I-Pad air

[Larry Patrick]

Purchasing one tomorrow. One last question please, They are on display at best buy reading wifi or for another $100 wifi cellular. I have a jet pack as a hotspot, will the model that says wifi work correctly for navigation or do you need wifi cellular for nav apps? I prefer to ask you on this site so as not to purchase the wrong one. They are saying both have gps chips so im guessing since having a jetpack I could use the wifi only model. thanks. Somewhere in the last twenty years I've been bypassed by a lot of the technology that's where these questions come from. Think were in a 2 year contract from Verizon for jet pack,wife signed up for it. Will be using apps that everyone has suggested.

[BrentB]

Apple doesnt integrate a GPS chipset on the Wi-Fi only models.

I would purchase cellular model which has builtin GPS chipset

[Sunbeam]

Not that Brent needs "back up," but, yep, that is true. The wi-fi only models of iPad do NOT have a built in GPS. The cellular models DO have a built in GPS, and this works whether or not you are "using" the cellular capability. In other words, you can buy a cellular iPad, never hook it up with a provider and still have the GPS functioning. You can also be out in the middle of the ocean far from any cell service and it still has a functioning GPS. Or both!

To me, the only reason it "makes sense" to use a wi-fi only iPad for boat/navigation stuff is if you already have a wi-fi-only one, or if someone gave you a wi-fi only one and there was no way to exchange it for a cellular model. In those cases you could buy an external GPS to use with it.

I can understand being unsure though - even Apple employees don't always seem to be clear on this.

[colobear]

I made the mistake of buying a wi-fi only Ipad2. Now I need to use a separate gps puck (Dual brand) at another $100 and the interface is not at all seamless. Buy the 3g version, get the one for your provider. You do not need a contract for the GPS to work. Some providers will give you a month to month contract 3g contract if you want web access when you are on the water.

[Larry Patrick]

Thanks alot that's the answer I was searching for. I had a feeling if I didn't ask I would be somehow getting the wrong one. You cant always count on the workers on staff,they didn't seem to know about using it on a boat.Will be getting the wifi cellular version. Next will be buying apps and downloading them,hope that's fairly straight forward. Appreciate the replys.

[JamesTXSD]

Congrats on your decision to go with the iPad - great on the boat and off. You will be able to download the apps from the App Store (you'll need to be connected to the internet). After you download the Navionics app (if that is the nav app you decided to go with), you will need to download the area map where you will be boating. After that, you won't need to be on the internet for the iPad to serve as a backup chartplotter. If you are connected (via the Verizon jetpack that your wife was foresighted to sign up for), you can also access weather, google maps, Marine Traffic (AIS app)... not to mention being able to read the C-Brats while your wife takes her turn at the helm.

Best wishes,
Jim B.

[thataway]

I got the I pad air 32 gig--all of my apps on that I regularly use, and have about 24 gig left (This includes a lot of maps downloaded). I got the Cellular version--which is the A T & T LTE (G4 like) version. It was $100 off with the 2 year contract--which I have anyway. There were some problems from a nice young sales person. The cellular part was not activate and no plan was turned on. He didn't tell us about the Family Mobile share which gives us 4 gig total on the devices (one i pad air, one i phone 5s and one i phone 4s, with unlimited talk and text on all devices. The i pad air also has text and message as well as being able to forward photos etc. There are a number of other features which I still need to learn about, but using the Air play, I cloud etc, and share with your devices more information--which may or may not be of value. The first salesman lost all of my contacts on my I phone. I got a supervisor This am, who got my contacts back on the new i phone, found out that we could save $40 a month with this sharing plan. Also the i phone/ i pad can work as hot spots. That may save us using the Verizon Jet back--a number of more bucks.

Impressions of the I phone 5s--faster and better than the 4s. The I pad: I was able to down load all of my charts, and DID NOT loose any of the Garmin or Navionics maps, as I have heard some others have lost these. Transfer of the apps was smooth, and I left some which I don't use often in the "i cloud"--easy to access and down load, with out taking room on the computer.

All of the apps and programs were much faster than the original i pad. The display was better. Easier to run. Now I have some more learning to do.
The display (Retina) was a little better, but not really noticable for what I do.
The charts load faster and the resolution is good. Wi Fi connections are as fast if maybe not slightly faster than my Macbook Air.

Also the camera has a "hybrid" Infra Red image in Photo Booth (the camera facing the user. In some rough tests it shows changes from hot to cold--but I don't think it has practical uses in navigation....since it does not work in the dark!

The camera facing away from the viewer is 5 megapixel and F 2.4--not sure that is any different. and there are more things you can do with it. Videos are not bad, but not up to the prosumer cameras.

I have used it with two external bluetooth keyboards, including one built into the case, with a rechargable battery.

I am keeping the original i pad, as a back up--keep it at the dinner table to setting questions which always seem to come up.

[hambone]

Thanks Bob as usual for a great write up on the Air. Been thinking about getting it. Very good information so may have to jump in on the 5s.

[Larry Patrick]

Thanks for sharing knowledge,did get one today. It is the wifi cellular,we got it activated,so now it is its own hotspot. Wife met me at Verizon store,helpful guy noticed wifes federal employee badge,and he bundled all of our plans and we got 15% off monthly payments,that was welcomed news.You never usually here your getting a lower monthly plan. Also picked up a versavu keyboard case,holds I-pad and has keyboard that wireless connects by bluetooth to I-pad. I asked if I could get a mouse with it,they laughed, just joking. Went back to best buy this morning,they only had the 64 GB left ,they said no one in area had anymore . Thought after all this planning now I wont be able to find one. Drove about a mile to Verizon store they still had a few. Salesman told us to stop by for free classes on using it, this would be good for me. I would like to download some books ,and other things may as well learn to use it to its potential.

[jkidd]

There's a CPU app and a gpu app that you can download and compare the old and new iPads speeds and screen resolution. Every time they released the next generation there's been a pretty good jump.

[BrentB]

How does everyone like iOS7?

I switched to Android phone (galaxy note 3) and tablet (Asus) to see the "other side" ha ha

[thataway]

I have the old i phone 4s which my wife has taken over, and the 5s. I would say about 10 to 15% improvement in speed on the 5s over the 4s. There are some negatives, with IOS7, but as I use it more I like it better. There is a 4 digit code to open the IOS7 (but can be bypassed). There are a number of other features which are in the literature put out by Apple. I like being able to easily choose my browser. All of my apps work fine on i0S 7, and a bit faster than they did in OS 5 (I didn't have 6 to compare with)

[Sunbeam]

In the "general comments" category:

I recently bought an iPad as my first "apps" device. I tend to like to use the computer for most things, but figured I'd use the iPad for backup chartplotter, mapper in the car, and just general marine/traveling apps (AIS, Tides/Currents, etc.).

I decided to buy the Mini because the "big" iPad just seemed like it would be huge sitting on my dashboard (not so much at the helm), and also because - since I don't have a smart phone - I could see myself carrying it into stores to look specs up and things like that. The smaller form factor seemed like it would be nice for those things.

So, I bought a new Retina Mini, 32GB, last week. Well, I had no sooner done that than my Internet provider ran a special on the "regular" mini, 16GB, at a fantastic price and including free cellular data until March (just a bonus as I did not intend to "hook up" this iPad). Since I really wasn't sure about the form factor and my usage at all, I decided to go with the "cheap" one and returned the Retina. Probably the speed and screen quality would have been a bit of overkill for my planned usage anyway (on the other hand, I will get a retina laptop next time I replace one).

Last night I started using the new "plain" Mini. The size is nice, and when I used it to "map me" to a place across town today that worked well. But wow, the system fonts are *very small* for my not-so-young-anymore eyes. And even when you set the font size up to maximum large, it only affects some of the screens (not, for example, the app store). (Web browser does get larger.) So... I'm a bit up in the air about the size. I think for my uses the smaller size will still be better, but it's a consideration.

I also ran into a glitch with Garmin BlueChart Mobile - I wonder if any of you have experienced similar? (Apple and Garmin have not figured it out yet....)

1) I downloaded the (free) Garmin Bluechart Mobile app. That went fine. Of course then you find out that you still have to buy charts

2) You buy the charts "in app" (although it still goes through iTunes somehow) and so I set out to purchase the North America one. A box popped up saying I might want to update my credit card info as it was close to expiration. I did that, and then went to purchase.

3) I got two error messages, one on top of the other. One was something like "could not connect to iTunes store" and the other was something like "could not complete purchase please contact ITunes/Apple.

4) Next I went into my Apple ID and looked at my credit card info. It had updated just fine.

5) Next I went to the App store and bought a different app, just to see how that would go. That went fine and it was purchased no problem.

6) Tried Garmin charts again... same errors.

7) Rebooted iPad.

Tried Garmin charts again... same errors.

9) I removed the Garmin Bluechart Mobile app from my iPad and then went and re-downloaded it. That went fine.

10) Tried Garmine charts again... same errors

How bedeviling! I can log in and see that all is well with my iTunes ID and credit card info. I can purchase *other* apps through the App store on the iPad. I can make unrelated purchases on the credit card (in real life). But I can't get the "in app" Garmin chart store to sell me charts. Anyone else experienced this?

If Apple or Garmin figure it out, I'll report back. But they are still at the stage of "Are you sure you were online?" (Never mind that I already listed that I re-downloaded the app no problem and made another app purchase no problem, which would seem to indicate being online.)

Sunbeam

[thataway]

Absolutely no problems buying the Garmin charts about 5 days ago to my I phone 4s at that time after upgrade to I OS7. I have since put the charts onto both my new I pad air and the new I phone 5s.

Suggest you call Apple--suspect that is where the problem is, since others seem to have no problem buying the charts.

[Sunbeam]