Please sell me on an iPad

[FerraraZ]

First I'm totally open to jailbreaking, I think its great and if the solution I need is possible by jailbreak then please let me know!

I'm in the market for a tablet especially since when I travel, I still need to create and distribute documents however I need to upload these files to an online portal. Without the presence of a file system, how in the world could I go to a website and tell it to upload "such and such".doc or any document for that matter.

This is really the only thing that has me steering away from iPad and towards something like Galaxy Tab 10.1

I have an iMac and iPhone and just absolutlely love Apple for both work, school and even some gaming! (League of Legends Bootcamp!!) Can anyone with an iPad let me know how they go about submitting school papers or moving documents around?

 

[alent1234]

good luck

in the years i've used iphones and ipads i've never had a need to access the file system

also check out the apple office apps. they save the documents somewhere. or write your own app to use google apps and send the documents to your portal

 

[runawayprisoner]

If you jailbreak the iPad, you can use iFile to take documents off and into apps, as well as transferring them between the iPad and an external flash drive.

Only thing that won't work is you can't plug in a random printer and expect it to work.

 

[FerraraZ]

good luck

in the years i've used iphones and ipads i've never had a need to access the file system

also check out the apple office apps. they save the documents somewhere. or write your own app to use google apps and send the documents to your portal

Sorry if it sounded like I was ranting about the iPad. I really want the device however basically I'd like to create word documents on the iPad and upload them for online classes that use ANGEL CMS. I'm just unsure how the process would work or if it will work at all through the safari or other app store browsers.

 

[BD2003]

Sorry if it sounded like I was ranting about the iPad. I really want the device however basically I'd like to create word documents on the iPad and upload them for online classes that use ANGEL CMS. I'm just unsure how the process would work or if it will work at all through the safari or other app store browsers.

In my experience, having owned once since launch, any time you want to deal with a file system in explicit ways, you're going to run into issues.

You might be able to find some combination of a program that can write .doc files well to some sort of file store, and a browser that can select files from some sort of pseudo file system to upload, buy getting them to interface will likely be an incredible pain in the ass.

Not saying it's not doable in some way, but you'll need to research it pretty thoroughly. Apps on iOS are pretty much entirely independent of one another, they're never really intended to share files between them.

 

[BD2003]

Honestly if you're primary usage involves writing, and traditional file manipulation, but you want something portable, you should really be looking at a macbook air or netbook. You're not going to want to type a lot on the iPad, and carrying a separate keyboard kinda defeats the purpose.

As great and versatile a device as the ipad is, it currently still has more in common with a smartphone than a desktop.

 

[Ka0t1x]

Honestly if you're primary usage involves writing, and traditional file manipulation, but you want something portable, you should really be looking at a macbook air or netbook. You're not going to want to type a lot on the iPad, and carrying a separate keyboard kinda defeats the purpose.

As great and versatile a device as the ipad is, it currently still has more in common with a smartphone than a desktop.

+1

I guess I should explain this more.. But this is exactly how I feel about the iPad. I use it constantly for couch surfing, email, and a few other things related to project management (Programmer). But nothing else above that. The lack of an actual file system really irritates me. BUT with iCloud coming, we'll see how it goes. There should be a new API to work with iCloud such as picking files from your cloud store, like mounting your iCloud drive (How I would imagine it working).

 

[Eug]

I use both my Win 7 laptop and my MacBook Pro more than my iPad.

My GF uses her iBook G4 than the iPad. That one I don't understand though. I would use the iPad more than the iBook G4 because the G4 is so friggin' slow and doesn't support flash properly either anyway, and H.264 is total lost cause on the G4.

 

[dpodblood]

Honestly if you're primary usage involves writing, and traditional file manipulation, but you want something portable, you should really be looking at a macbook air or netbook. You're not going to want to type a lot on the iPad, and carrying a separate keyboard kinda defeats the purpose.

As great and versatile a device as the ipad is, it currently still has more in common with a smartphone than a desktop.

Pretty much this. Tablets are designed a media consumption devices. If you are going to be creating or manipulating files a lot than a MacBook or Ultraportable is what you need.

 

[MagickMan]

Looks like you'd be more in the market for a Macbook Air at this point. The good news is that you can get a previous gen model now for only $750.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/hom...co=MjEwNTcwMTk

 

[BD2003]

Pretty much this. Tablets are designed a media consumption devices. If you are going to be creating or manipulating files a lot than a MacBook or Ultraportable is what you need.

Yep. Different devices excel at different purposes. There's little that a desktop can do that an iPad can't do for the most part, and vice versa, but they differ wildly in what they excel at doing. If you're primarily concerned with document writing and manipulation, the iPad can do it, but a pc can do it better. If your primary concern is surfing the web on the couch or toilet, nothing beats an iPad.

It'll be interesting how this changes a few years from now.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Sorry if it sounded like I was ranting about the iPad. I really want the device however basically I'd like to create word documents on the iPad and upload them for online classes that use ANGEL CMS. I'm just unsure how the process would work or if it will work at all through the safari or other app store browsers.

I think I misunderstood your question.

Anyways, you can use a combination of Apple's Pages app, iCab Mobile, and iFile to achieve this.

Use Pages to import, create, and export documents.
Use iFile to move documents from Pages to iCab Mobile.
Use iCab Mobile to upload and download documents.

The only browser in the App Store (or the only one on iOS for that matter) that I have seen with upload capability is iCab. It won't work with Flash upload forms, though, so research accordingly before you make the decision.

Alternatively, instead of using Pages, you can use a third-party document editing software like QuickOffice that'll allow you to directly export files to iCab, thus meaning you don't have to jailbreak.

I'm only recommending Pages because it's more standard and more compatible than the other applications. Of course if images and complex graphics aren't involved, it doesn't really matter what you use.

 

[pm]

I've owned an iPad since just after they first came out and I use mine all the time, and I like it. But that said, I think the suggestions to look at a MacBook Air (or other ultramobile) are good.

I think you can do what you want on an iPad - runawayprisoner's suggestion seems like a solution that would work - but I don't think that it's a great platform to do it on. I find that using a keyboard on an iPad (bluetooth) works but it's not a great solution. If you need to create a lot of content (eg. write a lot), I personally find it awkward. Touching the screen instead of moving a mouse is slower, highlighting things is more awkward (press and hold) and generally I am substantially less productive trying to write something complex on my iPad. And if I don't bother with the bluetooth keyboard, then my typing rate on the onscreen keyboard on an iPad is literally halved (I go from >60wpm to <30wpm). Nowadays I leave the bluetooth keyboard at home and then carry both an iPad and a lightweight laptop on trips. I use the iPad for reading and viewing content, I use the laptop for content creation.

The thing is I want to use my iPad to be my all-in-one solution. I travel a lot, TSA doesn't require an iPad get removed from my bag, the battery life is phenomenal, it's small and lightweight (although carrying an additional keyboard does make it more bulky and heavier). The idea of using an iPad as a laptop is a very compelling one. But I can say that as a user who has an original iPad, a bluetooth keyboard, who has jailbroken it and has played with iFile, and who has done a fair bit of writing on it, I find it to be a platform that is not really efficient for content creation. I'd look at a MacBook Air.