Moving Day and iPad Review

Sunshine Travel Rv Resort – Vero Beach, Florida

We’re leaving Vero Beach today and heading back to the Tampa/Zephyrhills area.  As soon as Al gets his pest control accounts done, we’ll be heading back to Georgia to start the very daunting project of clearing out our house so that we can become official full-timers!  Of course that’s providing the buyers financing comes through.  Holding our breath.

We got Al’s new iPad about a week ago and so far he really likes it.  However, we have found a few issues.

First, it seems to be slower than my laptop which is powered by my Droidx.  We went back to the Verizon store yesterday and spoke to them about that.  He said that is basically because it’s an Apple product and runs differently.  It doesn’t support Flash drive so U-tube is pretty much out because it’s so slow.

 Rick had a good post on the pros and cons of the iPad.  I agree with Rick, that it’s not really a computer as I know one.  From what Rick said about the processor, I guess the iPad2 would be a little faster and maybe we should have waited and gotten that one instead, but we had money in our pocket burning a hole so we didn’t do our research well.  I thought the basic difference between the two iPads was cameras, different color, and weight.  I didn’t think those things mattered to us.  The processor speed does matter though.

I still prefer using my laptop for most things.  I think once we get more apps and learn how to use it, we will do better.  We do like the iPad, but it’s different than I expected.  The problem is, unless you know someone that has one, you can’t really get a feel for using one at the store, so it’s hard to know what it’s like.

I still love my Droidx the best though!

We really like the gps on the Droid because it shows a satellite view, which is really nice when you’re looking for a campground, river or anything like that.  I can also talk to it to tell it where I want to go.  I don’t know if the iPad has such a program, but even if it did, we don’t have unlimited data so probably wouldn’t us it.

Before we bought the iPad, I thought it would be nice driving down the road using it.  I still think that part will be nice, but I still will use my Droid gps.

What we do like about the iPad is beside it being incredibly cool, it’s great for Al who is not very experienced on a computer.  It’s easier for him and he mostly is interested in reading sporting magazines and the USA today.  It’s great for that.  It is so different from a laptop that I’ve had to learn it from scratch so that I could help him.  He has been doing well though looking up things on Craig's list and finding motor homes for sale!  We took it to the Laundromat yesterday and that was nice…easier and more portable than the laptop (especially since my battery is dead and I need power).  I really need to find a new/cheap laptop battery.

The other problem we have with the iPad,  it is somehow, we have used over half of our 3G data plan in one week!  I don’t know why.  One possibility is that I connected my laptop to it and tried out the Mifi connection.  I didn’t use it long then went back to my PDAnet to connect to my Droid.  I did not disconnect the mifi and maybe I was using the mifi??  It seems that when the Mifi is on, my laptop is automatically connecting to it, instead of my Droid thru PDAnet.  I need to figure out how to change that because we’re using way too much data on the Ipad.   We need to be careful about running over, but if we do it’s only $10 a gig for overage, but with the Droid we have an unlimited data plan.

The guy at the Verizon store said that when you first get an iPad, you use a lot of data just loading all the apps but it usually comes down. I guess that is part of it too.

While we were at the video store, we found out that since they had reduced the price by $100 they would refund us the difference since we just bought it.    We thought that we would have to go on the Apple website for that rebate, but Verizon just did it. We ended up paying $399 for the Ipad.  We got the 16gig, wifi only Apple with the data plan coming from the free Mifi.

It looks like it’s going to be another beautiful day in south Florida.  It’s still a bit cooler which is okay with me.  The hot muggy weather will come soon enough and I really like not having to use the a/c.  It’s be a nice “moving day.”