Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with iPad

What are good coop games for tweens on iOS for a road trip?

Addlepated — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 19:49:12 -0800

What games would tweens (11-13) like to play together on an iPad or coop with their own iPods during a road trip? Are there other non-electronic games you recommend for road tripping? We have Rubberneckers, which is fun up to a point, as is the alphabet game. There are only so many DVDs they will watch. They've both got iThingies, but I'd like for them to interact with each other and/or us rather than be nose-deep in their own screens, oblivious to the world. Family time and such.

Which illuminated E-reader for me?

taz — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 05:12:21 -0800

Time for a new e-reader, and of course nothing will give me everything I want, but maybe ebook-loving Mefites can help me choose. I'm currently looking at the Kindle Paperwhite, the Kobo Glo, and the Kobo Aura HD. Because I'm reading for work online all day (on my laptop), my #1 priority is ease on the eyes when reading for pleasure on an e-reader. I have a first gen Kindle, but I'm currently reading on iPad with retina display, which doesn't seem to strain my eyes, but battery issues and weight are a problem. All other details after the jump... My wants, needs, desires & deets:

I really need the kindest display for eyes

I read ebooks almost every day, about 85% of the time at night, in bed, so I need an illuminated display

I'm not in the US / UK / Canada, so cost will be higher and availability can be tricky

All my books are either mobi (or other Amazon format) or epub, and I'm not concerned about other reading material on this device (comics, graphic novels, magazines, etc.)

I'm adequately conversant with Calibre, so conversions and DRM issues aren't a problem

What I totally adore about reading on the iPad is that I can open my Kindle books in the Kindle app or read my epub books with iReader (I usually load them on dropbox, and open them from there). For simple ease of access for different formats, I don't think anything else will come close to being so convenient, sadly

I don't care about color display, or, really, online browser functionality aside from what I need to get books onto my reader, but working access to my books on dropbox would be super sweet
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+ & - aspects of the readers I'm looking at:

PAPERWHITE (wifi) – Plusses = great display, easy to read my Amazon books. Minuses = expensive for me ($200 with postage and customs); probably the most difficult to load with non-amazon titles, and I really really don't love the USB transfer method; no SD card.

KOBO GLO – Plusses = is supposed to have a great display; least expensive (around $170 for me via ebay) and easiest-to-acquire option for me; has SD card. Minuses = I've heard the interface is clunky and unpleasant; other problems are unknown.

KOBO AURA HD – Plusses = Company hype positions it as the "premium" e-reader now, and many reviews say it's better than the Paperwhite (comparative specs); has SD card. Minuses = Definitely the most difficult for me to acquire (I'll have to have it sent to someone I know who lives both here and the UK, and get them to physically bring it back for me); expensive (around $215 if sent to UK friend); some say that because it's a limited edition it will be soon (?) followed by less expensive and/or better version; at least one review says the casing feels cheap/unpleasant; other problems are unknown.
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Note: Since I have not had a wifi-enabled e-reader up to this point, I don't have experience with trying to transfer books using Calibre, but I assume that will be the best way to transfer most books?

So, Paperwhite has a great rep, is pretty much a "known quantity" and would be convenient for my Amazon books; Kobo Aura HD appeals because it's supposed to be even better; Kobo Glo would probably be fine if the display is as good as the Paperwhite, plus it's less expensive and it's the least troublesome for me to obtain. Regarding the iPad, I really like it, but worry about the LED backlighting, hate to see the battery draining like mad, and I fall asleep and bop myself in the face with it, which, ouch! it's really heavy.

Based on these details, fellow readers, what are your recommendations regarding these (or other) readers?

Is there a PDF-annotator for iPad that allows you to annotate and read?

cacofonie — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 06:02:21 -0800

I've realized that, as great as the iPad is for academic reading, I really need to annotate the PDFs in order for things to stick. I love what Sente allows you to do on the Mac (I have a PC), in that you can highlight a sentence and it gets copied in real time to a summary page that you can see side by side with your reading. That way, when you're done, you have an accurate and formated summary page of the article you've read. Is there anywhere to find this on the iPad? I've reviewed the multiple threads on the best apps for PDF annotation and organization on the iPad, but I can't seem to find an app that does this. The closest I can find is goodreader, which lets you "email a summary file" which is just a mumble jumble of everything you've highlighted after the fact.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Android Tablet circa 2013

theobserver — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 21:50:35 -0800

Best Android tablet out there circa 2013? "Best" is subjective, so take a look I have more or less decided on an Android Tablet. I have asked a similar question a few months ago here, but there some changes to what I need now.

10-inch, fast processor (quad-core?), decent internal memory (is 1 GB enough), high-res screen, fast charging and decent battery life. External storage (SD Card) would be awesome, but a work around like a OTG-USB cable is also fine.

Everything else, like camera etc is not important. I am not going to run intensive games either, but definitely will watch blue-ray quality movies on it. App ecosystem is not that important, provided basic apps like Youtube, Netflix, reading apps, some form of Office support and games like flow Free, Crosswords etc are available in tablet versions.

I was set on the Nexus 10, but on Amazon, the reviews are not encouraging. so are reviews for every other Android Tablet out there - Asus Transformer T700 (screen lag/slow), Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (low-res screen, crappy flash memory), Galaxy Tab 10.1 etc.

Across the different tech sites, there is no agreement on the best iPad alternative. Speaking of which, I am thinking the iPad 4 is still the tablet to beat, but I don't like the boring interface, the walled app garden, dependence on iTunes for copying anything to the iPad (offline music and movies) etc.

Your experiences with tablets and satisfaction/horror stories will go a long way in helping me make a decision.

Can my iPad automatically forget a WiFi connection?

never used baby shoes — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 11:02:59 -0800

I'm configuring my wife's iPad 1 to work with our WiFi network. Because our kids also use it, we'd like it to "forget" the WiFi connection when we disconnect. We don't want our two younglings getting out on the Internet without supervision, so I've shown my wife how to turn on and shut off the WiFi connection. However, once it knows a network connection, it will automatically connect to it once the WiFi is enabled. While we can get it to manually "forget" the network connection, is there a way to have it automatically forget the connection, so that the password has to be re-entered? I haven't been able to find anything on various tech forums, but thought it was worth checking with the hive mind.

Given the level of fooling around they do on it, I expect at some point that they will get into the settings and turn WiFi back on - I'd like the iPad to need a password to reconnect. While we can do the manual forgetting each time, I'm curious to know if we can set it to automatically require that password each time.

Other alternatives for keeping curious fingers away from the settings would also be worthwhile.

iPad 1, iOS 5.1.1

I'd be Appy if I Could Find the Right Designer

Xurando — Thu, 30 May 2013 13:07:13 -0800

After a lot of research, I am having trouble finding an affordable, trustworthy financial app (iPad) designer, Boston area a plus. Any suggestions?

Visual dictionary for children on the iPad?

viggorlijah — Fri, 24 May 2013 00:32:38 -0800

I'm looking for an iPad app (Kindle or other ebooks are fine too if they can do this as I can get my hands on one for this) which is lots of big busy pictures with little words in them where you can press the picture and hear the word said - basically a speaking version of the Usbourne's First 1,000 words. All I can find after several hours searching are flashcards or spelling-type games or dictionaries where the words are arranged A-Z. I keep thinking this must exist as the iPad would be perfect for this, but I'm just not turning up anything!

Offline ipad games

bq — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:37:15 -0800

What are some good games that I can play while offline? I've seen this question but I am looking specifically for games. I know I can download books and stuff. I want to PLAY! On an airplane. Without paying for Internet. Help me out.

I want more detailed maps on my iPad

Camofrog — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:12:22 -0800

I love the iPad maps app, but it's light on detail. Is there a way to toggle things on like town boundaries and other political/cultural data? Or is there another app that does that?

Best tablet and workflow for blogging

melissa — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:57:44 -0800

I would like to purchase a tablet so I can do more blogging without lugging a laptop around. What are the best tools/apps/workflow tips to be able to do this without tearing my hair out? Special snowflake stuff inside. Here are my snowflakey specs:

I blog using self-hosted Wordpress, and I can do basic maintenance on it myself.
I already have a Bluetooth keyboard I like, and that works with both iOS and Android.
I currently have an iPhone 4S and my husband has a Nexus 7 tablet I can experiment on.
I'm leaning towards an Android tablet because there are more options at various price points (read: cheaper).
A 7 inch tablet is ideal - will fit in my purse with the keyboard and all my other purse stuff.
I would love to be able to insert Flickr/Instagram pictures easily, but the more I search, the more I see that this isn't really done outside of the iPad-only Blogsy app. That app looks like what I'd like to use, but I can't justify spending so much more on an iPad (with all new connectors/accessories) on the basis of one app that may or may not stick around.
I am reasonably comfortable with HTML. I just think it's ridiculously difficult to insert Flickr images into the WordPress mobile app.
I have and use both Dropbox and Evernote. I know that Evernote works in rich text and can cause unusual formatting when exporting to Wordpress. Should I consider a plain text editor and work in Markdown? (I've never worked that way before, but it looks easy to learn.)
I have no problem paying for apps if they're worth the money.
Outside of blogging, I would be using this tablet mostly for various social media (Twitter/FB/Pinterest) as well as reading web stuff from Pocket and ebooks via Kobo/my local library. I'm not a big gamer, but I'd probably watch occasional videos on it too
I'm in Canada if that affects any tools/toys I can purchase.
I'm willing to wait if the Next Big Thing is worth it. (I need to save my pennies too!)

How do you make blogging on a tablet work for you? What's your workflow? Thanks!

Why can I no longer receive iMessages on my iPhone?

krunk — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:57:06 -0800

As of yesterday I no longer receive iMessages on my iPhone. I get them on my ipad and Mac, however. I didn't change anything on the phone, but I did use the ipad for the first time in a few months and it required me to set up iMessage again for some reason. I've tried rebooting the phone, logging out of iMessage and signing back in, but nothing works. I can send messages too.

I've even tried logging out on the ipad in case it was consuming the messages for some reason. My wife sent me a message during this time and it eventually arrived on the phone as a text message.

Any ideas?

How to automatically backup iPad data without a pc or mac?

subpixel — Mon, 06 May 2013 06:43:17 -0800

I want to replace my mother's aging laptop with an iPad. My only concern is making sure her photos and documents are backed up, online, without her having to think about it, ever. Is there an effortless way to make sure all of her data gets backed up and can be restored in case of emergency? Dropbox seems like an option, but that's not really backup as much as sync - files only last 30 days if they get removed from your device. I'd prefer to have true backup than can be restored at any time. Thanks

iPad apps for grandma

inertia — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 08:24:32 -0800

My family and I are getting my great-grandmother an iPad, and I would like to set it up for her so she can get the most use out of it. I'm looking for app recommendations or anything else that would make an iPad as user-friendly as possible for a 94-year-old. My great-grandmother recently moved into an assisted living facility, and we are purchasing her an iPad to replace her broken desktop computer. She mostly used her computer for playing games (particularly bridge), looking at family photos mostly from my flickr page, and on seldom occasions she would read her email.

I have checked out the browser app SilverSurf, which seems a little kludgy. I am going to set her up with Skype, but am planning on that being something we use together. So what else can I do to make sure that she gets the most out of her iPad?

Which iPad?

Dansaman — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 08:52:31 -0800

Is a Retina display on an iPad worth the extra cost? I bought a refurbished 2nd generation iPad from Apple for my daughter.

I found that the display doesn't look crisp to me. I never felt that way with my first generation iPad, but perhaps having an iPhone 5 has changed my expectations.

If she's going to play (generally educational!) games and watch (AskMeFi-recommended!) movies on the iPad, would they look considerably (i.e., noticeably) better on a Retina display?

I can still return/exchange it and would be willing to pay for a model with Retina display if it's definitely better. Because what I bought is 2nd generation and refurbished, I saved $180 compared to a new 4th generation iPad. A 3rd generation refurbished, which has a Retina display, would be $60 more than that (and 4th generation refurbished $70 more than 3rd generation).

Thank you for sharing your experiences with these two types of displays.

Thin screen or tablet for poster presentations

you're a kitty! — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:24:27 -0800

My graduate research has recently headed in a video-heavy direction, which makes the ol' poster presentation format somewhat challenging. I'd like to have a thin screen or tablet to hold — or better yet, mount — where I can easily play a number of videos. What's my best option? Videos work well for talks, but occasionally I have to give a poster and then it's a real pain. I thought of getting an iPad and somehow mounting it on the board, and maybe even cutting my poster around it, but I suspect that would be kind of tacky and the mounting situation is different at every event.

I don't really need much of an elaborate operating system, so paying extra for a (heavy) iPad seems a bit excessive, but ideally I'd like something about that size. My iPod is too small. Does anyone just make super-thin displays that can play off a flash drive?

Note: My videos are currently .avi or .wmv format, but I can adjust them. I saw this thread, but it's not quite what I'm looking for.

How to stay organized and synced without downloading to work computer?

MultiFaceted — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:52:31 -0800

I work an overnight shift and when I don’t have actual work sitting in front of me I’m able to work on my schoolwork and research for a PhD. I’m looking for the easiest way to manage the electronic articles I find (and download) as well as manage the Word documents I’m typing for notes and papers (and the dissertation. Let’s not forget the all-important Dissertation!). The setup: I have internet access on work computers, but no WiFi. The usual sites are blocked (YouTube, Facebook, entertainment, etc) but the blocks don’t interfere with my schoolwork so that’s not an issue. I assume everything is monitored but I’m not researching anything that’s NSFW, so I’m not concerned with that at this time (and my supervisor knows what I do and is supportive as long as the work gets done).

I do NOT have my own login to the computer (Windows based). We don’t log in and out…it’s just always on. I can’t remote in to the Windows computer either. So far, jump drives and such are OK…the patient files we work with aren’t in Word anyways.

I own an iPad 3 with 3G access to the internet. However, I’d like to use the work internet as much as I can in order to save data on the plan. I do use it if I need to get to a site that’s blocked.

I have a jump drive, a Dropbox account, a Mendeley account (which is what I’d love to use for the PDFs of articles I download), a Google account or two (one tied to my android phone), and a Yahoo email account. All are accessible from my iPad. I also have a netbook I use at home but I don’t really want to tote it back and forth to work. As of right now I do not have Dropbox or Mendeley downloaded to the work computer like you would at home.

Right now if I want to save an article I save it to the desktop on the work computer, then turn around and either upload it to Dropbox using their website or move it to my jump drive, then delete it from the desktop. If I get distracted in the middle of any of that I lose track of what I’ve saved and what I haven’t (and where it is).

I don’t want my coworkers having access to my files when I’m not here. While I do keep files in my Dropbox I don’t want others looking at, I don’t keep super secure info like bank statements, etc. However, I don’t trust all of my coworkers to not screw around with or delete my files just to piss me off or “as a joke” (which will piss me off). So I want a safe, secure way to manage everything.

My questions:
1. Is there a good, password protected way to have the Dropbox or Mendeley app downloaded to the work computer where coworkers cannot access it, delete it, or otherwise mess with my stuff? Relatedly, is there a way to password protect a folder I make on the C: drive somehow?
2. Can I run any of those things off of a jump drive so that Dropbox will automatically update when I save something to it? My idea is to be able to save something to Dropbox or Mendeley at work then pull it up on my iPad later in the day to read it without having to sync everything with the netbook.
3. I’d really love to be able to have my own web browser with my own bookmarks saved that I can log in and out of…similar to Chrome but I’m deathly afraid I’ll forget to log out of Chrome just once and coworkers will have access to all sorts of things I don’t want them to have. Any way to do that with the jumpdrive?
4. Any other ideas you have for keeping everything organized and synced up with relative ease?

Is there something better than plastic wrap for the back of an iPad?

Brian Puccio — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 12:10:09 -0800

I've got an iPad mini and I'm pretty sure I want a keyboard cover. However, any sort of rear case would interfere with the iPad fitting into the slot of the keyboard cover. And I'd rather not get a keyboard case since they seem rather bulky, I'd rather get the pretty thin Logitech keyboard cover and take it or leave it as I need it. So it looks like the best bet to keep the back of my iPad from getting scratched up every time I put it down and potentially slide it across some dirt or grit on a surface is to grab a piece of plastic wrap that is cut slightly smaller than the iPad and stretch it over the back. A piece lasts about a week. Is there a better (more durable, less likely to come off) solution? Ideally something under $10 and clear (or white). Maybe some sort of sticker? Or plastic shrinks down to size and hugs the iPad when heated with a hair dryer? Thanks for whatever help you can provide navigating the sea of iDevice accessories.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king

Aubergine — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 09:17:35 -0800

I've been tasked for setting up my older friend's iPad with useful apps, and while I have some ideas, I also don't have an iPad myself.... Please advise! My friend recently bought an iPad and has asked me to help her set it up. She's a few decades older than me and extremely sharp, but doesn't have much experience with Apple devices and I'd like to make her iPad useful to her without too much of a learning curve. She's leaving on Monday to go to Amsterdam for a few weeks, so I'd also like it to be an asset to her on her travels- whether via flight-checking apps, city guides, or whatever. Can you recommend any great all-purpose iPad apps, and a few that might be good for a traveler? The only complication is that the iPad will not be on a data plan so it is wifi only.

Apps I have already planned to put on include Skype, Google Maps, Bank of America (her bank), a dictionary/translate app, but I don't have an iPad myself so I'm sure I'm missing some things! She will be using it as an all-purpose computing device, so she'd like to be able to watch movies and read books on it.

How to add a second iPad to a one computer house?

bluecore — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 07:07:10 -0800

My elderly, non-techy parents need to add another iPad to the mix because my father is hogging the iPad they have now, but I'm not sure how to setup the icloud accounts, itunes syncing, etc. Details within. My parents want to get another iPad, but I'm not sure how to arrange the icloud accounts, itunes syncing, etc. I don't have any iOS devices, so I'll have to learn this before I can give them directions.

They have one iPad 2, one Macbook Air with one user account. They're adding an iPad Mini because my father is hogging the iPad 2.

Should they share one iCloud account and sync it all to the same itunes account on the Air, or should I make separate iCloud accounts? Would that mean separate user account logins for the Air so the itunes syncs are different? I have no iOS devices, so the whole iCloud/itunes sync thing confounds me.

How can I make this easy for them to set up but help my mother feel like the Mini is hers and not shared?

Who's compressing my JPEGs: Gmail, iPad, or WordPress?

Artifice_Eternity — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:29:42 -0800

The other day I discovered that some JPEGs I'd posted to my (self-hosted) WordPress blog had been compressed. The subject of my blog happens to be anaglyph 3D photos... and if the images are not saved at a very high resolution, a phenomenon called "ghosting" or "crosstalk" appears, where parts of the image that are only supposed to be visible to one eye are visible to the other eye as well. This can ruin the 3D effect. So it's important that my images are uploaded and posted with no added compression. The problem is that I don't know exactly where the problem occurred. Details below... These particular images got to my blog somewhat circuitously: after exporting them from Photoshop on my PC at a very high resolution, I attached them to a Gmail message... then I downloaded them to my iPad's photo gallery... and then I uploaded them to the blog via the iPad WordPress app. Upon viewing the posted images, I could see a very definite degradation of image quality.

What I'm trying to figure out is which step in the chain caused this. I've sent image files thru Gmail many times, and never noticed any compression, so I'm assuming/hoping that's not where it happened.

I know that Apple often has stuff going on under the hood of its hardware and software that isn't clearly explained to users (which is why I've been wary of the iPad, and have only started using this hand-me-down unit recently). So it's my prime suspect. I looked for settings that might control image compression, but couldn't find anything that mentioned it or would allow me to prevent it from happening.

Then there's WordPress. When I upload multiple photos using the WordPress Media Uploader on the PC, there is a message that appears that says "Crunching..." My research suggests that the original images are not being compressed during this process, but rather that multiple image sizes are being created. Ultimately I've decided to upload images from my PC by inserting them individually into posts; the Media Uploader seems to handle this without any visible quality loss. But what the iPad WordPress app may or may not be doing to my images is still a mystery to me.

I'd really like to know where the problem occurred. It would be nice to be able to upload stuff from the iPad to the blog -- if this unwanted compression can be eliminated. I'm also thinking about buying the iPad Camera Connection Kit... but I don't want to try moving photos from my cameras thru the iPad to email or cloud storage, if it's going to mess them up.

Can anyone shed any light?

Should my tablet match my phone or my laptop ecosystem?

midmarch snowman — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 07:18:11 -0800

I am getting a Tablet for work, either a Nexus 10 or an iPad. I'm pretty well versed on the features and drawbacks for both, and I feel like if my other devices were either all Apple or all Google/Windows I'd make the choice based on matching my current device operating system ecosystem. BUT right now, each device I use has a different OS, so is there a better device to match my tablet operating system with? An android phone will be my next smartphone. I used to have an old iPhone 3G and liked iOS, but decided not to stay with iPhones because money.

I still have an old MacBook as a home computer, and I am pretty committed to OSX operating system for that purpose.

Also, at work I will be using windows, naturally.

The work I'm doing on the tablet will almost entirely be reading and annotating PDFs and Google Docs. Although I like holding the nexus better, it sounds like people prefer the PDF apps for the iPad better.

Since most other feature comparisons are similarly a wash, I wonder if there is any benefit of having both my mobile devices in the same ecosystem? Or is there a benefit from having my tablet be in the same ecosystem as my laptop? Or does it even matter?

Music Library Management for iPad/Linux

gd779 — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 15:31:04 -0800

Is there an application that runs on iOS, or that runs on Ubuntu and has an iOS client, that will allow me to manage (as oppose to merely play) my digital music collection? I need to be able to import new files I have ripped, edit tags, and edit file/folder structure from my iPad due to carpal tunnel syndrome. I have a large, poorly organized digital music collection that I want to organize and add to. These music files reside on a NAS on my network. The challenge is that, due to my carpal tunnel syndrome, I can't use a keyboard or mouse. I need to be able to manage my music library (edit tags, edit file names and folder structures, etc.) using my iPad. It's the only device that doesn't cause me much pain.

In addition to my Synology NAS, I also have an always-on computer running Ubuntu. So an application that runs on Ubuntu and can be accessed from the iPad would be fine. (I also have a Windows machine, but the hardware is dying so it is not always on, and would probably not make a good server).

Then, in a perfect world, I would like new albums that I rip to my collection to be automatically uploaded to Amazon Cloud Player. Because my iTunes library is on the NAS, Cloud Player doesn't seem to detect new songs properly.

Any advice that anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated. Hours of googling has not turned up a solution. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

Thanks!

iTunes backups silently failing, all data listed as "Other"

logopetria — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 04:12:07 -0800

I have an iPhone5 and an original iPad, which I back up to my PC (running iTunes on Windows XP). However, now when I plug in either device to the PC and start iTunes, all the data is listed as "Other" (in an orange bar across the bottom of the window). Further, when I click "Back Up Now" the sync begins, then stops after a second or two with no error message. Can I recover from this without losing my data? More details: the iPhone, iPad and iTunes are all updated to the latest available versions of their respective software. The last reported backup for each device is 11th and 13th February respectively; this date doesn't change when I click "Back Up Now".

I've searched as best I can for a solution, but most of Apple's help with failing backups seems to assume that the user is getting an error message of some kind. I don't get any error message at all. When I click "Back Up Now" the display at the top of the iTunes window simply says "Starting sync" and shows the barber-pole progress bar (as expected), but these appear on screen for only a second or two.

I've also tried switching to backing up to iCloud instead of to the computer, but it's just the same: the sync fails after a couple of seconds with no error message.

The other, presumably related issue is that the bar at the bottom of the iTunes window (which normally shows the storage used broken down into "Music", "Apps", etc.) is showing a single orange bar labelled "Other". This is the case for both devices.

Is there any way to recover from this condition without losing the data I have on both devices? It's probably not a huge amount of data (some notes in Clear, some podcast subscriptions in iCatcher, etc.) but I'd prefer not to have to do an audit of every app I use to ensure that nothing gets permanently lost, if it can be avoided.

If the only solution is some kind of restore/reset process, is there any third-party software you'd recommend to backup the data safely before I try it?

Are AT&T data plans for iPad still month to month, or is it a contract?

ridogi — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:47:20 -0800

The original promise of the data plans for an iPad was that they were not a long term contract, but rather something you could use for a month or two, disable / cancel for a few months and then activate again as you needed it. You also would not have overage charges as running into the limit would just disable your account until you upped the plan. Is that still the case? I've been hearing that they now have termination fees, and after you cancel and try to add service again a few months down the road that problems reactivating the account are typical and require many trips to AT&T store or or call to their support number.

I am not talking about a shared data plan with other devices, but rather the option of signing up directly on the device (in settings --> cellular data).

I'm wondering what your experiences have been if you are someone who cancels and reactivates the data plan as needed.

Tracking iTunes Store prices on iOS?

jroybal — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:27:27 -0800

I use an app on my iPhone and iPad called AppShopper to keep a list of iOS apps I'd like to buy. It tracks them and sends a push notification when their price changes (or when there's an update to the app). Is there another app like that out there that tracks movies, music and TV shows (and maybe apps) on the iTunes Store? If there's no app, is there a website that does this?