iPad and pics

[Bayport]

1st post so sorry if this has been asked before. Could not find what I wanted in search.

My wife has an old MAC that is dying. Her primary usage is photos. surfing and email. Takes a lot of pics, loves to mess w them and then upload to Shutterfly.
I know you can upload pics to the iPad with the card adapter.
I also know the iPad has limited memory.
Can you transfer pics from the iPad to a portable hard drive? If so, is it via cable?

So I'm trying to find out (before I go to the store) what the iPad can do and if it will work for her or if I need to get her a MacBook Pro.
Thanks a lot.
L

 

[Seadog]

I would tend to go with a MacBook. With USB and SD card slot it can be easier to move pictures. And with a Displayport to HDMI cable, look at them on your TV. The iPad can do these things, but most people do not like to deal with this much of a learning curve. It may be great to get her an iPad later.

 

[twerppoet]

The iPad makes a good accessory for playing with photos, but I would not depend on it as my primary device for this case/use.

If photos are the main purpose of the device, I agree with Seadog, the Macbook Pro is a far better choice.

 

[hpulmer]

In addition to the above: no, it is not possible to connect an external hard drive to the (of the shelf) iPad.

☠ stay safe ☠ stay legal ☠

 

[Bayport]

Thanks for the info.

 

[Wordchipper]

That SD card adapter ($30) for the iPad 4 only allows loading directly from the original camera card. If you "process" the photos, crop, adjust, in, say, Photoshop Elements, and then try to load through an SD card into the adapter to the iPAD, forget it. Won't accept those. And it changes the numbering of the photos so when I load an original camera card of photos on my wife's iPAD for her to view and select, the numbers do not relate to the original numbering that I've loaded on my Windows computer. Why couldn't they have left the original photo file numbers alone, after all, they require you dump the photos directly from the original camera card onto the iPAD. The iPad is fine for her to do email and browse some websites, recipes, etc., but forget it for doing any real work like word processing, or photoshop type work. It's a content READER and that's about it. That's why when I needed to buy a new transportable computer, I bought another Windows laptop and had 'em roll the O. S. back to System 7. - Wordchipper

 

[s2mikey]

That SD card adapter ($30) for the iPad 4 only allows loading directly from the original camera card. If you "process" the photos, crop, adjust, in, say, Photoshop Elements, and then try to load through an SD card into the adapter to the iPAD, forget it. Won't accept those. And it changes the numbering of the photos so when I load an original camera card of photos on my wife's iPAD for her to view and select, the numbers do not relate to the original numbering that I've loaded on my Windows computer. Why couldn't they have left the original photo file numbers alone, after all, they require you dump the photos directly from the original camera card onto the iPAD. The iPad is fine for her to do email and browse some websites, recipes, etc., but forget it for doing any real work like word processing, or photoshop type work. It's a content READER and that's about it. That's why when I needed to buy a new transportable computer, I bought another Windows laptop and had 'em roll the O. S. back to System 7. - Wordchipper

There is no doubt that the iPad can't quite replace a traditional computer. But, you can do more than just read content. It is very possible to edit and create content. People do it all the time. Moving files around using an iPad does get a little fumbly due to not being able to get directly at files. That's the whole walled garden thing that everyone loves and hates. For more serious work, yeah, th iPad probably isn't the best choice. But it's far from just a content consumption device.

 

[Wordchipper]

s2mikey - thanks for comeback. My assertion that it is merely a "reader" or "consumption device" is probably a bit too far...my monochrome Kindle is that and works beautifully at that single function, better than LCD back-lit for long texts. So, for reading publications, photos and looking at videos..as long as they're not FLASH (another dumb decision by Apple not to include Flash..fighting their wars with Adobe, as bad as Google versus Microsoft. The consumer is collateral damage in these skirmishes). You're right.."moving files get a little fumbly.." absolutely..and frustrating. I don't want to buy another printer either and yesterday my wife wanted something printed so she had to send the web link of the content to me and then I had to run it through the printers attached to my Windows computers. Why? Buy an Apple printer and watch the ink dry out from infrequent printing? But when you want something, why not be able to use existing Windows-based printers? The Surface can. And then..try to format something in Gmail. No bold, no italic, no easy "link" command...horrible. It's like it's pretending it's a smart phone. You mention "editing" and "creating content." How do you work with A) Word, the most most popular word processing program on the planet? or B) PowerPoint? God forbid an iPAD user would even think about looking at an Excel file..or creating one. This is as bad as the late and great Steve Jobs saying "one doesn't need a hard drive in the Mac SE." And the minute one waves their finger at the screen, unless you're very careful, all of sudden you're lost. No close box on the Safari browser - the only browser you can use in, as you put it, "the walled garden." No, like Jimmy Buffet steering toward that "cheeserburger in paradise.." I will steer far and away from an iPAD. My wife's is close enough...I need to do real work...and, to me, the iPAD is a very expensive toy.

 

[s2mikey]

s2mikey - thanks for comeback. My assertion that it is merely a "reader" or "consumption device" is probably a bit too far...my monochrome Kindle is that and works beautifully at that single function, better than LCD back-lit for long texts. So, for reading publications, photos and looking at videos..as long as they're not FLASH (another dumb decision by Apple not to include Flash..fighting their wars with Adobe, as bad as Google versus Microsoft. The consumer is collateral damage in these skirmishes). You're right.."moving files get a little fumbly.." absolutely..and frustrating. I don't want to buy another printer either and yesterday my wife wanted something printed so she had to send the web link of the content to me and then I had to run it through the printers attached to my Windows computers. Why? Buy an Apple printer and watch the ink dry out from infrequent printing? But when you want something, why not be able to use existing Windows-based printers? The Surface can. And then..try to format something in Gmail. No bold, no italic, no easy "link" command...horrible. It's like it's pretending it's a smart phone. You mention "editing" and "creating content." How do you work with A) Word, the most most popular word processing program on the planet? or B) PowerPoint? God forbid an iPAD user would even think about looking at an Excel file..or creating one. This is as bad as the late and great Steve Jobs saying "one doesn't need a hard drive in the Mac SE." And the minute one waves their finger at the screen, unless you're very careful, all of sudden you're lost. No close box on the Safari browser - the only browser you can use in, as you put it, "the walled garden." No, like Jimmy Buffet steering toward that "cheeserburger in paradise.." I will steer far and away from an iPAD. My wife's is close enough...I need to do real work...and, to me, the iPAD is a very expensive toy.

Actually, there are other browsers you can use. I like the Atomic web browser myself. As for creating content, I do it all the time using an app suite called QuickOffice which edits and works pretty well with excel and word files. There are times when some formatting can be lost when moving the files between a PC and the iPad but overall it's a really good office product. There are others too. No doubt that a windows based tablet will have more options when using excel and word but the iPad options are pretty good too. QuickOffice also comes with a power point app that does a good job. Not as full featured as MS Office but solid nonetheless.

Printing is still a little dodgy, I agree there. Depends what your needs are. It does seem that you'd be better served with a traditional laptop or windows based tablet though. That's cool. The iPad isn't just a media consumption device but its not a replacement for a true workhorse PC either. It's somewhere in the middle.

 

[Diane B]

I work with Docs, Excel all the time on the Ipad and use it as a second monitor when I'm working with a big Excel sheet. A number of good Office apps available. I process jpegs for Flickr using Leonardo with layers, selection, etc.--Its way more than the average person could ever use but for PS lovers its a great mobile app. Yes, I have a custom PC for my RAW processing in PHotoshop and LIghtroom but I can do a lot on the Ipad, video too. Try Snapseed and Photogene too. You certainly don't have to have an Apple printer--do a bit of research, and granted its not as easy as just hitting "print" but there are a number of ways to print.

There are other browsers too--try Chrome, Icab, Atomic. Art apps, especially using a Jot stylus, are amazing. Musicians can do really wonderful things using an Ipad. But, if you don't like the Ipad, then just don't use it. I've had one since first week Ipad 1 came out and I'm a very very long time Win user. Just had a big custom PC with Win 7Pro built, primarily for Photo processing but I find I can do a huge percentage of other things on the Ipad now. BTW, there are a number of editors around--I use two that both sync with Dropbox but also allow you to email directly--works great for gmail--just set gmail as your default email and you're good to go. I have several mail accounts but use gmail as default--and especially for long emails I use a BT keyboard--often the Logitech thin case--and use one of my text editor apps for mail (out). A toy the Ipad isn't--IMO.

 

[New2TheGame]

What about uploading to icloud

 

[twerppoet]

What about uploading to icloud

Unlike DropBox or most other cloud services, iCloud does not provide a general file system for documents. To upload a document to iCloud, you need an app specifically made to save document in iCloud. More importantly, you need that same app/developer to retrieve those documents.

iCloud is not a file sharing/storing service. At least not at this time. Who knows what they will add eventually.

 

[oberkc]

My quick experiment was:

a) use PC (windows 8) to create a file on an SD card called "dcim". Add photo
b) put SD card into CCK and iPad2
c) attempt to read photo.

The experiment failed. I have made no attempt at variations or troubleshooting.

 

[twerppoet]

My quick experiment was:

a) use PC (windows 8) to create a file on an SD card called "dcim". Add photo
b) put SD card into CCK and iPad2
c) attempt to read photo.

The experiment failed. I have made no attempt at variations or troubleshooting.

The file names of the pictures also have to meet the naming convention. 8 characters maximum and usually something like IMGxxxx.jpg

To make sure the SD card is formatted correctly it is best to format it in the camera (where the DCIM directory will be created for you). Formatting on the computer can result in something other than the FAT format (which if memory serves is the standard used by most cameras).

All in all, it is a pain to copy pictures from a computer to the iPad using SD cards, which is why most of us use alternate tools like PhotoSync (no hyphen).

 

[oberkc]

I agree that, for me, there are easier ways to move pictures to the ipad. Whether this is true for all, I cannot say.

But, I think the original question concerned moving of pictures via sd cards formatted by a computer and that was the question I was trying to address. naming them something that starts with img could help. I find this very possible.