PC Guy Thinking ipad 2 (?'s)

[chesterdawg]

I have PC laptops & Desktop running XP & Windows 7.

I'm considering geting an ipad 2 mostly to use as a portalbe image view/frame for my photographs.

I like its screen resolution, size, weight and screen dimensions (more proprtionate to DSLR image, not wide screen).

Anyway I know I'll have to upload my images to iturnes (which I don't have yet) but want to know if I can transfer files back & forth via a usb cable.

Also can it be charged using the usb cable connected to pc or only with ac plug?


Being a photo guy I know that mac's are the industry standard but photography is now mostly a hobby for me.

I always hear how much nicer mac's are to work with and if I can use usb and work with pc to get started I can see replacing our current pc's w/macs in the future.

Any and all tips/suggestions appreciated,

Steve

 

[Rudinater]

Anyway I know I'll have to upload my images to iturnes (which I don't have yet) but want to know if I can transfer files back & forth via a usb cable.

I'm not sure what you are asking here . . . . You can't connect your Ipad direct to your DSLR. At best you can connect a SD card reader to the Ipad but it only reads the smaller memory cards not the larger cards used in most DSLR's.

Also can it be charged using the usb cable connected to pc or only with ac plug?

Yes, but depending on the USB port it may not show that the Ipad is charging and it may take over night to charge.

I also "Charge" my Ipad in the car. But I have a "Fast Charge" adaptor that puts out 1.5A instead of the normal .5A.

Being a photo guy I know that mac's are the industry standard but photography is now mostly a hobby for me.

I always hear how much nicer mac's are to work with and if I can use usb and work with pc to get started I can see replacing our current pc's w/macs in the future.

Any and all tips/suggestions appreciated,

Steve

Both cannon and Nikon have WiFi transmitters that connect to their DSLR's. At some point if they have not already there should be a app to catch and interface with the camera.

Good Luck what are you shooting with. I have a Nikon D200 myself.

 

[chesterdawg]

Anyway I know I'll have to upload my images to iturnes (which I don't have yet) but want to know if I can transfer files back & forth via a usb cable.

I'm not sure what you are asking here . . . . You can't connect your Ipad direct to your DSLR. At best you can connect a SD card reader to the Ipad but it only reads the smaller memory cards not the larger cards used in most DSLR's.

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I want to be able to transfer files/images/music
(jpeg mostly but alwo tiff &DNG, music =mp3).
Basically I'm looking for ways of transfering these files to and maybe from the ipad 2.

I've been told that I need an itune acct. and can then upload photo/music files and download to ipad 2.
Using this method can I send files from ipad 2 to my pc laptop?

Sorry for the wordy ?s but I've only worked on pc's for the last 20yrs.

I feel that if the ipad 2 can do what I want that I will phase into all mac hardware in the futue. (but stay with my mp3 player since I can get music for 5cents each.

Keep the info coming please,

Steve

 

[brian_fantana]

Anyway I know I'll have to upload my images to iturnes (which I don't have yet) but want to know if I can transfer files back & forth via a usb cable.

I'm not sure what you are asking here . . . . You can't connect your Ipad direct to your DSLR. At best you can connect a SD card reader to the Ipad but it only reads the smaller memory cards not the larger cards used in most DSLR's.

[

----------------------------------------

I want to be able to transfer files/images/music
(jpeg mostly but alwo tiff &DNG, music =mp3).
Basically I'm looking for ways of transfering these files to and maybe from the ipad 2.

I've been told that I need an itune acct. and can then upload photo/music files and download to ipad 2.
Using this method can I send files from ipad 2 to my pc laptop?

Sorry for the wordy ?s but I've only worked on pc's for the last 20yrs.

I feel that if the ipad 2 can do what I want that I will phase into all mac hardware in the futue. (but stay with my mp3 player since I can get music for 5cents each.

Keep the info coming please,

Steve

Hi steve.
I'm a p.c man through and though running an ipad 2 and ipod touch with windows 7
You will need to download itunes for windows and set up an account with apple.
Before you can even do anything on the ipad it needs to be connected to itunes.
I believe to transfer anything back and forth between the ipad and p.c it has to be done through itunes. I would also love to know if there is a away of accessing the folders on the ipad and transfering files to the ipad with out opening windows.Hopefully someone would be able to answer this for us.
You will find running itunes on a p.c can get very frustrating lots of crashes and bugs and just genrally a program that apple dont feel the need to perfect on windows. Fair enough really .
My wife has mac book. And i have to say it runs itunes absolutely faultlessly . and she absolutey loves .

 

[Rudinater]

I'm also a PC guy, even to the point of help developed them with I work for Compaq Computers in product development for 6 years.

Like Brian said you have to have itunes to do anything with a Ipad. Simple fact is the first thing you have to do when you first buy a ipad is connect to a computer with Itunes so that it will start working.

Now I will disagree with Brian that Itunes is unstable on a PC. I have ran Itunes on several different systems and have never had a problem with it locking up or crashing.

Simple fact is to get any thing on or off the Ipad you have to use Itunes. If you have a problem with that then just pass on a Ipad and get a droid tablet.

 

[Surfinette]

I'm a heavy-user PC girl, Android smartphone fan and a very very happy iPad2 owner.

The thing that I hate most about the iPad is its file management system and iTunes in particular. By contrast, you plug an Android device to a PC and it is automatically recognized as a standard USB key without the use of any 3rd party app or driver and you can effortlessly transfer files back and forth between PC and Android.

I love Android and hate iTunes, yet for a tablet I went for an iPad2 and don't regret it, why?
- to my knowledge, no Android tablet beats the iPad in terms for battery live (really really amazing on the iPad), lightweightness and screen quality (the iPad is useable under sun/bright light), fluidity/reponsiveness/stability (rotation, moving around between screen,etc...)
- the great choice of app is amazing, notably with regards to games/educations/multimedia apps (that I wouldn't use on a smartphone anyways because the screen is too small). If you limit yourself to watching photos or editing them I guess maybe Android or iPad won't make much difference, but once you'll have a Tablet in your hands... you'll be tempted to use all its multimedia/leisure features (especially if you have kids). And frankly, I doubt you can do much precise photo editing by the tip of your fingers (I've not tested, I can't say... I still prefer my photoshop). If you chose to go for Android, go to the XDA-Dev forum for Q&A, HowTo, help to chose the best model/brand that will feed your needs (Android requires more geek aptitude than Apple devices for best power usage... )

Now coming back to iTunes, you can do things without iTunes:
- You can transfer photos back and forth between iPad and PC without iTunes: from iPad to PC when you plug the iPad to PC iPad pops up as a USB key in the PC BUT only photos are available. From PC to iPad you can use the special kit sold by apple (or third parties on ebay). Not highy convenient, but feasible.
- There are several apps available in the market that use wifi to transfer photos back and forth between the iPad and your PC (i've not tested any of them, because I find wifi too slow especially for a large batch of photos and because I use the option below)
- If you Jailbreak your iPad (tuto available here in the forum, easy and no risk), then bye bye itunes (for most usage). Jaibreaking means freeing your iPad from most of Apple's (stupid IMHO) constrains. I've jailbroken my iPad2 and use a combo of 2 file managers: iFile on the iPad and iFunbox on the PC. With this combo, it is almost as if your iPad was a USB key. iFunBox can be run as a simple exe (no installer) so it can be use on any PC without being intrusive. iFile includes a wifi module so can be accessed from a PC without even using iFunbox.

IMHO, you can do OK without JB but the best option (for convenience and ease of use) is iPad + JB. However if you want to JailBreak, you need to have you iPad with iOS 4.3.3 not 4.3.4... so you need to hurry and buy an iPad that was already in stock in the retail store before July 16 when Apple released iOS 4.3.4 (the upgrade was meant to block the 4.3.3 JailBreak ). You cannot downgrade from 4.3.4 to 4.3.3 if you did not own a 4.3.3 version before hand... There may be some non-permanent JB for 4.3.4 but i'm not sure. For all JB questions see the very good iPad Hacking section in this forum.

With regard to charging the iPad through the PC, it depends on the strength of the usb port... on my laptop it is not powerful enough but on some PC (tower) it could be OK.

Last comment: don't hesitate to buy a 64 Go iPad... I have a 32 Go iPad and very much miss the additional 32 Go (those multimedia apps are great but eat a lot of space...).

Hopes this help

Surfinette

EDIT : iPad can read raw files , I don't know for Android (not tested)

 

[chesterdawg]

Thanks!

Great info, thank you.

I mainly want the ipad2 to view/display digital images, not to edit them.

As far as I can tell the ipad 2 & hp tablets are the only ones available that are not widescreen. I don't want widescreen, great for movies but not displaying photo's w/o cropping them.

Also from what I hear the apple OS is much better than hp and the rest.

Keep the tips coming and thank again,

Steve