Thread: ipad build

Your absolutely right that USB is huge right now. But I know 3 years ago i had tons of usb storage devices. Now, i don't. I have an SD card I carry in my wallet thats there for emergency s. I have 1 2tb drive at home for backup. So if i come to the park, and want to show you a movie, or some music thats on my huge library of music back home, my iphone / ipad has all that data either streamed or quietly synced via mobile me.

I'm just saying, a lot our storage needs fall into 3 categories
- backup
- transfer
- scratch disk

so everyone has their backup drives ok, but transferring files from one to another is kind of old. If i wanna send someone a picture or video or file I have bluetooth, email, mms, folder sharing, dropbox, the list goes on. There are just so many ways to share files other than needed to bring around a usb stick.

and scratch disk will need to stay because when your editing video you need a massive amount of storage for raw content. But serving that content is all over the net. I mean I don't have to give you the 300mb video for mp3car, you stream it from the website on ANY device. And if you want full quality, chances are you have subscribed to the hd podcast and the hd version is already on your device. (my podcast sync over mobile me)

so i agree definitely not 5 years, probably not even 10 years - but i think the trend is slowly going in one wire less world.™

Originally Posted by RipplingHurst

So suppose I just came from the park/trip with a bunch of pictures and videos from my camera stored in a usb drive, I want to load them into the iPad at the office/car.

EDITED for clarification: Air video type of software won't help me with new content. Air Video won't be any better quality wise than hulu or netflix that I'd use for content I don't have. [the point being, why settle for less?].

In any case, only if I sync the usb drive to my office computer first (the server) is that I'd be able to actually enjoy it on the iPad (how they can make 3G look half decent with quality 2min+ content I don't know).

Apple says you'd have to copy to the computer you have an iTunes account first (that has the iPad library or else you're going to erase your iPad), make the iTunes import that content - a task, mind you, at which itunes is pretty dumb at, who never got thousands of dublicates using iTunes, not to mention using iTunes with NAS which is a nightmare. Only then you be allowed to physically sync the iPad via USB, yes, you can't just stream it via wifi, because it can't sync wirelessly.

Is that done to simplify things? Is that user friendly?

I think not. I think this is done just to direct consumers to the Apple store. The Xbox 360 is the same, you can't just attach a USB drive into it, also the PS3 I believe. They want you to go to pay for new content, making it harder for you to enjoy whatever you already have. Apple, Sony, Microsoft, they're just trying to get away with that stuff. Only the iPad was not suppose to be just one thing, like a videogame console. Portability should mean something but I fear the iPad is too tied to iTunes, not only any itunes but worse, the computer that has THE copy of itunes it syncs with.

I think we really need a media player for the iPad that get around iTunes. iTunes fonts looks too tiny anyway in a car.

We're getting off the view of the iPad a little here. The iPad is not a primary computer for reasonably techie people. It is a limited mobile solution.

A few of your examples weren't well used, though. The iPad released a camera adapter at its launch, so it'd be easy for you to get all of those videos/photos off of your camera after your trip to the park. Additionally, XBox360 is now allowing external USB storage. That only happened about 10 days ago, so it's not like it was integrated from the get go.

If this were a full fledged laptop, then yes, we'd want to be able to store everything locally. If it's not a full fledged laptop, then we should just demand that we can access everything in a reasonably easy manner. Through programs like Air Video, Air Sharing, and StreamToMe, that is taken care of.

In no way do I think that wired storage access is going 100% out the door any time soon, but I do think that we will be moving towards a "centralized storage accessed remotely" infrastructure.

And yes, Apple is in this thing to make money. If they have option A and B, with neither of them attracting/repelling a significant number of buyers, they'll take the one with more profit potential every time, and I really can't blame them. (from a business standpoint, that is. From a moral standpoint, FUUUUUUUU!!!)

If it's like the old camera adapter in the store, I have it in my camera bag, it will just store the pictures in the iPad, like a usb stick. Since it was not synced using iTunes in your home computer, it was not resized properly, thumbnails for the fast previewing were not created, etc. So you cannot display them on the ipad, you need a real computer for that.

I don't think I get off anything, I think you guys are way off the mark now, my opinion, of course.

The iPad SHOULD BE able to play any content, anywhere. Not only content bought from the iTunes store, but your own content you yourself produced, or already own. I own thousands of CDs and DVDs. I ripped a lot of it. I want to enjoy wherever I go or drive to. One solution is to plug an usb drive. What's the alternative (not across the room, but on the open road)?

Optikalefx , you cannot "transfer" anything FROM the iPad if it's not in its own internal storage. You cannot buy or create a digital movie while on vacation, perhaps to watch on the fly back, because you didn't sync with iTunes before hand. Unless you bought the thing online, through iTunes. You cannot also "transfer" anything TO your iPad, because that would imply erase your library. Unless you have all those mobile me approved format files and you have your server online at the time, and if you have a reliable 3G connection at hand.

Honestly, we can't assume that the Ipad will be as good on the road as it is in your office. I'm afraid it will not. And I think Jr4284 assumes that people have upstream as fast as downstream, and that 3G is ubiquitous and reliable. It's not most of the times.

So I say, yes, if I want to watch a movie on the iPad, in the car, what would be the best practical solution other than have it attached to an USB storage device? If I want to play a slideshow for grandma, is it not best to have it be able to connect to a device on the road on it's own? Maybe grandma doesn't have a wifi router setup yet for me to use my mobileme account and stream it across the city...

That's all my point. It's not a condemnation of the iPad, it's just that I want to make it clear what it's limitations are. I don't think all those Apple branded services are the solution...I believe hacking it and jailbreaking it and eliminate the iTunes from the equation might be it...perhaps.

BTW, here's another install:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2eHB...ayer_embedded#!

Originally Posted by jr4284

If this were a full fledged laptop, then yes, we'd want to be able to store everything locally. If it's not a full fledged laptop, then we should just demand that we can access everything in a reasonably easy manner. Through programs like Air Video, Air Sharing, and StreamToMe, that is taken care of.

You are correct, It's the only tablet that is not essentially a full fledged laptop (And you pay more for that "feature"). To be honest, this falls more in the category of MID, since you're essentially saying the ipad is useless without Internet connectivity.

To do anything useful you need Internet on it

So that brings up another point. You would have to tether your phone, have a data plan, which adds more to the cost of the install. Although, now a days its pretty cheap for 3G service. You can get unlimited 3G service for 39.99 for people that want a dedicated connection. Only issue is that the iPad cant use it because it has no USB ports. So you would have to buy a router that can use USB air cards and connect that way. So thats yet another expense if you hate tethering like I do.

Well now a days a lot of
newer phones are wifi routers. My iPhone included at no extra charge. So there's no extra cost of tethering

Originally Posted by optikalefx

Well now a days a lot of
newer phones are wifi routers. My iPhone included at no extra charge. So there's no extra cost of tethering

Yeah this was my plan as well. If you have an iPhone, you have to jailbreak, but most other smart phones have tethering readily available.

Side note: just built a PSU for iPhone/iPad/iPod for the car. Apple was tricky with their little "indicator voltages" across the D+ and D- pins.