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Apple iPad 2 |OT|

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japtor said:
I'm one of the big iCab proponents, but I've been using Sleipnir (posted on the last page about it) and generally like it better. It doesn't have all the features of the others, but in general the UI is just a lot nicer feeling and looking.

...other than the Google search having an issue with the resulting page (clicking the Search button on the page gets around it for now).

Is that the issue where you can't just get the keyboard focus on anything? If so I've seen that before, I think the workaround is to force the focus on something else, like the address/search fields or something in a new tab.
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Well damn, Sleipnir is pretty neat. The gestures to switch between, close, and select tabs is great. Tab groups are interesting.

srrLj.png


thechristoph said:
I like Terra... will that get me laughed out of the thread?
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I like it too. Barebones and gets the job done.
 
Atomic is a pretty safe pick. It has great support, lots of integration like dropbox and all that biz, some other shit, ad blocking and whatnot, nice tab functionality. Cheaper too. Though I have only tried iCab once in my life a long time ago, not sure if it surpassed it or anything.
 
brotkasten said:
What's so good about Atomic?
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-Touch gestures for convenience
-Amazon/YouTube/eBay/Wikipedia built into search bar
-Tabs
-Full Screen View
-Downloads folder
-Faster than Safari IMO

There's just tons of features and customization options not in Safari. Definitely worth $1.
 
I can tell you that atomic's speed is pretty fast. Anyhow, its wifi dependent anyhow and eh, its a web browser...

I don't get this icab/atomic app chatter all the time. I'm sure icab is competent. Get 1 or the other and be content. They're web browser. I went to Atomic first and it works a treat.
 
Black Republican said:
i dont have an ipad 2 , but is it possible for a uk user to download stuff off the usa store if its any different?
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It's possible to have apps from different iTunes accounts running on the same device, yes. But to obtain US apps, you have to make a US iTunes account.

I'm in New Zealand, but run both a NZ account and a US one (from when I was in the US).

There's a few oddities, like you have to update apps while connected to the correct account, and in-app purchases must come from the same account, but largely it works seamlessly.

However, since they ARE two different accounts, and the apps come from different stores, they do count as separate apps.
 
bob page said:
Have there been any tests to see which is faster?
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Only one I know of is SunSpider...but that's a JS only benchmark, and Safari beats the hell out of anything else there (probably until iOS 5). Some others have ad filtering which probably helps.

I tested some sites a while back between Safari and iCab and they were mostly identical. As long as everything has to use the standard renderer there probably won't be a huge difference between anything.

That said, the way the apps' UIs are can affect the usage speed. Like for anything with tabs Safari is slower than everything else just cause it has an extra step and relatively elaborate animation involved, anything with gestures can be quicker cause you don't have to move to a particular tap target, stuff like that.
 
I won an iPad 2 the other day, and yesterday, I started tinkering with it.

I've never seen the point in them, to be honest. I was planning on saving up for an iPhone, as they can fit in your pocket, and so a lot more portable.

After about 3 straight hours of browsing the app store, downloading stuff, and trying it out, I'm absolutely in love with this thing, and if it were to break, saving up for another one would be my first priority. Is there anything this thing *doesn't* do?

And while it's true that it's size does mean that whipping it out momentarily when out at a bar or at a friends' house, etc, isn't all that feasible, the size compensates for that in being easier to use, nicer to look at, and in some cases, gets superior versions of apps (a lot of games in particular get HD versions). And while it doesn't fit in a pocket, it certainly fits easily into a bag, so keeping it on you at all times is by no means a burden. You just have to be a little more selective where you get it out and use it.

Absolutely fantastic piece of tech. I love it.
 
Shotgun Kiss said:
I won an iPad 2 the other day, and yesterday, I started tinkering with it.

I've never seen the point in them, to be honest. I was planning on saving up for an iPhone, as they can fit in your pocket, and so a lot more portable.

After about 3 straight hours of browsing the app store, downloading stuff, and trying it out, I'm absolutely in love with this thing, and if it were to break, saving up for another one would be my first priority. Is there anything this thing *doesn't* do?

And while it's true that it's size does mean that whipping it out momentarily when out at a bar or at a friends' house, etc, isn't all that feasible, the size compensates for that in being easier to use, nicer to look at, and in some cases, gets superior versions of apps (a lot of games in particular get HD versions).

Absolutely fantastic piece of tech. I love it.
Click to expand...

Flash...





Fuck you Apple!
 
I don't see myself browsing the net much when out and about, apart from sites like YouTube, Facebook, Google, and Wikipedia. I doubt I'll miss Flash much, to be honest.
 
Shotgun Kiss said:
I don't see myself browsing the net much when out and about, apart from sites like YouTube, Facebook, Google, and Wikipedia. I doubt I'll miss Flash much, to be honest.
Click to expand...

I was not being too serious, I was just making the regular joke...

Enjoy your new bit of tech :)
 
Shotgun Kiss said:
I don't see myself browsing the net much when out and about, apart from sites like YouTube, Facebook, Google, and Wikipedia. I doubt I'll miss Flash much, to be honest.
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the internet is pretty much iPad enabled at this point, I never notice the lack of Flash, unless I'm browsing some obscure blog or something.
 
Rez said:
the internet is pretty much iPad enabled at this point, I never notice the lack of Flash, unless I'm browsing some obscure blog or something.
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I'm a Boing Boing reader. I notice it all the time.
 
Black Republican said:
stupid question but doesnt youtube use flash? unless the ipad has its own way of running youtube vids
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They use flash to stream h.246 videos, iPad just goes to the source bypassing flash.
 
Shadow780 said:
Is there an browser app that allows flash?
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There's Skyfire, but it's pretty flaky from what I've heard, and only good for video. I've barely missed Flash. All the sites that matter to me serve up iPad-friendly video.
 
So I bought AirPlayerHD under the assumption that it would play 720p videos properly (based off reviews of people in this thread). However when I tried to watch an episode of Mythbusters in 720p I noticed significant audio delay... I tried pausing/playing or re-starting it entirely and nothing worked. I also made sure to have NO other apps running the the background.

Any tips? Or did I just waste 3.00$ on an App that does not work as advertised.
 
I have to admit, I didn't get why everyone praises Reeder. "geez, it's just an rss reader" is what I thought. Then I bought it out of curiosity and my god, is this app awesome.
 
Devin Olsen said:
So I bought AirPlayerHD under the assumption that it would play 720p videos properly (based off reviews of people in this thread). However when I tried to watch an episode of Mythbusters in 720p I noticed significant audio delay... I tried pausing/playing or re-starting it entirely and nothing worked. I also made sure to have NO other apps running the the background.

Any tips? Or did I just waste 3.00$ on an App that does not work as advertised.
Click to expand...
Not sure who recommended it to you but all those third party players trying to playing files that aren't MP4/H.264/AAC will be limited to decoding done solely by the CPU instead of the GPU.

If you're not willing to remux your MKV/AVIs and transfer them over regularly through iTunes, I'd just get Air Video to stream it from your computer and call it a day.

brotkasten said:
I have to admit, I didn't get why everyone praises Reeder. "geez, it's just an rss reader" is what I thought. Then I bought it out of curiosity and my god, is this app awesome.
Click to expand...
Get instapaper too if you haven't. Those two have a permanent position in my dock.
 
giga said:
Not sure who recommended it to you but all those third party players trying to playing files that aren't MP4/H.264/AAC will be limited to decoding done solely by the CPU instead of the GPU.

If you're not willing to remux your MKV/AVIs and transfer them over regularly through iTunes, I'd just get Air Video to stream it from your computer and call it a day.
Click to expand...
I wasn't directly recommended it, but I just saw people in this thread talking about how it works to play 720p videos... I didn't do any more research beyond that, and bought it. I'll blame myself for not being thorough enough I guess.

I have no problem converting the files, it is just somewhat of a pain in the ass... Takes about an hour+ to encode each file I want... I use Handbreak, is that the best one?

Also Airplayer is good and all, but I am watching the files while I am commuting to work... so that doesn't exactly suite my situation.
 
Devin Olsen said:
I wasn't directly recommended it, but I just saw people in this thread talking about how it works to play 720p videos... I didn't do any more research beyond that, and bought it. I'll blame myself for not being thorough enough I guess.

I have no problem converting the files, it is just somewhat of a pain in the ass... Takes about an hour+ to encode each file I want... I use Handbreak, is that the best one?

Also Airplayer is good and all, but I am watching the files while I am commuting to work... so that doesn't exactly suite my situation.
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What type of file is this and what OS are you on?

http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en
 
Has anyone ever purchased a HDMI adapter off eBay? I'm not sure which sellers to trust.

Also, with Atomic, are downloads stored in Dropbox by default if accounts are linked, or do I have to manually move it there?
 
giga said:
Not sure who recommended it to you but all those third party players trying to playing files that aren't MP4/H.264/AAC will be limited to decoding done solely by the CPU instead of the GPU.

If you're not willing to remux your MKV/AVIs and transfer them over regularly through iTunes, I'd just get Air Video to stream it from your computer and call it a day.
Click to expand...
also nice: Air Video will convert movies into an iOS compatible format within the app.

locate film in app -->Press the convert button --> wait -->retrieve converted video, add to iTunes and transfer to iOS device.

<3 Air Video.
 
So I finally got my ipad 2. Love it :)

One question. What would be the best way to view pdfs and powerpoints and be able to write notes on them? I have a couple textbooks I scanned and a lot of my professors do lectures with power points. It would be nice to write notes on them directly on the ipad.

Also, any good note taking apps?
 
Dreams-Visions said:
also nice: Air Video will convert movies into an iOS compatible format within the app.

locate film in app -->Press the convert button --> wait -->retrieve converted video, add to iTunes and transfer to iOS device.

<3 Air Video.
Click to expand...

Mind=blown. thanks, i didnt even realize this.
 
asdad123 said:
So I finally got my ipad 2. Love it :)

One question. What would be the best way to view pdfs and powerpoints and be able to write notes on them? I have a couple textbooks I scanned and a lot of my professors do lectures with power points. It would be nice to write notes on them directly on the ipad.

Also, any good note taking apps?
Click to expand...
I dont know of a single app that can annotate both ppt and PDF at once (can't think of one for the desktop, either) but you can use goodreader, to annotat PDFs and you can use quick office or keynote or a few other apps to edit ppt files.
 
brotkasten said:
Thank you. I think browser controls at the bottom are much more comfortable, when you hold the iPad with two hands.
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Oh, ok. I should also point out that many of the browser controls are placed at the bottom when using fullscreen mode in iCab and in Atomic browser as well. I agree that using browser controls at the bottom are much more comfortable than using the browser controls at the top in Safari, but I've found that browser controls placed at the side to be even better than the previous two choices. I'd recommend Grazing Browser (beta especially) and Browser+ over iLunascape and Maven if you're primarily interested in comfort.
 
CaLe said:
So what does this mean ? We'll soon be able to watch videos that used to be in Flash on our iPads ? When ?
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What it means is the next release of Flash Media server will automatically detect and serve proper video to iOS devices. It's all server side, you won't have to do anything. The videos will just work. Companies would need to upgrade their servers, of course. Could take a few months, could take a year, but this will all be sorted and over with in the near future.

This is same standard Microsoft is adding to allow Silverlight videos to stream to iOS, by the way.
 
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