Problems I have with the iPad - are there solutions or should I return it?

[IPadNewbie12]

I just got an iPad 3 and I still have a week to decide if I want to keep it or not. This is my first Apple product, so I understand that there is a bit of getting used to, but overall I have been a bit disappointed with the iPad. It can't seem to do the most basic tasks, that even my Android phone has no problems with. I want to love it, but I just don't...


I have the iPad 3 64GB with W-Fi and 4G LTE. These are the major dealbreakers for me sofar:

- For my work I sometimes have to be able to download and upload files (Word or Excel) to and from a website. I cannot just send them in an e-mail or a link to DropBox. I HAVE to be able to use the website interface. This is impossible in Safari (wow! really??) After much research, I finally found the app iCab. Things were looking good; I was able to download the file, and when I press the upload button I am now able to see the file I need to upload, but alas, it still will not actually upload the file. This is a major deal breaker for me. I don't intend to use the iPad for work that much, but I would like for my 1000 dollar gadget to be able to do this, when on occasion I am somewhere away from a computer. Seems to me like a reasonable request, but it just seems to be impossible on the iPad. Very sad about this. I can even do this on my Android phone.

- One cannot send e-mails that contain more than one file attachment (I'm not talking about photos, but other files). Wow, mind blown again! This is amazing to me. So, basically, every time I need to send a client several documents, I have to send them one e-mail for each file?? Pretty unprofessional. A bit of a deal breaker as well, although not as much as the above.

- I cannot import my current collection of movies (in various formats; none were bought from iTunes) into iTunes, or play them on my iPad. Now, I have to admit, I only started looking into this today and I am still going to look for some sort of way to do this, but man, why does it all have to be so difficult??

- And finally, yes, I am also one of those who seem to be affected by the internet connectivity problems that arose after upgrading to iOS 6. Kind of annoying. Sometimes it works for a while, but then it stops again. Tried all the solutions offered online, but no success yet. The people in the store told me there isn't even a way to roll back to iOS 5 until things are resolved. Again kind of disappointing coming from Apple...

In any case, if I can't find solutions to all these problems (minus maybe the e-mail attachment thing; I can live with that one), I will have to return this thing. Anyone any experience with that? How do you wipe all your info off? Just reset it to factory settings?

 

[The OB]

First off some short sharp and not so shiny observations. The iPad is not a computer. It does not deal in files and has no file directory where you can choose a file to upload. To work with the iPad you need to work with Apps. But there could be SOME customisation to an off- the- shelf iPad. But to reiterate, for any possible success you need to work with an App which includes sending a file as an attachment

It is obvious you have tried hard to find a solution and therefore the higher the frustration. The following suggestions are a bit thin on the ground as much as my understanding is concerned, but may help: Try the following Apps:

Try "iCabMobile" a browser similar to Safari which allows you to store files and then upload them to a webside in a rather convoluted fashion using a cloud-based client. For example: Create your word file on your iPad and upload that file to DropBox (for example). iCabMobile easily links to DropBox. Download it again to iPad by using iCab Mobile. You should now be able to upload that file to a website of your choosing (but with possible traps, such as the recipient webside needing Flash for the upload)

Other suggested Apps for you to consider, with possible success, may be: "AnyAttach", "iUploader", "iStorage."

I do hope you find a solution, despite my meagre efforts to help, as it would be a pity to let that nice piece of equipment out of your hands. But of course it may come down to getting a computer to be able to effectively do your work.
All the best, Andrew

 

[AQ_OC]

Andrew,

I have to disagree with one statement you made. The iPad is very definitly a computer in every sense of the word. Sure, it works differently than a PC or MAC, or a PC running Linux, etc. But it is still a computer. It has RAM, storage (SSD), a cpu, a gpu, a screen, and an OS. These things make it a computer. Moving on.

OP, try an alternative video player. The one I like is AVPlayerHD. With it you can play many formats that the iPad cannot normally play. Plus, you can transfer movies to your iPad wirelessly and not have to use iTunes at all. Or you can use iTunes and transfer for video files directly into th this app, and they will most likely play. There are several other options for alternaive players. I mention this one because it is the one I have experience with.

 

[The OB]

Andrew,

I have to disagree with one statement you made. The iPad is very definitly a computer in every sense of the word. Sure, it works differently than a PC or MAC, or a PC running Linux, etc. But it is still a computer. It has RAM, storage (SSD), a cpu, a gpu, a screen, and an OS. These things make it a computer. Moving on.

OP, try an alternative video player. The one I like is AVPlayerHD. With it you can play many formats that the iPad cannot normally play. Plus, you can transfer movies to your iPad wirelessly and not have to use iTunes at all. Or you can use iTunes and transfer for video files directly into th this app, and they will most likely play. There are several other options for alternaive players. I mention this one because it is the one I have experience with.

Re your para 1) Put that way, it's difficult to disagree with you. I love my computer!
Re your para 2) the OP was concerned with uploading documents as files to/from websites and not videos.
Regards, Andrew

 

[dhewson777]

Re your para 1) Put that way, it's difficult to disagree with you. I love my computer!
Re your para 2) the OP was concerned with uploading documents as files to/from websites and not videos.
Regards, Andrew

The OPs third point was to do with playing various video formats, hence his comments re AVplayer etc. So to clarify, yes, the iPad can play nearly any video file format via third party app, of which there is many. I personally love to stream my media content from my NAS over the wifi to my pad for casual viewing. I have both OPlayerHD and GoodPlayer. I also watch live TV over my network which has a HDHomerun network tuner on it.

 

[IPadNewbie12]

First off some short sharp and not so shiny observations. The iPad is not a computer. It does not deal in files and has no file directory where you can choose a file to upload. To work with the iPad you need to work with Apps. But there could be SOME customisation to an off- the- shelf iPad. But to reiterate, for any possible success you need to work with an App which includes sending a file as an attachment

It is obvious you have tried hard to find a solution and therefore the higher the frustration. The following suggestions are a bit thin on the ground as much as my understanding is concerned, but may help: Try the following Apps:

Try "iCabMobile" a browser similar to Safari which allows you to store files and then upload them to a webside in a rather convoluted fashion using a cloud-based client. For example: Create your word file on your iPad and upload that file to DropBox (for example). iCabMobile easily links to DropBox. Download it again to iPad by using iCab Mobile. You should now be able to upload that file to a website of your choosing (but with possible traps, such as the recipient webside needing Flash for the upload)

Other suggested Apps for you to consider, with possible success, may be: "AnyAttach", "iUploader", "iStorage."

I do hope you find a solution, despite my meagre efforts to help, as it would be a pity to let that nice piece of equipment out of your hands. But of course it may come down to getting a computer to be able to effectively do your work.
All the best, Andrew

Hi, I realize it's not a computer in the sense that it's not a laptop, but I think it's not too much to ask for it to be able to perform a simple task like uploading a file to a website. As I said, even my phone (Android) can do that, and I'm sure any Android or Microsoft tablet would be able to as well. I have tried iCab, but to no avail. As I described above, it all goes well right up to the point where it has to actually upload the file. Of course, this could potentially also have something to do with the internet connectivity issue. That's another problem... I really expected more from Apple. It's supposed to be so superior, but I can't get anything done on this thing.

Maybe I should try jailbreaking it? I heard something about Safari Uploader Enabler, but you can only run it on a jailbroken iPAd. Kind of mind-boggling to me that this would be necessary, but I'm willing to try it. Then again, I may just get an Android.

 

[IPadNewbie12]

Andrew,

I have to disagree with one statement you made. The iPad is very definitly a computer in every sense of the word. Sure, it works differently than a PC or MAC, or a PC running Linux, etc. But it is still a computer. It has RAM, storage (SSD), a cpu, a gpu, a screen, and an OS. These things make it a computer. Moving on.

OP, try an alternative video player. The one I like is AVPlayerHD. With it you can play many formats that the iPad cannot normally play. Plus, you can transfer movies to your iPad wirelessly and not have to use iTunes at all. Or you can use iTunes and transfer for video files directly into th this app, and they will most likely play. There are several other options for alternaive players. I mention this one because it is the one I have experience with.

Thanks for your tip. Is AVPlayerHD only available for jailbroken iPads? I can't seem to be able to find it in the App store...

 

[LannyC]

You need to understand that every iOS application is sandboxed, that is, it's not permitted to communicate with other apps unless specific provisions have been hard coded into it. This includes sharing files. IOS has no general-purpose file system that's accessible to you or your apps. The upside: no virus can propagate in a non-jailbroken iPad.

Certain exceptions exist, such as uploading photos or videos from the Camera Roll to a website via Safari or the site's dedicated app. But other documents belong to specific apps, and you generally can't manipulate them outside of that immediate environment.

That said, chances are someone has written an app to do just about any task you can imagine. But they will be highly specialized to that task. E.g., GPlayer can enable a server on the iPad to which you can connect over wifi from your desktop computer, to upload movies that the Apple movie player can't handle. But the movies are not available to any other app, so it would make no sense to use GPlayer to upload a Word file. Other apps accept Word files, but not movies.

Using an iPad for business is sorta like driving nails with a wrench--you can usually do it, if you have enough time and a large enough wrench. Some folks treat it as a fun challenge, and enjoy the learning curve. It doesn't seem like a good idea for anyone without a high threshold for frustration and considerable time to experiment. The payoff is 1) a lot less hardware to lug around, and 2) making a positive impression as one who embraces the latest technology.

milliHelen: amount of beauty required to launch one ship.

 

[scudder]

Thanks for your tip. Is AVPlayerHD only available for jailbroken iPads? I can't seem to be able to find it in the App store...

Most certainly for any iPad and it is in the store.

 

[BlueSky77]

Most certainly for any iPad and it is in the store.

AVPlayerHD has been temporarily removed from the app store: Alternatives to AVPlayerHD - MacRumors Forums

I was looking for AVPlayerHD this past weekend but to no avail and found the above linked post at MacRumors Forums.

 

[AQ_OC]

What happened with AVPlayerHD? They must have been having some problems?

OP: You may be happier with an Android tab. Life is what it is and you don't need to live with limitations of the iPad if they dont' work for you. I love mine, but I recognize that it may not be right for everyone. Uploading files from a device that is not file-centric is going to be a constant frustration for you. Its a basic task but design constraints put in place in the development of iPad prevent that, for all expect photos or videos, or camera related things, in iOS6.

 

[BlueSky77]

I just got an iPad 3 and I still have a week to decide if I want to keep it or not. This is my first Apple product, so I understand that there is a bit of getting used to, but overall I have been a bit disappointed with the iPad. It can't seem to do the most basic tasks, that even my Android phone has no problems with. I want to love it, but I just don't...


I have the iPad 3 64GB with W-Fi and 4G LTE. These are the major dealbreakers for me sofar:

- For my work I sometimes have to be able to download and upload files (Word or Excel) to and from a website. I cannot just send them in an e-mail or a link to DropBox. I HAVE to be able to use the website interface. This is impossible in Safari (wow! really??) After much research, I finally found the app iCab. Things were looking good; I was able to download the file, and when I press the upload button I am now able to see the file I need to upload, but alas, it still will not actually upload the file. This is a major deal breaker for me. I don't intend to use the iPad for work that much, but I would like for my 1000 dollar gadget to be able to do this, when on occasion I am somewhere away from a computer. Seems to me like a reasonable request, but it just seems to be impossible on the iPad. Very sad about this. I can even do this on my Android phone... <snip>

Safari isn't the only web browser available to you. There are other web browsers (free) in the app store, like Opera Min Web Browser, Google Chrome, etc... I don't know if any of these will have the functionality you need but you could give them a try.

Also, I use an app called FileApp Pro (on sale right now @ $0.99) which gives you a kind of "Windows Explorer" functionality on your iPad. It allows you to transfer files from your computer to FileApp Pro and transfer and save files from other apps (including safari/web browsers) on your device. So maybe if you combine FileApp Pro with a different web browser you might be headed in the right direction.

As for movies, the suggested AVPlayerHD is currently not available. However, you could try a multitude of other Video apps like Buzz Player for example, to play those videos that are not compatible with the native video player on your iPad.

I understand your frustration. However, there are so many apps out there that I'm sure you are bound to find something that will help you out.

I run my own business, but I don't use my iPad for anything business related (except the calendar). I have desktop computers, a laptop and a netbook (with a 10" screen) for running my business. I'm sure there are many people using their iPad's for business, but they probably have specific apps, designed by their company for specific business purposes.

I had an android tablet (Asus Transformer Prime) and was really frustrated with some of the problems that I was experiencing with it (horrible wifi reception for one thing). I got rid of it and picked up the iPad 3. I've been extrememly happy with that decision but my primary use is for entertainment purposes. If you can't do what you need to do with the iPad, then maybe you should consider something else.

I hope you find a combination of apps that's useful to you!

 

[zip255]

I would not have purchased any of my other Apple products and I wish that I could take them back with that being said I would not give up my iPad for anything. I have an iMac 27 inch and I hate it and I have an iPhone 4S and I hate it I have the new iPad and absolutely love it,,, do not do the iOS six update though it sucked,,,