A friend is considering the iPad, seriously...

[bsodmike]

Hi all,

I've settled into my new job and am really enjoying it all the way out in the 'dessert' here. The shopping is great and I'm quite chuffed that I get to work at a really awesome organisation. One of my friends at work is considering the iPad. She already has an iPhone and loves reading books and listening to Audio books with it.

When she travels though, she does not want to lug her laptop about but would still like to have a photo collection with her. Is one able to connect the iPad to an external hard drive though, to access files stored on it? Would it need to be wiped in order to be setup in some way compatible for access with the iPad?

At launch the iPad will be retailing for Kuwaiti Dinar 64.- over here. FYI, 1 KD = £2.32; my groceries per two weeks about costs KD 50.- just to compare, I used to get by with £40-50 in London. By local standards, the iPad is quite "cheap".

My personal 3G is jailbroken (PwnageTool) and my work phone is a Nexus One. While the iPhone does do everything really well (including the input being much sharper and smarter) I'm really liking the flexibility of Android, as well as the pretty much *free* marketplace. The iPad is also missing an SD slot which is essential. What about moving files between mobile devices? The problem is that simple functionality gets packaged as an 'app', which people end up paying for.

Great business model, but simple (essential too!) functionality should be integrated into the OS. Ok, enough ranting

Looking forward to hearing from my fellow hexites

Cheers,
Mike.

[Perfectionist]

devolute.net/2010/01/28/creative-bankrupcy-from-the-apple-ipad

[kasavien]

ot but very interesting read above, hadn't really thought of apple in that way before.

[TooNice]

I don't think that's going to work. There is the 'Camera connection kit' to hook up an SD card (yes, I agree it would be much better built in - but I guess they want people to buy higher capacity devices), but I don't think that there is a way to power/read an external HD.

[Gordy]

The camera connection kit has a usb and a SD card bit. I cannot see why a hard drive couldn't be used on that. No one has tried it yet though.

[TheAnimus]

In short 'probably'.

However given the very bad resolution on the screen, It wouldn't be my choice for a device for viewing pictures from a digital camera.

[Spud1]

probably and probably - but expect to pay for it and for it to have limitations.

Plus as TheAnimus mentions, the resolution is so bad that I would not want to be looking at digicam pictures on it, it's not really designed for that purpose.

If she is after something portable for viewing digital photos, then a high resolution digital photoframe would work well imo - half the price of an iPad and much better for that purpose. Sony make some 10" ones with a high resolution screen that are probably worth investigation.

If she wants something portable that she can do other things with also then look at the tablet eeepc (for something in the same price range)..the iPad is just useless, really.

[Behemoth]

I expect it will, when they bring out the 2G model

[TheAnimus]

Also forgot to add that you of course won't be able to read from the SD and transfer to the HDD any time soon!

[Terbinator]

Friend considers iPad; that person is no longer your friend.