Apple have removed a WiFi syncing app by making the unofficial conformation that it will be coming to the iPad soon. I'm guessing we'll see it in iPad 4.0. You'll still have to use iTunes though. 
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Why The Need For itunes?
- Thread starter Corsair.Noir
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I'm another one who likes iTunes just fine. Frankly, having apps, music, photos all in one place, for each of my devices to pick and choose from, is an organizational dream. Learn to use manual synching and each time you plug in a pod or a pad you can load what you want. I'm a Virgo though, so sitting down for a synching session actually makes me warm inside.
All of that said, the number one question I get about the iPad is "Do I need a computer to use it?" I guess people really want a stand alone device. They probably want to replace an aging PC and see a chance to do it for under $1000.
For the most part Mac owners don't have a problem with iTunes while PC owners do have a problem with iTunes. The problem is that you're on a PC.
The alternative is the *****ty little mp3 players and pdas that were around before Apple and iTunes propped up this market segment and showed manufacturers how it should be done. Are you going to lie and say you'd rather be using WinAmp and a non-multitouch Windows CE device for media consumption, browsing and email?Is theRe an alternative? Of course that's probably your point
Unless you are creating everything on your iPad you'll still be syncing with something.
Let me ask a question just to clarify how I should proceed in order to have less hassle in the future.
My wife has an iPad. I have an iPhone ( for the past 2 years ) & an iPad on order.
My iPhone is synced to my desktop. Ive synced my wifes iPad to the same account ( Me ).
When I receive my iPad, would it just be simpler to sync my iPhone & my iPad on my desk top & then sync my wifes iPad to one of our laptops so she has her own account etc?
Or is it no big deal to sync everything onto the one desktop?
Are there any short term, long term advantages or disadvantages?
My wife has an iPad. I have an iPhone ( for the past 2 years ) & an iPad on order.
My iPhone is synced to my desktop. Ive synced my wifes iPad to the same account ( Me ).
When I receive my iPad, would it just be simpler to sync my iPhone & my iPad on my desk top & then sync my wifes iPad to one of our laptops so she has her own account etc?
Or is it no big deal to sync everything onto the one desktop?
Are there any short term, long term advantages or disadvantages?
Let me ask a question just to clarify how I should proceed in order to have less hassle in the future.
My wife has an iPad. I have an iPhone ( for the past 2 years ) & an iPad on order.
My iPhone is synced to my desktop. Ive synced my wifes iPad to the same account ( Me ).
When I receive my iPad, would it just be simpler to sync my iPhone & my iPad on my desk top & then sync my wifes iPad to one of our laptops so she has her own account etc?
Or is it no big deal to sync everything onto the one desktop?
Are there any short term, long term advantages or disadvantages?
My wife also has her own iPad and I sync both using my iTunes account on my iMac. My wife's contact, calendar and notes are synced to the cloud via her iPad, while music, videos, photos and apps are synced via my iTunes account. itunes keeps both iPads backups separate from each other. So you can use one iTunes account with all your devices.
If you want to keep her calendar, mail, notes and contacts synced with your computer, have her sync her iPad to her own user account on the computer with iTunes on it.
Hope this helps you a little bit.
I know it's not new and most have been using it for years but seriously why does everything have to run through itunes? To me, itunes cripples the ease of using the iPad. It makes everything take sooo much longer, has errors, have to try things over and over, and has so many limitations (only being able to sync to one library for example). Why is apple against simple drag and drop? You can't even update the OS without it? My PSP could update through wifi why can't the iPad? Does anyone know any work arounds to minimize the need for itunes? itunes is such a big fail for me
Because Apple want to protect the copyrights of the songs, musics and videos stored on iPod and reduce piracy, so they has make it difficult to copy or transfer the songs, musics, audio, videos and files that stored on iPod to personal computer (PC) or laptop notebook computer.
iTunes has seriously made the entire Apple experience worse for me.... Everything except iTunes has worked great.. The moment iTunes is introduced into the situation for updating, restoring, syncing the problems roll on in..
Okay,
I've had the iPad since launch day in the US.
I use the iPad probably 3-4 hours a day. It's my primary mobile computing device.
I sync with iTunes about once every two or three weeks. I only really sync to get new photos or music onto the iPad.
Everything else sync's over the air. (calendar, mail, addresses, notes via Everenote, documents via Goodreader.)
I do a lot of content creation on the iPad. Mostly documents and spreadsheets, sometimes a quick sketch or UI Wireframe. I sync these with iWork.com, Dropbox, or Mobileme (depending on who I'm sharing things with.)
Really, iTunes is a non-issue with the iPad.
I've had the iPad since launch day in the US.
I use the iPad probably 3-4 hours a day. It's my primary mobile computing device.
I sync with iTunes about once every two or three weeks. I only really sync to get new photos or music onto the iPad.
Everything else sync's over the air. (calendar, mail, addresses, notes via Everenote, documents via Goodreader.)
I do a lot of content creation on the iPad. Mostly documents and spreadsheets, sometimes a quick sketch or UI Wireframe. I sync these with iWork.com, Dropbox, or Mobileme (depending on who I'm sharing things with.)
Really, iTunes is a non-issue with the iPad.
Are the tablet devices going to be different than the phones, where you are at the mercy of the device manufacturer regarding when and if you actually get Android updates?
That would only matter to me if:
1) It was for myself. For someone else, updates might not be practical anyway. For example, the iPad I got my mother will probably never get updated because she doesn't have a laptop to tether to, and Apple doesn't support OTA updates. And frankly, it does what I bought it for.
2) The device was limited to begin with. (This is why the iPhone needed so many updates: it started without major pieces that every other device had. Example: took three years to get folders)
3) The device couldn't be freshened in other ways. Other than iOS, most mobile OS's allow some pretty deep user customization, from homepage themes to even UI overlays.
4) I mistakenly chose a device for what it might do in the future. For example, I did not buy an Incredible with a wishful assumption that it would ever have full Flash. (The fact that it's getting it, is just icing on the cake.) Now, if it had been promised and didn't show up, that would be a different situation. Or if I was being charged for updates (as Apple did for years), then yeah I'd expect them as well.
Tech marches on. Even iOS devices are going to be left without updates after a couple of years, so we all have to factor that in.
I had a Touch that I replaced with an Android phone. I would like an Android slate but am tired of waiting and am planning on getting an iPad. But this discussion reminds me of why I got an Android phone instead of an iPhone. Now I wonder if I want to go back to all those limitations.
I've been thinking about getting an iPad but came across a few references to needing iTunes and found this thread. Now let me get this right; with an iPad I can't just plug it into any computer and transfer a file like I would with an external hardrive? So I can't read a work pdf on the way home on the bus? Or use it to transfer something back to work I've been working on at home?
I don't have any complaints about iTunes for managing media on my iPad or iPhone, but it sure would be nice to be able to take my iPad overseas for a month or so without having to drag along the mother ship as well. It certainly would be preferable to be able to restore iOS devices over the Internet if the need arose.
It's much easier to just grab things from the cloud, Dropbox, iWork.com, Mobileme, etc. Don't bother with iTunes for file management.
If you don't like the cloud, you can always just mail PDFs or whatever to yourself.
Emailing things and or sending things to 'the cloud' doesn't sound easier than plugging in to the USB to me!
PDFs are often very large and un-emailable and I'd never be permitted to access the cloud from work as it would mean installing an application of some kind or going through IT every time and a lot of f#cking about.
I don't understand why Apple would want or need to limit it in this way, it's bollocks frankly and $1000 odd less from my pocket in their coffers.