Any reason why Apple's mobile products don't support drag and drop?

[Dari]

I'm interested in getting a tablet to read The Economist and do other things, like watch videos. My wife got a 64GB iPad 2 from her father but all that space is wasted because she cannot put anything other than photos on the f***ing tablet (she does not listen to music on it). I enjoy reading The Economist on it and would love to watch movies but I don't like having one software, iTunes, control all my media. Also, what if iTunes does not support a certain codec? I'm SOL. So, why do they make it so difficult to add and delete media on their device?

 

[Nothinman]

It's simple control, they want to force you to get the media via their channels and only those channels. Sure there are workarounds available but their hope is that you'll find them too cumbersome.

 

[Red Storm]

As long as the videos are say MP4 you could bypass iTunes and use Dropbox or something. I think there's an app - Goodreader maybe? - that let's you sync to Dropbox and you can then copy videos to your device? Not sure on that.

Honestly this is a major reason why I prefer Android. Simple things like drag and drop should just work.

 

[mosco]

I agree that getting media onto an iPad isn't as flexible as putting it on an android device, but it's not quite as impossible as you think.

I prefer to transcode all my media with handbrake anyway, because using supported codecs means you will get better battery life. But this isn't the most convenient thing to have to do.

If you don't want to do that, what you can do is use a 3rd party movie player app that supports the itunes document access. After you download the app, connect the device to the computer. Open itunes and go the application tab of the device. Scroll to the bottom and you should see the apps that supports documents. Click the movie player and you can drag all the movies you want into the app without having to add them to iTunes.

Most if not all 3rd party movie players support this and most if not all include ffmpeg to allow playback of .mp4 files. A lot of them allow you to upload movies over the local network using the browser too, but that is slower. There are also some 3rd party apps that let you drag movies into app's documents folder without itunes.

For what it's worth, I have access to every top of the line android phone/tablet, but I still prefer to transcode w/ handbrake (I actually use VidCoder on my windows box) and use an iPad mini w/ the app documents folder method I mentioned above. I do this because I find the actual viewing experience better and more responsive. I find the android media player to be kind of clunky and unresponsive, and seeking just isn't done as well.

 

[Dari]

I agree that getting media onto an iPad isn't as flexible as putting it on an android device, but it's not quite as impossible as you think.

I prefer to transcode all my media with handbrake anyway, because using supported codecs means you will get better battery life. But this isn't the most convenient thing to have to do.

If you don't want to do that, what you can do is use a 3rd party movie player app that supports the itunes document access. After you download the app, connect the device to the computer. Open itunes and go the application tab of the device. Scroll to the bottom and you should see the apps that supports documents. Click the movie player and you can drag all the movies you want into the app without having to add them to iTunes.

Most if not all 3rd party movie players support this and most if not all include ffmpeg to allow playback of .mp4 files. A lot of them allow you to upload movies over the local network using the browser too, but that is slower. There are also some 3rd party apps that let you drag movies into app's documents folder without itunes.

For what it's worth, I have access to every top of the line android phone/tablet, but I still prefer to transcode w/ handbrake (I actually use VidCoder on my windows box) and use an iPad mini w/ the app documents folder method I mentioned above. I do this because I find the actual viewing experience better and more responsive. I find the android media player to be kind of clunky and unresponsive, and seeking just isn't done as well.

Thanks. I'll try this later tonight. Is VLC in the iTunes store? If not, is there a similar software that can play everything?

 

[mosco]

Thanks. I'll try this later tonight. Is VLC in the iTunes store? If not, is there a similar software that can play everything?

VLC is not in the store. It briefly was in the store, but it was created by someone outside the VLC and VLC requested that Apple pull it because of license issues.

However, VLC is working on a iOS version, http://onsoftware.en.softonic.com/videolan-is-developing-vlc-for-ios-again.

I currently use GSPlayer but there are a lot of different options. Unfortunately, Dolby has gone after apps that don't license AC3 audio support recently, so there is only one app CineXPlayer that supports it currently. I am hoping Dolby don't try and pull the same thing with the google store.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I am hoping Dolby don't try and pull the same thing with the google store.

Let them, I will sideload.


OP, the best way to solve your problems is to Jailbreak if you can. Then you get iFile so you can get at the actual files, and you can use XBMC which is the best media player period.

 

[dainthomas]

lol Apple

 

[Dari]

Let them, I will sideload.


OP, the best way to solve your problems is to Jailbreak if you can. Then you get iFile so you can get at the actual files, and you can use XBMC which is the best media player period.

OK, what are the downsides to jailbreaking?

 

[poofyhairguy]

OK, what are the downsides to jailbreaking?

You can only do it if the version of iOS you are on has an exploit. Then if you update the OS later you lose jailbreak and all the features.

For example, my wife's iPad 2 is setup to play movies off of a portable USB hard drive she lugs around. Once I accomplished this I used a jailbreak app to disable iOS's automatic update functionality.

So basically to get Android features in iOS you have to give up one of iOS's big advantages over Android (OS updates).

 

[Dari]

You can only do it if the version of iOS you are on has an exploit. Then if you update the OS later you lose jailbreak and all the features.

For example, my wife's iPad 2 is setup to play movies off of a portable USB hard drive she lugs around. Once I accomplished this I used a jailbreak app to disable iOS's automatic update functionality.

So basically to get Android features in iOS you have to give up one of iOS's big advantages over Android (OS updates).

Thanks. Sounds like a PITA.

 

[Zaap]

Apple really needs to support drag and drop. They're just being stubborn trying to lock people into iTunes.

At my work, we use PDF file versions of storyboard and script files. I transfer mine to my Android tablet in mere seconds and am up and running. I've since completely eliminated the need for my section of some forest to need chopping down to accomodate me since I'm now paperless.

I've noticed that several iPad owners (who bought their iPads specifically for this purpose) have gone back to using hard copy merely because transferring the PDFs to their iPads was too much of a PITA.

Me, personally I'd do whatever arcane steps that are involved and just use an iPad for the task, but a lot of people simply aren't willing to. Apple needs to get over trying to be 'different' and all the absolute HORSE$HIT about 'ecosystem' marketing hype garbage I keep hearing spewed, and just allow a simple method where you drag-and-drop files to the device from anywhere in the OS, as is logical. And yes, keep all the arcane stuff as well for those all warm and fuzzy with thier 'ecosystem' nonsense.

 

[mosco]

You don't need to jailbreak your iPad to use something other than iTunes.

There is software called iExplorer(not free, but my work bought my copy) that I use to access the app sandboxes, which you can use to drag files into your media player. Not that much more involved than using windows explorer to do it.

There also appears to be this http://www.imobie.com/phonebrowse/ program which is free. There are probably a lot more solutions out there also.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I agree that getting media onto an iPad isn't as flexible as putting it on an android device, but it's not quite as impossible as you think.

I prefer to transcode all my media with handbrake anyway, because using supported codecs means you will get better battery life. But this isn't the most convenient thing to have to do.

If you don't want to do that, what you can do is use a 3rd party movie player app that supports the itunes document access. After you download the app, connect the device to the computer. Open itunes and go the application tab of the device. Scroll to the bottom and you should see the apps that supports documents. Click the movie player and you can drag all the movies you want into the app without having to add them to iTunes.

Most if not all 3rd party movie players support this and most if not all include ffmpeg to allow playback of .mp4 files. A lot of them allow you to upload movies over the local network using the browser too, but that is slower. There are also some 3rd party apps that let you drag movies into app's documents folder without itunes.

For what it's worth, I have access to every top of the line android phone/tablet, but I still prefer to transcode w/ handbrake (I actually use VidCoder on my windows box) and use an iPad mini w/ the app documents folder method I mentioned above. I do this because I find the actual viewing experience better and more responsive. I find the android media player to be kind of clunky and unresponsive, and seeking just isn't done as well.

On the better Android devices essentially every format is a supported format. Exynos in particular has incredibly robust hardware decoding but all of the other modern SoC will easily handle any format you are likely to encounter plus many you are not.

 

[Zaap]

I find the android media player to be kind of clunky and unresponsive, and seeking just isn't done as well.

What is 'the' android media player?

There are dozens of media players for android. That's another area where Apple needs to get with it already. Stop pretending the devices don't have file systems and allow the user to choose which app they want to open what format. I love that with Android I can either set my choice of application to open any file type, or leave it so I have the choice of application for any file type. iOS clearly just pushes Apple's solution for everything and leaves third party choice in the dust. It's kind of silly since OSX doesn't work this way. People talk about these things replacing desktop computers, then put up with the goofiest limitations that they'd never accept on a desktop.

 

[bearxor]

Download video player of your choice. I like OPlayer but there are literally dozens in the App Store.

Install iTunes on your computer. Sorry, you'll have to deal with it.

Connect iPad to computer, fire up iTunes.

Don't Sync the iPad to the computer. Just connect it so the iPad shows up. You can click on it in the top right of iTunes to get to it.

Click the 'Apps' tab at the top. Choose your video player in the apps list on the left at the 'file sharing' section. Drag and drop your videos to the Documents list.

Disconnect iPad. Keep in mind, however, that the Apps can't use hardware decoding on the videos. So things should still be in an iPad-friendly encoding. But I've done an up to 5Mbps 720p MKV without any problems.

 

[pm]

I'm interested in getting a tablet to read The Economist and do other things, like watch videos. My wife got a 64GB iPad 2 from her father but all that space is wasted because she cannot put anything other than photos on the f***ing tablet (she does not listen to music on it). I enjoy reading The Economist on it and would love to watch movies but I don't like having one software, iTunes, control all my media. Also, what if iTunes does not support a certain codec? I'm SOL. So, why do they make it so difficult to add and delete media on their device?

I really like the Economist app on both the iPad and on Android. Works the same on both and they did a great job with it. I particularly like that you can download the audio and then listen to The Economist effectively as an audiobook - the audio is a really nice perk.

As far as iTunes... I have a love/hate thing with it. The interface is funky, it often wants to update itself and occassionally flakes out on me, but... I like the way it handles backups and I don't really mind using it. I just drag music, movies and books over and then hit "sync". I don't really like iTunes, but one way or another I need to plug in my phone and get stuff onto it, and I really don't love Explorer or any other interface that much more than iTunes...

If you want to get movies onto an iPad and really don't want to touch iTunes, you can use the SD card reader on the Camera Connection kit and as long as you name the movies correctly and have them in the correct MP4 format you can read them that way. If you jailbreak, you can use iFile to read the SD card and use it as extended memory. And then the other suggestions are good too.

 

[AMDZen]

You can only do it if the version of iOS you are on has an exploit. Then if you update the OS later you lose jailbreak and all the features.

For example, my wife's iPad 2 is setup to play movies off of a portable USB hard drive she lugs around. Once I accomplished this I used a jailbreak app to disable iOS's automatic update functionality.

So basically to get Android features in iOS you have to give up one of iOS's big advantages over Android (OS updates).

Couldn't disagree more. As someone with extensive knowledge in this area, the only version you cannot jailbreak currently is the latest update 6.1.3 which didn't do anything except break the jailbreak. Even 6.1.2 didn't offer anything much over 6.1.1 but both of them can be jailbroken.

Also, once 7 is released it will be jailbroken. They could jailbreak 6.1.3 right now if they wanted to but they are saving known exploits they have found since there is no reason to jailbreak 6.1.3 right now.

Jailbreaking is absolutely the only way to go, period. You don't give up anything except your warranty which would never come up in a real world scenerio.

Say you need to warranty your iphone. Does it work? Can you power it on? Then you can remove the jailbreak before you RMA it. Does it not work at all? Then how is apple going to know that its jailbroken before they replace it? They can't.

Jailbreaking is a non-issue as far as warranty concerns go.

 

[Red Storm]

Couldn't disagree more. As someone with extensive knowledge in this area, the only version you cannot jailbreak currently is the latest update 6.1.3 which didn't do anything except break the jailbreak. Even 6.1.2 didn't offer anything much over 6.1.1 but both of them can be jailbroken.

Also, once 7 is released it will be jailbroken. They could jailbreak 6.1.3 right now if they wanted to but they are saving known exploits they have found since there is no reason to jailbreak 6.1.3 right now.

Jailbreaking is absolutely the only way to go, period. You don't give up anything except your warranty which would never come up in a real world scenerio.

Say you need to warranty your iphone. Does it work? Can you power it on? Then you can remove the jailbreak before you RMA it. Does it not work at all? Then how is apple going to know that its jailbroken before they replace it? They can't.

Jailbreaking is a non-issue as far as warranty concerns go.

In my experience with an Ipad 2 and 3, and an iPhone 4 and 4S, jailbreaking made my devices more prone to random restarts and crashes.

 

[AMDZen]

I really like the Economist app on both the iPad and on Android. Works the same on both and they did a great job with it. I particularly like that you can download the audio and then listen to The Economist effectively as an audiobook - the audio is a really nice perk.

As far as iTunes... I have a love/hate thing with it. The interface is funky, it often wants to update itself and occassionally flakes out on me, but... I like the way it handles backups and I don't really mind using it. I just drag music, movies and books over and then hit "sync". I don't really like iTunes, but one way or another I need to plug in my phone and get stuff onto it, and I really don't love Explorer or any other interface that much more than iTunes...

If you want to get movies onto an iPad and really don't want to touch iTunes, you can use the SD card reader on the Camera Connection kit and as long as you name the movies correctly and have them in the correct MP4 format you can read them that way. If you jailbreak, you can use iFile to read the SD card and use it as extended memory. And then the other suggestions are good too.

iTunes blows. But for the most part you don't need to use iTunes. I've had iPods and iPhones and iPads and rarely had to use iTunes. iTools is one of the latest and greatest in a long line of iTunes alternatives that make the grief of using iTunes a non-issue.

iTools does everything iTunes does and more

http://itools.hk/en_index.htm

 

[AMDZen]

In my experience with an Ipad 2 and 3, and an iPhone 4 and 4S, jailbreaking made my devices more prone to random restarts and crashes.

I can't say I've had the same experience. Nearly all of the negativity I've read regarding jailbreaking are things I've simply never experienced. I'm not saying I don't believe you, but I never have issues.

I know one thing that it is best to go with a completely clean OS install when jailbreaking and also don't use iTunes at all to backup apps and such as I have read of issues happening when you do. Basically you just stay away from iTunes and use iTools to backup the things you really want to backup.

EDIT: I will add that if you sync your apps back up after an install and jailbreak I know of known issues. You don't do that. Use apps that sync contacts and then add your apps and music back using iTools. That of course is the latest tool but there have been several tools in the past to use instead of iTunes.

 

[Red Storm]

I did continue to use iTunes after jailbreaking so maybe that was it? Anyhow it wouldn't crash everyday, maybe once a week.

 

[AMDZen]

I did continue to use iTunes after jailbreaking so maybe that was it? Anyhow it wouldn't crash everyday, maybe once a week.

Seriously. Click that link and start using iTools. It is so unbelievably quick and painless versus iTunes. You don't need to be jailbroken to use iTools

EDIT: I'll add that I don't think that simply using iTunes will cause those issues. What I am saying is that syncing apps will cause those issues from what I've read. Since I don't use iTunes I can't say from personal experience. But I don't think if you just use iTunes to sync music, movies, pictures or eBooks are an issue. Only Apps, specifically.

So basically you want to backup your apps with iTools. Then you want to basically start with a fresh out of the box OS install through iTunes. Then flash jailbreak, then you use iTools to sync up all your apps back up and not iTunes. Then you can use iTunes for everything else, just use the "advanced" feature so it doesn't try and sync your apps too while you do the other things.

 

[mosco]

What is 'the' android media player?

There are dozens of media players for android. That's another area where Apple needs to get with it already. Stop pretending the devices don't have file systems and allow the user to choose which app they want to open what format. I love that with Android I can either set my choice of application to open any file type, or leave it so I have the choice of application for any file type. iOS clearly just pushes Apple's solution for everything and leaves third party choice in the dust. It's kind of silly since OSX doesn't work this way. People talk about these things replacing desktop computers, then put up with the goofiest limitations that they'd never accept on a desktop.

Most android media players use the SeekBar class for example as their progress bar. The performance of this class is generally pretty awful and I don't find it very responsive. This is one example of where I find the experience better.

When I do use an android media player, I use MxPlayer, which is pretty good, but still a little clunky.

 

[Red Storm]

Most android media players use the SeekBar class for example as their progress bar. The performance of this class is generally pretty awful and I don't find it very responsive. This is one example of where I find the experience better.

When I do use an android media player, I use MxPlayer, which is pretty good, but still a little clunky.

How is MX clunky? Almost everything is on screen gestures. I WISH I had something like that on the iPad!