/wake button at the top of the iPad simultaneously with the Home button at the bottom front of the iPad. This will make a screen capture and place it in your camera roll. From there you can print, forward or save natively.

Skype works wonderfully on the iPad. Download the free Skype app from the App store and set it up with your account information and it will look and act just like Skype on your PC.

You will need to learn the shortcut gestures required to efficiently use the iPad. Using five fingers on the screen of the iPad and swiping to the side will allow you to switch back to the last screen you had open. Using that same five finger gesture and swiping up will expose the system tray where any open apps are stored in the background. Pressing and holding on the screen in a document will bring up a magnifying glass and allow you to place a cursor. Releasing the hold will bring up a dialog box allowing you to select and copy anything from one word to the entire document. Once you have it copied, swipe to or open the other program that you need to paste in to and press and hold your finger on the page. A paste dialog box will come up. Press paste and you will have created a new document with the pasted content that you needed.

As far as your aviation related activities, pretty much anything that you can do on the web (as long as it does not involve pages written with Flash content) you can do on the iPad including secure banking, weather and likely flight planning. Additionally, there are some fantastic GA flight tools available (Jeppsen Charts, navigation, E6B calculators, Flight station, weather, planning apps all available on the App store. Just search on Flight Planning

 

[Welsh girl]

Wow, a lot of money spent to be so dissatisfied. However, I have to agree that trying to get the iPad to comform to PC ways of thinking would result in a lot of frustration. Took me a long time to get to grips with it, although my ageing mother took to it straight away, and it's why I ended up joining the forum. There are recent threads posted about transferring photos, using a combination of iPad and PC, use the search facility to find your topic. Persevere!! You'll find it was time and energy well spent!