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iPad Air and iPad Air 2 buyers and owners (1 Viewer)

Sam Posten

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I bought the 128, I think the 64 is a gotcha price point. Either buy at base price for $499 or go all the way. You double for $100 more, over 2 years of use (730 days) that is a .136 cent per day difference. When you near the top of your capacity it's a pita to make stuff fit and it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. Ymmv.Should note I carry multiple very large apps, tomtom, infinity blade etc and like to have 4 movies I have never seen for airplane trips, so that colors my choice. If I didn't I would just go with the base.
 

DaveF

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Brendan Surpless said:
After tinkering around with my store's demo (Sprint) on Friday, I HIGHLY considering replacing my older (and heavier) iPad 2 64GB.

Only question I have for you fine folks is... I have a 64GB and RARELY (if ever) found myself filling the device. In fact, the device only ever reached max capacity when I used iTunes Match (I have sense switched to Spotify.)

Would you recommend a similar sized device?
I'll flip it around: would you have been happier with a 32 GB iPad 2 and saved $100?

Do you regularly have it filled to, say 48 GB capacity? If so, you need the 64GB model.

I noticed that app sizes have not grown as fast as storage. I bought the 64 GB iPhone 5s because I regularly came close to the 32 GB capacity. And it's my only still and video camera, so I might all that memory on vacations.

But for an iPad, it's pretty empty except when filled up with 1 GB games I don't play. Or filled up with videos for travel. I'm not sure I'd get a 32 GB or 64 GB now. I wouldn't pay for 128 GB because I'd never use that much.
 

Dave Scarpa

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I ordered around 6am on the 1st, but there is a paucity of 128gb Cellular models from AT&T so unfortunately they have my delivery set between, 11-12 and the 21st. Kinda sicks but what can you do, I guess 128gb models were not shipped in great quantity, Apple must have figured on selling main;y 16 and 32gb air's
 

Nelson Au

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I finally have a minute to set-up my Air tonight. So far, very nice, I have not updated my iPhone 5 to iOS 7, so I'm getting familiar with it, so far very nice.I use an app called Sketchbook Pro for sketching and painting. I've used it on every iPad to date except the 4. What I noticed so far is that the lag that was there when I drew a stroke with the stylus is not there anymore! And the lag on those earlier iPads was very, very small. And the sometimes lag time from completing a stroke of the pencil or brush tool, then doing a zoom is there on the earlier iPads. This iPad, with the little time I spent drawing tonight seems to be very snappy and fast! No lag so far. I also have the Smartcase. It's nice, just a shame it's thick on the back side. On the one hand, it offers great protection, at the cost of thickness. On my iPad 2 and 3, I use the Belkin snap on rear covers. They are great, and about the same thickness. When I match up the iPad Air in the case with the iPad 2 with Belkin and Apple Smartcover, the thickness ends up the same. On the new Smartcase, I think I'm going to miss being able to remove the cover. So the biggest reason I got the iPad in the first place back in 2010 was to be able to create sketches and renderings on a portable device has been getting better and better. Sam, I should add that I got another stylus, the Wacom pressure sensitive Intuos Creative Stylus and it's been working great on the mini. What's cool is with Bluetooth 4, I can use it on the mini, and then later, I can use the same stylus on the iPad Air and the Bluetooth connects without a hitch between two devices. That's great. Now I have to consider to finally set up iCloud. I've been up till now, avoiding it.
 

Brendan Surpless

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DaveF said:
I'll flip it around: would you have been happier with a 32 GB iPad 2 and saved $100?

Do you regularly have it filled to, say 48 GB capacity? If so, you need the 64GB model.
As of right now, it has 34GB free. The thing is, I'm intending to give this one to my Mom as an early Christmas gift (she doesn't 'want' an iPad, but I know she'll love it.)

I think I may go the middle of the road with a 32GB, Space Gray :)
 

Pawl

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I want to purchase the iPad mini with retina display to match with my iPad Air. I've become such an iPad freak. :)
 

DaveF

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Brendan Surpless said:
As of right now, it has 34GB free. The thing is, I'm intending to give this one to my Mom as an early Christmas gift (she doesn't 'want' an iPad, but I know she'll love it.) I think I may go the middle of the road with a 32GB, Space Gray :)
that means you'll be struggling with a completely full iPad. A 32 GB iPad actually has 27.8 Gb free. You're using about 28 GB GB on a 64 GB iPad. If you easily knock out a GB or two, you be fine on the 32 model. But if not, you're actually fine and life's easier with the 64 :)
 

Sam Posten

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Yeah I think having a 20% buffer at all times is a smart move. Trying to update something like TomTom with a full device can be frustrating and confusing.
 

Nelson Au

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Thanks Sam, we all have our ways of making the iPad a useful tool. I'm sure you are finding the iPad Air useful! :)Now I have a dumb iOS 7 question. Since this iPad Air is my first usage of it, I was messing around with settings. I was curious to try the different Wallpapers, stills and dynamic. After setting one of the stills, I decided to go back to the original ripple looking image that came default with the iPad Air after I first started it. But I can't find it! I'm afraid to try one of the reset options, though one says data will not be lost, I figure I might have to reset the mail app and others.Can the wallpaper that originally came with the iPad Air be restored? While I may decide to keep the one I'm using, now that I can't find the original, I'm more then determined to find out why! Thanks!
 

DaveF

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Didn't get the notice of a canceled games night, so to a side trip to the nearby Apple Store last night. The iPad Air is so light! Very nice.

I'm confused by iOS 7 performance though. I noticed it shares a hiccup with my iPad 3 (which seems universally decried as marginally capable of driving a Retina Screen). When it zooms out from an app to the home screen, just before the end of the smooth zoom, it suddenly jumps to the end.

And maybe the demo apps are not updated, but overall, the new iPad Air felt sluggish to me. It was not perfectly smooth for entering multi-tasking, nor did apps seem as flawless as I expected.

The whole experience was slightly off to me.
 

Steve Tannehill

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You can order iPad minis as of this morning.

My 128gig Wifi-only silver mini should be here by the end of the month or so.
 

Pawl

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Thanks for the news Steve! I had no idea the iPad Mini Retina was available to order, Apple was unusually quiet about the news today. I'm ordering the 16GB Wi-Fi Silver...can't wait!
 

Nelson Au

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Congratulations guys! I'm stil getting to know the iPad Air! My plan is to order the mini as well with cellular. I'm kind of mystified at the release. If the reports are true that supplies are limited. I'm considering waiting a bit. Why is Apple quietly releasing the mini with so few units available? Perhaps the market conditions warranted an early release because of all the competition from other tablet makers? A quiet release like this would certainly allow people in the know to jump in and buy while the rest would miss the release and not flood Apple with orders it cannot fulfill immediately.
 

Sam Posten

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Cool, had no idea the mini could fit in 129gb. Since it has the exact same clocked processor as the Air it really is ONLY form factor differences now. WOW.
 

Steve Tannehill

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I can't explain why Apple has quietly released the mini. Maybe they know it is in short supply and don't want to have another iPhone 5s situation on their hands. I find it interesting that the 16 and 32 gig wifi models are the only ones shipping in 1-3 business days. All other models are shipping 5-10 business days. Are the 16/32 the most popular?
 

Steve Tannehill

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Just wanted to relay two excellent customer service experiences. First, I called to expedite shipping on my mini. The rep comped me 2-3 day shipping. She also mentioned that I had 30 days to purchase AppleCare+. I stewed on that for a few minutes then called back to order it. The rep put me thru to customer service, who told me that I would need to order AppleCare+ at the same time as the mini, so he cancelled my original order and placed it again with the mini and AppleCare+ together. He allowed me to split the order across two credit cards. Then because we had to jump thru hoops to get the transaction to work, he comped me the Smart Cover that I had ordered. I'm a happy customer...free $10 shipping and a free $43 cover.
 

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