# Questions about the ipad



## theabster (Oct 31, 2006)

Hi. I'm in a dilemma & I hope you can help me out.

I want to buy a tablet, & I've had my eye on the the new ipad 3 (64 GB WiFi-only version.) I was blown away by the rich retina-display & loved the styling too. But I've been told by some people that apple ipad is a real pain because of its anti-piracy issues. I believe that there are a lot of free apps for it online, but a few of my friends said that any worthwhile app must be purchased. Also, that ipad can't play the music I've downloaded, neither the music videos, etc. Apparently, to play music & videos, you have to buy the mp3 or mp4 from the itunes store. Is this true? Can't I play any mp3 & mp4 on it?

I mainly want to use the ipad for referencing with my medical books (PDFs) & catch a song or movie on it occasionally. But if all this about "accept only legit files" thing is true, I'm afraid I'll have to think twice before I purchase this.

My query might sound silly or downright stupid, but I'm not aware about the tablets & smartphones, so please do help me out.


----------



## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

Well, if you review our Rules, even just the beginning of them, you should get the idea that we are not interested in helping with files that are not legit. There are many free and low cost apps for the iPad and other tablets.

I've had no trouble playing legitimately purchased music on my iPod Touch and very little was purchased from the iTunes store. Pretty sure the iPad is the same.

Closing.


----------



## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

Reopened because I believe the PM from *theabster* is sincere. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing it here.



> I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, & it was totally my fault for not being more clear. What I meant was music/movie file which I didn't pay & download, for example the recordings from the camera/audio recordings from my mic, gameplay videos using FRAPS, etc. I've heard that apple requires any file that you use be only purchased from itunes. If all files have to be digitally recognized by apple, is it possible to play own videos recorded from other gadgets (like phone, camcorder, etc) I ask because everything must be transferred via itunes, & there is no option to copy paste stuff like in usb ports in a computer. Also, what about the music I bought & copied to my computer? (via mediamonkey & amazon) Do I have to buy all the songs again from itunes? And what about other videos downloaded from the net, for example the game trailers from gametrailers.com, gamespot.com, etc? You don't have to pay to download them, but they can't be had from itunes, so does that mean I can't play them either?
> 
> Regarding me not wanting to spend money on apps, I meant availability of free apps, not using some pirated software for the ipad.


----------



## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

When I first fired up iTunes with my iPod Touch it automatically grabbed all the music files it could find and added them to iTunes Media. Since then whenever I've bought songs, say from Amazon, I then copy them into the "Automatically Add ..." folder (see attachment) and the iTunes program pretty soon adds them to the library and syncs with the iPod. I assume that videos would work the same way.

I don't know the answers to your questions about games.


----------



## Drabdr (Nov 26, 2007)

theabster said:


> Hi. I'm in a dilemma & I hope you can help me out.
> 
> I want to buy a tablet, & I've had my eye on the the new ipad 3 (64 GB WiFi-only version.) I was blown away by the rich retina-display & loved the styling too. But I've been told by some people that apple ipad is a real pain because of its anti-piracy issues. I believe that there are a lot of free apps for it online, but a few of my friends said that any worthwhile app must be purchased.


I have had over six Apple products over the last four or five years, and have spent about $6.00 on apps. There is a huge library of available apps; I would encourage you to surf the Apple store and look at what is available. In general, I think the more robust apps may cost money, but you won't know until you look there to see what you're interested in.



> Also, that ipad can't play the music I've downloaded, neither the music videos, etc. Apparently, to play music & videos, you have to buy the mp3 or mp4 from the itunes store. Is this true? Can't I play any mp3 & mp4 on it?


You can import music into the Ipad from other sources; the Itunes application will convert them if they need to be converted. The much more tedious operation is trying to export music you have purchased from Itunes. That's another matter.



> I mainly want to use the ipad for referencing with my medical books (PDFs) & catch a song or movie on it occasionally. But if all this about "accept only legit files" thing is true, I'm afraid I'll have to think twice before I purchase this.


PDF files should not be an issue to read. Simply, you can e-mail them to your Ipad account and read them as attachments. Also, there are apps that can assist with files, power points, etc. The ones that are good you do have to pay for, but I think they're like $10.00 or so.

Now... if you are a doctor and wish to use this for patient records, that may be another matter. There may be validation, Electronic Signature issues and such. But for viewing files (PDF's are fine) it should work well.



> My query might sound silly or downright stupid, but I'm not aware about the tablets & smartphones, so please do help me out.


This board is for helping people. If one doesn't ask a question, how will they learn? 

Not sure any of this helps. Please feel free to ask more questions.


----------



## theabster (Oct 31, 2006)

TerryNet said:


> Reopened because I believe the PM from *theabster* is sincere. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing it here.


Thank you, & glad you posted my PM. Sorry for not explaining more in detail earlier.



Drabdr said:


> I think the more robust apps may cost money, but you won't know until you look there to see what you're interested in.


I do not mind buying a few apps, those which I really use. I just don't want to end up spending lots of money just because I have to purchase every app that I use. I am hoping there will be Microsoft Office available for the ipad. My colleague said that it will be available shortly. I need Word & PowerPoint especially, & I don't mind paying for such apps.



Drabdr said:


> You can import music into the Ipad from other sources; the Itunes application will convert them if they need to be converted. The much more tedious operation is trying to export music you have purchased from Itunes. That's another matter.


I hope that all mp3 files & mp4 files can be played, or converting every video file will become a tedious process. I believe there are apps for playing other formats, like avi etc. But can those files be transferred to the ipad without the itunes converting them to mp4 format? If iTunes won't recognize avi files, can it transfer the unrecognized files to the ipad?



Drabdr said:


> Now... if you are a doctor and wish to use this for patient records, that may be another matter. There may be validation, Electronic Signature issues and such. But for viewing files (PDF's are fine) it should work well.


I'm a medical student, preparing for the masters entrance exams. I'm not working at the moment, rather studying for the various exams (thus concerned about having to spend lots of money on apps The device itself will be a huge investment for me at the moment). I'll have my exams around January, most likely. So no, I'm not going to be using them for patient records. The main use will be reading books on it, & I've heard said that the ipad is very good for reading, with its sharp display & the easy & quick navigation. Using it for music & movies comes next.


----------



## Drabdr (Nov 26, 2007)

theabster said:


> I do not mind buying a few apps, those which I really use. I just don't want to end up spending lots of money just because I have to purchase every app that I use. I am hoping there will be Microsoft Office available for the ipad. My colleague said that it will be available shortly. I need Word & PowerPoint especially, & I don't mind paying for such apps.


To me, that's more than a reasonable concern. I don't know the name of it, but he purchased an app on there (I think it was around $12.00) that handles all the Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point. He seems very happy with it. Again, I would suggest that you search the Itunes store and look at all the available applications. I have found the reviews to be pretty helpful.

I (and the family) have a lot of games that are free. The paid version may have a larger screen, less ads, etc., but seem to perform just fine for me.



> I hope that all mp3 files & mp4 files can be played, or converting every video file will become a tedious process. I believe there are apps for playing other formats, like avi etc. But can those files be transferred to the ipad without the itunes converting them to mp4 format? If iTunes won't recognize avi files, can it transfer the unrecognized files to the ipad?


I am not that well versed on the video portion, as the only thing I watch is YouTube and podcasts mainly. But looking at some posts on it, there appears to be several applications that will assist:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3614513?start=0&tstart=0

Ok, so say you spend $15.00 on a good Microsoft application and $10.00 on a video application. If that meets a majority of your needs, I would think that would be a fairly reasonable investment.



> I'm a medical student, preparing for the masters entrance exams. I'm not working at the moment, rather studying for the various exams (thus concerned about having to spend lots of money on apps The device itself will be a huge investment for me at the moment). I'll have my exams around January, most likely. So no, I'm not going to be using them for patient records. The main use will be reading books on it, & I've heard said that the ipad is very good for reading, with its sharp display & the easy & quick navigation. Using it for music & movies comes next.


I have been very pleased with the visual qualities of the Ipad. :up: If you get a chance to try one, sit down for about 15 minutes and try to read something on it. That should give you a quick indicator of how it will function for you.


----------



## theabster (Oct 31, 2006)

Drabdr said:


> Ok, so say you spend $15.00 on a good Microsoft application and $10.00 on a video application. If that meets a majority of your needs, I would think that would be a fairly reasonable investment.


That is very insightful indeed. Investing in 2 main apps for the 2 main functions i want seems quite reasonable. Since you said PDFs are supported, that covers the reading category as well. Thank you mightily!


----------



## Drabdr (Nov 26, 2007)

theabster said:


> That is very insightful indeed. Investing in 2 main apps for the 2 main functions i want seems quite reasonable. Since you said PDFs are supported, that covers the reading category as well. Thank you mightily!


:up:

Aside from some of the apps for viewing PDF files, here is a method to do it using e-mail attachment:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4227


----------

