I just posted my intro, old dog with a new toy, I need some answers.

[Gamalot]

My IPad ll is new for Christmas, 32GB with Wifi.

I live in a very rural part of NY and can only get internet from Wildblue Satellite that is not very much of a HS connection. I have a Belkin wireless router and my IPad works with it.

I don't know squat about this stuff so I have some questions.

Is a router just a router or are there some that do the job much better considering my rather poor internet signal to begin with? Downloading a free racing game from the App store took close to 5 hours.

I have the smart cover on my pad. Can I close it while downloading?

Should I recharge the battery over night or just until it reaches 100%? Does it matter?

Can I be downloading an app while recharging?

I have the Auto Off set for 5 minutes. When I close the cover it goes off but is it really off or just not lit?

Can I use the pad while connected to the wall charger?

These answers will get me started and I am sure to have many other questions.

Thank you.

Gary

 

[f4780y]

My IPad ll is new for Christmas, 32GB with Wifi.

I live in a very rural part of NY and can only get internet from Wildblue Satellite that is not very much of a HS connection. I have a Belkin wireless router and my IPad works with it.

I don't know squat about this stuff so I have some questions.

Is a router just a router or are there some that do the job much better considering my rather poor internet signal to begin with? Downloading a free racing game from the App store took close to 5 hours.

I have the smart cover on my pad. Can I close it while downloading?

Should I recharge the battery over night or just until it reaches 100%? Does it matter?

Can I be downloading an app while recharging?

I have the Auto Off set for 5 minutes. When I close the cover it goes off but is it really off or just not lit?

Can I use the pad while connected to the wall charger?

These answers will get me started and I am sure to have many other questions.

Thank you.

Gary

Welcome to the forums Gary. I'll try and give you some quick answers, but others may chime in later...

1. Yes, a router is pretty much a router for your purposes. It's the speed of the internet connection which is the limiting factor.
2. Yes, you can close it when downloading.
3. Recharging Apple devices is quite simple. You can do it as little or often as you like. There are no rules and you will not damage your device by charging lots or in small bursts. The only advice Apple gives is to let it drain to close to zero once a month. This just keeps the battery meter calibrated so that it reports a more accurate percentage. Other than that, do what suits you best.
4. Yes, do whatever you like when charging.
5. Auto-off will kick in after 5 minutes (in your case) if you leave the cover open. Closing it just puts the device to sleep, just like auto-off would. Auto-off is to protect your from draining the battery if you were to leave it open and switched on...
6. Yes, use the device when connected or disconnected. It does not matter.

Hope those get you started.

 

[Gamalot]

Thanks for the rapid reply F4780y. The answers are exactly what I wanted to hear!

In the future I will go to my brothers home where he has a real HS connection and do the app downloads.

We love where we live so will not move just so we can get a better signal.

 

[Gamalot]

Another quick question. Given my slow poke satellite connection, I think it will be a waste of time to even try the face time function. Does that sound right?

I have not yet messed around with ICloud and am not sure if that is something I should bother with either.

 

[Gabriel1]

I would tend to agree, if your Internet speed is really slow then iCloud is probably not going to be very useable for you but most of what you can do with iCloud you can do with iTunes on your computer.

FaceTime is likely to be pretty much unusable however, why not give it a try and see what happens?

There is an App called Speedtest X HD which will measure your actual Internet speed and might be useful info if you run into problems later on.

The Archangel

 

[Gamalot]

Thanks Gabriel, being so new to this and having zero interest in music on the net I guess I am not familiar with the ITunes app. I did try ITunes on my pc a long time ago but got pretty disgusted. They kept hammering me with updates and offers until I finally dumped it off. Again, I listen to music on my vintage stereo gear and nowhere else.

So, do I need ITunes on the IPad?

 

[giradman]

Hi Gary - how did you setup your iPad at the start? Plus, you may be confusing the need for iTunes on your computer (whether a PC or Mac) vs. having the iTunes & App Store apps on your iPad. If you decide not to use iCloud for backup, then iTunes on your computer is needed for backup, syncing, and other purposes - before I go into more details, you may want to respond to the questions asked.

Now concerning music on these devices (I own an iPod Touch & the iPad 2), having compressed music files on these devices is really convenient and not that hard to learn (I'm a retired academic radiology professor, mid-60s & also music fan w/ about 4K CDs!) - buying music as compressed files (e.g. MP3) or ripping your music (CDs in my case) to compressed files provides many convenient options - I have about 90 hrs of music on my iPod Touch (jazz, classical, popular mix) - I can listen to the iPod in the bedroom, in the basement when I workout, and on trips (many hotels now have clock radios w/ iPod adapters, and I have several travel portable speaker systems) - just SO MANY choices - won't go further unless you might be interested?

Dave

 

[Gabriel1]

Thanks Gabriel, being so new to this and having zero interest in music on the net I guess I am not familiar with the ITunes app. I did try ITunes on my pc a long time ago but got pretty disgusted. They kept hammering me with updates and offers until I finally dumped it off. Again, I listen to music on my vintage stereo gear and nowhere else.

So, do I need ITunes on the IPad?

As Giradman says, iTunes is needed for sync/backup of your iPad. Try to forget the word Tunes in iTunes, whilst it was originally a way to sync music with iPods it is now an interface for all aspects of Apples's iDevices. So you can manage photos, video, documents, presentations, etc, etc through the iTunes interface. Some don't like it but you don't need to use it all or even use it a lot, just make it work for you they way you want it. Assuming that you are on iOS 5 once it's set up as you want it you can set it to sync wirelessly in he background.......you won't even know it is there at this point, it will jut do its stuff while you carry on padding.

The Archangel

 

[Gamalot]

Thank you both! In answer to the question, "How did I set up my IPad to begin with?". Is it OK to just say I turned it on and followed the on screen guide until I got it working? I do have an App icon for ITunes on my home page but I don't remember ever going there or setting up any Itunes account. I think I would remember ITunes because of my dissatisfaction. We got tiny Ipod Chirps or Clip gadgets a couple years ago and set them up on our PCs. When I went from Vista to Win7 I left the Itunes out on this system.

Music wise, I know there are lots of alternatives with the Ipods but I am stuck in the early '70s. I still have my Altec Model 19s up and down stairs with both systems fed by Sansui G 9000 vintage recievers. Lots of record albums I still spin along with a good CD collection. Call me ecentric if you must but I love my music from the systems I have maintained all these years and usually don't even listen if not from them. I normally drive the wife nuts while I rattle the house.

Is there a way to go in and see if I even set the Ipad up correct?