Tuesday 27 March 2012

New iPad trial over. Back to the future of Android

So having said that Canon's newest full frame body will get no further mention from me a while ago, I will now add Apple products along with Sport and Politics as taboo blog subjects for the future

But before I do, I need to thank Graham for his feedback on his iPad mk1 (happy customer it seems) and James for his views that pretty much follow my thoughts.

I have long been anti -Apple because of the shackling of devices by iTunes, plus lack of drag and drop file capabilities, lack of USB, lack of Flash blah blah.

Many people have over the years tried to convince me that the Apple products are far superior, no security issues, and they 'Just work'. I have taken the view that for more than double the price of comparable PC's, comparisons with far better sounding musical devices, and better tablets etc, that I was better off without them.

But the Apple marketing and the store is a tempting seductress. Having taken the piss out of the more than 500 sheep that queued outside the Apple Store in Birmingham the other week, and having been taken in by the hype, I walked past a few short hours later to find no queue and I was in and out inside 5 minutes but some almost £600 lighter in the credit card. My first Apple product

First couple of days were OK, except I couldn't get images sorted.

Then after 3 nights of not being able to connect to the iTunes store to download apps, to resetting and taking more than 3 hours to recover, I was spending more time trying to make it work than it actually working.

When it did, it was great. Impressive screen, good battery life contrary to other reports, nice slick interface. But the ongoing problem with 'Cannot connect to iTunes kept recurring. More trips to the store - good job my office was close by.

Got the photo uploads sorted, although it still cannot do Cf Cards, drag and drop, and the only way to get Canon images on from CF cards is to connect the camera. How quaint, but I though we had moved on with card readers ten years ago.

I will give a massive thumbs up to Nik Software for their Snapseed software. That was a great app and I will recommend that for quick, easy and excellent editing. I used it on the Panasonic P & S camera files which has a SD card, so I could use that adapter.

But with more drop outs over the weekend and again on Monday, I finally reached the end of my patience with it, and it was returned today.

So last night, I reopened the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, that was factory reset and ready to go on eBay. Within 25 minutes, I was completely reset back to where it was after 7 months of use, and works a treat.

Checking out Nik today, Snapseed for Android is 'coming soon', so that is good news, and I will be able to process CF card, via USB Canon 5Dmk2, and 7D jpeg or RAW files in my tablet.

Now while tablets are still 'toys' by comparison with the desktop powerhouses, the ability to process and work on the move is very useful with tablets.

With blood pressures and temperatures now returned to normal, I can get on with 'life' and make a note to self to remember to stick to my own thoughts and not get taken in by the victory of marketing hype over substance.

The absolute best Apple product is the 14 day full money back guarantee.

Martin

Martin

4 comments:

  1. Interesting, i'm using an Motorola XOOM - and found DLSR Controller app (Beta at present). Links to my 7D, only played a little at the moment but may be useful for static subjects or locations / positions.

    David

    aka Edenrover

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  2. Ouch! Just to quick to get it back to the store Martin - I can no longer use PC's - too much lag! Im enjoying my processing time from my latest visit to the Mach Loop - LR3 then into CS5. Once Im done, Ill seamlessly send the files over the iPad and enjoy them and share them.

    You need to think more about coming on a trip with me than getting annoyed at a tablet.

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  3. Have to say that my wife loves her ipad2, Watches netflix on it all the time

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  4. Well when the thing was working, I was very impressed with it. BUT and it is a big BUT, much of the time it would say 'Cannot connect to iTunes store...OK' Well it bloody wasn't OK by me, and the fact that it was inconsistent, and was unable to connect for long periods was just not acceptable. When I took it back the woman in the shop didnt seem to be that surprised by my reason, and if you do a Google on 'cannot to to itunes store ipad' and check out the last week or two you will see that it is not an uncommon problem.

    If it could consistently connect to the crappy store that Apple shackle you to then I would have kept it and ebayed the Galaxy. But I have chosen to stay with reliability and consistency. If they ever fix that problem, I would happily get it again.

    My boss also got one the same day and hasnt had a problem - maybe I was unlucky, but I wasnt prepared to spend more time trying to get it to work thatn I was with it actually working. And Mark, I probably spent more cumulative time with the bloody ipad not working than any PC lag than you would get added up in a lifetime . :-)

    Martin

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