IPAD and IPhone? What does 4Gig mean?

[Zac495]

So I want an IPAD because it is so much easier to use DRAGON translator (Dad's almost deaf) and the new IPHONE will have sirius which will be good for that. IPAD is bigger and selfishly - I love the games on it. And I can read on it(though I have a kindle). so it's all stupid for me to have both. But I want both.

So I have unlimited data on my phone for 30 a month via ATT. But they said I barely use it and I should get a plan that lets the two devices tether (45 a month for both) and I get 4gig a month (what does that mean???) Is that enough? They say i'm using .15 gig right now, though I would use the internet more if I had the IPAD.

Or I can keep my unlimited phone and pay 25 for the IPAD at 55 a month. Am I nuts? I know I cna get the cheaper IPAD with no internet OR cheaper one and tether,but part of me is afraid of letting go with the unlimited plan which will never be offered again.

I know the IPHONE does almost teh same things as the IPAD, but I'd love to sit at the doctor's office playing bridge on my IPAD rather than the little IPHONE. I never buy myself toys... But I hate being a waster.

Thoughts?

 

[Lucian75]

was wondering same thing. I'm wondering if this means that there could be added costs or in-app purchasing/upgrading at cost. I noticed this on the Find my iphone app.

 

[stmartinfan]

Can't answer your question about download capacity but I just wanted to say: Go for it! on getting an I-Pad.

I have both an I Pad and I phone (as well as an Apple desktop and a Kindle) and I agree that it's great to have the Ipad. I love being able to sync my calendars, notes, I tunes music, etc., across the systems, so I don't have to update each separately. My I Pad is only wifi, so I can't give you an answer on the downloading volume. My I Pad gets used mostly at home for quickly checking e-mail and other online things, and it's just so handy to grab it and quickly get online. While I can do lots of the same things on my Iphone, the Ipad is just easier to read and use because of its size. Was it essential to my life? No, but it sure is nice.

I have a friend who uses the Kindle app on her I Pad, but for now I prefer the regular Kindle screen for reading books. For a trip, I may try the IPad for a book, just to save taking another device.

 

[pjrose]

Think about whether you'd want the iPad with a data plan - it will receive wireless at no charge, so if you're generally using it at home or somewhere with wireless, it won't make sense to pay for a plan.

PJ

 

[Sea Six]

Verizon has this neat little calculator tool to help you determine how much of a data plan you should subscribe to. Click here:

http://www.verizonwireless.com/splash_includes/datacalculator.html

Select your device type, then try to enter how much time you spend doing the various things they mention. Experiment with high and low numbers, just to see how each thing (like streaming movies) affects the data usage. 4 gig is a low volume, but it depends on what you will do.

 

[LUVourMarriotts]

I don't know how much you will use it, so its tough to answer specifically. What I can tell you is that I have an iPhone and a 3G wireless device for traveling at work. Last month I used the data a lot to pull down work stuff at a customer site. I downloaded files, spent a few days on email via the 3G, etc. I also was watching some youtube videos on the phone via data, I use it to surf the web a lot, Facebook, sports news, etc. My usage last month was 1.2Gb on the phone and 1.7Gb on the 3G device. I'd say that was the most I would use it in a month, a lot. So I will probably never reach 4Gb of usage in a month.

Hope that helps somewhat.

 

[Ken555]

Tethering is a great option for some because you may tether any devices you want, including a computer. Keep in mind that it uses your phone battery when tethered, so if you don't have power for it this can be an issue depending on where you are, etc.

That fact that you have the unlimited plan for your phone is great, if you use it. I have it on my iPhone and iPad. Note that they don't offer this any longer, and if you elect to choose a different plan I don't think you can reverse the decision. If you ever think you may stream video to the phone via the AT&T network then you might want to keep it as is.

 

[persia]

Streaming High quality Video is the big user of bandwidth (Netflix in the US for example). Everything else is pretty much peanuts in comparison. Movies can and do run in the hundreds of megabytes. Audio depending on the scanning rate can take a MB a minute or more, but most online radio is half that. Full quality photos are anywhere from 1 to 5 MB, so email a few photos or posting them to Facebook isn't going to be a problem.

 

[Zac495]

A salesman convinced me to get a droid instead of the iphone 4. I'm not sure why I was convinced. The Geek squad said don't buy a plan - try picking up the signal from the phone without it - add it later if desired.... ???

 

[pjrose]

A salesman convinced me to get a droid instead of the iphone 4. I'm not sure why I was convinced. The Geek squad said don't buy a plan - try picking up the signal from the phone without it - add it later if desired.... ???

Hmmm.....DD was convinced by a previous boyfriend that she should get a droid, cause that's what he had. 'course that relationship is long over, and now guess who has to pay an extra $25/month for a data plan (not me!). The salesperson said the droid was preferred b/c by some it was so customizable (7 home pages, said he), but the iphone was preferred by others b/c it was so simple. Seems to me that both do just about anything, and much more than anyone needs/wants.

To buy it without a plan means to pay full price - buying through the phone company means big discount but plan cost and contract.

So did you actually get it? If so, have you gotten a signal?

 

[Zac495]

Hmmm.....DD was convinced by a previous boyfriend that she should get a droid, cause that's what he had. 'course that relationship is long over, and now guess who has to pay an extra $25/month for a data plan (not me!). The salesperson said the droid was preferred b/c by some it was so customizable (7 home pages, said he), but the iphone was preferred by others b/c it was so simple. Seems to me that both do just about anything, and much more than anyone needs/wants.

To buy it without a plan means to pay full price - buying through the phone company means big discount but plan cost and contract.

So did you actually get it? If so, have you gotten a signal?

I have a plan - I was up for an upgrade so I got it for 25 bucks (a special ) "Normal price," was 599. Same data cost as my iphone. i have 14 days to change my mind

 

[tompalm]

So I have unlimited data on my phone for 30 a month via ATT. But they said I barely use it and I should get a plan that lets the two devices tether (45 a month for both) and I get 4gig a month (what does that mean???) Is that enough? They say i'm using .15 gig right now, though I would use the internet more if I had the IPAD.

4 Gigs is the amount of data that you use each month from the 3g or LTE data plan that your phone company provides. If you have wi-fi available at home or anywhere that you are using your iPhone or iPad, it will default to wi-fi and the phone data plan is not being used. For most people, 4 Gigs is too much, unless you do not have wi-fi or if you are watching movies, Youtube, or streaming video, music, etc... where wi-fi is not available, then you might use 4 Gigs of data. I have a 2 Gig plan on my phone and use less than one fourth of it each month, but I am around wi-fi all the time.

A couple things you should think about. You already have unlimited data on your phone and probably do not need more data for your iPad. If you need data on your iPad, you can subscribe to it for $15 per month and turn it on / off whenever you need it. You can probably tether from your phone to your iPad or set up a wi-fi hot spot from your phone to your iPad. But, that is only good for temporary use and not as convenient as having 3G data on the iPad.

I would recommend buying an iPad with 3G on it and waiting to see if you really need the data plan on it. Turn it on while traveling and turn it off later when you don't need it. That way, you only pay for what you use and the cost in the long term will be a lot cheaper. The last thing is to make sure that you get the right iPad data plan. Maybe Verizon works better than ATT for the places you travel to or live. However, ATT is cheaper and also the only carrier in some places like Alaska.

I am sold on the iPad and plan to upgrade to the ATT iPad3 when they come out next year.

 

[pianodinosaur]

I recently acquired an IPAD2. Verizon placed me on a 4G plan. The device is a great deal of fun. I am not sure how much this is going to cost but it does give me easy access to the internet.

 

[siesta]

Tethering is a great option for those who have a network friendly to it, and an unlimited 4g plan. I know tmobile offers free tethering and a 5gig month cap which is plenty even for a power user like me. New HTC Amaze coming out for tmobile will have twice the 4g speed as current phones. Right now speedtest shows me at around 7 mbps down, supposedly the new hardware will be pulling 14 which is what the 4g potential is but for the past year or so 4g hasnt been reaching those speeds because the infrastructure didnt permit.

 

[Glynda]

Droid

My experience with friends and relatives, as well as myself, is that women don't tend to like the Droid because it is so big and clunky. My good female friend has one and can't wait to get her iPhone 4s next week for several reasons. I switched from a small Palm Pre to iPhone 4 and the iPhone seemed huge to me. Now I'm used to it and love, love, love it! I'm dying to get the 4s. I'm not crazy about the new operating system I downloaded, Lion, on my Mac Air, iPad and iPhone but I have to have it for the cloud to work. The gestures on my laptop are awkward and everything seems slower. Always coming back to the page I last signed off on is driving me crazy. I've reset my settings to open to "home page" but it's not doing it.

iPhone will sell the 4s for full price un-locked in our Apple store in November. My daughter has a grandfathered unlimited plan with what was Sun Com, now T-Mobile, and plans to use it with it, just adding data.

 

[Pat H]

Can someone explain tethering and cloud in simple terms?

 

[Ken555]

Can someone explain tethering and cloud in simple terms?

Tethering is the ability to connect, for instance, an iPad to an iPhone so that the iPad uses the iPhones Internet connection. The iPhone becomes a local wireless access point so other devices may use it's Internet connection (typically up to a max of 5 simultaneous connections). Most cell providers require a special 'tethering' plan for your phone to have this capability, and typically costs extra.

The 'cloud' is simply a new term for Internet storage/access/etc. Anything in the cloud is just a term referencing the ability to store files or access resources available on the Internet. Apple's new cloud offering allows you to do quite a lot with multiple Apple devices (you can read a lot about it at www.apple.com), such as backing up your data, syncing your address book across devices, storing your own music (for $25 per year) and stream it, etc. Lots of options are available and I suspect it will become more pervasive as time goes on.

 

[Pat H]

Thanks, Ken.

 

[Zac495]

I returned the droid. Yuck - hated it.
I now have my ipad 3g - paying 25 per month and my iphone paying 30 a month (unlimited).
I'm trying not to use my iphone's data. I THINK ipad will takecare of all data needs.

IF I'm right - I'll get rid of the iphone and get a little phone and just use it as a phone.

I see the idea of no data for ipad - but I do like the bigger view on the ipad, so I'm thinking better data on ipad than iphone.

PRO of data on iphone:
smaller in my purse - easy to use (ipad is bigger to take into stores)
Unlimited plan. If I dump it, I'll never get it back.

PRO of data on ipad:
Bigger and easier to use