Looking to get the wife an iPad

[Steve G]

I need a new one too, currently on the ipad 3 32g. I think the new one (ipad pro) is coming any day. Holding out for now...

[Marauder2003]

I had a 32g Air and an iOS update said it could not do it because I did not have enough space. Got a 64g Air 2. Looking at usage on mine Wall St. journal takes 1.1g. It insists on keeping 6 days of issues on the device. I have complained! Wired mag and the magazine app Zinio take another 1.5g.

Now this kills me. The Apple app GarageBand takes 700 meg and I have never opened the app. Same for iMovie.

[esskay]

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[justjeff]

So I bit the bullet and bought a new ipad mini 2 128gb from an Ebay store.

what is the best format for putting movies on these things? Also can I put her nook books on it? She is still gone for a few more weeks and I'd like for her to just be able to open it up and use it.

Thanks for all your input.

[3lsmc7]

I think it has to be in MP4 format? Not sure on that, haven't put movies on mine for awhile. Also for the books, isn't there an Amazon app for that?

Quick question, what computer will you be using to load it? Her laptop or something that won't be going with her? Reason I ask is because of its load with an iTunes that she doesn't have access to, she will probably not be able to load anything on the iPad. Each "iTunes library" is dedicated to the computer. So you can't load movies from on library and then load music from another.

At least that's how it was/is for me. Maybe that has changed?

[justjeff]

I think it has to be in MP4 format? Not sure on that, haven't put movies on mine for awhile. Also for the books, isn't there an Amazon app for that?

Quick question, what computer will you be using to load it? Her laptop or something that won't be going with her? Reason I ask is because of its load with an iTunes that she doesn't have access to, she will probably not be able to load anything on the iPad. Each "iTunes library" is dedicated to the computer. So you can't load movies from on library and then load music from another.

At least that's how it was/is for me. Maybe that has changed?

I'm looking for the right video format now I just D/l handbrake and I think it has a specific Ipad format built in?

I will be loading up everything on my PC she has never put music on her apple products (unless buying straight from itunes/app store)

We have most of our music/movies/photos on usb HDD's. I'm thinking she could just take one of the HDD's with her and change as needed. I was hoping w/ 128gb she wouldn't have much to change if I set it up right.

[3lsmc7]

I'm looking for the right video format now I just D/l handbrake and I think it has a specific Ipad format built in?

I will be loading up everything on my PC she has never put music on her apple products (unless buying straight from itunes/app store)

We have most of our music/movies/photos on usb HDD's. I'm thinking she could just take one of the HDD's with her and change as needed. I was hoping w/ 128gb she wouldn't have much to change if I set it up right.

I think maybe most conversion programs will have a preset tab that will convert to Apple format.

Bolded Portion: This is where she will run into problems when on deployment. The iPad will be tied to the PC at home, so she won't be able to add movies/shows/music. Apple/iTunes will not allow you to sync with multiple iTunes library.

Edit: Here is a work around

[odysseus]

You can manually select the music and add movies to your ipad device per item if you want through iTunes. Most people have very large personal collections they don't want to hold all of it on their mobile device, this is easy to do.

As far as movie conversion, yes HandBrake is good. You can do HD quality on newer Apple devices, so you don't necessarily need to reduce quality for that reason, unless you are trying to drive space down, but if you know some Handbrake tweaks, you can do a lot in there.

BTW the current standard is h.264 (both mp4 and mkv support) to convert to the plays across devices, and is the way to go, and is native to handbrake.

[gorn5150]

You can add her books by installing the Nook app. If she likes to listen to audiobooks the download Chapter and Verse. It is a free program that will convert normal audiobooks to the Apple M4b format.

[Valerio]

I think maybe most conversion programs will have a preset tab that will convert to Apple format.

Bolded Portion: This is where she will run into problems when on deployment. The iPad will be tied to the PC at home, so she won't be able to add movies/shows/music. Apple/iTunes will not allow you to sync with multiple iTunes library.

Edit: Here is a work around

For most video file formats, Digiber converter does the job nicely. www.digiber.com

I've had good luck with it, it accepts just everything as input, and has Apple-targeted profiles.