ipad memory size

[Jo Zebedee]

So, supposing, just supposing, one could argue an ipad was absolutely essential for work (I'm making not a bad stab at it).

How much memory is 16mb? Am I likely to exceed it sticking a few apps on, maybe the wip and the various other word docs I'm working, on, the odd book? A few powerpoints (well, I do need it for work. Honest )

Any high usuage eg you tube tends to be streamed and I have broadband, plus I have a laptop which takes most of my hard copy stuff.

Is the extra memory worth it in this sort of case or is 16 ample enough? Not techy me, at all....

Oh, and the 7 year old says she wants Angry birds....

 

[Venusian Broon]

If I take what you've written at face value, I'd ask "Has a time warp taken us back to 1990?"

I assume you are mean RAM memory and it's 16 Gb (not Mb) yes?

oooh I'd die for 16 Gb of RAM, I've got an XP machine and it only allows you to go to 4Gb.

Personally I'd always try and buy the maximum: hard drive, processor and RAM that you can possibly afford. One - it'll make all your thing work like a dream and Two - it'll future proof it for the inevitable bloating of software and all the crap your going to install on it over the years...

However, if extra memory is hugely expensive to add, 16Gb would seem mighty plenty to me.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I have no idea (but am assuming you're right ), there's a 16, a 32 and a 64, it's about £100 quid's difference between the 16 and the 32 and I'm assuming I'll never fill a 64. I really am a pretty low user... but I don't know if, for instance, I add some itunes or something how much that takes up... The only difference in them seems to be memory.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I'm not an Apple person so I had to go and take a peek at their site.

The figure that you refer to is storage I see, not RAM, so the 16 Gb refers to whatever the iPad uses for a harddrive.

Still I'd go for the absolute highest, but if it's just for the things that you've said you're going to use it for, then 16 Gb is probably just about OK. If you were going to use it a bit like a laptop/PC then 16 seems a bit light, but then I suppose you could shuffle stuff off it onto something else.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

You are very good, ty. I'll see if I can talk the business into going up to 32... I will be using it for presentations and the like, so might be glad of the extra....

 

[Metryq]

I have a first generation 64 and find it overkill for the various documents and videos I carry around. Since the later models also have cameras and can both shoot and edit video, you may want to consider that. Unless you're going to go completely nuts carrying lots of HD movies around with you for those business flights, the 32 should never leave you wanting. A few people have told me the 16 can seem a little cramped at times.

 

[Lenny]

Studies suggest that the average number of apps people download to their phones and iPads in January 2011 was 60 (http://www.macstories.net/news/on-average-each-ios-device-has-downloaded-60-apps/). If the trend shown in the graph continues, then by now it should be around 90. Studies on the app store have found that the average app is around 10mb.

So, if you're an average user, you can expect about 1gb of your 16gb to be filled with apps.

For reasons I can go into later if you're interested (to do with base ten versus base two when calculating storage, and how much space the OS takes), a 16gb iPad actually gives the user 13.3gb to play with. Assume around a gigabyte for apps, and you're left with something like 12gb of free space.

In terms of your own documents, the best way to find out how much space you'll use is to take a USB pen, copy on to it what you think you might store on the iPad and see how much space has been used. For peace of mind, double it. Alternatively, assume sizes of something like 2mb for a long Word document and something like 20mb for a decent-length PowerPoint with pictures, and estimate what you think you'll have.

In regards to books bought from the Apple iBookstore, Apple's FAQs state that books are generally 2mb each, though the store does offer textbooks that can be up to 2gb.

You'll probably find that, once everything has been taken into account, you'll still have 10gb of potential space free.

The reason many people will buy larger capacity models is so that they can store music (an album with high-quality audio will be around 120mb), television shows (about 200-350mb per standard definition episode. HD is closer to 1gb per episode), films (standard definition: 700mb. HD: could be 3-4gb), and lots of pictures (assume 4mb per high-quality image).

It's worth noting that some of my figures will be the upper limits of sizes. At the end of the day, though, unless you plan to go media-crazy on your iPad, the 16gb variant should offer more than enough storage.

EDIT: Pretty much what Metryq said - 32gb for lots of media, 16gb if you're just playing with documents.

EDIT2: Oh, well if the company is buying it for you, try and squeeze every penny out of them! Tell them your presentations may involve high quality video demonstrations and the like, and that the extra space afforded by the 64gb model means you'll be able to do everything on the iPad, rather than having to keep swapping things from the PC.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Very useful lenny and metryq. Sadly I am the company and am a very tight boss... I can't see me holding films and all on it and I tunes is held on my main laptop. Ill check out the memory stick - that's a brilliant idea.
If needed can you buy extra storage?

 

[Lenny]

Unfortunately not - you're stuck with whichever capacity you buy.

Al alternative to storing things on the iPad itself are cloud storage solutions, such as Apple's iCloud, Google's Drive, Microsoft's SkyDrive, and Dropbox.

Each service offers a chunk of free storage (5gb for iCloud and GDrive, 7gb for SkyDrive, 2gb for Dropbox - with referals and various Dropbox things, can be increased to a maximum of 16gb for free), as well as paid plans that increase it for a monthly or yearly fee - http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/24/google-drive-vs-the-competition-dropbox-skydrive-icloud/

Obviously, being cloud storage, you need an internet connection to access the files, but it also means that you can access the files wherever you are in the world. If you want to edit them, you just download them to the iPad, make your changes, and save them back into the cloud.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Do Apple still do the ridiculous no USB port policy? Or are you forced to go via either transmitting data over your home network to something else or to the iCloud?

 

[Lenny]

I must admit that I try to have as little to do with Apple products as possible, so I haven't the foggiest about a "no USB port" policy, sorry.

If the question is about adding something to iCloud, then a brief Google seems to suggest to me that you can't just add things through drag-and-drop, but rather they need to be uploaded through the iDevice, or a program with iCloud connectivity on a Mac.

At this point, it's probably worth mentioning to springs that iCloud *requires* Apple products with Apple's operating system - you can't access it on any Windows or Linux machines. Surprisingly, SkyDrive can be used on Apple systems, and GDrive and Dropbox, being initially web-based, are platform-independent.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I only asked because I'm definitely in the 'anti-Apple' camp, so I don't know! In my mind they have definitely overtaken M$ (in fact many years ago) in the 'big evil corporation' stakes - and Facebook and Google are fast approaching number #2 and #3 on the list, if they are not already there...

It's odd to write this, but I feel like being on side of the underdog when I say that I prefer Microsoft & it's environments. Or maybe something UNIX based - that's a operating system that really makes me feel like you are on a 'puter. (ahh happy memories of my PhD circa mid-1990s)

 

[Lenny]

I must say that I would never have expected a physicist to come out and say they prefer Microsoft and their environments! Every single one I've met over the course of my degree and Master's are very much in the Linux camp (but then, their departments forced Python on them, rather than something sensible). As a computer scientist, I suppose I ought to be too, but I also prefer Microsoft (but not .NET. Heavens, I'd take Java over .NET any day).

I think it's safe to assume, what with Apple's walled garden, that getting anything on to an iDevice, or into an iService, will require Apple software like iTunes, and a lot of hoop-jumping, as opposed to the tried-and-tested method of drag-and-drop.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I must say that I would never have expected a physicist to come out and say they prefer Microsoft and their environments! Every single one I've met over the course of my degree and Master's are very much in the Linux camp (but then, their departments forced Python on them, rather than something sensible). As a computer scientist, I suppose I ought to be too, but I also prefer Microsoft (but not .NET. Heavens, I'd take Java over .NET any day).

I would too be pining for something UNIXy were it not for the fact that I worked at Autonomy for 9 months just before it IPO'd. So it was there that I took a big crash course in all things Microsoft and C/C++ - and also saw what was happening in the real world .

I definitely got the 'C' bug off that phase of my life - now on C# and loving what you can do with it.

EDIT: Oooh and other major reason, all my favourite computer games needed M$ - big reason!!!