[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:40, topic:585203”]
[moderating]
You really don’t see the difference between a one-liner slamming Apple (and its customers) and Garfield’s lengthy contributions to the thread? Then feel free to open a thread in IMHO and discuss whether my mod note was appropriate. Let’s not continue to side-track this thread, though.
[/moderating]
[/QUOTE]
Whatever.
If you’re still looking for help, I just prepped my iPad for a holiday (for me, time to work for it), which included loading videos and comics:
videos - I use AVplayerHD, which can play my videos without conversion. You load videos using iTunes, but not by syncing. AVI files have many different codecs though, so you have to test with your particular files.
comics - I just found PhotoMgrPro and it works fine so far: it has a built in HTTP server so you transfer comics over wifi. Plus points: transfer multiple files at once. Create folders, both over wifi and in app. Folders within folders. The best feature is the search - you can “browse” search results, I mean when viewing photos in search results you can scroll to the next one, when you go back, the results are still there. So I just dump all my comics into 1 folder, and search for a chapter number e.g. 123 and all the correct pages come up.
Unfortunately my Ipad said it couldn’t.:mad:
I have a Camera connection kit.
My Bloggie camera has only a USB interface for transferring photos. The Connection Kit has a USB interface option but the Ipad app fails the connection due to power issues. I can transfer photos off of the SD cards from one of my other cameras but the Bloggie is actually my beach camera where I take most of my pictures (sand sculpting - the bikinis were on there just by ..um accident)
Another issue is that yes, iPad with the right software can play various video formats - but it has a built in chip to decode particular video (IIRC, it’s H.264?). Any other format will be decoded in software and will seriously drain the battery compared to the native format.
I recall reading that the youtube app for iPad (among others) specifically streams in the correct format to avoid battery drain.
Yes, the problem with a USB port(other than battery) is drivers. There are a massive number of drivers required; while it may not tax a 64GB system, it could occupy a lot of a 16GB system. Plus updates… plus another format for people to complain their hardware is not supported. Heck, put a USB on and people will expect it to support every printer or webcam out there. (Even the “2” with built in camera - someone will want to plug in a USB hub and 2 cameras and 3 printers…)
I agree though, after 30 years of using file-oriented storage, the “application and its associated library” is not the sort of paradigm I want to work with. Plus, many files are used by multiple apps; (i.e. you edit a photo, run it through a “make slide show” or “make a video” by adding a sound file, you mail it, you create one from a camera, import, download, snapshot from a video file… so now you’re back to “many photo apps and their library of data (i.e. photos)” except some of the examples I mentioned use several different types of files (video, photos, audio) so the boundaries between each collection of data will blur repeatedly.
I give Apple about 2 or 3 more releases before we have a full-blown computer capable of browsing file shares on the network and selecting the program to process that file. But I still think a USB connection - beyond reading USB memory sticks - is probably not coming soon.
I did some searching and found this advice:
"…Well almost. You cannot connect it without it complaining it is not supported, but if the Bloggie is powered on first it will connect and show the photos on it. It will not import any movies though. "
Not sure if that will help you or not. The only other info relating both apple and the bloggie were about how itunes and idevices don’t support the bloggie’s video format. Too bad, bikinis look better in video 
Worked like a charm for the comics files! Haven’t tried yet for my .avi files, but that’s a slightly less-urgent situation. Thanks all!
Okay, here’s my other problem with this sentiment: Looking at every important technological breakthrough of the last twenty years, I see very few new devices being invented. What I see instead are a whole lot of old inventions being re-applied to new problems, pretty far removed from their original intent. A message service for different campuses in the Research Triangle? A social network for Harvard students only? A blood vessel dilator that grows hair/promotes erections/gets the crabgrass out of my lawn? I see nothing naive or stupid about wanting this fairly expensive toy to do what I want, not just facilitate purchases from iTunes.
And I’m pretty sure I could heat up a cup of soup on my toaster, if push came to shove. I’m pretty adaptable that way.