iPad2 for old Chinese parents

[Sust]

I was thinking of getting an iPad2 for my mom in particular because she's easily intimidated by a laptop's multiple keyboard buttons and lacks the eye-hand coordination necessary to operate a mouse so I thought an iPad2 would be great for her, but I had some questions that I couldnt get meaningful answers for at the Apple Store.

(1). My mom only knows traditional Chinese and cannot read/write simplified Chinese so is there a specific mechanism in place for traditional Chinese input? A quick google search only reveals this video.

(2). Does the ipad2 have a preferential setup for usage of known home wireless networks first and then only switching to the AT&T 3G when out of range of the known wireless networks?

 

[TheStu]

I was thinking of getting an iPad2 for my mom in particular because she's easily intimidated by a laptop's multiple keyboard buttons and lacks the eye-hand coordination necessary to operate a mouse so I thought an iPad2 would be great for her, but I had some questions that I couldnt get meaningful answers for at the Apple Store.

(1). My mom only knows traditional Chinese and cannot read/write simplified Chinese so is there a specific mechanism in place for traditional Chinese input? A quick google search only reveals this video.

(2). Does the ipad2 have a preferential setup for usage of known home wireless networks first and then only switching to the AT&T 3G when out of range of the known wireless networks?

1: No idea. Is there an Apple store in your area? Or have you tried calling Apple with this question?
2: iOS devices default to WiFi before 3G. I think that most all the current smartphone/tablet OSes do that.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

1. Just looked at the keyboard settings on my iPad 2. And it looks like it does Chinese simplified and traditional. I would still go into an apple store to see if she'd like it.

2. Wifi is always the 1st default.

 

[Sust]

Thanks for the responses.

I went to an Apple store and they were nice enough about it, but the sales-people didnt know how to engage the Chinese language part so I didnt want to waste anyone else's time there. I figured the AT community would have a better answer for me and that seems to have been a good hunch.

Another question my mom had about the device is whether or not she can watch her chinese soaps on it and I remember seeing this thread earlier which made me a little concerned about its additional capabilities as an entertainment device for her.

Does the iPad2 play all flash or are there truly restrictions?

 

[ponyo]

Stock iPad will not play Flash. It's an Apple and Steve Jobs thing. That's my only big problem with Apple. You can try SkyFire browser which is a paid app and that might play the soap videos. But from what I read it's hit or miss with SkyFire and Flash video playback.

My wife likes to watch Korean shows via Flash and our workaround is to use Splashtop Remote app. It's also paid app and you need a Window computer for this to work. This allows you to take control your computer and view it on your iPad. This is likely too complex for your mother but cool workaround for others.

 

[Sust]

Oh, that's very unfortunate because we've been trying to get my mom online for a really long time and tried to use the Chinese soaps as bait, but she keeps getting worried that if she presses the wrong button then the computer will auto-destruct or something so she never watches anything unless I come over and set it up for her.
An iPad2 that cant do mysoju/dramafever video would be next to useless for her.

Anyone have any other workarounds for this or is Apple going to iron out this whole flash snafu any time soon?

 

[TheStu]

Oh, that's very unfortunate because we've been trying to get my mom online for a really long time and tried to use the Chinese soaps as bait, but she keeps getting worried that if she presses the wrong button then the computer will auto-destruct or something so she never watches anything unless I come over and set it up for her.
An iPad2 that cant do mysoju/dramafever video would be next to useless for her.

Anyone have any other workarounds for this or is Apple going to iron out this whole flash snafu any time soon?

The issue is that Flash, although getting close, is not quite ready for the big time. For good or for ill, Apple would rather not have something than have something that doesn't work well. It isn't enough for them to just say 'We have Flash', they want to be able to say 'We have Flash, and it works like a charm, without screwing your battery life, or overheating your device, or being stuttery'. Once Flash has reached that point, you will see it in iOS.

 

[ponyo]

An iPad2 that cant do mysoju/dramafever video would be next to useless for her.

Anyone have any other workarounds for this or is Apple going to iron out this whole flash snafu any time soon?

Yeah it's called don't buy Apple product if you absolutely need Flash. Android tablets and RIM PlayBook can play Flash videos.

 

[Emulex]

no its called buy a macbook air and use flashblock plugin for firefox. you will get good battery life and less hacks from flash bugs - you can do the same with a pc.

ipad2 is okay but for the same money a laptop does them fine.

skyfire can play static flash video no problem on the ios devices. it uses a cloud converter to change the flash video (not games!/apps) back to html5 streaming.

IIS7 iirc can do this too - it detects apple devices and transcodes the video

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

An iPad2 that cant do mysoju/dramafever video would be next to useless for her.

Anyone have any other workarounds for this or is Apple going to iron out this whole flash snafu any time soon?

Both those sites work with Skyfire. Which I think is a more elegant solution since they convert the flash video to a QuickTime playable format. Therefore not as big of a hit on battery or performance.

 

[Sust]

Hmm... good to hear that dramafever and mysoju work on skyfire. Does viki work too b/c I remember having to install something on my mom's laptop before I could play anything for her on viki.

I hadnt thought about the playbook or galaxy tab, because Im far less familiar with the finger gesturing of android and I only get to play with my friends' ipad/iphone (I have my old nokia e73).
I felt like my mom could pick up the ipad rather quickly, but I'll have to look into the galaxy tab as well before jumping onto the ipad bandwagon.

Thanks for all of the responses, folks.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Hmm... good to hear that dramafever and mysoju work on skyfire. Does viki work too b/c I remember having to install something on my mom's laptop before I could play anything for her on viki.

I hadnt thought about the playbook or galaxy tab, because Im far less familiar with the finger gesturing of android and I only get to play with my friends' ipad/iphone (I have my old nokia e73).
I felt like my mom could pick up the ipad rather quickly, but I'll have to look into the galaxy tab as well before jumping onto the ipad bandwagon.

Thanks for all of the responses, folks.

Viki looks like it works also.

When you look at all the apps. The hardware is pretty much all the same. It's more the apps and the UI/UX.

 

[Eug]

Several sites would have dedicated iApps. That often gets around the Flash issue. Furthermore, some sites can detect the iPad and will supply the right video file type for it.

However, you should consider the regular font size on the iPad and comparable tablets. If their eyesight isn't so good it's gonna be tough reading that screen. Yeah, you can expand it using finger gestures, but then that makes thinks more complicated.

Then again, there is also a zoom setting under the accessibility options. On the iPhone it's a 3-finger tap to zoom. I can't remember if it's the same on the iPad, but I assume so.

 

[akugami]

I was thinking of getting an iPad2 for my mom in particular because she's easily intimidated by a laptop's multiple keyboard buttons and lacks the eye-hand coordination necessary to operate a mouse so I thought an iPad2 would be great for her, but I had some questions that I couldnt get meaningful answers for at the Apple Store.

(1). My mom only knows traditional Chinese and cannot read/write simplified Chinese so is there a specific mechanism in place for traditional Chinese input? A quick google search only reveals this video.

Many languages are supported with appropriate input method. Although on the Chinese front, for those who type, Wubi typing input is notably missing. Personally, I've found Chinese writing to be a bit hit or miss. Most of the time it's great at deducing what you want to write and other times it misses completely.

Bring your parents to an Apple store. For iPhones and iPads, the input settings should be under in the Settings app. Go to General > Keyboard > International Keyboard. The supported input methods for Chinese are Pinyin (English phonetic translation of Chinese) and a handwriting format where you actually draw the characters out. Have them play with it a bit and see how they like it.

(2). Does the ipad2 have a preferential setup for usage of known home wireless networks first and then only switching to the AT&T 3G when out of range of the known wireless networks?

As long as you've set up Wifi and it can connect, it will always try to connect via Wifi first.

Another question my mom had about the device is whether or not she can watch her chinese soaps on it and I remember seeing this thread earlier which made me a little concerned about its additional capabilities as an entertainment device for her.

Does the iPad2 play all flash or are there truly restrictions?

You can't play Flash unless you jailbreak it and install a hacked version. Personal preference but I find I don't miss Flash at all on my phone. Of interest is I believe most of the major streaming sites from China will work in the mobile Safari browser. I think pretty much all modern mobile smart phones and tablets behave this way. I know tudou.com does and I believe the other more popular sites should.

There is a dedicated Chinese streaming app called Tai Seng MyTV developed by Crunchyroll. It does require a $12 per month subscription though. There is also an app called TVU that streams content from many different countries including China. Mostly news. Not much in the soaps and drama department.