need ipad app

[greenoak]

any new ipad apps to get pictures off the ipad onto my not mac computer? and visa versa? i have transfer and would like something easier and with fewer steps....

[vangogh]

If you can wait till the fall when iOS 5 comes out it won't be an issue any more. Apple is introducing iCloud, which will synch things seamlessly. You'll be able to take a picture with your iPad and instantly have it accessible on your computer as long as it's running iTunes. Your iPad should also synch wireless whenever you plug it in to recharge and your computer with iTunes is on.

Apple announced all of the above at their developer conference this week, however, you'll have to wait till the fall for all of this to happen. That's when iCloud and iOS 5 are going to be released.

If you want something until then you can try Drop Box (https://www.dropbox.com/). You need to download their app on the iPad and also their desktop app on your computer. Both are free. You'll need an account with Drop Box as well (also free). Anything you then move into the Drop Box folder on your iPad will be available in the Drop Box folder on your computer

[greenoak]

thanks vg.... i might look at dropbox for now....
for the ios 5, thats for an ACER pc as well as apple ?...i have itunes , for books, on my ipad but not sure if i have it on my computer..... i dont use it on my computer now.... so that might be something i would have to figure out....

[vangogh]

iOS is the operating system for the iPad. iTunes had an update yesterday. You have to have iTunes installed at the moment to have set your iPad up, though that too is changing with iOS 5.

For Photos the feature you're going to be interested in is called Photostream (http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/photo-stream.html). It will need both iOS 5 to be released as well a iCloud. It will all be free.

Here's a video of some of the things coming in iOS 5 (http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/gallery.html#video-ios). The video is about 6 minutes long. It mainly shows iOS 5 features and not iCloud. If you click to Apple's home page you can watch the full keynote video from Monday. It's 2 hours long though. The first 40 minutes are about Mac OSX, which is only for Macs. The next 40 minutes were about iOS 5 and the last 40 minutes were about iCloud. You can also search for any of them now. There are plenty of articles talking about it.

[greenoak]

thanks...ill see if my dil can translate this.... can it be used on windows/my acer computer was my main question...we dont have apple...i dont care about free...im more about easy!!

[vangogh]

Yes it will work with Windows. You'll need iTunes installed, but you have to have that installed already in order to have set up the iPad. I assume all the new stuff Apple is coming out with will work better if you're using other Apple products, but the synching should work with Windows.

Drop Box works on both Mac and Windows. You basically store some things on Drop Box servers and then access them through any device where you installed the Drop Box app.

[greenoak]

oh good...im going to do that on monday with my compuiter person......and give dropbox a whirl befpre the other thing comes in the fall.
...i get great pictures and would like to move them around without help.....i like doing the collage stuff on my ipad...and then being able to get them to facebook or blog or files for later....... the ipad photo and collage apps are simple enough for me...

[vangogh]

The difficulty moving things around has definitely been a pain with iPhones and iPads. Much of what's coming in the fall is designed to fix that and other issues. Drop Box has become the standard for the moment. Lots of apps will let you move things back and forth between iPad and computer. I'm pretty sure you can do it with photos. With specific apps the apps need to build in Drop Box functionality and many do. It's possible that the few apps you're using may not have built in Drop Box support.

The fallback method is to email the files to yourself. Most apps will at least let you email things. And of course you can always plug the iPad directly into your computer and move things around through iTunes.

[greenoak]

thanks for the tip...i will check my collage apps before i get my hopes up..or maybe look for a new collage app that can use dropbox...
.and also see if terri can do what you said about bridging thru itunes...

[vangogh]

Hopefully the apps you're using for collage will work with Drop Box Unfortunately moving files back and forth hasn't been easy on the iPad, but again that will be all fixed in a few months if you don't mind the wait. It looks like it will be a very nice system once it's released.

[greenoak]

dh just told me he read in TIME MAG that icloud would just be for MAC, not pc... .... i hope thats wrong.... he will never go for switching me over to mac.... all his busness stuff is on pc...and we are networked together and we mingle... i thought what i read sounded like it could be on pc too...with wifi...which we have..
.the time article was pretty shallow but it did list all the things icloud can do and and how its connected to all your devices, and then added...'as long as its made by apple'

which is true....?

[vangogh]

The article was wrong. iCloud will work with Windows. Having said that you do have to consider that not everything iCloud can back up exists on Windows. For example iCloud will keep Apple's Address Book app in synch across devices, but there is no Address Book app for Windows. Naturally that can't synch with Windows since it doesn't exist. However iTunes exists on Windows so iTunes purchases will synch to both and you'll be able to back up your iPad or other iOS device through wifi.

Here's the page from Apple's site about Photostream (http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/photo-stream.html), which is what will synch photos and here's what they say on the page.


Keeping a complete set of your photos is as simple as turning on Photo Stream on your Mac or PC.

Notice the or PC.

3rd party apps that will be developed for iOS will have access to the code they need for their apps to use iCloud. If those apps also have a Windows version it stands to reason those apps will be able to synch through iCloud. That will be up to the app developers though. Windows users will be able to use iCloud, however some apps may only be available on Macs so Mac users will likely get more from iCloud.

By the way Mac and Windows machines can network with each other and many of the programs for one can save files that can be read on the other. There are some programs that are Mac only or Windows only, but most programs nowadays have alternatives on the other platform so moving files between Mac and Windows isn't the issue it was 10 years ago. I have a Mac. Most of my clients and friends have Windows. We don't run into problems sending each other files or communicating. I also have Windows computers here that network fine with my Mac. It's possible the business stuff on your Windows machine is Windows only, but I wouldn't assume that without checking. It's quite possible the information can be easily transferred and used on a Mac.

[greenoak]

thanks vg...
.thats what i thought i read yesterday also on the apple site after you mentioned all this.... ........my goal is going to be easy sinking/synching... of mainly pictures ...among my camera , my ipad, facebook and my computer files...i hope that wont be too hard....
so i will want collage apps that are for mac and windows ...i wont mind buying a special camera....and im going to just wait and not mess with dropbox...
this really sounds nice...cant wait...
dh, isnt interested in getting a mac...no reason for him at all.... im sure its possible , like you said..if it was really important for us........ i dont do any of the financial stuff...except spend the money!!

[vangogh]

Glad to help. The one downside is that many app developers who develop for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch don't develop for Windows. They're Apple developers and so there's going to be more apps that work with Mac counterparts, but where there is a Windows counterpart and the developer adds iCloud support it should work.

As for a camera you may want to invest in an iPhone. The iPhone 4 has a really nice camera compared to other point and clicks. At the keynote they showed a graph where the iPhone 4 is now the 2nd most popular camera used with Flickr. It was also very quickly gaining on the #1 camera. The iPhone 4 camera certainly isn't a professional camera so if you like manual changing settings and need interchanging lenses it won't work, but if your camera is basically a point and click an iPhone might work well. You'll be able to take pictures and have then instantly available on your iPad and computer through Photostream.

[greenoak]

thanks vg.... this is so new and great i hope we see lots of good stuff that includes pc users...
i hear you on the iphone camera....i see it used in the store all the time.. im not used to using cells and so far my camera takes lots better pics than dh gets with his iphone, so i would want at least as good a camera situation as i h ave now....and mine m ight still be just fine....hopefully there will be some good new cameras ~~cloud worthy...

[vangogh]

iCloud will most likely work better for people using multiple Apple products, but it does look like Photostream will work across platforms so Windows users should be fine.

Yeah, I wouldn't run out and buy a cellphone just for the camera. I thought maybe if you already had a cell phone this could be one advantage for you to get an iPhone over another model, but if you have a good camera already there's no reason to buy a phone for the camera.