Please Help Me Learn to Love My Ipad

[david004]

Dear Forum members,

My Ipad is driving me bonkers. I really want to love this device but I think I need some help learning how to love it.

I am finding a few things very frustrating. Certain capabilities that should be very basic seem to be impossible. The main cause appears to be some strange filing system that doesn't allow applications to access the same files.

I currently use Good Reader, but this has some serious limitations. It does not enable me to sync my folders; it does not import the markups on PDF documents; it does not search the contents of those documents; and search is restricted to a single word.

I am very keen to hear solutions to the following problems that I am finding:

1. How do I keep a folder in sync across several devices? I currently use Dropbox to keep a bunch of working files in sync. Importantly, syncing my Dropbox folder (on laptop and PC) does not require an internet connection because it will sync over the LAN. On the Ipad it often seems the only way to get a file from one application to another is to email it into the cloud and pull it back down. Am I missing something?

2. Itunes Backup ran for 7 hours last night and was only 75% complete in the morning. There is only 10GB on the device. Is this normal? Can I disable backup or better still configure it somehow?

3. Syncing Photos. Is there some way to choose more than one folder to sync?

4. Syncing Contacts with Gmail. This seems to work okay, but I get a duplicate of every contact, even when the contact is created on the Ipad. Any solutions?

I guess that's enough for now. Any help would be most appreciated.

Regards,

David

 

[AbblePC]

Veery good points and I must say I deal with the same if not similar issues daily.

After using the iPhone for years I had the flow of conducting business with PDF's and other doc sources down to a T and loved how it all just worked. However with the iPad it's a learning curve all over again. I find myself daily hunting down either updates or new versions to same or similar iPhone apps as well as fiddling with sync issues between the apps and the various doc types.

I am very at tentative when it comes to using the apps as it is important that my data flows effortlessly inside time constraints of each service call I perform.

Nothing is more aggravating than trying to perform an otherwise simple task I had already made easy on the iPhone to have it not work the same now on the iPad. It's funny how one can sit and think, ok this is how I want it done and this is the outcome I need. It all fits together and makes logical sense while thinking it through quickly and what apps you will use, but then starts the hair pulling once your half way through and hit a snag.

The good news is, the ability is there as well as the functional aspects of apps once they begin to mature for the way we use our iPads in a daily routine. For the most part, many of the stock apps do what they say and effortlessly. It's the 3 rd party apps that have to polish their apps to remain competitive.

One thing I can say is that mobile me and drop box have saved me more than a few times. It will be even better once I get the 3G unit in hand, but the work I have done so far on the WiFi only version has certainly gotten me more closer to a streamlined performance on the 3G and with a better idea in mind what will work what won't.

I have so many mental lists in my head about the apps I have used, that I could easily sit all day just to correspond with the dev's of those apps and layout what needs to change or be added to make them work more fluently with others and not just their own. Too many apps try to make their own "app suite" instead of working well with others, the iPhone OS 4.0 should help with that a bit more, but it's still work in progress and we are doing well I believe for being such early adopters of the iPad.

 

[Kargurin]

I had a similar problem with my ipad back up. Make sure your usb connection is with a mainboard slot versus that of a hub or some other kind of peripheral connection.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[iVan]

There is a PDF app called iAnnotate I don't have it but from the iTunes description it could import your documents.

 

[SohailS]

Veery good points and I must say I deal with the same if not similar issues daily.

After using the iPhone for years I had the flow of conducting business with PDF's and other doc sources down to a T and loved how it all just worked. However with the iPad it's a learning curve all over again. I find myself daily hunting down either updates or new versions to same or similar iPhone apps as well as fiddling with sync issues between the apps and the various doc types.

I am very at tentative when it comes to using the apps as it is important that my data flows effortlessly inside time constraints of each service call I perform.

Nothing is more aggravating than trying to perform an otherwise simple task I had already made easy on the iPhone to have it not work the same now on the iPad. It's funny how one can sit and think, ok this is how I want it done and this is the outcome I need. It all fits together and makes logical sense while thinking it through quickly and what apps you will use, but then starts the hair pulling once your half way through and hit a snag.

The good news is, the ability is there as well as the functional aspects of apps once they begin to mature for the way we use our iPads in a daily routine. For the most part, many of the stock apps do what they say and effortlessly. It's the 3 rd party apps that have to polish their apps to remain competitive.

One thing I can say is that mobile me and drop box have saved me more than a few times. It will be even better once I get the 3G unit in hand, but the work I have done so far on the WiFi only version has certainly gotten me more closer to a streamlined performance on the 3G and with a better idea in mind what will work what won't.

I have so many mental lists in my head about the apps I have used, that I could easily sit all day just to correspond with the dev's of those apps and layout what needs to change or be added to make them work more fluently with others and not just their own. Too many apps try to make their own "app suite" instead of working well with others, the iPhone OS 4.0 should help with that a bit more, but it's still work in progress and we are doing well I believe for being such early adopters of the iPad.

The only problem with native apps, I find is that you can't sync multiple photos and you can't make folders inside the Photos app either.

 

[Highbred8]

Dropbox app will keep your devices in sync, ianotate allows for some editing like signing PDF's etc and saves the edit as part of the PDF not just a drawing on top of it. Filer allows files To be transferred between your pc and iPad/iPhone as well as apps like pages, keynote, drop box etc. It also let's you down load files directly from the web to your device.

There are some very good apps, but due to the large amount of apps that do the same thing, it takes some research to find not only the right ones but to find those that will work together. The ones I mentioned are good and all have great reviews.

As your contacts issue I can't really help. I use windows contacts to sync/merge and have no problems. There is an app I used to use called something like funambol, it let's you link it to a cloud service (your preferred one or theirs) and it will sync your contacts and save them. It worked well and was easy to use.

 

[LDBecker]

Slow back-up times

I had the same issue with slow backups, and did some Googling on it. Some suggested that there were certain apps that caused the problem, but there were some who didn't seem to have problems with those same apps.
A couple of people said their problems went away when they used THE ORIGINAL SYNC CABLE that came with their iPad. I had read somewhere that the older iPod cables and the cable that came with the iPad were the same. They certainly look the same.
So, I tried the easy fix - I found the original cable that came with the iPad, substituted it for the older cable that I had been using with my iPod, and the problem went away. Backup times went from 10-12 hours to typically 2-3 minutes. Honestly, that's the only change I made, and the problem went away.
Try that and see if it helps...

Best of luck, and let us know if it solved your problem -
Larry

 

[paulyeo11]

I do face a lot of problem too.
Abt 18 of My contact delete from my iPhone.after sync iPad and iPhone with outlook use win xp, Lucky some number still can find in iPad. Till now still hv problem.

As for slow backup it happen to me after I JB, and after I upgrade my firm ware 3.2.2 now backup is ok , but without JB. Not sure it there people out there have same issue ?