So the MacGyver version of the Ipad or the one where I leave well enough alone?
March 16, 2010 7:57 AM Subscribe
Trying to decide if I should get the 16gb ipad and hack the crap out of it or, for 200 bucks more, get the 64gb and treat it well.
So I’ve already decided I want an Ipad. I love the iphone, I’m over laptops and the prospect of watching downloaded GLEE episodes at a reasonable size while I run on the gym treadmill is too good to pass up.
The only question is what size should I get?
My thinking here is that the first generation is usually buggy and all so it’s probably best to wait for a bit before I put any real money into one of the high end units (a strategy that served me well on the iphone).
And the thinking is also, if I get the crappy 16gb unit, within a week or two, someone will have taken their unit apart on LIFEHACKER or BOING BOING and posted the complete guide to upgrading your memory to some ridiculous amount for a pittance or two.
Now this could all be flawed thinking on my part and maybe what I SHOULD do is just save myself the time and headache and get the 64gb one and take decent care of it. Which is the reasonable option I suppose.
So what say you MEFI? I’ve definitely got the money for the 16gb and mostly have the money for the 64 gb. What would you do in my shoes?
So I’ve already decided I want an Ipad. I love the iphone, I’m over laptops and the prospect of watching downloaded GLEE episodes at a reasonable size while I run on the gym treadmill is too good to pass up.
The only question is what size should I get?
My thinking here is that the first generation is usually buggy and all so it’s probably best to wait for a bit before I put any real money into one of the high end units (a strategy that served me well on the iphone).
And the thinking is also, if I get the crappy 16gb unit, within a week or two, someone will have taken their unit apart on LIFEHACKER or BOING BOING and posted the complete guide to upgrading your memory to some ridiculous amount for a pittance or two.
Now this could all be flawed thinking on my part and maybe what I SHOULD do is just save myself the time and headache and get the 64gb one and take decent care of it. Which is the reasonable option I suppose.
So what say you MEFI? I’ve definitely got the money for the 16gb and mostly have the money for the 64 gb. What would you do in my shoes?
I agree with proj. The ram chips are soldered on instead of ram slots like in a laptop. Even their battery replacement plan involves you sending/ taking in the ipad.
posted by sharkfu at 8:04 AM on March 16, 2010
posted by sharkfu at 8:04 AM on March 16, 2010
Agreed, the hackers had a heyday with iPhone software but I haven't heard of anything really being done to the hardware. If you're looking for more storage space I recommend you just buy that model.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 8:04 AM on March 16, 2010
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 8:04 AM on March 16, 2010
I'd go for the 64 GB one and hold off for a while until I could upgrade that one further, if you're so gung-ho on larger memory. Honestly, ending up with 16 gigs is like a sip of water to a man dying of thirst to me nowadays.
posted by lizbunny at 8:04 AM on March 16, 2010
posted by lizbunny at 8:04 AM on March 16, 2010
rileyray3000: And the thinking is also, if I get the crappy 16gb unit, within a week or two, someone will have taken their unit apart on LIFEHACKER or BOING BOING and posted the complete guide to upgrading your memory to some ridiculous amount for a pittance or two.
iPads, like iPhones, are sealed units. I don't recall seeing any guides to upgrading you iPhone this way, why should the iPad be any different?
sharkfu: Even their battery replacement plan involves you sending/ taking in the ipad.
It actually ends with them sending you a new one.
My recommendation? Wait for the 2nd gen, and lower prices on higher end models.
posted by mkultra at 8:15 AM on March 16, 2010
iPads, like iPhones, are sealed units. I don't recall seeing any guides to upgrading you iPhone this way, why should the iPad be any different?
sharkfu: Even their battery replacement plan involves you sending/ taking in the ipad.
It actually ends with them sending you a new one.
My recommendation? Wait for the 2nd gen, and lower prices on higher end models.
posted by mkultra at 8:15 AM on March 16, 2010
Nthing. There has been no hardware hacks that I know of that would indicate the iPad will be hardware hackable. If you're lucky, someone will figure out how to replace the battery but that's probably about it.
posted by chairface at 8:20 AM on March 16, 2010
posted by chairface at 8:20 AM on March 16, 2010
Rule of thumb: Never buy Rev A Apple hardware. Wait for the next gen.
posted by devinemissk at 8:22 AM on March 16, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by devinemissk at 8:22 AM on March 16, 2010 [2 favorites]
Piling on -- about the only thing I've seen available for DIYers on the iPhone is a battery or screenreplacement. And jailbreaking the OS obviously, but that will happen for both the 16 and 64.
posted by cgg at 8:29 AM on March 16, 2010
posted by cgg at 8:29 AM on March 16, 2010
You're confusing iPads/iPhones and Macbooks.
You are not going to be able to upgrade the storage in an iPad yourself, unless you're incredibly skilled at soldering smts.
posted by ged at 8:40 AM on March 16, 2010
You are not going to be able to upgrade the storage in an iPad yourself, unless you're incredibly skilled at soldering smts.
posted by ged at 8:40 AM on March 16, 2010
mkultra: "It actually ends with them sending you a new one."
Yeah, I decided not to mention that since it hasn't happened yet. I don't know why, but I feel like the FAQ wording on that may change at the last minute, just as the mute switch suddenly became the screen orientation lock.
posted by sharkfu at 8:41 AM on March 16, 2010
Yeah, I decided not to mention that since it hasn't happened yet. I don't know why, but I feel like the FAQ wording on that may change at the last minute, just as the mute switch suddenly became the screen orientation lock.
posted by sharkfu at 8:41 AM on March 16, 2010
It's not the extra $300 that is a lot of money. It's the first $500. It's like the difference between a regular duty and a heavy duty transmission. Both will do the job. One will do the job better, but you may not need the job done better if you only drive to church on sundays. If you haul concrete, spend the extra money.
If you only have $499, your choice is made. If you can afford a couple hundred bucks more, there is value (in the form of storage) added for the difference, and you should assess the value added independently of the underlying cost for the basic unit.
I have not found the old saw about Rev A Apple products to be especially true in recent years, and statistically I think you're pretty safe buying one of these in terms of hardware reliability. But there is little doubt that if you can wait 6 months or a year, you'll get more features or pay less or both, because that's how all new technology works (not just Apple).
My own view is that if the extra couple hundred bucks will break you, but you really need 64GB, you should wait and save your money until you can actually afford the first $500 to begin with, because if you can't afford $700 easily, you can't afford $500 either, at least not for a pretty new toy.
I am always amused at people who slam Apple products for costing more than other brands. So what? They're made for people who can afford them, just like every other product.
posted by fourcheesemac at 10:22 AM on March 16, 2010 [3 favorites]
If you only have $499, your choice is made. If you can afford a couple hundred bucks more, there is value (in the form of storage) added for the difference, and you should assess the value added independently of the underlying cost for the basic unit.
I have not found the old saw about Rev A Apple products to be especially true in recent years, and statistically I think you're pretty safe buying one of these in terms of hardware reliability. But there is little doubt that if you can wait 6 months or a year, you'll get more features or pay less or both, because that's how all new technology works (not just Apple).
My own view is that if the extra couple hundred bucks will break you, but you really need 64GB, you should wait and save your money until you can actually afford the first $500 to begin with, because if you can't afford $700 easily, you can't afford $500 either, at least not for a pretty new toy.
I am always amused at people who slam Apple products for costing more than other brands. So what? They're made for people who can afford them, just like every other product.
posted by fourcheesemac at 10:22 AM on March 16, 2010 [3 favorites]
It's likely iPads will be jailbroken soon after their release; I concur with the other commenters that hardware hacks are unlikely. I suggest your criteria for choosing between the $500 and $800 models should be simply how much media you expect to keep on the thing - apps don't take that much space - and whether you will be bothered when the next revision includes new hardware features cough cough camera cough cough.
posted by symbebekos at 11:21 AM on March 16, 2010
posted by symbebekos at 11:21 AM on March 16, 2010
If the main issue is space, consider that there are solutions that can mitigate the limitations of the 16gig. The one I'm currently leaning towards is the Airstash, but I'm willing to bet there will be others on the market very shortly.
I would not, as everyone has mentioned, bet any amount on being able to open it up and add anything to the iPad without voiding your warranty in a major way with a soldering iron.
posted by griffey at 12:15 PM on March 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
I would not, as everyone has mentioned, bet any amount on being able to open it up and add anything to the iPad without voiding your warranty in a major way with a soldering iron.
posted by griffey at 12:15 PM on March 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
I might wait for an iPad model with a camera, but first-generation product build quality has actually improved across the board, in my opinion. With one notable exception with iMac displays, most bug fixes with Apple hardware are often a firmware revision away, anyway.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:30 PM on March 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:30 PM on March 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
I think it depends how you are going to use it.
I was looking at a larger one, but realized I will still use my iphone for all my music, which chews up most of my iphone storage.
So think about what you are going to store on it.
posted by UMDirector at 12:33 PM on March 16, 2010
I was looking at a larger one, but realized I will still use my iphone for all my music, which chews up most of my iphone storage.
So think about what you are going to store on it.
posted by UMDirector at 12:33 PM on March 16, 2010
You will not be able to upgrade the physical flash memory unless you understand how to do BGA rework, can then bootstrap a mysterious CPU that is trying to fetch its reset vectors from blank memory, and can then get iTunes to recognize it and put the correct firmware back onto it. All of this will cost much more than a pittance in both time and money.
If you don't know what BGA stands for or what a reset vector is, go buy an Arduino if you want a soft start on hardware hacking.
posted by bigtex at 1:04 PM on March 16, 2010
If you don't know what BGA stands for or what a reset vector is, go buy an Arduino if you want a soft start on hardware hacking.
posted by bigtex at 1:04 PM on March 16, 2010
Apple support says the 30-pin USB/SD dongle is crippled to only allow picture transfers. But how about bluetooth expansion drives? Will the iPad see those as additional storage?
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:17 AM on April 1, 2010
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:17 AM on April 1, 2010
stupidsexyFlanders: Apple support says the 30-pin USB/SD dongle is crippled to only allow picture transfers. But how about bluetooth expansion drives? Will the iPad see those as additional storage?
Doubtful. The iPhone OS does not use a HFS with folders and whatnot, or at least the way we traditionally use one. Files are kept in a large bucket and accessed via search (e.g. a Word Processor can be told to look for MS Word or Text files, not files in a specific place).
posted by mkultra at 9:07 AM on April 1, 2010
Doubtful. The iPhone OS does not use a HFS with folders and whatnot, or at least the way we traditionally use one. Files are kept in a large bucket and accessed via search (e.g. a Word Processor can be told to look for MS Word or Text files, not files in a specific place).
posted by mkultra at 9:07 AM on April 1, 2010
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posted by proj at 8:00 AM on March 16, 2010 [2 favorites]