iPad purchase advice.

[Sara_H]

I've just started a part time MSc course.
It's 10 years since I last did any serious studying. Amazed to find that I need to access a lot of the course and library resources on line.
Have quickly realised that an iPad would be ideal. Have borrowed my step sons for a few days. Found it really easy to navigate the uni portal, and download some of the documents I need (which I would then be able to read on the train etc).
Decided to get wifi only but just worried about how many gb's to go for.
I made the mistake of plumping for fewer gb's when I got my new iPhone earlier this year, and it's a pain TBH.
Any thoughts, recommendations?

 

[Booyaa]

If you can afford it, go for more GBs. That is my only recommendation.

 

[Hugh Manatee]

If you can afford it, go for more GBs. That is my only recommendation.

I have a 16Gb version and it has been very good. The salesman assured me that with a 6Gb Cloud upgrade, I needn't bother with anything with a larger memory. When this one wears out, I will try to replace the battery. When that fails I'll buy another but it will have a larger memory.

I would have to agree with the quote above.

 

[Milkfloat]

For the next few weeks John Lewis are offering a 3 year warranty. I live on my iPad, when I broke my last one I replaced it the very same day.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

More memory the better IMHO. Buy the most you can afford.

 

[Leedsbusdriver]

You get more bang for your buck with an Android tablet.

 

[ufkacbln]

The problem is storage

Most papers and references will be between 3 - 5 Mb, and even a PowerPoint not much bigger unless heavily laden with images and video

A downloaded TV 60 minute programme will vary between 650 Mb (high quality) and about half of that for a standard quality file.

After that you can start to add up what you need.... and then buy the memory you need



There is however a way to cheat!

Although there is no USB connection, the iPad can talk to a hard drive through a WiFi connection

I use a Seagate Wireless Plus which is a 1Tb hard drive, with full accessibility from the iPad... and you can also save files to the drive
At about £100 it solves a lot of problems as when I travel I can take music, films as well as all my other files






And off topic (ish)

Look at DropBox for a system of cloud based sharing of your files across different machines and ensuring the latest version is available for edit or reading
Look at Mendeley for an online referencing system

Both work across platforms so a document is available easily and quickly on Windows, Apple (iPhone, iPad and Mac) as well as Android

 

[ufkacbln]

... and talking of clouds and storage

You will be given online storage by the University (usualy accessible via a browser) .... use it

Most no longer accept loss of data as a reason for delays in handing in projects or course work. By using the University's system, it becomes their responsibility to safeguard your work

 

[SpokeyDokey]

I've just started a part time MSc course.
It's 10 years since I last did any serious studying. Amazed to find that I need to access a lot of the course and library resources on line.
Have quickly realised that an iPad would be ideal. Have borrowed my step sons for a few days. Found it really easy to navigate the uni portal, and download some of the documents I need (which I would then be able to read on the train etc).
Decided to get wifi only but just worried about how many gb's to go for.
I made the mistake of plumping for fewer gb's when I got my new iPhone earlier this year, and it's a pain TBH.
Any thoughts, recommendations?

16Gb is ample unless you want to download a heap of storage hungry games, umpteen movies or hundreds of app's.

Lovely Wife has iPad Mini 2 - currently @ Curry's for a bargain £219. Brilliant little tool - she surfs, plays game and accesses her work stuff remotely and, like you are proposing, downloads technical doc's to read at a convenient moment. At no stage has she ever felt under-memoried.

Don't get suckered into the 32/64 gb etc rollocks. It's mainly a browsing tool for most people.

Wifi only is fine too.

Plenty of retailers out there will want you to pay £'s large for extra memory you probably won't need, Air and a pricey monthly contract and an 'upgrade' to Mini 4 because it has a gee whizz thumb print unlocking device.

You can easily spend hundreds more than you need to.

Here's a very good guide as to what to buy:

http://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/i...ad-air-ipad-air-2-ipad-mini-ipad-pro-3463518/

 

[PaulSecteur]

you can buy additional memory sticks too.

there may be cheaper ones than these, but these were the firs I found...

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4130866.htm

 

[ufkacbln]

iPad has no USB port to access these sticks

 

[marzjennings]

After having an ipad mini for about a year, 16gb is not enough. I get all the office tools through work (excel, word, ppt), I have no movies or music on the device, one music making app, 2 games (boom beach and some other crap game) and I'm constantly having to shuffle space and delete things. Get at least the 32gb to avoid the hassle of shuffle apps on and off the device.

 

[summerdays]

I have one and find it really useful, browsing etc. so we bought one for my middle child to use at university. We just bought a mini one so that it could fit in a bag easily. She has since bought a keypad to go with it.

Mine is a 32 gb one and its usually nearly full. It doesn't matter what size I had it would be in the nearly full state. Mine is mostly photos.

 

[steveindenmark]

I have an ipad and wished I had got a Samsung Galaxy.

There are so many Aps and downloads that ipad will not let you into because they are not specific to ipad.

 

[ufkacbln]

I've got an iPad Air 64GB. I wouldn't be without it. It's mine but it's configured to access work's network as well.

Having the iPad is so much easier than having to boot the laptop to look at email, documents, presentations, etc. I've started dropping hints about getting an iPad Pro to replace my laptop... plus quite a few of us have asked work to junk the Blackberries and move to iPhones.