Larry N.
Well-known member
I thought about putting this in the PCs, Communications, Electronics section, but I'm not sure it's quite appropriate there, so thought I would do it here, instead.
When one of my grandsons got an Ipad Mini 2, I thought I should pick one up (on sale at Target) to finally explore what the "Apple thing" was. Understand that my digital computing background started with some of AT&Ts stuff on the telephone network, went through the TRS-80, to a PC (why did IBM steal that term that was in general use?), to several Amigas, in addition to the Unix training and experience I got at work, then Win 95 (and up) and Linux, never caring much for what I had seen of the Apple side of things.
So, with this iPad Mini 2 I find a lot to like, and a lot to hate. It's frustrating at times, such as finally discovering that I had to download Apple software for my PC in order to buy an "app" (I hate that term) that would let me move pictures and videos between the iPad and the PC, using an odd connector (Lightning, I think it's called) that uses a proprietary cable with the other end being USB. And there's still no way (that I've found) to manipulate files on the iPad in a normal fashion (easy to do with Android). I even have trouble deleting photos, since the manual (and numerous online sources) says to (depending on IOS version) select then click DELETE, or to drag it to the trashcan, neither option being available.
There are other odd things, too. On the other hand, the display is superb, the responsiveness very crisp and immediate, and the camera is excellent. There are some excellent aviation products available with an ease of use and responsiveness and display clarity that are wonderful, better than anything I've seen for Android, and even road map stuff (OsmAnd for example) is nice to look at (though limited) and responsive (I'm using the "bad elf" plugin GPS/GLONASS receiver), but not much storage for downloaded maps (32 GB unit, most of it for other things).
But, on the minus side again, there's no way to expand storage, and everything seems proprietary, with no thought to accommodating people who actually know something about computing and want to do something that Apple hasn't thought of AND approved AND allocated resources to implement -- they actually work at preventing you from doing a lot of things.
So, now that I've been messing with this for just over three months, I'm hunting for an iPad that will allow add-on storage, have USB ports and perhaps HDMI as well, and allow at least some limited file control/manipulation -- basically I want to get rid of some of the frustrations of using it. But, given Apple's "control freak" nature, I don't expect to ever find such a beast.
Or maybe someone here knows a few things that I don't (quite likely) and can point me to one.
When one of my grandsons got an Ipad Mini 2, I thought I should pick one up (on sale at Target) to finally explore what the "Apple thing" was. Understand that my digital computing background started with some of AT&Ts stuff on the telephone network, went through the TRS-80, to a PC (why did IBM steal that term that was in general use?), to several Amigas, in addition to the Unix training and experience I got at work, then Win 95 (and up) and Linux, never caring much for what I had seen of the Apple side of things.
So, with this iPad Mini 2 I find a lot to like, and a lot to hate. It's frustrating at times, such as finally discovering that I had to download Apple software for my PC in order to buy an "app" (I hate that term) that would let me move pictures and videos between the iPad and the PC, using an odd connector (Lightning, I think it's called) that uses a proprietary cable with the other end being USB. And there's still no way (that I've found) to manipulate files on the iPad in a normal fashion (easy to do with Android). I even have trouble deleting photos, since the manual (and numerous online sources) says to (depending on IOS version) select then click DELETE, or to drag it to the trashcan, neither option being available.
There are other odd things, too. On the other hand, the display is superb, the responsiveness very crisp and immediate, and the camera is excellent. There are some excellent aviation products available with an ease of use and responsiveness and display clarity that are wonderful, better than anything I've seen for Android, and even road map stuff (OsmAnd for example) is nice to look at (though limited) and responsive (I'm using the "bad elf" plugin GPS/GLONASS receiver), but not much storage for downloaded maps (32 GB unit, most of it for other things).
But, on the minus side again, there's no way to expand storage, and everything seems proprietary, with no thought to accommodating people who actually know something about computing and want to do something that Apple hasn't thought of AND approved AND allocated resources to implement -- they actually work at preventing you from doing a lot of things.
So, now that I've been messing with this for just over three months, I'm hunting for an iPad that will allow add-on storage, have USB ports and perhaps HDMI as well, and allow at least some limited file control/manipulation -- basically I want to get rid of some of the frustrations of using it. But, given Apple's "control freak" nature, I don't expect to ever find such a beast.
Or maybe someone here knows a few things that I don't (quite likely) and can point me to one.