Board logo

10" Tablet
coozer - 18/1/14 at 08:26 PM

So, after having a look round I want a 10" tablet..

Narrowed the search down to a Asus ME302C MeMO Pad FHD 10

This website looks the cheapest..

http://tabletsonly.co.uk/extra.aspx?me=tabletsonly&pn=ME302C-1B019A




What do you think?

Is the website OK, anyone bought off them?

[Edited on 18/1/14 by coozer]

JC - 18/1/14 at 08:29 PM

iPad mini all day long for me

sdh2903 - 18/1/14 at 08:46 PM

Or a full sized ipad 2 or 3 from the apple refurb shop. I've not yet played with an android tablet yet that just 'works' as well as an ipad, and I'm a huge android fan.

Irony - 18/1/14 at 09:09 PM

After being a hardcore apple user for 15 years I just won't touch their iOS devices. To many restrictions on what you can and cannot do. If your a everyday user then iOS is fine, if your a power user the I phones/iPads are almost impossible without jailbraking them.

Asus make good tablets, I have a nexus 7. Have you tried looking at the nexus 10? They are getting a bit long in the tooth now but there might be some good deals about.

[Edited on 18/1/14 by Irony]

loggyboy - 18/1/14 at 09:13 PM

Galaxy tab 2 or 3, very pleased with my 10.1 tab 2 for last year.

loggyboy - 18/1/14 at 09:15 PM

http://www.johnlewis.com/samsung-galaxy-tab-3-10-1-tablet-intel-atom-android-10-1-wi-fi-16gb/p583919?kpid=232274342&s_kenid=2a3f000c-ce55-3f48-2b8 4-00006e75e0f1&s_kwcid=ppc_pla&tmad=c&tmcampid=73

coozer - 18/1/14 at 09:41 PM

Thanks chaps, however I am no way going for any Apple things and I also ruled out the Samsung tablets..

big-vee-twin - 18/1/14 at 09:43 PM

Asus make the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 for Google and both are very good I have the 7 and its great.

This is their own version which I would imagine are just as good.

Dopdog - 18/1/14 at 11:06 PM

Sony xperia all day long

britishtrident - 18/1/14 at 11:27 PM

Asus make Nexus. but Nexus will slways be first choice.
Don't forget the Kindle Fire HD and HDX
Much as I like Samsung phones I don't rate the Samsung Tablets.

sdh2903 - 18/1/14 at 11:35 PM

quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
Asus make Nexus. but Nexus will slways be first choice.
Don't forget the Kindle Fire HD and HDX
Much as I like Samsung phones I don't rate the Samsung Tablets.


No no no!!! The kindle tablets are pants, they are cheap for a reason.

sdh2903 - 18/1/14 at 11:41 PM

Just to say aswell there's a new 10" mk2 version of the nexus due any day. Might be worth holding on to see what spec/price it has.

splitrivet - 19/1/14 at 12:21 AM

Kindle tablets have your balls locked to amazon just like apple products to itunes.
Cheers,
Bob

craig1410 - 19/1/14 at 02:30 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Irony
After being a hardcore apple user for 15 years I just won't touch their iOS devices. To many restrictions on what you can and cannot do. If your a everyday user then iOS is fine, if your a power user the I phones/iPads are almost impossible without jailbraking them.
[Edited on 18/1/14 by Irony]


What a load of bollocks, I'm a "power user" (software consultant) and iOS is perfectly fine without jail breaking and at least you don't have all your personal data stolen and exploited as you have with a lot of Android apps.

What is a "power user" these day anyway? lol

C.

craig1410 - 19/1/14 at 02:35 AM

quote:
Originally posted by coozer
Thanks chaps, however I am no way going for any Apple things and I also ruled out the Samsung tablets..


Ah, closed mine you are (in a Yoda voice) Good luck with the dark side (Android)

Ask yourself this question. Do you want to buy a great product (Apple) or have your personal data sold (Google)?

BenB - 19/1/14 at 08:15 AM

I couldn't say no to a Nook hd plus. Crazy cheap! brilliant screen and full access to google play so not really the walled garden it was. At some point I was planning on installing cyano but haven't found the need. Only annoyance was google play decided flash was not compatible so did not offer it so I had to sideload it.

MikeRJ - 19/1/14 at 08:46 AM

quote:
Originally posted by craig1410
quote:
Originally posted by coozer
Thanks chaps, however I am no way going for any Apple things and I also ruled out the Samsung tablets..


Ah, closed mine you are (in a Yoda voice) Good luck with the dark side (Android)

Ask yourself this question. Do you want to buy a great product (Apple) or have your personal data sold (Google)?


That sounds more like a closed mind than anything to be honest. I've recently tried IOS7 on an iPAD 4 and it feels very slow and laggy compared to my cheap Samsung Tab.

Ask yourself this question: do you want to have powerful hardware at low cost, a fast smooth and open operating system and a massive choice of applications, or do you want to buy an Apple device?

scudderfish - 19/1/14 at 09:52 AM

quote:
Originally posted by craig1410
quote:
Originally posted by Irony
After being a hardcore apple user for 15 years I just won't touch their iOS devices. To many restrictions on what you can and cannot do. If your a everyday user then iOS is fine, if your a power user the I phones/iPads are almost impossible without jailbraking them.
[Edited on 18/1/14 by Irony]


What a load of bollocks, I'm a "power user" (software consultant) and iOS is perfectly fine without jail breaking and at least you don't have all your personal data stolen and exploited as you have with a lot of Android apps.

What is a "power user" these day anyway? lol

C.


I'm a "power user" (software developer) and as far as I'm aware iOS devices are shiny toys compared to Android. Can iOS devices now do serial comms over Bluetooth to talk to Megasquirt yet? Have Prolific or FTDI released drivers for them so you can use common USB-Serial adapters to talk to Megasquirt? Are there any development environments that run on the device and produced compiled code? I wrote chunks of MSLogger directly on my Asus Transformer TF300T (detachable keyboard that charges the tablet in use is very handy) but as far as I'm aware that wouldn't be possible on an ipad, and I'd have to buy an extra keyboard as well.

Regards,
Dave

v8kid - 19/1/14 at 10:31 AM

quote:
Originally posted by craig1410
quote:
Originally posted by coozer
Thanks chaps, however I am no way going for any Apple things and I also ruled out the Samsung tablets..


Ah, closed mine you are (in a Yoda voice) Good luck with the dark side (Android)

Ask yourself this question. Do you want to buy a great product (Apple) or have your personal data sold (Google)?


Or possibly be regarded as a little bit neurotic? Is there something criminal going on with with Google?

Apart from bank details surely we shouldn't be frightened of sharing anything we do.

Rather than being a "make" hater or lover it seems a better idea to use tools that are appropriate to our needs.

All in good fun.

Cheers

David Jenkins - 19/1/14 at 10:42 AM

Oh - it must be weeks since we last had an Apple/Android war!

I think iPads are very good, and easy to use - but I'm not prepared to pay the price premium for them. There are also some apps that I use which are only available on Android so that effectively made my mind up for me. These include set-up apps for radio-controlled aircraft flight control boards - the developers have said that their not going to write iOS versions as the approval process is too slow, complex and expensive. I don't know if that's true, but they're certainly not going near it.

I have an original Nexus 7 that I bought direct from the Google store, as I did for my Nexus 4 phone. The tablet was bought to run those special apps, with not much intention of using it for anything else. I now use it a lot for all sorts of things...

There are plenty of downsides to Android, such as the many junk apps in the store and the higher risk of malicious apps, but it's still my OS of choice.

Scuzzle - 19/1/14 at 11:28 AM

I'm not a huge Apple fan, I find their products very much 'our way or no way' and while they work great if you are prepared to buy all their products and use all their software I resent being tied to this. Plus I also resent why Apple just can't make their phones and tablets right to begin with, just add flash and make the memory expandable - it's not difficult, but they know the same mugs will line up to pay top dollar to buy the latest generation of their Iphone or Ipad even though they are still that bit lacking.

If you want a good tablet don't rule out out the cheap Chinese ones, they are all made there anyway, even the Ipads. Check out the specs and reviews on a Pipo M9 Pro 3G, it has everything you could ever want in a tablet for a reasonable price.

Smoking Frog - 19/1/14 at 11:59 AM

I got Mrs SF a android tablet for xmass. Not knowing much about them I had to research a bit. The latest specification for android tabs seems to be :- Retina screen, 1.8Ghz quad core CPU, 16GB memory (minimum) using that I created a short list of the different makes and models. Watched uTube reviews where they are often compared to the iPad. Once the make and model is known it's just a matter of getting the best deal. The point is once you move away from the big named tablets there are better spec tablets out there far cheaper than the one you suggest. The cheap slates (new word for me) are not as good as a iPad yet, but not that far behind either.

Proby - 19/1/14 at 04:02 PM

quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
Oh - it must be weeks since we last had an Apple/Android war!

I think iPads are very good, and easy to use - but I'm not prepared to pay the price premium for them. There are also some apps that I use which are only available on Android so that effectively made my mind up for me. These include set-up apps for radio-controlled aircraft flight control boards - the developers have said that their not going to write iOS versions as the approval process is too slow, complex and expensive. I don't know if that's true, but they're certainly not going near it.

I have an original Nexus 7 that I bought direct from the Google store, as I did for my Nexus 4 phone. The tablet was bought to run those special apps, with not much intention of using it for anything else. I now use it a lot for all sorts of things...

There are plenty of downsides to Android, such as the many junk apps in the store and the higher risk of malicious apps, but it's still my OS of choice.


Where is the LIKE button? HaHa

craig1410 - 19/1/14 at 09:53 PM

quote:
Originally posted by MikeRJ
quote:
Originally posted by craig1410
quote:
Originally posted by coozer
Thanks chaps, however I am no way going for any Apple things and I also ruled out the Samsung tablets..


Ah, closed mine you are (in a Yoda voice) Good luck with the dark side (Android)

Ask yourself this question. Do you want to buy a great product (Apple) or have your personal data sold (Google)?


That sounds more like a closed mind than anything to be honest. I've recently tried IOS7 on an iPAD 4 and it feels very slow and laggy compared to my cheap Samsung Tab.

Ask yourself this question: do you want to have powerful hardware at low cost, a fast smooth and open operating system and a massive choice of applications, or do you want to buy an Apple device?


It was meant partly in jest but also referring to the modus operandi of the respective companies. Apple state at every opportunity that they believe in making "great products" whereas Google's business is to collect as much information they can about individuals to sell to the highest bidder for advertising purposes. Pretty much everything that Google do is geared towards selling more ads whether that be scanning your gmail for keywords or tracking your location via your phone or looking at what you search for on the web. It's all fed in to the advertising engine. I'm not being a scaremonger, this is what they do, plain and simple. Some people are happy with using free products in return for personal data, I'd rather pay for the products and keep my data to myself.

You say you tried iOS 7 on an iPad 4 and it was laggy. I was running it on an iPad 3 before I got my iPad Air and it wasn't great to be fair but the iPad 3 was a bit ahead of its time with the retina display and didn't really have the GPU/CPU power to cope properly. That said, it was perfectly usable and since the iPad 4 is twice as fast it should work well on it. The iPad Air is twice as fast again and it is as smooth as butter. I wonder if your perception of lag was due to the animations which can be turned off if you prefer. Anyway, glad you like your samsung.

craig1410 - 19/1/14 at 10:16 PM

quote:
Originally posted by scudderfish
quote:
Originally posted by craig1410
quote:
Originally posted by Irony
After being a hardcore apple user for 15 years I just won't touch their iOS devices. To many restrictions on what you can and cannot do. If your a everyday user then iOS is fine, if your a power user the I phones/iPads are almost impossible without jailbraking them.
[Edited on 18/1/14 by Irony]


What a load of bollocks, I'm a "power user" (software consultant) and iOS is perfectly fine without jail breaking and at least you don't have all your personal data stolen and exploited as you have with a lot of Android apps.

What is a "power user" these day anyway? lol

C.


I'm a "power user" (software developer) and as far as I'm aware iOS devices are shiny toys compared to Android. Can iOS devices now do serial comms over Bluetooth to talk to Megasquirt yet? Have Prolific or FTDI released drivers for them so you can use common USB-Serial adapters to talk to Megasquirt? Are there any development environments that run on the device and produced compiled code? I wrote chunks of MSLogger directly on my Asus Transformer TF300T (detachable keyboard that charges the tablet in use is very handy) but as far as I'm aware that wouldn't be possible on an ipad, and I'd have to buy an extra keyboard as well.

Regards,
Dave


I've never looked before and serial comms to megasquirt is hardly Apple's core customer, but a cursory search on the web revealed that iPad's can indeed communicate via serial interfaces. Here's the first link I found ( http://www.get-console.com ). In a more general sense, I use several iOS applications to talk to my car's OBD computer via bluetooth or WiFi and these work very well indeed. I have no wish to go back to serial comms when there are much better options available today.

Development environments which produce "compiled code" - hmm, well given that an awful lot of code these days (probably the majority in fact) is not "compiled" per se, I'd say this was an edge case. I do most of my development these days using Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Javascript, Coffescript, HTML5 and CSS3 and I use the iPad actively as a test device, or to connect to remote servers and edit code or to run automated test suites live while I'm developing on my Macbook Pro. Tools like Coda and Diet Coda can be used very effectively to carry out web development using nothing but the iPad. In fact I did this on a long flight recently where I wrote a whole website while offline. I then just clicked the upload button when I landed and it was all pushed to the web server via FTP. I think you'd be surprised just how much real work you can get done with one of these "shiny toys"

I use an Apple bluetooth keyboard with my iPad Air when I'm doing a lot of work on it, but it is by no means essential. However, when you are being paid by the day as a professional developer, it makes sense to pay a few extra quid to maximise your productivity.

Anyway, I didn't mean to start another Apple/Android war.

Irony - 20/1/14 at 08:32 AM

quote:
Originally posted by craig1410
quote:
Originally posted by Irony
After being a hardcore apple user for 15 years I just won't touch their iOS devices. To many restrictions on what you can and cannot do. If your a everyday user then iOS is fine, if your a power user the I phones/iPads are almost impossible without jailbraking them.
[Edited on 18/1/14 by Irony]


What a load of bollocks, I'm a "power user" (software consultant) and iOS is perfectly fine without jail breaking and at least you don't have all your personal data stolen and exploited as you have with a lot of Android apps.

What is a "power user" these day anyway? lol

C.


Pffffft - I used macs all day long. I specialise in super sized graphics, presentations and 3D design. When I want to transfer a large document to a iPAD I struggle because of all the apple restrictions. I don't use my iPAD I get out my ANDROID tablet. When I transfer it to a ANDROID tablet I just use a USB memory stick.

I want to use my tablet to display a presentation that somebody else has created. It's a large file and they send it on a CD. My iTunes account is on my home computer and I'm at work. Also the presentation is in powerpoint. Again the iPAD gets put away.

As people at work aways have there iPads slaved to there home computers moving large files to them is a nightmare.

For a software consultant you seem pretty unaware of the restrictions that iOS place on its users.

craig1410 - 20/1/14 at 10:31 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Irony
quote:
Originally posted by craig1410
quote:
Originally posted by Irony
After being a hardcore apple user for 15 years I just won't touch their iOS devices. To many restrictions on what you can and cannot do. If your a everyday user then iOS is fine, if your a power user the I phones/iPads are almost impossible without jailbraking them.
[Edited on 18/1/14 by Irony]


What a load of bollocks, I'm a "power user" (software consultant) and iOS is perfectly fine without jail breaking and at least you don't have all your personal data stolen and exploited as you have with a lot of Android apps.

What is a "power user" these day anyway? lol

C.


Pffffft - I used macs all day long. I specialise in super sized graphics, presentations and 3D design. When I want to transfer a large document to a iPAD I struggle because of all the apple restrictions. I don't use my iPAD I get out my ANDROID tablet. When I transfer it to a ANDROID tablet I just use a USB memory stick.

I want to use my tablet to display a presentation that somebody else has created. It's a large file and they send it on a CD. My iTunes account is on my home computer and I'm at work. Also the presentation is in powerpoint. Again the iPAD gets put away.

As people at work aways have there iPads slaved to there home computers moving large files to them is a nightmare.

For a software consultant you seem pretty unaware of the restrictions that iOS place on its users.


Are you seriously telling me you are a "power user" and yet you have been unable to find a way to display a powerpoint presentation on an iPad and yet you somehow manage to do so on your Android tablet? If so then check out https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/slideshark-presentation-app/id471369684?mt=8 for just one of numerous apps which do just this.

For file transfer, try using dropbox.com to send files wirelessly to your iPad. Unless your ANDROID (why the caps?) device has a built in CD player then presumably you used a PC/Mac to read the CD. So, just drag the file into dropbox and it will magically appear on your iPad. Simple and far more convenient than USB sticks etc. You can also use Goodreader which can become an upload target over WiFi so you can easily upload files to it. You can also use FileBrowser to download files from network file servers to your iOS devices.

You don't give enough detail on what the file type of your super-sized graphics/presentations/3D design are but I'd be very surprised if there wasn't an easy way to open the on the iPad. I'm happy to help if I can.

Regarding iTunes, I stopped syncing my iOS devices to iTunes over 2 years ago when iOS 5 came out. The only time I connect my iPad/iPhone to my Mac now is to upload developer builds of iOS for app testing. Also, iTunes in the cloud means you can import/export/consume your content from any of your devices. Also, I don't understand why you would be importing a Powerpoint presentation into iTunes. Assuming it was actually audio or video content then why not just play it directly from dropbox on the iPad? You don't need to import media to iTunes just to play it you know.

Let me know if you want help as the above use-cases seem pretty straightforward to accomplish on any tablet, Apple or otherwise. Maybe you're a bit out of date.
Cheers,
Craig.

scudderfish - 20/1/14 at 12:35 PM

quote:
Originally posted by craig1410

I've never looked before and serial comms to megasquirt is hardly Apple's core customer, but a cursory search on the web revealed that iPad's can indeed communicate via serial interfaces. Here's the first link I found ( http://www.get-console.com ). In a more general sense, I use several iOS applications to talk to my car's OBD computer via bluetooth or WiFi and these work very well indeed. I have no wish to go back to serial comms when there are much better options available today.

Development environments which produce "compiled code" - hmm, well given that an awful lot of code these days (probably the majority in fact) is not "compiled" per se, I'd say this was an edge case. I do most of my development these days using Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Javascript, Coffescript, HTML5 and CSS3 and I use the iPad actively as a test device, or to connect to remote servers and edit code or to run automated test suites live while I'm developing on my Macbook Pro. Tools like Coda and Diet Coda can be used very effectively to carry out web development using nothing but the iPad. In fact I did this on a long flight recently where I wrote a whole website while offline. I then just clicked the upload button when I landed and it was all pushed to the web server via FTP. I think you'd be surprised just how much real work you can get done with one of these "shiny toys"

I use an Apple bluetooth keyboard with my iPad Air when I'm doing a lot of work on it, but it is by no means essential. However, when you are being paid by the day as a professional developer, it makes sense to pay a few extra quid to maximise your productivity.

Anyway, I didn't mean to start another Apple/Android war.


I was using Megasquirt as an example of usage that would be relevant to a number of people here, rather than the dull stuff that all tablets of whatever OS can do.
The RS232 thing you linked to is actually a WiFi access point that exposes the serial port as a network socket. They have their own interesting quirks when you try to do bi-directional comms with relation to packet size selection. I did find a proper cable (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/iPad-iphone-RS232-DB9-cable-/320953115630), but it is many multiples the cost of a regular USB adapter, and you have to jailbreak the tablet to use it.
If you think the majority of the code out there is not compiled, then you are mistaken. C/C++/Objective C/Java etc al still form the backbone of pretty much everything out there. Given the resource constraints of mobile devices, you have to compile down as close to the metal as possible if you have anything which is performance critical. For Android that is Java running on a JIT VM, with call outs to C/C++ for the time critical stuff. On iOS it will be Objective C.
None of the examples you've given cannot be done equally as well on an Android device, but the reverse is not true. Anyway I'm not going to post further so whatever you say next wins the argument.

craig1410 - 20/1/14 at 01:05 PM

quote:
Originally posted by scudderfish
quote:
Originally posted by craig1410

I've never looked before and serial comms to megasquirt is hardly Apple's core customer, but a cursory search on the web revealed that iPad's can indeed communicate via serial interfaces. Here's the first link I found ( http://www.get-console.com ). In a more general sense, I use several iOS applications to talk to my car's OBD computer via bluetooth or WiFi and these work very well indeed. I have no wish to go back to serial comms when there are much better options available today.

Development environments which produce "compiled code" - hmm, well given that an awful lot of code these days (probably the majority in fact) is not "compiled" per se, I'd say this was an edge case. I do most of my development these days using Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Javascript, Coffescript, HTML5 and CSS3 and I use the iPad actively as a test device, or to connect to remote servers and edit code or to run automated test suites live while I'm developing on my Macbook Pro. Tools like Coda and Diet Coda can be used very effectively to carry out web development using nothing but the iPad. In fact I did this on a long flight recently where I wrote a whole website while offline. I then just clicked the upload button when I landed and it was all pushed to the web server via FTP. I think you'd be surprised just how much real work you can get done with one of these "shiny toys"

I use an Apple bluetooth keyboard with my iPad Air when I'm doing a lot of work on it, but it is by no means essential. However, when you are being paid by the day as a professional developer, it makes sense to pay a few extra quid to maximise your productivity.

Anyway, I didn't mean to start another Apple/Android war.


I was using Megasquirt as an example of usage that would be relevant to a number of people here, rather than the dull stuff that all tablets of whatever OS can do.
The RS232 thing you linked to is actually a WiFi access point that exposes the serial port as a network socket. They have their own interesting quirks when you try to do bi-directional comms with relation to packet size selection. I did find a proper cable (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/iPad-iphone-RS232-DB9-cable-/320953115630), but it is many multiples the cost of a regular USB adapter, and you have to jailbreak the tablet to use it.
If you think the majority of the code out there is not compiled, then you are mistaken. C/C++/Objective C/Java etc al still form the backbone of pretty much everything out there. Given the resource constraints of mobile devices, you have to compile down as close to the metal as possible if you have anything which is performance critical. For Android that is Java running on a JIT VM, with call outs to C/C++ for the time critical stuff. On iOS it will be Objective C.
None of the examples you've given cannot be done equally as well on an Android device, but the reverse is not true. Anyway I'm not going to post further so whatever you say next wins the argument.


So, we've established that you can control serial devices from an iOS device and indeed there are multiple ways to achieve this. I'm well aware that the one I posted was a WiFi dongle and it may or may not have quirks. You're wrong when you say you need to jailbreak though as cables like this one (http://redpark.com/new-redpark-ios-lightning-serial-cable-connects-rs-232-devices-to-ipod-iphone-and-ipad/) come with an SDK to let you create your own apps without the need to jailbreak.

As for compiled vs interpreted code, it's largely a moot point IMO. I develop in C/C++/Obj-C/VB/Java/Javascript/Ruby etc and some are compiled, some are interpreted and some (like Java) are a bit of both. The lines are blurred with dynamic and JIT compilation and there are client and server side build systems (eg. Jenkins) and source code control systems (e.g.. Git/Github) which make it very easy to make code changes, even in "compiled" languages from a browser, tablet or even smartphone and have these changes deployed to a live system automatically. Yes, there are areas where the type of compilation you are talking about still happens but I don't think the usefulness or otherwise of a tablet can be gauged by that capability. Oh and by the way, I develop for iOS using Ruby not Objective C. See www.rubymotion.com if you're interested.

C.

Irony - 20/1/14 at 01:43 PM

Dropbox doesn't have the required speed or capacity when dealing with the sort of file sizes I deal with. I work with huge image files sometimes over a gigabyte sometimes more. Dropbox is just not fast enough for this. Video files, animations, print ready PDFs all huge files that I cannot seem to get on some of our staffs iPads.

I guess it must be the situation of my job that I constantly struggle to use iOS. I seem to be battling all the time with Apple restrictions regarding file transfer. Not many people transfer as many GB of data that I do on a daily basis.

Powerpoint rarely works on either a iOS/ANDROID/Windows/Mac OS tablets perfectly to be honest. Complex presentations including complicated animations, transitions, images, embedded video etc rarely come out okay when transferring cross platform.

I spent years telling everyone how brilliant Apple products are even through the dark years just before the first iMac came out. Only when I felt it was justified however.........I nearly did the shocking thing of trading my Mac Pro for a Windows Desktop about a year ago. Now the new Mac Pro is here I am a happy chappy again.

craig1410 - 20/1/14 at 02:14 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Irony
Dropbox doesn't have the required speed or capacity when dealing with the sort of file sizes I deal with. I work with huge image files sometimes over a gigabyte sometimes more. Dropbox is just not fast enough for this. Video files, animations, print ready PDFs all huge files that I cannot seem to get on some of our staffs iPads.

I guess it must be the situation of my job that I constantly struggle to use iOS. I seem to be battling all the time with Apple restrictions regarding file transfer. Not many people transfer as many GB of data that I do on a daily basis.

Powerpoint rarely works on either a iOS/ANDROID/Windows/Mac OS tablets perfectly to be honest. Complex presentations including complicated animations, transitions, images, embedded video etc rarely come out okay when transferring cross platform.

I spent years telling everyone how brilliant Apple products are even through the dark years just before the first iMac came out. Only when I felt it was justified however.........I nearly did the shocking thing of trading my Mac Pro for a Windows Desktop about a year ago. Now the new Mac Pro is here I am a happy chappy again.


Is the problem "file transfer" or finding an app to view the transferred file correctly? I don't envy you having to deal with GB+ powerpoint files and wonder if there is a better option. Have you tried iBooks Author for example? It's a free Apple tool designed to create iBooks compatible e-books. It has lots of options for embedding video and audio and images plus can render 3D animations. Here's the site: http://www.apple.com/uk/ibooks-author/

Re dropbox, I've got a 100GB account so large files are less of a problem but I agree it can be slow to upload GB+ files. The other option as I think I mentioned is a program like Goodreader which can act as a file server and allow you to upload files locally using just your web browser. I've not tried it with GB+ powerpoint files but it certainly works with word documents and PDFs etc. I see no reason it won't work with larger files.

So have you got a new Mac Pro then? If so then I'm a bit envious! I just got myself a Macbook Pro Retina 15" with a few power ups as I couldn't quite justify the cost of the Mac Pro for development work. If I was into 3D rendering or other CPU/GPU heavy tasks then I would certainly have got one though but it would be wasted for what I use it for.

C.