Oh NO! Did I just buy and iPad?

[lunatic59]

Oh Yes. Yes I did. And I feel a little dirty for doing it.

I know you're all thinking that I'm a lunatic .... but here's why.

Our ERP vendor provides an app to customers for sales analysis that I have to support. It's iPad only. Only management has access to this so it's not a heavy use item, but when the company president and general manager keep coming to me with problems or questions, I have to guess, or borrow an iPad and work it out for them. I've requested a company owned device on numerous occasions but the answer is it's not that important to bother about (even though, given their obsession with sales figures, it is.)

So, for the last year or so, I've been pretty happy with my Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014) for full size tablet needs. Lately, though, I've been getting frustrated with Samsung's support (or lack thereof) for what was a flagship product. Still no Lollipop and not much development on in the custom rom universe for this thing. The blogosphere has reports of "coming soon" since April? Of course Samsung's position is it's being worked on and you should have it shortly. Define "should" and "shortly". I should also receive shortly the title to that beachfront property I bought in Oklahoma.

I decided it was time to see how the other half lives. I picked up a 16 GB iPad Air (1st gen) on the cheap.

Setup was like everything else these days. Enter your account (or set one up if you don't) and accept the 426 page license agreement. Allow the NSA, Interpol and Tim Cook's gardener's cousin to track your every movement and away you go. Three screens of inane tutorial-like nonsense later you've on the grid ... literally. That iOS icon grid on the big screen is sooooo ... well, it just is. I looked at my Note and tried to give the iPad the same or similar app setups. After a few days of use, i can honestly say that iOS apps just work (about the same as Android ). I don't see any big advantage either way.

I will say that iOS appears more "fluid" because of all the bouncy zoomy effects, but not because it's faster or more *shudder* "elegant". I think more than anything the screen effects distract the user from the time it takes to launch, connect, refresh or do whatever the app is supposed to be doing.

The thing came out of the box with iOS 8.something and wanted to update as soon as it was plugged into iTunes. Mind you, i only have iTunes for my iPod nano (3rd generation from 2008) so i tend not to keep it current. So I updated the iPad and got iOS 8.4.2 (i think). Used it for a few days, and found out that iOS 9 was released a couple days ago. So I plugged it back into iTunes ... nothing. Updated iTunes to the current release and there was iOS 9. Okay, click install ... download 1.8 gb ... get to 100% ... wait ... wait some more ... get coffee ... wait ... error. Can't complete the download (even though it was at 100% for several minutes) ... try again later. Okay, i try again later. Same thing. So I did a little searching and found that this was more of a problem for people trying to download the update directly to their iPads without iTunes and if it failed that way the fix was to use iTunes. Naturally i tried to update directly on the iPad, which of course ... failed again. The fix for me was to update directly on the iPad while connected to iTunes.

Overall, it's a decent device and does what it is supposed to do, but if this is a typical new user experience, I'm not tasting the kool-aid.

 

[Mikestony]

you're fired.

Spoiler

Seriously though, no worries as 3 other members of my family have Ipads and/or Apple computers
Good luck!!

 

[El Presidente]

We're going to need your badge and gun.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out btw.

 

[lunatic59]

We're going to need your badge and gun.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out btw.

Badges? I don't need no steeeeenkin' badges.

As for the gun, you can have it when you pry it from my cold, dead ... in-laws.

 

[bjacks12]

Filthy heretic!

 

[Podivin]

I had an iPad, don't recall the model, but it was the first with the retina display.
That screen was beautiful.
Everything 'just worked', just like Apple said it would.
It was as fast or faster than anything else out at the time.
It did everything I wanted a tablet to do.

I hated it.

After so many years on Android I felt so locked out.
Please, sir, may I have a file manager that actually shows me all the files on my device?
I really dislike having to plug in to iTunes to do *whatever*.
13 days later, it went back to Best Buy.

I guess until Lunatic starts spouting the joys of iOS and declares he's drowned all his android devices in the toilet, we should probably keep him around.

 

[lunatic59]

I have never been a fan of Apple's (Jobs') product philosophy of everybody being different together. Nor have I ever bought into the idea that Apple has prioritized usefulness and stability over profitability. While they don't have to be mutually exclusive, i can tell you that many things Apple are less than useful in the professional world and stability is an illusion on any OS.

Let's put it this way ... I have a love affair with my Nexus 6. The iPad is a casual acquaintance.

 

[bjacks12]

I'm a full on Nexus fanboy. Nexus 6, Nexus 9, used a Nexus 4

 

[mikedt]

Should have come to me, I have very nice Apple iPads with Kitkat or Lollipop. I do you very good deal. Apple Watch with Android is here as well...

EDIT:

Oh NO! Did I just buy a Windows tablet? ...yes really. A Ramos i9s.
http://en.ramos.com.cn/showproduct.php?id=38

"Keep your PC on..."...hmmm.

 

[lunatic59]

I bought my son a Surface 2 last year. He likes it very muchly.

 

[mikedt]

I'm buying a Nokia Windows Phone next week, and ditching Android completely......JK.

What I got is not a Surface, but Ramos seems to a respectable and quality tablet manufacturer these days. With the i9s, there's an Android or a Windows version, and both are Intel Atom Baytrail quad-core devices. It's actually quite nice to use, not sluggish at all, battery life seems to be great as well.

I actually bought it, so I could have a lightweight and portable device for viewing and editing educational Powerpoint presentations mainly, while Android has WPS Office, which is pretty good, unfortunately it still screws up the formatting sometimes with mixed language PPTs, English & Chinese. And MS Office for Android has to be used online, which is no good to me. So MS Office 2010 Pro it is, courtesy of the Jinan Education Bureau. I'll be using it as a home internet device as well.

Despite what the govt. wants, decreeing that academics should stop using Microsoft products, however some areas it's still a rather Microsoft world. My office new-to-me Lenovo all-in-one with Windows XP Pro Ghost Edition, courtesy of the school.

 

[dvhttn]

... but when the company president and general manager keep coming to me with problems or questions, I have to guess, or borrow an iPad and work it out for them. I've requested a company owned device on numerous occasions but the answer is it's not that important to bother about (even though, given their obsession with sales figures, it is.) ...

Then it's not important enough for you to support then! If the company won't provide you with the tools then they can't expect support from you. IMHO, end of ....

Dave

 

[lunatic59]

Then it's not important enough for you to support then! If the company won't provide you with the tools then they can't expect support from you. IMHO, end of ....

Dave

In theory, for sure. In real life, not so much.

 

[bjacks12]

Then it's not important enough for you to support then! If the company won't provide you with the tools then they can't expect support from you. IMHO, end of ....

Dave

That works fine if you don't like to eat.

 

[lunatic59]

Not to mention I have to continue the belief around the office that I know everything about everything.