Ipad external storage

johnnykilo

My father is thinking of buying an Ipad but he's a bit concerned about the inbuilt storage, so I have a couple of questions. I've tried googling these already but the answers are kind of vague.

Is it possible to connect a USB memory stick or external harddrive to the Ipad using the USB slot?

Would an adapter such as this one allow a USB memory stick or external harddrive to be connected?
http://www.miniinthebox.com/multi-use-5-in-1-connection-kit-for-ipad-1st-2nd_p182828.html

Would the Ipad need to be jailbroken first for either or these to work?

Thanks!

1ZRed

johnnykilo wrote: »

My father is thinking of buying an Ipad but he's a bit concerned about the inbuilt storage, so I have a couple of questions. I've tried googling these already but the answers are kind of vague.

Is it possible to connect a USB memory stick or external harddrive to the Ipad using the USB slot?

Would an adapter such as this one allow a USB memory stick or external harddrive to be connected?
http://www.miniinthebox.com/multi-use-5-in-1-connection-kit-for-ipad-1st-2nd_p182828.html

Would the Ipad need to be jailbroken first for either or these to work?

Thanks!

There is no USB slot on the iPad but you could use that connector and it would do the job perfectly.
I'm surprised your dad is concerned about the storage. I'm 17 and even I'm not bothered by the 16GB. If worse comes to worst, I can buy that adaptor and save the extra €100-€200 that 32 or 64GB would be.
But it's not really an issue if he's smart and efficient with clearing unused apps and such.
Save the money and buy the adaptor when or if he actually needs it.

You also get 5GB cloud storage with iCloud on top of 16GB.

johnnykilo

Thanks for the info. We were a bit confused by the description on the Apple site when it said "USB Charging" but I guess it means you can charge via a USB port on a PC to the connector on the Ipad, just like with an Ipod.

Do you know does the Ipad need to be jailbroken to use that adapter? When I said he was concerned about the storage, I meant he was concerned about having to pay an extra €100-200 for the 32 or 64gb version, when a USB stick or external hard drive could be used instead.

1ZRed

johnnykilo wrote: »

Thanks for the info. We were a bit confused by the description on the Apple site when it said "USB Charging" but I guess it means you can charge via a USB port on a PC to the connector on the Ipad, just like with an Ipod.

Do you know does the Ipad need to be jailbroken to use that adapter? When I said he was concerned about the storage, I meant he was concerned about having to pay an extra €100-200 for the 32 or 64gb version, when a USB stick or external hard drive could be used instead.

No it doesn't need to be jailbroken. It's just an adapter that allows you to add extra storage via sd card. If you are still concerned, buy Apple's official one.
I assume the iPad will be used for email, surfing the Internet and a moderate amount of apps? Then really don't waste money on high capacity if you're not downloading 10+ 1080p videos and thousands of hd photos .
I have a 16GB iPhone 4 and I still have 5.8GB free on it. The extra space is not needed nor justified by the high price if you're not downloading massive apps and movies.
16GB is all you'll need.

Sad Professor

No. The above is incorrect. You cannot use the USB adapter to connect an external hard drive or USB stick. The iPad has no file system.

iCloud is no use for this purpose either. It's only for syncing and backing up data across multiple iOS devices.

You cannot add extra storage to the iPad.

J-blk

You can add external storage but it's not going to be as cheap as buying a bog standard hard drive/memory stick and there are certain limitations (it will work for media but not for apps). There's the Seagate Satellite Go Flex 500GB HDD:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-STBF500200-Satellite-Wireless-Storage/dp/B0058FQAF6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333443934&sr=8-1

And Kingston makes a flash memory equivalent (16/32GB):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-16GB-Portable-Storage-Wi-Drive/dp/B005KSYWXS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333444071&sr=8-1

And finally (I funded this on Kickstarter but it's available on the manufacturer's site now), there is this:

http://www.hypershop.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=218

The idea behind all these is similar - they share a drive wirelessly so you can connect to it from the iPad that way. I have the Seagate drive and the CloudFTP. The CloudFTP is the best solution IMO, as you can connect anything you want. I have a 1TB Samsung drive currently connected to it and have had no issues.

Dades

There's also options like Dropbox and CX for accessing certain filetypes.

OP, what kind of files stuff does your Dad envisage keeping on the iPad that would use up all 16GB? Music? Video? Huge apps?

johnnykilo

Dades wrote: »

There's also options like Dropbox and CX for accessing certain filetypes.

OP, what kind of files stuff does your Dad envisage keeping on the iPad that would use up all 16GB? Music? Video? Huge apps?

Photo's, music and a few movies.

faceman

You will be surprised at how much storage you will use. I travel alot and bring my iPad with me and I have the 16gb version. I have never had storage issues. (I dont use it for music however)

Its just a case of housekeeping really. If you have watched something delete it. Only put stuff on it that you are going to be watching realistically over the next week. For example if you have 22 episodes of a tv series, are you really going to watch them all in a week etc?

Sad Professor

Those external hard drive storage options aren't worth it IMO. They all rely on a third-party app and the limitations which that involves. Plus, do you really want to be dragging some box around with you? It defeats the whole purpose of a tablet.

Some kind of cloud service like DropBox is the best solution, but I'm not sure I'd want to be uploading/downloading/streaming very large files from it. It would be grand for pictures and documents though.

J-blk

Sad Professor wrote: »

Those external hard drive storage options aren't worth it IMO. They all rely on a third-party app and the limitations which that involves. Plus, do you really want to be dragging some box around with you? It defeats the whole purpose of a tablet.

Actually, the CloudFTP uses a browser based interface, so all you really need is Safari. It doesn't come with its' own app currently at all but any third party app that supports FTP can access it - I use GoodPlayer for videos (streams even 720p MKV files on an iPad 2) and GoodReader for documents. The unit itself is a bit bigger than a box of matches and you could always pair it up with a flash drive rather than a bulkier HDD.

I totally agree with you that solutions like Dropbox are the best, but realistically, most people will only have a 2GB account and will not always be within WiFi range - so streaming entire videos at least is probably not going to be an option.

Sad Professor

J-blk wrote: »

Actually, the CloudFTP uses a browser based interface, so all you really need is Safari. It doesn't come with its' own app currently at all but any third party app that supports FTP can access it - I use GoodPlayer for videos (streams even 720p MKV files on an iPad 2) and GoodReader for documents. The unit itself is a bit bigger than a box of matches and you could always pair it up with a flash drive rather than a bulkier HDD.

But I assume it's really only good for importing files though, right?

J-blk

Sad Professor wrote: »

But I assume it's really only good for importing files though, right?

No, with GoodPlayer I stream the MKVs directly from a HDD/flash drive, I never copy them over (only got the 16GB iPad as well). With documents, I do copy them over, since the size is so small that it makes more sense to do so than waste battery on the CloudFTP.

I've also tried streaming music through the web interface and even though it's basic, it works fine (and is actually better to do with Safari since it runs in the background properly - you can exit Safari or lock the iPad and playback continues unlike GoodPlayer).