RegGuheert Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Sometime during my six-or-so-month sabbatical from these boards, I purchased and fell in love with an iPad 2. For those of you who do not recall, I have been quite vocal about wanting to wait for an Android 3.0 tablet. You can click on the 'android' tag below to read some of the previous threads where I commented on this topic. Contrary to popular believe, Reg did not purchase an iPad simply because SpyCar stole one from his son! :D Here is my version of the story: It all started with the National Spelling Bee. DS13 went to the National Spelling Bee last year and this year I promised him that if he won our regional bee again, I would purchase him an Android 3.0 tablet of his choosing. As it turns out, this was a BIG DEAL to him, since the speller which he befriended at last year's National Bee, also the son of a mom on these boards, had been given an iPad for his achievement. My son spent time building 3D models of his future tablet in blender and rendering them and sending the images to his new friend and anyone who would listen. So my son won the regional bee again this year :hurray: in a hard-fought battle that required 52 perfect spellings! Tablet browsing turned to tablet shopping. The Motorola Xoom sounded somewhat disappointing from the reviews we read. The T-Mobile G-Slate (made by LG) was on our carrier and appeared to have everything imaginable (except battery life), but T-Mobile somehow believed that a 2-year contract was reasonable for that device. I beg to differ. Since the iPad 2 had come out two days before his win and the software he uses for spelling drill had just been ported to iPad, I opened up the competition to include the iPad 2. I encouraged my son to research all the options and pick what he preferred (though I would not sign up for a contract). In the end, my son chose an iPad 2 for three main reasons: his spelling app was ported to iPad, he liked the 4:3 shape better than the 16:9 shape of the widescreen Android tablets and he liked that it was what his friend had that he was so impressed with. So I bought two: a black one for my son and a white one for me (which I grudgingly share with the other children). While I still love our Android phones, here is what I *LOVE* about the iPad 2: 1) iTunes. As it turns out, the thing that I thought I would hate most about the iPad 2 is what I love most about it. Why? I really thought the idea of having to connect the tablet to a computer with a *cable* seemed so 20th-century! I also do not like the heavy-handed DRM that goes along with that. But the licensing model that goes along with this setup is what turned me completely around. I was in total disbelief when I first learned that I could pay for an app (or book or song or movie) once and use it on up to five different iDevices! Wow! There is NOTHING like this on Android to my knowledge. We have a big family and I can foresee more iPads in our future because of this! 2) The business model. I didn't know about 1) when I purchased the iPads, but still I felt Steve Jobs had done an excellent job pricing this thing. The price is fair, and the ability to hop into and out of a cellular plan month-to-month with the 3G models is what I wanted. Again, a big strike for the Android 3.0 tablets, which were mainly (exclusively?) being sold through cellular vendors at the time. 3) Apps. As mentioned, the availability of my son's spelling app was a deciding factor. We had communicated with the author and he is an Apple person, so porting to Android was not in the cards. Plus Android 3.0 was just coming out at the time and I learned (is it true?) that Google has a *different* Android Market for the tablets than the phones. So that meant that the Android Market would be pretty small, at least for a while. Put simply, there are some amazing applications for the iPad 2. DS13 LOVES photo booth, but there is also the *official* National Spelling Bee dictionary and many games which the kids enjoy, mostly free. FWIW, I estimate that we have spent just under US$100.00 on iPad 2 apps do date. 4) Book reader. I had previously purchase a Nook (another Android device), but it gets very little use due to a lack of decent free content, no backlight and poor rendering of PDFs. The iPad, by contrast, is a great reader that can be used in the dark, has a lock for screen rotation and has good zoom and pan capabilities. I find I prefer it for reading PDFs. Interestingly, we also use it for a bunch of content we have accumulated for the Kindle, even though we do not have a Kindle! 5) Movie player. Even though the iPad 2 does not have a widescreen display, I find that it is a GREAT movie player. It is extremely smooth and it allows you to tap to switch between a full-screen and a widescreen view of the movie. You can even turn on subtitles using closed-captioning. As it turns out, we have accumulated about 18 digital copies of various recent movie titles and I had been wondering what to do with them. The iPad 2 is the perfect solution, since they can now be viewed on multiple devices. 6) Casual browser. One of the main uses for a tablet to me was to have a convenient browser wherever I go. This browser serves many of my needs in this area, although I have to say it is inferior to Android due to the lack of Adobe Flash Player support. It's not a big deal for me since I use my Android phone if I am out-and-about and I need to access a website with Flash on it. 7) Syncs seamlessly with gMail. This was a total shock to me! I had no idea this would be possible right out of the box, but a clever person figured out a way to use some features of gMail together with some features of the iPad to make this work. For anyone who wants to do this, here are the instructions. Basically, you tell the iPad to treat gMail like a Microsoft Exchange server. Brilliant! 8) (Nearly) universal appeal. It is amazing how this one device is so popular with all but one member of the household. MomsintheGarden really does not like sharing a computer, so she will not touch it! (I like to tell her that she must have failed kindergarten! ;) ) But the rest of us find many, many uses for it! Regrets? One: I should have purchased the 64 GB version like MomsintheGarden said! Dislikes? One: Lack of Adobe Flash Player support. The bottom line is that while we still love our Android phones here we are now also sold on the iPad 2s. I can truthfully say that there has not been even a twinge of buyer's remorse which sometimes accompanies this type of purchase. This product has been well-thought-out and well-implemented from many different perspectives. The folks at Apple should be rightfully proud of what they have put together. One final note: I'm sorry ladies, but we generally do NOT use the iPads for school. We simply have too many children and too few iPads. It would not work out here. The one exception is that DS11 is currently using mine to read a draft PDF from SWB for a new writing book which is not yet published since we did not want to print something we will purchase in paper form later. We put this PDF on both the Nook and the iPad 2 and it looks better on the iPad. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 :iagree: Great summary review. I love, love, love my iPad 2. Now, for those of you who are more familiar with apps and such.....does anyone know if one could use one of the program apps like Pages or Things or Numbers and sync it with google calendar. Dawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FriedClams Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 :iagree: Great summary review. I love, love, love my iPad 2. Now, for those of you who are more familiar with apps and such.....does anyone know if one could use one of the program apps like Pages or Things or Numbers and sync it with google calendar. Dawn :iagree: I love mine, two! (<---- that's a pun...it's hard to pun online...) The non flash is annoying but not a deal breaker. My one gripe is the spell check can be a little...aggressive. For some reason it's locked onto weirdness when I type my email address, and I cannot figure out how to delete the auto spell version. But, that's minor. I love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 I still like my Kindle 3 device over my ipad 2 (Kindle is SO much lighter). I like my MacBook Pro MUCH better than my ipad 2 (never have flash problems & keyboard is better ;)). I used my ipad 2 only when my Kindle and MacBook is being used by others in the house. :tongue_smilie: Whenever we travel the MacBook and ipad2 travel with us; the MacBook always connects easily on hotel/other wifi but NOT the ipad2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*~Tina~* Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 The adobe flash issue bugs me more than I expected it to! Someone mentioned a fix before and if there is one, I'd love to know about it! I also can't upload pics to FB via my IPad2, am I missing something? And then yesterday it was adding asterisks to my posts :confused: I love mine too, but it has a few annoyances :glare: Also...I think I'm under utilizing it per it's potential - need tips! Lol! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Welcome to the mac side! We love our mac products. What spelling apps do you have? My 9 year old will be doing her second spelling bee this year and would love to know what Spelling Bee apps you recommend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBM Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 (edited) It all started with the National Spelling Bee. DS13 went to the National Spelling Bee last year and this year I promised him that if he won our regional bee again, I would purchase him an Android 3.0 tablet of his choosing. [...snip...] So my son won the regional bee again this year :hurray: in a hard-fought battle that required 52 perfect spellings!? Wow! A big CONGRATS to your and MomsInTheGarden's son!!! I should say that iPad is well deserved. :) ETA: I think I'm going to buy an iPad for my husband for Christmas, but of course, I will have to tinker with it, too. Edited August 31, 2011 by MBM added another sentence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Ooo ... what's the name of your spelling app?! Do share! Congrats to your son! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Well, now I'm feeling all inadequate with my regular old first gen iPad.:lol: Welcome to the dark side. :D And CONGRATS!!! to your son! :hurray: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StaceyinLA Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 I am in LOVE with my iPad 2. I loved my first one, but I love my 2 even more!! Of course, I'm an Apple fan all the way, but you just can't beat the pad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i.love.lucy Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 I want one! :toetap05: I wish I had more disposable income to spend on stuff like this. Someday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satori Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Great review as well as a HUGE CONGRATS to your son for winning the regional spelling bee. I'm also curious to know what spelling app you found. I just have the iPad 1 yet, and love it so much. We are trying to figure out how to swing a second iPad 2 with 64gb and Wifi/3G. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in OK Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 *pouting* I want one too!! I have an android phone and love it. BUT hate the android market!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted August 31, 2011 Author Share Posted August 31, 2011 What spelling apps do you have? My 9 year old will be doing her second spelling bee this year and would love to know what Spelling Bee apps you recommend. Wow! A big CONGRATS to your and MomsInTheGarden's son!!! I should say that iPad is well deserved. :) Ooo ... what's the name of your spelling app?! Do share! Congrats to your son! And CONGRATS!!! to your son! :hurray: Great review as well as a HUGE CONGRATS to your son for winning the regional spelling bee. I'm also curious to know what spelling app you found. Thanks for all the congrats for our son! I will pass them on to him! The spelling program he uses is Spelling Made Simple. He primarily uses it on the PC, but it is also available for the Mac and iOS. There is a free version in the App Store that you can try and a paid one, as well. PLEASE NOTE: NOT ALL THE FUNCTIONALITY ADVERTISED WORKS ON THE IPAD 2!! While the developer is very responsive to feedback, he does not have an iPad 2 that he can use for testing. Every version he has released so far has had problems transferring the lists from the PC to the iPad 2. This is an advanced feature which may not impact a beginning speller, but it prevents our son from being able to use this program on his iPad, so he continues to use the PC version. We had managed to get it working enough to get going with an earlier version, but the latest release (Version 1.2) has us completely flummoxed! The developer has told me that he will not purchase a new iPad 2 just to debug this. Interesting stance given it is a paid app and he does not state on the purchase page that iPad 2 is not fully supported! Anyway, it's been a good program and he is responsive, as I have said, but just be aware that iPad 2 support has been problematic for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blueridge Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Thanks for the review of the IPad2. I sent it to my dh, not that I'm hinting or anything. :D Oh, your potato thread had some responses this morning, in case you didn't know. Congratulations to your son for his amazing accomplishment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn45 Posted November 3, 2011 Share Posted November 3, 2011 Ipad is the BEST out there and the apps are amazing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dangermom Posted November 3, 2011 Share Posted November 3, 2011 Just for the record, I have a Motorola Xoom and adore it. I can read anything! The video works beautifully. And I have Flash. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted November 3, 2011 Author Share Posted November 3, 2011 Just for the record, I have a Motorola Xoom and adore it. I can read anything! The video works beautifully. And I have Flash. :DI just bought one of those for DS21 for Christmas. Amazon had a good deal on them recently (through Zoot somehow) and I picked it up for him. He wants to do Android development on it. I'm glad to hear that you are happy with it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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