My mom, who cannot stand to be behind on snazzy cool technology, is taking the plunge and buying an iPad 2. (I actually think this will be great for her – rather more geared to her than the laptop she currently owns. She is not particularly technology-savvy (perhaps a little better than average for the 60s crowd, but not much better) and mainly uses her laptop for checking/writing email, surfing the internet, and watching movies on YouTube. Every so often she fires up Word or Excel.)
She’s asked me what specs she should get. I know she needs to get wireless+3G because she’s going to want to be able to get to the internet when she travels and doesn’t mind paying the monthly fee. I’m not sure about the memory, though. If I were getting one, I’d get the most memory (64G) for sure because I like carrying around my whole life, especially music (of which I have a ton), on my portable electronic devices and I’m always running out of memory on them. She doesn’t really do that – she isn’t going to want to store music on it really. Pictures, yes, but I don’t think those take up a huge amount of space (or do they?). I think 16G will be enough for her – but am I missing something?
Oh, also I’ve heard it’s nice to get a bluetooth keyboard to use with the iPad; has anyone done this, and if so, do you like it?
Can you get to google docs on the iPad browser? If so I can get her to use that instead of Word… she doesn’t need anything fancy (as in the other thread), just a word processor that will let her eventually send the document to a printer.
If she’s not going to use it for any media (or only rarely) 16gb is fine. If she wants to watch TV or movies through iTunes she may want a larger version but since she can’t stand to be behind the curve she can get 16gb for today and upgrade if she wants on the ipad 3 or 4.
The bluetooth keyboards are great but not really convenient to cart around. My husband carries his around all day at work but I found that it wasn’t worth the trouble for me.
There is actually a google docs ipad app so that’s easy and only 4.99.
You can actually get a lot of pictures and even music into 16gb. Also apps, documents, books, etc. As Moonlitherial says, the only thing that takes up a lot of space is movies and other videos. That’s said, I got the 64gb one anyway, even though I rarely watch movies on it.
For 3G, you have another choice. AT&T or Verizon? AT&T is faster, but Verizon has better coverage … way better in some areas. They have different service plans too making it harder to make an apples to apples comparison.
I feel for you. Mom needs the new gadgets + not tech savvy = child working uncompensated tech support
Depends on what she types. It works, but it’s not great. I’ve had woes with finding an office suite, but it’s doable. Word processors cost extra. Printing functionality costs extra, HDMI…you get the point. It sounds like your mom wants the cool factor, which my little toy certainly is. Just a caveat emptor, though.
Oh, and mine has the new Zagg/logitech keyboard case. Works great.
Moonlitherial, the Google Docs app sounds perfect for what she’ll be using it for! And you’re right that she may just want to get the next latest and greatest by the time she runs out of room on this one.
Greg Charles, I’m hearin’ ya It’s not so bad with PC questions, since we’re a PC family at home and at work, but it’s hard to do the “Lemme try some guess and check on my end” support thing with Apple products. On the other hand, maybe I can somehow get an iPad of my own out of this
I think she’ll go with Verizon because that’s the cell phone plan she has, and the reps are already used to her bugging them That’s a good point though – I should ask to make sure I’m not assuming things.
antonio107 and BrotherCadfael, thanks for the recs – I will definitely check out those keyboard cases; that sounds like what my mom would want!
16gig is fine if she doesn’t watch download any movies either. My mom likes to rip DVD’s (that we own) onto her computer using handbrake and them put 'em in itunes and then watch them on her iphone in airports and so forth. If she’d be interested in downloading movies of her own, on Amazon or Itunes, that would be a concern as well. But if she’s content with Netflix (or not much of a media person to begin with) 16 gigs sounds fine.
I saw this one at Best Buy AFTER I ordered my Zagg, and I have a hard time choosing between the two. I think the screen stand is slightly less flimsy on mine.
I bought a 16gb for all the reasons above, but have some slight regrets.
Magazines can fill it up faster than books. I get the Economist and via Zinio - NatGeo, Smithsonian and Pop Mechanics. I find that they fill up the App space fairly quickly.
Thanks again! I talked to her and we’ve pretty much decided on the 16G, not least because of you Dopers She is unsure as to whether she wants a keyboard (“None of my friends have one…”) but I think what will probably happen is that I’ll get her one for her birthday and she will love it
Google Docs: Everything seems to work fine on the iPad’s native browser (Safari for iOS. Which is just about as robust as Safari for Mac OSX), as much as I’ve used it. I didn’t realize they had an app though.
Printing: If your printer is connected to your WiFi router, it should be able to see it and print to it wirelessly.
Flash Video: I recommend the alternative browser Skyfire, if there’s any video she’d want to stream that uses Flash Video (since Flash isn’t supported natively on the iPad).
Office Apps: I bought Office[sup]2[/sup] HD… but rarely use it, so no real opinion. There’s also Apple’s own Pages, Numbers and Keynote which are really nice, and somewhat compatible with MS Office.
cmyk, I just saw your post – thanks! This might end up being very helpful, as I have the bad feeling that one of the sites my mom heavily uses is a Flash site.
It’s not so bad with PC questions, since we’re a PC family at home and at work, but it’s hard to do the “Lemme try some guess and check on my end” support thing with Apple products. On the other hand, maybe I can somehow get an iPad of my own out of this 