Which iPad to suggest for my B-Day?

[Hugh R]

Wi-Fi or 3G?

I'll use it mostly for surfing and watching iTunes movies when I travel. 3G I get on my iPhone for email and such. With the $14.95/month data plan (I know I can go month-to-month), I'll try and only download movies from at home or a hotel Wi-Fi connection.

Any pros or cons, the difference in prices is about $130.

[jyl]

Minimum memory, 3G is what I got. Minimum memory because it's plenty for apps, books and music, and a movie or two. 3G because $15 might be worth it not to carry a laptop on a trip.

[Vonzipper]

Hugh, I have the 3G model, someone told me that the 3g has a GPS chip set and the WiFi does not, MotionX and MotionX drive work very well

[red-beard]

What phone do you carry? With my phone setting up an internet connection is easy. and I only have one data plan, not 2.

[bgyglfr]

Personally, I think it is kind of annoying that ATT doesn't offer an unlimited plan for these.

[nostatic]

I got 32Gig, no 3G. So far it has been fine - I'm usually around wifi if I need a network connection. I held off for a long time and wasn't that crazy about the iPad when it first came out. I finally got to a point where I could no longer read the music charts on my phone though, and after going to two gigs where other players had iPads running iRealBook (and I could read the chart from across the room), I finally gave in. So far I'm pretty impressed. It has been perfect for all my gigs - between iRealBook and PDFs, I can have all my music in one thin package along with songs and videos. I bought my first eBook/iBook/whatever and am reading a book (which is a shocker for me). Still can't do serious typing or video/audio editing out of the box, and getting files on/off is somewhat of a pita, but you can do some other cool stuff like run iRig and play direct into/out of the iPad (and iPod - AmpliTube iRig). Seriously cool stuff that you can do on it, and the form factor is superior to a laptop for some applications. It'll be interesting to watch, but for some areas of use the tablet will almost totally displace a laptop/desktop.

[red-beard]

FWIW, I'm typing this from an HP Slate 500.

I was playing with the voice control and dictation that is built in earlier today. Works very nicely.

[mikester]

I'm struggling with a similar decision. Should I get the 32GB with 3G or the 64GB with out 3G.

I was leaning towards 64GB, I have an iPhone and if I really want coverage that much it makes more sense to me to get tether from my iphone. Most of the time when I'm sitting still I'm within reach of a wifi connection - it is rare that I am not. I think I will live...

[mikester]

Quality problems we've got eh?

[Hugh R]

Red, can the Slate download and work with iTunes?

I can see the attraction of the 3G, especially at airports which want to charge outrageous fees for Wi-Fi, or if you're at the beach for example.

another ? For $14.95/month you get like one gig of data or something. Just how much is that? Download one movie, an hour on PP? That would be pretty expensive.

[david914]

I've got the 32 gig WiFi and couldn't be happier. I admit that the 3G would be nice sometimes, but tethering to your iPhone would take care of that. Quality is first rate. No issues whatsoever.

[red-beard]

Yes. The Slate 500 is a full function Win 7 machine. It is about the same price as a 64GB iPad. And you can connect keyboards, mice, use it as a netbook, etc. But you are paying a premium for the function. It is much more versatile, but do you need all of this capability?

If you don't have a phone which can tether the iPad, I think the 3G one would be a good choice. I have a 3.5G phone which readily connects and can also generate a wifi hot-spot. If you don't, consider the 3G.

For surfing, reading, PDF files, e-mail, the iPad would be fine. I am thinking of a low cost wifi one for my wife.

[jeffgrant]

I got the 3G and am really glad I did. Went on a vacation to Scotland, and the WikiHood app combined with the 3G made all the difference.

If you travel a lot, then the 3G is worth it for those times that you can't get internet in an airport, or at a coffee shop, etc.

Totally worth it, in my opinion, unless you just use it at home to surf while on the couch, that kind of thing.

[Hugh R]

OK, just ordered the 16G 3G version. I have an iphone 3GS which I understand can't be tethered, unless one of you knows how to do it? I got the 3G because I've been at crappy hotels with my filming crews and when everyone gets back from dinner the Wi-Fi drops to essentially zero, also when camping at the beach, no Wi-Fi but often 3G is available. I'm going on a vacation to Key West next week, so I hope I get it before then. As a frequent business traveler, I want/need the maximum flexibility that I can get; too many unknowns and variables in the traveler's life.

Thanks for the input guys.

[porsche4life]

Apple ships very fast hugh...... You should be in good shape on something that isn't a custom build....

[Vonzipper]

Wikihood is a very cool app, thanks for the tip

Since your in the ordering mood, check out one of these

http://www.dodocase.com/

[masraum]

Whatever memory you think you need, get the next step up. I don't have any music on mine. I got the 32GB. I planned to use mine primarily at home, and I have a cell phone that I can tether for data if I really want/need to, so I got a 32GB Wifi only. If you'll be using yours out-and-about often, and you don't have a tether capable phone, then you may want to get the 3G.

I use mine 99% at the house (so far). I was travelling to my mother's so I took the bluray movies that I own that have the digital copy and imported those into iTunes and put those on my ipad. I then bought a video-out cable for my ipad and was able to play the movies on my ipad on my mother's TV which was really nice. If for any reason you'll want GPS, then you have to get a 3G enabled model.

I suspect that if Apple isn't careful, there will be Android based tablets out that kick Apple's butt, but I don't know that they are out yet. I suspect that before that happens we need the next version of Android (designed more with tablets in mind).

Really, which ipad you get wifi-only or wifi/3G very much depends upon your intended usage.

[RWebb]

you want the NEXT one - not the current ones, already released

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

For $14.95/month you get like one gig of data or something. Just how much is that? Download one movie, an hour on PP? That would be pretty expensive.

To use a gig of data by surfing PP would be a monumental feat.

Downloading movies/video could eat that up quite a bit faster. You'd almost certainly want to download those over wifi for the speed anyway.

[jeffgrant]

I got a local pay-as-you-go micro-sim card in Scotland a few months ago, and it was 15 pounds for 2 GIGs. After 2 weeks of lots of surfing (but not a lot of downloaded video or anything), I barely used 300MB.

I generally pre-load the iPad with any movies/tv shows I want to watch before I travel, and do heavy streaming only when on wi-fi.

I also use Air Video to stream from my local server to the iPad locally, and it will also convert video for storage on the iPad.