iPad Off the wall for the iPad 2 300gb-500gb internal SSD?

[snipenekkid]

Something just came to mind. As everything from videos to audiobooks from Audible (or other sources) seems to be increasing in size but devices such as tablets and even pocket devices are not. For example if one downloads audiobooks from Audible in the new Enhanced Apple format a 12hr book can just from about 200-300MB total for formats 3 or 4 to over 1GB when downloading in the Enhanced format. While I don't hear any difference from format 4 and often format 3 is just fine for spoken word, in fact many times I prefer format 3 but my remaing Audible compatible device only plays format 4, it's an OLD Creative Labs Zen Xtra Jukebox that I upgraded from 30GB to 100GB using an old laptop drive I no longer needed, took about 3-mins to swap drives and despite what Creative claims there is no reason not to make such a swap as long as you understand the right drives to use. But I am digressing here. Sorry...

But I got to wondering with the rapidly improving efficiency of SSD drives will the iPad two come in in 32gb, 64gb and either/or 128gb or larger options? I simply do not see an 8gb iPad as meaningful any longer just because of the proliferation of HD and other formats, larger file sizes for RAW format photos as well as the Audible Enhanced format being HUGE, I mean larger than most of the DVD movies we all own and find just fine, and we are taking just voice here for audiobooks.

Anyway, nobody has talked about the capacity being one of the potentially significant changes in the iPad 2. How nice would a 300-500gb iPad 2 be? Add to it an SD card of some sort and that might really give the competition a very advanced target.

Or would increasing the internal capacity simply slow the upgrade rate down for users?

[Caltsar]

I can see the capacity being bumped up to 32GB as a minimum, but the iPad will almost certainly meet the target of $500 with a high end model at under $1000. Considering that while the cost of flash memory is still dropping, it still hasn't dropped enough to see more than 128GB while still hitting the sub $1000 mark the iPad has now.

As far as SD card support goes, it is rumored that the iPad 2 will be getting an SD card slot, but I doubt it will be anything more than an integrated camera connection kit and won't be useful as a way to upgrade the memory. If you will be able to access the SD card's memory at all, it'll only be for document and media storage. There's no way Apple would let you install and run apps through an SD card.

[snipenekkid]

thanks Calstar. I haven't kept up on the SSD drive prices. 128gb would seem reasonable as the "new 64gb" option then. Still not bad at all. Amazing really, especially thinking back just 5-10 yrs.

I absolutly would not expect app side loading at all via an SD card. Only for documents and other data files and for backup. If the intent is something as completely awful as an EyeFi card, it would seem pointless and better to add a software solution to do what an EyeFi card would offer instead. I mean what would the point of having both BT as well as Wifi if the SD slot, something 99% of all users fully expect to be for storage and the modern equivalent of "sneaker net" to have anything to do with the camera connection kit would be a waste of resources to people like me and really the already existing functions on board, or is there something special the camera connection kit brings to the table?

And really I would love to be able to end up using a shiny new iPad 2 later this year so I am asking now rather than later. Sigh, why or why did I ever but that "Touch the 4th" hehe, I genuinely was won over by it.

And really thanks for taking the time to answer my original question. good info!

[susan_cassidy]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

will the iPad two come in in 32gb, 64gb and either/or 128gb or larger options? I simply do not see an 8gb iPad as meaningful any longer

The iPad currently comes in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB sizes. No 8GB.

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

The iPad currently comes in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB sizes. No 8GB.

ok, so 16gb is no longer meaningful. Thanks for adding the clarification it makes all the difference. Just teasing, I guess I confused the old 8gb Touch with the my research on the ipad. No matter I would never buy any 8gb or even 16gb device today. Funny how not long ago that was as vast as the oceans in terms of storage. Today when looking forward to tomorrow, not so much.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

ok, so 16gb is no longer meaningful. Thanks for adding the clarification it makes all the difference. Just teasing, I guess I confused the old 8gb Touch with the my research on the ipad. No matter I would never buy any 8gb or even 16gb device today. Funny how not long ago that was as vast as the oceans in terms of storage. Today when looking forward to tomorrow, not so much.

It depends, of course, what purpose you buy it for. I have a 64GB iPad because my main use for it is watching video. For someone who uses it to surf the web, or to read books, 16GB would be more than enough. Remember that the Kindle, for example, has about 3.5GB of user storage!

[Crowl]

If you tend to stream content such as videos you also don't need that much space either, if it wasn't for all the comics on my 32gb model then I would be comfortably be below 16gb.

[snipenekkid]

Yeah Harry, but all I use my Kindles for is books. But many of the books I intend to use on something like an iPad are a lot larger, or they will be as ebook editions start to come out in greater number. Some could easily reach a few hundred MB because of all the images each needing to be higher quality than typical web images. Another reason I loved the idea of the higher resolution Retina displays, man I loved the clarity on the Touch.

And I too would use video as well. My real hope was a device that would last 3-4 years before really needing to start looking at replacements as media requirements increase as they always will. So, a 128gb is slightly more future proof letting me leave more content on the device to satisfy my inner OCD. hahaha

Still as you mention for a lot of users 16gb could well be relevant for a number of years yet. In fact it could be a marketing tool for aiming at less demanding users who only want email, maybe some video, web browsing and other lightweight needs. Still by this time a 32gb device should cost less than the 16gb version only a year ago. We'll see but your point is well taken, thanks!

[Caltsar]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

thanks Calstar. I haven't kept up on the SSD drive prices. 128gb would seem reasonable as the "new 64gb" option then. Still not bad at all. Amazing really, especially thinking back just 5-10 yrs.

I absolutly would not expect app side loading at all via an SD card. Only for documents and other data files and for backup. If the intent is something as completely awful as an EyeFi card, it would seem pointless and better to add a software solution to do what an EyeFi card would offer instead. I mean what would the point of having both BT as well as Wifi if the SD slot, something 99% of all users fully expect to be for storage and the modern equivalent of "sneaker net" to have anything to do with the camera connection kit would be a waste of resources to people like me and really the already existing functions on board, or is there something special the camera connection kit brings to the table?

I have to say that the eye-fi card is far from awful. I have one and it's one of my favorite purchases in the last few years. It's not a general purpose wi-fi radio, and it only works in supported cameras (though there are TONS of supported cameras). It simply transfers photos as you take them to your computer... almost like tethering the camera to your computer. It would be completely pointless in an iPad since the iPad already has Wi-Fi built in.

(Speaking of which, I have my EyeFi card set up for all the common unsecured networks, the city wireless networks, most friends and family networks, and several local businesses... all photos I take get put on my computer, into Dropbox, where they're accessible within minutes from anywhere)

It is also pretty amazing how fast storage space increases. In 2000, we bought an iMac and got the "big" drive option for video editing. It was 30GB. Now you can easily get 500GB in a laptop for less than that 30GB hard drive cost.

[snipenekkid]

Cal:

not OT at all, my threads rarely remain on point for long.

Glad your experiences with the EyeFi have been positive. None of my photo pals or myself have every found them useful which is odd because in general I would expect a 50-50 mix for positive and negative. But we all shoot RAW and that can be a challenge at times as several times after firmware updates for the cards the RAW format needed stopped being supported. And speed for shooting was also an issue for a few of us.

I love the idea of the EyeFi but my needs are for true tethering for my studio work rather than the psuedo-tethering of the EyeFi. I have some only buds who use their EyeFi with success when shooting weddings and receptions as well as other events because they can have the JPG's sent directly to their iPads for people to see them and sell a lot more prints right then and there. Works for them at other events as well. But that is about the only use I have run into where the cards were of use. None of us need the other features like having JPG's sent to photo sites like our SmugMug or Flickr or even Picasa accounts in real-real time. It's easier to run them through Lightroom then let it handle the updates overnight or during dinner.

Nice to read you have nice success with yours. I was really enthusiastic when I first tried one a few years back but underwhelmed with what it really offered for the $150 or so it cost me at the time for just an 8gb card. And my towns muni-wifi is nothing short of horrid range wise. Heck a person can be right under a node and still not get more that a 100k/100k connection. Most folks have the best success here if they add a Pepwave Surf 400 or even one of the 200 models if they can get by with half the x-mitt power.

But myself I've been through a couple of the EyeFi Pro's (I think that was the model) with the ultimate solution from EyeFi that I simply had to wait until they fixed the firmware someday. Ummm, huh? So, for me, they are pretty horrid. Though you are right and one should not base the opinion on a handful of experiences because if they did not work at all the company would not still be in business. And to be candid my experiences were a few years back long before the iPad was more than a dream.

On to the price of drives and laptops and the meaning of life in general. It really is astounding how it all shakes out but still we see many devices increase in price every year even though the components drop in cost by a good 50% or more annually and are never really updated in the devices. cellular radios are a good example, by now the whole chipset and radio has to cost less than $5/device including assembly but the phones are on an ever upward spiral while adding the same option to your laptop via a USB dongle costs next to nothing anymore and certainly under $100 new for the cutting edge radios. I have one for each for all the current country wide systems and never paid more than $25 and my cellular ISP lets me switch between active networks for just a $49 setup fee as I have used them since they started. I travel a lot for work and have need of truly unlimited service so I tend to stick with Sprint's CDMA service wherever possible as I get unlimited as long as I am not doing anything worse than streaming Netflix a few hours a day. But do any filesharing they will roast me over an open fire. hahaha, I don't think I have ever done any of that filesharing-napster stuff too busy working or goofing off for that. still I live for the day when we finally get unlimited mobile broadband everywhere. The savings on the physical infrastructure alone is justification enough. But I suppose this conversation is best left to dslreports.com (aka broadbandreports.com) winkwink.

Thanks for the conversation. Nice to chat about differing experiences with someone who has had success with a product I had probs with. If I ever see a situation where I might need an EyeFi card again I might look at them again. But for now, no real relevance to what I do and I would rather put the money to new glass. Of course I would rather not eat in order to get new glass.

[Caltsar]

Oh yeah, for Pro photo work a real tethering setup is much better, but for those of us with little point and shoot cameras we carry around everywhere the EyeFi card works great (especially since it costs $50 now). I assumed you were a standard person with a standard point and shoot!

[Dylrob]

Personally I would love to see Apple offer an adapter, or alternatively let us use the Camera kit, for attaching an iPod Classic to the iPad and let us stream all sorts of media from its 160GB Hard Drive.

[Tamara]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

ok, so 16gb is no longer meaningful. Thanks for adding the clarification it makes all the difference. Just teasing, I guess I confused the old 8gb Touch with the my research on the ipad. No matter I would never buy any 8gb or even 16gb device today. Funny how not long ago that was as vast as the oceans in terms of storage. Today when looking forward to tomorrow, not so much.

16gb works fine for me but I have never liked audiobooks and I use streaming Netflix for video.