Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

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FMiguelez
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Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

Post by FMiguelez »

Hello.
I've had my iPad for lots of years. I think it's an iPad 2.

- I'm trully beginning to hate it, as it seems it can't cope with an ever growing number of sites to do the most elementary research. It stops responding, it takes for ever to load websites, on some sites it is just impossible to select a meager paragraph of text (so I can annotate it with Diigo), etc.

- I usually have lots of opened tabs, but each time I switch betweeen them each tab reloads all its content, as if I had only 1Kb of RAM!

- I keep getting errors that read something like ”there was an error and the page must reload"...

- It seems that now-a-days I can only use it to navigate simple text-based sites like this one.

- It takes it for ever to bring the virtual keyboard on text fields

- I'm thininking now that IPads are nothing more than stupid toys meant to play around and look for food recipies. Anything more demanding than that shows the problems I've mentioned.



Are the newest iPads as bad as mine? Why do they have so little RAM? Why are they so hopelessly slow? Are non-Apple tablets any better?

I'm afraid that It's annoying me so much that I will end up crashing it against the wall soon. Yes, I obviously don't cope well with slow machines (or traffic jams) :(
Last edited by FMiguelez on Sun Jul 16, 2017 8:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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cuttime
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Re: Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

Post by cuttime »

I have an iPad 2 and it does the same. I tried restoring it a number of times and it didn't help. I think iOS 9 may be a dog from what I can tell, but of course, we are stuck there.
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Re: Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

Post by HCMarkus »

My wife's iPad Air (original version, more recent than the iPad2) is still going strong.

If you just want an iPad that works, you might consider Apple's current low-end offering:

https://arstechnica.com/apple/2017/04/r ... ir-tablet/
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Re: Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

Post by buzzsmith »

I have an iPad 2, too, and with various iOS updates or app updates it became almost unusable.

So, last summer, I bought my 12.9" iPad Pro. Love it, except for some apps that haven't been updated!

Buzzy


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Re: Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

Post by stubbsonic »

FMiguelez wrote: - I'm thininking now that IPads are nothing more than stupid toys meant to play around and look for food recipes.
Yea, they're pretty stupid. Block your display with your hand as you have to tap controls three or four times to get them to respond. Put one terrible speaker on the opposite side of the iPad so that other people in the room can hear it and tell you what you are missing. Storage is a pain, iOS updates can break apps you use, and you can't install a prior iOS version to restore.

That said, they are good for what they are good at. I like 'em for browsing, some games, some synths are ok. Metronomes, tuners and some drum machines are pretty great.

My iPad 4 doesn't have any of the problems you describe. You can probably get a decent deal on a used one that's newer than yours.
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Re: Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

Post by cuttime »

My iP2 cost about $700 for a WiFi Model only with 64GB ram. It was less than a few months before I started to feel the iOS depreciation. I have an iMac from 2011 running 10.12.5 beautifully and it may see yet another update. I am really skeptical of another iOS update that may render an expensive device unusable before a time differential of 3 months. Purchase an iOS device at your own risk.
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Re: Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

I recently bought an iPad Pro with the max memory for about $1100. Love it. Fast online and off.
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Re: Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

Post by Saintmatthew »

The problem with older iPad s like the 2 is that web technology has gotten rather processor intensive and requires the latest OSs that are also built for newer hardware. The difference in processing power between a 2 and even a 4, which was introduced 18 months later is pretty significant (3-4x) ket alone when compared to a current model (20x or more). The early iterations saw a quick ramp up in specs in the first few years and the first couple models are seriously underpowered due to being early editions of the form factor. iPad 4's, released in 2012 through actually hold their own quite well and the newer versions are awesome.
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Re: Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

Post by FMiguelez »

Thank you guys.

I'm relieved to learn the ones of you who have newer models are quite happy with them. So the problem is not the iPads, but MY old iPad model.

Ha! So it's like if I was whining about not being able to run DP+MF+ VSL in a G4.... :shake:

So I'll definitely start saving for the newest iPad model. Too bad it will take me TWICE as long, since the Dollar is now 200% more against our laughable Mexican Peso. A few months ago, before the World Tragedy, it used to be 10 to 11 pesos for a dollar; these days it oscillates from 19 to 21 pesos per dollar...
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Re: Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

Post by stubbsonic »

Why do you want the newest model? Just make sure you can justify the added cost for what you will get. If you are looking up recipes... you don't need an iPad Pro-- unless you want to use a pressure sensitive stylus to scribble notes on the margins like "more garlic than this!"
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Re: Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

Post by FMiguelez »

stubbsonic wrote:Why do you want the newest model? Just make sure you can justify the added cost for what you will get. If you are looking up recipes... you don't need an iPad Pro-- unless you want to use a pressure sensitive stylus to scribble notes on the margins like "more garlic than this!"
:lol: :lol:
No, Stubbs! I was being facetious with the "recipes" comment (as in saying that I can't expect more from my current sad iPad than looking up recipes... It seems it's all it could do at the moment) :mrgreen:

I use the iPad for reading, studiying and research when I'm lazy in a couch or in bed and don't feel like using the laptop.
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Re: Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

Post by mikehalloran »

I am on my third iPad, a 12.9" Pro. Best ever. I do not use a stylus.

It can't do everything a laptop can, of course but you might be surprised at what it can do. I'd rather have this. The way the internet is evolving, being able to run the latest version of iOS is essential. Older versions will no longer work properly with many web sites.

When my kids gave me the first one, I wondered why they existed. That was then and I wouldn't be happy to no longer have one.
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Re: Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

Post by stubbsonic »

FMiguelez wrote:
I use the iPad for reading, studiying and research when I'm lazy in a couch or in bed and don't feel like using the laptop.
Sounds like you don't really need the latest, greatest. I'd suggest looking at models that are 64-bit-- which should give you a longer run as far as longevity is concerned. Might save you a few hundred since you are just using it as a reader/browser and aren't doing crap-tons of EDM.

As an aside, I used an iPad to read notation in a pit orchestra rehearsal last week. It was kind of a last minute thing, and the iPad was the only option. It was my first time using an iPad for notation in an official context, and I didn't like it very much. Page turns were more frequent, but didn't always respond to my touch. The display was a little over half the size of a regular page and a little over a quarter of the size of the two pages you see in a paper book. Writing notes was a royal pain in the ass. Navigating to different sections in the rehearsal was ok, but not super easy. Seemed like most people were preferring paper. I went back to paper after that day.

If the app had a way of trimming the margins, and if I had a reliable bluetooth page turner, it might have been a better experience.
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Re: Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

Post by mikehalloran »

stubbsonic wrote:
FMiguelez wrote:
I use the iPad for reading, studiying and research when I'm lazy in a couch or in bed and don't feel like using the laptop.
Sounds like you don't really need the latest, greatest. I'd suggest looking at models that are 64-bit-- which should give you a longer run as far as longevity is concerned. Might save you a few hundred since you are just using it as a reader/browser and aren't doing crap-tons of EDM.

As an aside, I used an iPad to read notation in a pit orchestra rehearsal last week. It was kind of a last minute thing, and the iPad was the only option. It was my first time using an iPad for notation in an official context, and I didn't like it very much. Page turns were more frequent, but didn't always respond to my touch. The display was a little over half the size of a regular page and a little over a quarter of the size of the two pages you see in a paper book. Writing notes was a royal pain in the ass. Navigating to different sections in the rehearsal was ok, but not super easy. Seemed like most people were preferring paper. I went back to paper after that day.

If the app had a way of trimming the margins, and if I had a reliable bluetooth page turner, it might have been a better experience.
I import my vocal scores into my iPad. Exact same number of page turns.

The application you use makes a big difference. I use the Kindle app to read them as .pdf. Page turns etc. are much easier than other apps I have found. iBooks sucks by comparison.

Prep is important. I scan to .pdf using Image Capture.app. Although I do have Acrobat Pro, I find that Preview is the fastest for trimming page sizes and editing such as the cuts in opera scores.

The 12.9" Pro is easier to read, of course, but my iPad Air (1st version) wasn't bad. I sang a production of Mahagony last summer and found it easy to hold while turning pages with my thumb. Every time the cuts were changed, it was pretty easy to re-edit the score so that my version matched what we were doing on stage.

Someone scanned the 1912 G. Schirmer Messiah vocal score and put it online. It took me an afternoon to make it look good on my iPad but you can see the difference. If anyone would like, I can find the original link and can upload my version of it so that you can compare the two.
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Re: Time for a new iPad, or do they ALL suck bigtime?

Post by Shooshie »

I love my iPad. I'm on my 4th one. 5th, if you include the mini I bought for my wife a while back. I got a Logitech cover/keyboard that feeds off a contact on the side of the iPad. Doesn't require charging. It's nice, but it has a weird problem: hit the Caps Lock key, and you get some middle-eastern script. Hit it again, and it goes back to English QWERTY.

Are iPads worth it? I wouldn't want to be without it. But I can't speak for anyone else's wants. I don't use it much for music, except as a juke-box for my car. It syncs right up to the car's system, which is nice.

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