# Mp3 files to ipad 4 **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 7, 2013, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-files-to-ipad-4/649555 "2013-02-07T04:33:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-files-to-ipad-4/649555/21 "2013-02-08T01:32:44Z")
> [@Wordchipper](#): > > Hey, JASG - THANKS! No problem on the “bad advice,” heck, I wouldn’t know bad from good in this rodeo. > > I really appreciate all the work you’re going through to educate me. Hopefully, this will pay off and I’ll be sure to let you know. I just studied your run-down and, if I’m hearing you right, I should connect the iPAD to a USB port on my PC. Then, like with my old iPOD, iTunes on the PC will recognize the iPAD as a device, correct? Yep, as others have pointed out, just like your iPod. > [@](#): > > At that point I can slide over that audio file? I don’t carry much in itTUNES on my PC as I don’t use my iPOD. A few free podcasts. Should I delete these before I try synching the iPAD to the PC? Or can I delete them once they’ve come over onto the iPAD? I don’t want to clutter up her 16 gig iPAD. It is not so much ‘slide’ as check off the items you want sync’d. > [@](#): > > I’m trying to think if I even have an “apple ID” on my PC-based iTUNES…I fired it up with my POD and it seemed to synch there so it recognizes something. That’s how I loaded the audio file to the iTUNES and it made it from the PC to the POD. > > We have not give a credit card to anything on the IPAD and I haven’t on the PC to iTUNES. I noticed when I opened the iTUNES APP on the PAD that all that came up was a series of stores to buy various kinds of music, etc. Looked so different than the iTUNES on the PC (and they’ve changed that interface too, I noticed, from, say, a year or so ago). BUT maybe, if I connect the PAD to the PC…and itunes opens on the pc it will all make sense? You will want to set up an AppleID account. If you don’t like the idea of giving it a credit card, pick up an iTunes gift card and use that to add $$ to the account for the odd App or other item you might want to buy. > [@](#): > > God bless Apple…why do they make this so difficult? This has made me more of a Windows fan than ever…the 2,000 Microsoft employees sitting in several building about 5 miles from where I’m typing this would love to hear me saying this. 🙂 - Larry, in Fargo, ND It is difficult to us, who know how to navigate around a file system - but we are not the target market for the iPad. Apple wants to sell iPads to people without computers or who want an easy to use computer. The iPad is a huge hit with my 86 year old mother - and my 4 year old grand-daughter. Neither know or care about Windows 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Wordchipper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e68b1a/32.png) [@Wordchipper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wordchipper)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-files-to-ipad-4/649555/22 "2013-02-08T02:14:50Z")
You have a point, JASG, on people who are not “used” to computers. My wife, a grandmother like me a granddad, she was not into computers at all. She had me being her secretary. My daughter kept telling me to get mom aniPAD. I did that this Christmas. She is now checking her email and “getting around.” But that Safari browser puts these little tabs across and unlike Chrome or IE, they don’t go away. They just keep collecting. Unless you manually click the x on each one. Is there a way to “clear all tabs?” Missing that. And I’ve read some books…but maybe there isn’t, which is a point for my argument that the iPAD is not my cup of tea. Like your 86 year-old mom, my 69 year old spouse IS getting around…so maybe it is less threatening to those with no computer experience. It just frustrates me to no end. BTW…I did pick up an Apple gift card but then how to redeem or put it “on your account” like Amazon gift cards. I finally had somebody tell me you go to Apple store on the ipad and - I haven’t done this yet - “tap” on “redeem” which is buried under a couple of screens…and then apply it. Again, the whole I. T. world ought to run like Amazon. Simple, straightforward, what my old Mac SE was and Apple has lost along the way. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-files-to-ipad-4/649555/23 "2013-02-08T02:33:48Z")
> [@Wordchipper](#): > > You may be right, Rick…but and the Zagg keyboard case helps vs. that onscreen keyboard..but, like Photoshop Elements, InDesign layout, Excel, Powerpoint…this is what I mean about not being able to do any work. It’s not for that. It’d be like getting frustrated that your Prius can’t tow your boat. If you need to tow a boat, don’t buy a Prius. ---
**Author:** ![Wordchipper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e68b1a/32.png) [@Wordchipper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wordchipper)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-files-to-ipad-4/649555/24 "2013-02-08T16:31:11Z")
Great analogy, Zipper! This is why I, personally, won’t buy one. Like I’ve said, for my spouse, a non-computer user, it seems to be working for the email she looks at a few Google searches. But it does frustrate me because of Apple’s control on adding content. This is also why Microsoft’s - albeit catch-up - strategy of offering a slightly heavier tablet with USB and SD inputs, video projector outs, and legacy programs including Office, Photoshop, etc., whereby one can do real work on something lighter and more portable than a laptop, is a good one. I’m speaking here of the soon to be released Surface PRO. I ran into this control issue with the convoluted iTunes program on the POD. Threw that baby away and bought a less expensive Sandisk Sansafuze. Plugs in like a hard drive…you can see it on your PC. I slide over downloaded podcasts. And I can record a couple hours of FM; each week I grab Prairie Home Companion and the Sandisk serves up a wave file of the program. I liked the Mac SE because of it’s capability beyond command language from IBM/Microsoft but now, since 1984, they’ve turned it all around. Apple is the control freak here and Microsoft is more open. Go figure. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-files-to-ipad-4/649555.md?page=1)