Why not buy an IPad?

[troane522]

Just a question... Do you need an itunes account to use ipad or ipod? For me it is mostly a matter of not wanting yet another account rather than whether or not I can buy things elsewhere. Yes I would want to use our mp3 files and it is good they can convert. But can we do that without the account... or if someone knew dd had an ipod and gave her a gift card can it be used without an account? I am drowning in accounts already.

No, you need an iTunes account period. Without an account, Apple would not even know who to credit the gift card to.

 

[KristiKat]

Another Apple fan here. My DH and I are iPhone users and have loved them and the ease at which they work for years. He has a Mac that is awesome. He has recently been talking about switching to a Droid for the simple reason that he thinks without Steve Jobs around to fix things Apple won't do as well. I don't agree. He is one of those people that thinks Steve Jobs wouldn't have allowed iPhone 5 to be released with the problems it had which are now mostly fixed from what I've read in articles. We have a lot of iPhone users in our family and some of them have owned Droids and switched and like Apple better. My brother in law was one of those iPhone users that switched to a Droid and that lasted about a month. He hated it and ended up giving it away. I think it's just personal preference. I won't be switching, love my iPhone and don't have any issues with iTunes. Wonder how my DH will feel after he makes the switch at the beginning of next year. It's all about what's best for you and fits your needs.

 

[quagmire0]

The iPad is great, but for most people's uses something like the Nexus 7 would be a much better fit. It's half the price, a lot more portable, and Nexus products are generally supported/updated by Google better than other Android products. Honestly, if I were going to replace my laptop with a tablet, it would be an iPad. If I just want something portable that I can run apps/watch movies/play games on, I'd go with something like the Nexus 7. I think it especially makes sense for kids.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

There is an interesting article by Graham Spencer at MacStories comparing the entertainment ecosystems available on tablets from Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon: http://www.macstories.net/stories/m...-ecosystems-of-apple-microsoft-google-amazon/

Whiel most of the article talks about global reach, the end of the article compares the interoperability of the various "stores." In plain English, it looks at what devices can access content at each of the marketplaces.

Based on this, the iPad is the best for interoperability at the current time because it has access to its own store and everything on the Amazon store except the apps. I would guess that the Kindle Fire would be the worst because Amazon is the most likely of the 4 stores to share additional additional content with the Google and Windows operating systems, so at some point I would expect that very little entertainment content will be unique to the Fire. -- Suzanne

 

[MouseEarsForAll]

My personal feelings with Apple....

I don't like their business model. Create a product that can not be upgraded, and thus you have to pay 10x the cost to upgrade compared to every other product.

You want an iPhone/iPod/iPad. You realize 8 gb wouldn't be enough. Pay $100 more for $10 worth of more memory.

You have an iPhone/iPod/iPad. The battery goes bad. Any other product, you would just buy a new battery and put it in your device. Apple, you're out of luck.

I do see often the misconception of how people mention they like to buy mp3s through Amazon and don't want to repurchase through iTunes. You can just load the mp3 files you already have or purchase in the future and iTunes will convert to the Apple format. My kids' iPods are 75% loaded with the mp3s that they had prior to having the iPods from Amazon, Walmart, and CD ripping.

Most of my music is from freebies, Amazon with free MP3 codes (via Slickdeals), or from Freegal, which my library offers. 30% is from iTunes.

 

[mountdew1]

Addressing one common fallacy in this thread: Apple updates its hardware once a year, give or take a month, like most electronics manufacturers who want to stay current. You're kidding yourself if you think HTC, Samsung, and the rest aren't releasing new models of hardware annually. I'm more than willing to acknowledge legitimate faults but things made up by people who are "anti-popular" just bug me.

Doing the phone buying for our company, I know for a fact that all the vendors release new phones significantly more frequently than apple does. The biggest difference is that most don't carry the brand name from model to model. But every 3-6 months, almost all non iPhone devices will go from initial subsidized price ($199-$399) down to cheaper price ($99-$199) before disappearing from the store completely.

I hate having to deal with iTunes, and when you have an Apple product, you are basically required to use it.

Not true. Many 3rd party programs support syncing Apple devices. Off the top of my head I know that Winamp has support for many models, MediaMonkey has support for almost all.

You have an iPhone/iPod/iPad. The battery goes bad. Any other product, you would just buy a new battery and put it in your device. Apple, you're out of luck.

Not true. Many newer devices have integrated batteries that do not support user replacement. And, you can either have Apple replace the battery for you (keep it under warranty) or buy the battery and replacement kit yourself for most models.

I do see often the misconception of how people mention they like to buy mp3s through Amazon and don't want to repurchase through iTunes. You can just load the mp3 files you already have or purchase in the future and iTunes will convert to the Apple format. My kids' iPods are 75% loaded with the mp3s that they had prior to having the iPods from Amazon, Walmart, and CD ripping.

Correct. iTunes/iPod/iPhones all support many different media formats. If you have something in mp3, iTunes will handle it just fine and load it onto your Apple media device with no problem.

Just a question... Do you need an itunes account to use ipad or ipod? For me it is mostly a matter of not wanting yet another account rather than whether or not I can buy things elsewhere. Yes I would want to use our mp3 files and it is good they can convert. But can we do that without the account... or if someone knew dd had an ipod and gave her a gift card can it be used without an account? I am drowning in accounts already.

You need an account to obtain any apps for an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch. There is no need to add a credit card to the account, but an account will be needed to download apps. If you just use the preinstalled apps out of the box, then you don't need one. Out of the box you can do most basic functions, but odds are you will end up wanting some other apps.


Something that no one has mentioned so far is that if you purchase an app from the Apple app store, and your iOS version is supported by that app, then it will work. Not always true on Android devices. Since there are so many different types of Android devices, there is a reasonable chance that you could purchase an app, that doesn't support your hardware. An incompatible camera, non standard display resolution, etc. App developers cannot afford to purchase every single Android device for testing, so often end up only testing a few big ones and just hope it will work on the rest. Shouldn't be a big issue for apps from major companies like Facebook, Twitter, etc, but the latest break through game may not work on your specific device cause the indie developer can't test/reproduce/fix the bug you get.

Beyond that, it does truly come down to preference. Apple still has by far and large the most apps available for purchase. They still tend to get most apps first just due to the sheer number of devices installed. But Amazon/B&N/Google all have their own exclusive shows/books/magazines. So you may have a must have item that is only available on one platform. Try em all out and see what one you like best. Do keep in mind that some of the lower end cheaper tablets are made by companies that may not be around in 6 months - 1 year to provide support for your device. Try to stick with choices from big names when making your purchase.