I own an original generation iPad. With the recent release of the
"New iPad", I - like millions of other
owners of both the original iPad models
and iPad 2s - have to decide whether
it's time to upgrade to the new model.
My Current iPad
I bought my iPad the first weekend that they were available in
Canada, a little bit after they had been released in the US. iPad
owners - then and now - are faced with two decisions: the amount of
storage and WiFi-only vs. WiFi + 3G (or LTE with the new model). Mine
is the 64 GB/3G model, which has remained the most expensive model in
the iPad lineup. (It was the only model in stock when I went to get
mine, but it was the one I wanted in any case.)
Only a minority of iPad owners opt for the 3G models (3G+LTE in the
new iPad), which costs $130 more than a WiFi-only iPad with the same
amount of storage and requires setting up an account and paying a
monthly fee to a mobile provider. I don't own a mobile phone, but I was
pleased that US and Canadian mobile providers were offering iPad data
plans at a relatively low price and that didn't require locking in to a
multiyear contract; I'm buying data from Canada's Rogers, paying
$15/month for 250 MB of data.
I appreciate the freedom this gives me - being able to access email
and the Web on the bus, for instance, or to use Skype on the road
the rare times it would be handy for me to have a mobile phone. At the
same time, I've never maxed out this relatively modest amount of
bandwidth.
I bought the model with the largest amount of storage available, 64
GB, which remains the largest capacity available on both the
iPad 2 and the New iPad). I don't want to have to ration the
amount of music, photos, videos, or apps I store on my iPad. Currently,
iTunes reports a total of 58 GB of storage (some of the 64 GB space is
taken up by iOS and preinstalled apps). I've got 14 GB of music, 1.2 GB
of video, 1.5 GB of photos, 9 GB of apps, and about 2 GB of other stuff
- probably data files associated with various apps. And I've got about
30 GB free.
Alan Zisman's is using over half the capacity of his 64 GB iPad.
If I'd bought a model with less storage, I wouldn't have room for
all this stuff.
Apps
I have a lot of apps installed. In addition to the preinstalled
stuff, I've added a couple of Apple's iWork modules -
Pages and
Keynote - and the iLife stuff:
GarageBand,
iMovie, and
iPhoto. (The latter two are not officially supported on the
original iPad, but that's another story.) I've got three screens of
other productivity apps, a page of music apps, a page of games, and a
page of travel and language apps. Many are free, but given the
generally low cost of commercial apps, I'm more likely to buy an app
just because it looks like it might be fun, interesting, or maybe
useful.
The result is a lot of apps that I don't really use very often and
could easily do without. The free apps I use most are Google's
Gmail,
Echofon for Twitter,
Facebook, and
Zite, which assembles RSS feeds into a 'magazine' format. I also
use
GoodReader ($4.99), a PDF (and more) reader.
How I Use My iPad
I tell people that an iPad isn't really a notebook replacement - at
least not for me. There are lots of things I do regularly on a notebook
or desktop computer that are either doable but awkward on an iPad (like
typing long documents) or not doable at all (like scanning or burning
an optical disc). On the other hand, there are things that an iPad can
do at least as well as a notebook (like web browsing) or better (like
ebook reading or watching videos). The long battery life (about 10
hours) and (pseudo) instant-on (actually instant restore from sleep)
beat laptops hands-down, and both are (generally unsung) usability
features.
I find the iPad a very nice travel companion - lightweight and
portable, with good connectivity (especially the 3G version!). Good for
email, web browsing, and social networks on the go. Nice for reading
books, listening to music, and watching video content (though getting
video content into a format that lets it be loaded onto the iPad can be
a chore). The 3G version includes GPS, which has been handy.
When my wife and I went to Italy last summer, the iPad was our only
computer for three weeks. I bought an Italian SIM card that provided a
month's worth of data access for about $30; it let us get online pretty
much anywhere - on the train, lost in the woods in rural Tuscany (when
the GPS came in handy!), and more.
It's also a nice device for long, lazy, stay-in-bed mornings or
waking up in the middle of the night. Aside from being able to check
email, it can be nice to be able to read without having to turn on a
light and disturb my sleeping partner.
Despite having content-creation apps, I've never made a word
processing document or a presentation or edited a photo or video on my
iPad. Maybe some people are doing this, but I'm not among them.
What About the iPad 2?
When the iPad 2 came out in 2011, I thought about it briefly. It has
the same storage options, screen size, and resolution as the original
model in a somewhat slimmer, lighter case. It has a faster dual-core
processor and double the RAM (512 MB vs. 256). And it's got
cameras.
A faster CPU and more RAM is always a good thing, but I hadn't (and
still haven't) found either processor speed or RAM a limitation using
my older iPad. (Now and again I double-click the Home button in order
to shut down apps that are running but not actually in use, but in
general, the iPad does a very good job of memory management.) And the
camera on the iPad 2 was pretty low-end and frankly, using a large
tablet as a camera seems awkward to me.
So I didn't regret not moving up to an iPad 2.
What About the 'New iPad'?
The third-generation iPad ups the ante yet again. A more powerful
processor with quad-core graphics promises exceptional video
performance. Double the RAM again - to 1 GB. Rear camera much improved
over the iPad 2's. And a high-resolution Retina Display with four times
as many pixels as the screens on either the original iPad or the
iPad 2.
All very nice - though I'm a bit concerned that Apple didn't boost
the storage - apps rewritten to make use of the Retina Display are
inevitably larger, as are higher-resolution photos and video files. The
result: Users will need more storage.
So Am I Planning to Upgrade?
Nope. The New iPad looks great, and if I didn't already have an
older model, it would be a great purchase. But even with the
much-improved camera I don't see myself wanting to take pictures with a
tablet. Apple offers a camera-connection add-on that makes it possible
to transfer images from a digital camera or its memory card, and that
still seems a reasonable option - one I've used now and again.
And while the increased RAM, more powerful CPU, and lovely Retina
Display all seem nice things, I don't see the new iPad making a
qualitative difference in any of the things I currently do on my older
model - and, at least now, I'm not seeing any new New iPad-only apps
that I just have to have.
I'm sure that in a year or two there will be uses for the more
powerful, higher resolution iPad that I won't be able to do at all on
my older model. At that point, I may have to reconsider.
But for now, I'm sticking to my original model.
