Expandable memory in Apple Devices - WHY NOT?

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

That was one of the things the OP wanted. The biggest thing was 2GB movies and it will work great for that freeing up space on the device for magazines. You don't have to put everything on the external drive, just the hogs. Nobody is advocating you don't need some internal storage.

That's not gonna work for everyone. The "hogs" on my iPads are the manga (Japanese comics). I've got 50+ GB worth of manga on my iPad and there are times when I still find myself with nothing to read. Unfortunately, unlike most of my epub files, I can't just hop on the Calibre server and download new books within seconds.

Now that there are retina display Android tablets available, I'm slowly moving away from iOS. Just need beefed up batteries on the retina Android tablets but I reckon it should get there in a couple more generations (and those tend to go by quite quickly - just around 3-6 months).

[timb.us]

If you've got 50+ GB of manga and nothing to read you need to reevaluate your priorities in life and not your device. I just don't understand why someone needs to cary an entire comic book store in their pockets? Put what you're going to read on the device, read it, sync it via WiFi to swap to other stuff...

[yvanleterrible]

To answer the OP... Aside from the three first posters' responses which are right, and a reason to pay for icloud that someone else mentioned, I would add piracy deterrence. If you examine iOS ecology closely you'll find that many rules of engagement are meant to slow down file exchange and right down prevent it. What happens when you plug an iOS device on another computer? What happens when you try to put a picture on an SD card through the SD adapter? Why are wifi storage and other computing devices not seen from the device itself without help from other third party apps? Why is printing control so difficult and crude? ...Apple does not want you to give away data with their consent. It is partly about piracy but mostly as a measure for protecting their media sales...

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by timb.us

If you've got 50+ GB of manga and nothing to read you need to reevaluate your priorities in life and not your device. I just don't understand why someone needs to carry an entire comic book store in their pockets? Put what you're going to read on the device, read it, sync it via WiFi to swap to other stuff...

Same reason I've got 3,000+ ebooks (mostly fanfic) in the Stanza library on my iPhone. I like having a large variety of content to choose from. Constantly having to swap stuff is time-consuming and a nuisance so why shouldn't I choose a device that's more convenient and will suit my usage patterns better?