Might buy a slightly used iPad. Question is:

[Mr. Savage]

Hello,
I'm considering buying a very lightly used iPad off of Kijiji. The seller is offering a good price for the iPad, keyboard dock and iWork apps installed.

What I am unclear on is whether, when I sync to my own computer for the first time, the installed iWork apps will be irreversibly wiped off.

In other words my question is, Is there a way to keep the apps on the iPad and transfer them to my own itunes library for back-up/sync?

Thanks in advance...

 

[Don Kosak]

Hello,
I'm considering buying a very lightly used iPad off of Kijiji. The seller is offering a good price for the iPad, keyboard dock and iWork apps installed.

What I am unclear on is whether, when I sync to my own computer for the first time, the installed iWork apps will be irreversibly wiped off.

In other words my question is, Is there a way to keep the apps on the iPad and transfer them to my own itunes library for back-up/sync?

Thanks in advance...

Any app installed on your device from a different iTunes account will be backed up, and will be useable.

HOWEVER

When updates come out, you won't be able to get them. You'll get the notification from the App Store application saying an update is available for Pages or Numbers or Keynote, and when you try to update it, your iPad (or iTunes) will say, "Enter your password".

If you have apps from multiple accounts, only the apps from the account whose password you enter get updated. You need to repeat the process once for every account you have bought apps from.

If you don't have the password for the seller's iTunes account you won't be able to get updates.

If you just want to see the apps, and play with them for a while, this might not matter. You'll probably only get burnt when the iOS 4.x update comes out in the Fall. If the old iWorks aren't compatible with iOS 4.x, or if 4.x has support for Printing, File Management, Multitasking, and X-Ray Vision... you won't be able to update, and the old apps might not work anymore.

Good luck with your purchase! The iPad is a pretty cool device.

 

[Mr. Savage]

Thanks for the info.

Guess I'll go with it and if worse comes to worst and I need to repurchase Pages (which is the only iWork app I'm interested in) at some point, it's only ten bucks.