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Is the iPad Better When Abroad than A Laptop?

gentlefury

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Of course it is....the best part is you can also phone home using VLC and do anything you need to do on your desktop at home from in the hotel room!
 

gentlefury

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The answer is simple - "No, it can't!".
I mean , it can't replace your laptop. But it is better than ipod.The best seems to be the netbook...

Most netbooks I've encountered are absolute garbage! With the exception of the now hard to find Dell Mini 9 since you could install OSX on it and it ran REALLY well....but of course as is the case with all netbooks....dreadful battery life!

iPad gets about 16 hours battery life per charge...that alone puts it worlds above any laptop or netbook!!
 

ChochoD

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Of course it is....the best part is you can also phone home using VLC and do anything you need to do on your desktop at home from in the hotel room!

Try watching live broadcasts (most of them requirein flash players) ;)
Plus, why to leave my laptop at home working while carrying iPad , when i can simply take my laptop with me. it has a bigger screen and i can open flash pages and streaming flash players ... For everyday use it's ok, you can chat , watch youtube, but not most of other similar sites (because it doesn't support flash). Who uses flash? Try every other Os - linux, windows, windows mobile, android, symbian....even MacOS. The fact is, only iOS(iPhone and iPad) don't support it. I can't hardly wait for the new iOS and mainly the jailbreak for it , to use eve some crappy flash.

It's more inconvenient to write on iPad than on your laptop or netbook but it's a good big iPod with internet....
 

gentlefury

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Of course it is....the best part is you can also phone home using VLC and do anything you need to do on your desktop at home from in the hotel room!

Try watching live broadcasts (most of them requirein flash players) ;)
Plus, why to leave my laptop at home working while carrying iPad , when i can simply take my laptop with me. it has a bigger screen and i can open flash pages and streaming flash players ... For everyday use it's ok, you can chat , watch youtube, but not most of other similar sites (because it doesn't support flash). Who uses flash? Try every other Os - linux, windows, windows mobile, android, symbian....even MacOS. The fact is, only iOS(iPhone and iPad) don't support it. I can't hardly wait for the new iOS and mainly the jailbreak for it , to use eve some crappy flash.

It's more inconvenient to write on iPad than on your laptop or netbook but it's a good big iPod with internet....

I guess I don't really use any sites with flash.

I watch movies and shows all day with my iPad thru netflix, air video and plex. I can honestly say, I've had my iPad since day one and have not had a single day where I said...man, I wish it could do what I needed it to do.

Oh btw....if you get Playon you can now stream hulu for free to your iPad.
 

ChochoD

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The answer is simple - "No, it can't!".
I mean , it can't replace your laptop. But it is better than ipod.The best seems to be the netbook...

Most netbooks I've encountered are absolute garbage! With the exception of the now hard to find Dell Mini 9 since you could install OSX on it and it ran REALLY well....but of course as is the case with all netbooks....dreadful battery life!

iPad gets about 16 hours battery life per charge...that alone puts it worlds above any laptop or netbook!!

You're right about the battery. but, there are car chargers , for netbooks/laptops if yore in a hotel room or cafe you'll have where to plug it. iPad is better if you travel with bus,train or airplane. It has its advantages, but it's better only as a player...
 

ChochoD

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Of course it is....the best part is you can also phone home using VLC and do anything you need to do on your desktop at home from in the hotel room!

Try watching live broadcasts (most of them requirein flash players) ;)
Plus, why to leave my laptop at home working while carrying iPad , when i can simply take my laptop with me. it has a bigger screen and i can open flash pages and streaming flash players ... For everyday use it's ok, you can chat , watch youtube, but not most of other similar sites (because it doesn't support flash). Who uses flash? Try every other Os - linux, windows, windows mobile, android, symbian....even MacOS. The fact is, only iOS(iPhone and iPad) don't support it. I can't hardly wait for the new iOS and mainly the jailbreak for it , to use eve some crappy flash.

It's more inconvenient to write on iPad than on your laptop or netbook but it's a good big iPod with internet....

I guess I don't really use any sites with flash.

I watch movies and shows all day with my iPad thru netflix, air video and plex. I can honestly say, I've had my iPad since day one and have not had a single day where I said...man, I wish it could do what I needed it to do.

Oh btw....if you get Playon you can now stream hulu for free to your iPad.
I don't want to watch movies from my laptop on my iPad. I tried airplay and it's good for that. But most of the TV programs i watch over the internet are in flash players... Somesimmilar to youtube sites witch I visit also require flash... I heard about frash, put I'm with iOS 3.2.2 which ca't be downgraded and jailbreaked for the moment... Official support for flash is not provided by apple for ipad and iphone...So, the only thing to do is to wait for a new jailbreak siutable for 3.2.2 or higher
 

IGonz

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Of course it is....the best part is you can also phone home using VLC and do anything you need to do on your desktop at home from in the hotel room!

Try watching live broadcasts (most of them requirein flash players) ;)
Plus, why to leave my laptop at home working while carrying iPad , when i can simply take my laptop with me. it has a bigger screen and i can open flash pages and streaming flash players ... For everyday use it's ok, you can chat , watch youtube, but not most of other similar sites (because it doesn't support flash). Who uses flash? Try every other Os - linux, windows, windows mobile, android, symbian....even MacOS. The fact is, only iOS(iPhone and iPad) don't support it. I can't hardly wait for the new iOS and mainly the jailbreak for it , to use eve some crappy flash.

It's more inconvenient to write on iPad than on your laptop or netbook but it's a good big iPod with internet....

I guess I don't really use any sites with flash.

I watch movies and shows all day with my iPad thru netflix, air video and plex. I can honestly say, I've had my iPad since day one and have not had a single day where I said...man, I wish it could do what I needed it to do.

Oh btw....if you get Playon you can now stream hulu for free to your iPad.

Indeed.
Don't forget about Slingplayer. I can watch over 300 TV/cable/sat channels on my iPad. I have a long layover in Hong Kong airport Wednesday. I can watch tomorrow night first episode of SGU while I am there.

I really can't think of anything I need flash for on my iPad.
 

ChochoD

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Have you tried google maps streetview(Google Maps zoom on a US city and click the yellow man just above the "+" - but you won't see it on your ipad...)? Google TV will also use flash. Tried bbc one live( BBC - BBC One - Watch Live )? May be not, because it uses flash too? 75% of the web videos are delivered by flash players. So, OK, you can access the other 25% , but some sites don't deliver other than flash streamed content. Think about why mac os, android, symbian, windows and linux integrated flash. Its more than obvious you need it. If you're satisfied with these 25% which is not flash , well I'm not... EVERY OS HAS IT EXCEPT iOS. So, don't say you won't need it! That's my final post on this topic... If you're really satisfied with the lack of flash, than be happy with these 25% of the streaming content...
 

IGonz

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Streetview is on the iPad map. Don't need yellow man. Never use streetview anyways.

I can watch BBC1 and 2 on my iPad with my Slingplayer app.
So with Slingplayer,Netflix,Hulu,ABC,tv/movie rental,etc.
Unlimited 3G and 10-12 hour battery it's all good.
 

gentlefury

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Try watching live broadcasts (most of them requirein flash players) ;)
Plus, why to leave my laptop at home working while carrying iPad , when i can simply take my laptop with me. it has a bigger screen and i can open flash pages and streaming flash players ... For everyday use it's ok, you can chat , watch youtube, but not most of other similar sites (because it doesn't support flash). Who uses flash? Try every other Os - linux, windows, windows mobile, android, symbian....even MacOS. The fact is, only iOS(iPhone and iPad) don't support it. I can't hardly wait for the new iOS and mainly the jailbreak for it , to use eve some crappy flash.

It's more inconvenient to write on iPad than on your laptop or netbook but it's a good big iPod with internet....

I guess I don't really use any sites with flash.

I watch movies and shows all day with my iPad thru netflix, air video and plex. I can honestly say, I've had my iPad since day one and have not had a single day where I said...man, I wish it could do what I needed it to do.

Oh btw....if you get Playon you can now stream hulu for free to your iPad.

Indeed.
Don't forget about Slingplayer. I can watch over 300 TV/cable/sat channels on my iPad. I have a long layover in Hong Kong airport Wednesday. I can watch tomorrow night first episode of SGU while I am there.

I really can't think of anything I need flash for on my iPad.

If sling ever makes an iPad version!! And it better be universal! I will be so pissed if I have to pay another $30 for software to use my $300 device!! That is such bs!
 

DuggerOregon

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I am just back from several weeks in Spain and Italy. The iPad worked well after buying a local Sim for 3G data service. In Italy the provider was Wind and I had a fairly good signal in most locations (Rome, Venice, Tuscany). My only issue was that I was unable to log into my hotels wifi service using the iPad because of a java script error. I had 2 iPads with me and neither of them would log in, after entering the information the buttons would just freeze. I had 2 iPhone 4's with me as well and they would log in so I'm, thinking the issue may be solved with IOS4.0. It may just be my imagination but the 3G speeds in Europe seemed MUCH faster than the 3G speeds I get from AT&T.

I was working part of the time I was on vacation and didn't have any issues using the web applications I needed. I had a Bluetooth keyboard which really helped. The speed in which I could complete tasks was slower than using my MacBook Pro but not to the point it crippled me. And not having to carry my laptop was awesome.

I find that I use my iPhone a lot while traveling for maps and google, these are big data pigs. I did buy the 200 mb data plan from AT&T but I burned through it in 5 days.

When I arrived in Italy I went to the Vodafone store and bought a MiFi unit for 99 Euro + 20 Euro for a Sim with 4 hours per day of data for 2 connected devices. This worked well once I figured out how to use it, the instructions and the Vodafone Italy website are exclusively in Italian.

The hardest part was registering the Sim card in the MiFi, they send you a text message to the Sim number, which of course you can't read when it is in the MiFi, so I had to find someone to lend me their mobile phone, install the Sim and read the text message.

If you connect the MiFi directly to a Windows or Mac OSX computer it loads software which allows you to read the text messages and alter the router settings. My thought was I would unlock the device when I got home so I could put any Sim card in it while traveling to other countries. Come to find out when I tried this using an unlock service the device was already unlocked! Very nice! Now I can use it next time I'm in Europe for the iPhones. I used GSM Liberty for this, they were very helpful and even refunded my money once we found out the unit was already unlocked.

This was a huge trial and error situation and I learned a lot on this trip, I'd be happy to share anything else you might want to know.
 

DuggerOregon

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I forgot to add, when you buy your Sim for your iPad don't forget to get the APN settings, you will need to add this in the cellular data section in the settings menu to access the internet, and get your Pin, you only have three chances to enter the pin before the Sim locks up, and if it does lock up you need the Puc code. The Sim Pin and Puc numbers were printed on the Sim card, don't lose them!
 

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