Apple Tries To Acquire Dropbox for $800 Million, Dropbox Refuses

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Harmon

1. removable media may be banned by the Army, but they aren't by other government agencies.

2. the iPhone, iPod & iPad can all be placed into "disc mode" and used as external storage devices.

Not being an iDevice devote, I can't comment on item 2. but I recall that being one of the original objections to the iPad.

But regarding item 1. USB removable media is banned on all Dept of Defense workstations unless that media is whole disk encrypted with FIPS 140-2 encryption.

'd'ja ever try to find a camera that does encryption of the SD card?

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Frankly, now that I have used my iPad for 9 months, I would have opted for the 32 if I had it to do over . Since I was a first time buyer ( and cheap) I was cautious. There is a sense in which you really can't judge these things really until you actually use it. I use my iPad pretty much every day all day along, so i know I'm getting value for my money. And occassional use of 3G would actually be good, even for a non-biz user. H'mm, I think I'm talking myself into upgrading. Must.... resist....

I'm happy enough with 16 - I think it's the second most popular model. (And almost all ipad buyers are first time buyers).

Re: 3G - can't you tether with your phone?

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by Harmon

2. the iPhone, iPod & iPad can all be placed into "disc mode" and used as external storage devices.

Uh, actually disk mode is a old school iPod feature. It's not included in any iOS device.

[ST-One]

[QUOTE=stonetools;1741114]

Originally Posted by Harmon

Frankly, now that I have used my iPad for 9 months, I would have opted for the 32 if I had it to do over . Since I was a first time buyer ( and cheap) I was cautious. There is a sense in which you really can't judge these things really until you actually use it. I use my iPad pretty much every day all day along, so i know I'm getting value for my money. And occassional use of 3G would actually be good, even for a non-biz user. H'mm, I think I'm talking myself into upgrading. Must.... resist....

Well, you know, if there were that "security issues" ridden SD card slot you could have been cheap, gotten a lot more storage space and wouldn't now have to think about getting an entirely new device.

[stonetools]

[QUOTE=ST-One;1741482]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Well, you know, if there were that "security issues" ridden SD card slot you could have been cheap, gotten a lot more storage space and wouldn't now have to think about getting an entirely new device.

Or not.

I tried to use SD cards with an Android smartphone ,never could get the thing to work right, and could get no support from anyone. I'm not a fan of SD cards, even apart from the security question.

Anyhow, Apple's strategy re SD card slots on Ios devices will be (and has been judged) by the marketplace, and they are laughing all the way to the bank. Who's not laughing? Those tablet manufacturers who came out with tablets with SD card and USB slots, because some folks thought they would be big selling points. And investors in HP- former home of the Touch Pad? Well , they're crying in their beer.

All of this, of course, is 100 per cent irrelevant to whether Apple MAY have offered to buy Dropbox.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

I'm happy enough with 16 - I think it's the second most popular model. (And almost all ipad buyers are first time buyers).

Re: 3G - can't you tether with your phone?

Nope. My Android smartphone broke, and I'm making do with a bargain basement, no frills, calls only cellphone till upgrade time next year. Sucks.

[ST-One]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Or not.

I tried to use SD cards with an Android smartphone ,never could get the thing to work right, and could get no support from anyone. I'm not a fan of SD cards, even apart from the security question.

You couldn't get an SD card to work? Really? They are as easy to use as a USB-stick.

And, what security question? You still haven't explained to anyone what those security issues actually are.

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by stonetools

I tried to use SD cards with an Android smartphone ,never could get the thing to work right, and could get no support from anyone. I'm not a fan of SD cards, even apart from the security question.

Were you trying to install an app perchance? Older versions of Android only let you store files, not apps, on the SD card. And even in the newer versions app developers have the choice of whether to allow installing to SD card. (which is problematic considering how many Android phones include most of their memory in the form of an SD card)

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

Where you trying to install an app perchance? Older versions of Android only let you store files, not apps, on the SD card. And even in the newer versions app developers have the choice of whether to allow installing to SD card. (which is problematic considering how many Android phones include most of their memory in the form of an SD card)

And this is why Apple didn't include them, not any sort of security concern.
Apple's number 1 priority is to make things simple to use.
Adding two types of storage (internal and SD) means options, and Apple don't like options You have to choose where to install apps to, where apps should store their data. Should the main screen show all apps together, should there be a separate one for the SD card, and so on.
What if you sync the iPad with iTunes, should it back up everything on the SD card as well? What if you switch SD cards? What if you have the same app installed in internal memory and on the SD card? Or two different versions of the same app? Which should show in the Open In... list?
Is it complicated for anyone who is even vaguely familiar with a computer? No. Is it more complicated that the current iPad interface? Hell yes.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

Where you trying to install an app perchance? Older versions of Android only let you store files, not apps, on the SD card. And even in the newer versions app developers have the choice of whether to allow installing to SD card. (which is problematic considering how many Android phones include most of their memory in the form of an SD card)

And of course, Motorola seems to have some issues even activating the SD card slot on the XOOM.

Windows Phone 7 has limitations on SD card usage as well.

I think the mobile OS guys have found that implementing flexible SD card support isn't as trivial as it is for other devices, for one reason or another.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

Where you trying to install an app perchance? Older versions of Android only let you store files, not apps, on the SD card. And even in the newer versions app developers have the choice of whether to allow installing to SD card. (which is problematic considering how many Android phones include most of their memory in the form of an SD card)

I tried to install an app (fail), then tried to store music on it (double fail). After that, I decided that SD cards were not for me.
Now I speculated that Apple may not have allowed SD cards for security issues. I have been shouted down on this , and maybe SD cards are safe enough to instal on NORAD computers. My experience is that they aren't quite as easy to work with as people may think. I do notice that it is the techie power users that complain about no SD card slots on Ios devices, and the regular folks seem to be buying iDevices by the bucketload, despite no SD card capability. I think that MP may have the right take on this, although I am sure that conspiracy theorists will continue to see in this a dastardly plot by Apple to maintain some sort of "tiered pricing" scheme.

[Greg Anos]

SD cards are good at what they do. The problem is most mobile OS's are "one-lunged", and aren't designed to handle multitasking or multiple data storage devices. Since mobile OSes aren't designed to use them (from the ground up), external storage don't work well on many portable devices. It's a limit of the system software, not the SD device.

Gadgets designed to use them as part of the original design do just fine. I read my e-books off my SD card on my Hanlin, no problem at all with either the stock firmware or Openinkpot.

Same for my Sandisk music player, but it can't handle folders (it lumps everything in one pile - awkward when you have 90 hours of music on a chip). However, I can replace the firmware with Rockbox, which does. Problem solved.

iOS could have been designed to use external memory, they chose not to. Same for Andriod. (Who needs external memeory on a phone?) Only when you want to make a "baby computer" using these OSes, does the need become felt, and it's hard to "glue on" external memory to OSes that weren't designed to handle it. Not to mention App who weren't designed to handle it.

But I still say - It's not a feature - it's a bug...

[ST-One]

Originally Posted by stonetools

I do notice that it is the techie power users that complain about no SD card slots on Ios devices, and the regular folks seem to be buying iDevices by the bucketload, despite no SD card capability.

Not a "techie power user" here.
But you are right people dish out hundreds of buck for a device only to realize a few months later that they need more memory space and will have to dish out a few hundreds more for a new device.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

And this is why Apple didn't include them, not any sort of security concern.

In my opinion, the only reason Apple didn't include it is simply so they can charge you $100 for an increase of capacity, knowing full well that most folks will do so, while the cost of that increase (bigger flash) at factory is only a tiny fraction of those $100. Leave it to Apple to milk the customers.

Anyway, back on subject, I hope Dropbox stays clear of Apple, I"m a user and, though wouldn't stop using it if it were to be sold, I'd rather it stayed the way it is.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by afv011

In my opinion, the only reason Apple didn't include it is simply so they can charge you $100 for an increase of capacity

It may be one reason, but I absolutely disagree it was the only one.