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Help me decide which wifi iPad to get

K

KevKaos

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 1, 2006
400
0
Baltimore, Maryland USA
I am still a noob in the Mac world, so I could really use some collective opinions and/or advice. I bought my first Mac back in Feb of this year and I am loving it and learning a lot. I have go the 21.5 iMac with the 2TB hard disk and I upgraded the RAM to 8GB.

I want to buy an iPad, and I am pretty sure of some aspects, but unsure of the size I should get. I think I am going for the wifi version for a couple reasons. I am on Verizon, and don't want to have a second cel bill. I have a Droid phone that gives me all my gmail connectivity and internet access when away from home. I really do not expect to be taking an iPad out of the house unless I am going somewhere that has free wifi. Even then, I use the Droid.

I don't think I will be putting my music (at least not all of it) on my iPad because I have my old school iPod for that, and my full collection on my iMac.

I may put a movie or two on the iPad. They would probably be relatively short home digital movies which are not huge. Maybe I would put a ripped copy of a favorite movie or two onboard.

I will admit that when I got my Droid, I started loading free apps like they were going out of style. I have filled up my storage twice and had to delete some stuff. Part of that is because I have a brother in law that sends mutiple multi-media emails and text a day that eat up space and I don't delete them as often as I should, but that is my phone.

Now, here is what I really WANT to do. I love my iMac, but I hate being tied to sitting there in front of it. I want to be mobile around the house while still doing internet, email and the like. Hope to use something like Log Me In, to connect to my iMac to display and access items on my iPad. I thought I read where there are apps that will allow you to stream music and video from an iMac to an iPad. Is that correct?

So anyway, my first question is does it sound like I am on track with what I want to do?, and what size iPad am I likely to need? I am thinking that I would go with a 32GB over the 16GB to be safe, buit should I really be looking more towards the 64GB? Thank you in advance for any advice you can give.
 
Based on your needs, I believe that 32GB is a good medium. I personally opt for maximum space, but there's an increased cost with that, and 32 sounds fine for your needs, IMO. If you can afford the 64GB, know that when you sell it, you can of course get more money for it :)
 
I have the 64GB. I wanted to have the option to fill it up with crap if I wanted to. I think you'll probably be OK with the 32, but the 64 is just $100 more for double the capacity! ;)
 
KevKaos said:
I am still a noob in the Mac world, so I could really use some collective opinions and/or advice. I bought my first Mac back in Feb of this year and I am loving it and learning a lot. I have go the 21.5 iMac with the 2TB hard disk and I upgraded the RAM to 8GB.

I want to buy an iPad, and I am pretty sure of some aspects, but unsure of the size I should get. I think I am going for the wifi version for a couple reasons. I am on Verizon, and don't want to have a second cel bill. I have a Droid phone that gives me all my gmail connectivity and internet access when away from home. I really do not expect to be taking an iPad out of the house unless I am going somewhere that has free wifi. Even then, I use the Droid.

I don't think I will be putting my music (at least not all of it) on my iPad because I have my old school iPod for that, and my full collection on my iMac.

I may put a movie or two on the iPad. They would probably be relatively short home digital movies which are not huge. Maybe I would put a ripped copy of a favorite movie or two onboard.

I will admit that when I got my Droid, I started loading free apps like they were going out of style. I have filled up my storage twice and had to delete some stuff. Part of that is because I have a brother in law that sends mutiple multi-media emails and text a day that eat up space and I don't delete them as often as I should, but that is my phone.

Now, here is what I really WANT to do. I love my iMac, but I hate being tied to sitting there in front of it. I want to be mobile around the house while still doing internet, email and the like. Hope to use something like Log Me In, to connect to my iMac to display and access items on my iPad. I thought I read where there are apps that will allow you to stream music and video from an iMac to an iPad. Is that correct?

So anyway, my first question is does it sound like I am on track with what I want to do?, and what size iPad am I likely to need? I am thinking that I would go with a 32GB over the 16GB to be safe, buit should I really be looking more towards the 64GB? Thank you in advance for any advice you can give.
Click to expand...

Yes you can remotely control your iMac via apps. You can also control and stream media via apps. Honestly for me so far I have around 25 apps and have used 1gb. I won't be putting any movies or music on my iPad so I went with 16gb because I doubt I'll need more room and I also will likely get the 2nd gen iPad. I think you would be safe with 16gb for your uses but if you feel safer with 32gb by all means upgrade. I highly doubt you'll need 64gb unless you see yourself downloading lots of memory intensive apps (big big games mostly). Apps vie downloaded like nytimes books ect have all been like 1-5mb. I haven't seen many huge apps, I think 32 will more than suffice and like I said even 16 really. Ultimately whatever your most comfortable with. Above all enjoy your iPad, I got mine for the same reasons and i absolutely love it!
 
I have a 64gb. I have 15 tv episodes (30mins) and 6 full movie rips. I have around 50 albums on my iPad. I have 70 apps including many games, and all the iWork suite, bento, brushes, sketchbook pro etc... I have around 300 photos in various albums. I still have 34Gb free.
 
Unless you plan to put a large music, photo, or movie library on the iPad 64GB seems to be overkill. My iPad usage will be a lot like you described and I am getting the 32GB. I'm opting for the 3G version because there are not a lot of wifi hotspots where I live and I especially want connectivity when I travel.
 
I would say the 16gig. Streaming video over air video works great (as long as you have coverage). The only media I store locally on the iPad is stuff that I know I will want to watch on a flight or in the rare case that I am outside of wifi or cell coverage. Get the 16 and pick up a nice case or just save the cash.
 
Your usage habits are very much like mine - I have my iPhone holding all my music (all 42 songs...I'm old (46), so my music listening has shrunk along with getting older) and get my non-wifi connection with the iPhone.

I have the 16GB wifi iPad and couldn't be happier with it. I also thought itw ould rarely leave the house, but I'm currently on my third trip with it, and it's a lifesaver when traveling.

So...out of the 14.xGB that's available for storage, I have three of my favorite movies that I've ripped with Handbrake, all of Family Guy Season 2, 8 ebooks and 280MB of apps loaded. Currently have 7GB free, so no worries on the storage of the iPad for me. But, like the old saying goes, you can never be too thin or have too much storage. I feel that the 16GB gives me the best bang for the buck.

Hope this helps.
 
I have a 32gig with 7 pages of apps installed and still have 25 gigs available!

Unless you have a lot of video, music or photos you should be set with a 32 gig iPad and still have lots of room for growth!

I do a lot of videos but that is only streaming via netflix, ABC etc.... And they do not require permeant storage!

I could not be happier with my setup!

Best of luck in whatever you decide to get! ;)
 
WOW. as usual, the MacRumours users are fantastic at giving great answers. Everyones opinion was greatly appreciated. I think what will happen is I will go looking for a 32, but if they have a 64 I may just go for the overkill. I was very happy to read that there are others who are already doing what I want to do and are successful. Thanks again, all of you.
 
Based on this, you should read the other 10000 threads that would have already answered your question.
 
Update

I made it to the Apple store and had my pick of either the 32 or the 64. I went for the 32. I had the money for the 64, but decided to do as someone here suggested and apply the rest toward apps and a cover.
 
KevKaos said:
I made it to the Apple store and had my pick of either the 32 or the 64. I went for the 32. I had the money for the 64, but decided to do as someone here suggested and apply the rest toward apps and a cover.
Click to expand...

You probably made the right move. I have a 64GB WiFi model and now with Air Video I truly don't know what I'll do with it. :confused: I'd have been fine with the 32GB or probably even the 16GB. I guess if some large apps come out, it will be nice to have the 32GB/64GB version..
 
I'm replying a bit late, but to more or less affirm your choice ... I typically max storage in anything I buy. I have a 64gb iPod touch and my desktop has 2TB of storage capacity and 9gb of RAM. I'm not price-sensitive, within reason. However, also don't want to flagrantly waste money just because I can.

I expected to get the 64gb iPad 3g, but after careful consideration, I realized that 16gb is probably enough for my use patterns. I then went up to 32gb just to be safe.

I have 575 photos, two iTunes movies, half a dozen personal videos, about 900 songs, and a decent number of apps including some fairly big ones (National Geographic, Weather HD, Civ Revolutions) and I'm using 10.1gb so far. So, I have almost 19gb available out of an actual factory capacity of about 29gb.

I can't really think of a drawback to the 64gb other than cost, so if the $100 doesn't bother you, I guess there's no reason not to get it ... but be aware that if you don't plan to load tons of movies and music on the iPad, you probably won't need it, and if you do want to load tons on it, 64gb may not be enough anyway. Capacity is moot for streaming or Web-based content.
 
You are a perfect candidate for a 16GB. I have 4 movies, 100 pics, and 55 apps on mine and still have 8GB free. The majority of the space is taken up by the movies which are about 1.5GB each. Most apps are under 10MBs, but even a big one is only 25 or so.

The beauty is there are lots of VPN and VPN-like apps that let you stream video from your computer, so the need to store an excessive number of videos on the machine is unnecessary. Not to mention TV shows available via the ABC app or CBS online. Also, realistically, how many movies are you going to watch in a week?
 
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