Can you explain to me, the point behind a hyper fast transport port-- when random access is not allowed?
Go home Apple, you are drunk.
It is a really sad day when the “hilarious” option may well turn out to be the most robust, considering it is the penultimate in “Chinese engineering”. (Believe it or not, it has a dual PHY interface, and has one in AP mode, and the other is software configurable to join a router. That means the OP could well use it, while connected to arbitrary hotel wifi. He will just have to tell the zsun to connect as well, then he can map/use the share, and off he goes. Very inefficient, but damnit all, it looks like it would actually work, where namebrand hardware that should work leaps and bounds better WONT, because of stupid at helm.)
No. Neither can I explain to you why a computer (iPad) doesn’t come with a file manager built-in. Unless you fully endorse the Apple “Let Nanny Jobs look after everything for you; you don’t need to worry your pretty little head about anything” approach.
It’s frustrations like these that made me give up on the iPad, and move to a cheap Android tablet where I was allowed to do what I want.
I’ve been there and done that with 2 generations of iPad. You’re making this appear to be a more difficult problem than it is.
SD cards are small, light, and, unlike vacations, inexpensive. The easiest way to avoid needing to upload filled SD cards is to buy more SD cards before you go on vacation. a SanDisk 32GB speed level 10 card is $13 on Amazon. Resort Wifi is typically fast enough for eMail and posting a few pictures on Facebook. A 32GB upload won’t finish while you get ready for dinner, and may not finish while you’re sleeping either.
You don’t need direct access to the photos on the SD card. You can just move the first 1/3 of the photos onto the iPad, upload them, delete them from the iPad, and repeat for 2nd 1/3 and the 3rd 1/3. Resort Wifi will move gigs infinitely slowly compared to the SD card and the iPad. I’m suggesting 1/3 not 1/2 so you don’t use all of the free memory. When it thinks it might run out of free storage the iPad will make itself very busy trying to avoid that. Its almost as bad as when it actually does deadlock for lack of free storage.
You can free up space on he iPad by deleting unloved content (especially cached copies of videos you’ve watched. The local storage for a video is often over 3GB/hour) Sometimes you can delete unneeded content within the app, more often by using the iPad settings. Its not in the exact same same place on iOS 9, 10, and 11, so i won’t describe it. On iOS 11 there’s an option to push rarely used apps and their data into the cloud. Then only really to push the data from the app you downloaded from Apple’s app store, they already have a copy of the app itself.
Apple doesn’t provide all-purpose USB access perhaps almost by reflex under the walled garden model, but they also avoid the endless stream of bugs and patches to work around problems in generic junk. Confining their problems to supporting a specific list of hardware they can get good information about has been their strategy since the Apple IIe. IBM, aka Big Blue, was traditionally a walled garden. IBM went the open platform route, commodity pricing eventually drove them out of the PC market, and the bug parade is endless. When you don’t need an open platform the Apple devices are less trouble to use despite the higher cost structure.
WD backup runs faster with the app open. If you have to backup through the resort WiFi you won’t want it to be rate limited by anything else.
You can also eMail photos and videos to yourself as attachments.
The iPad does have a file manager app for iOS 11, it doesn’t add any support for 3rd party devices, or make resort Wifi any faster.
Don’t insult other people’s brand preferences. Apple users pay more and accept the limitations of a closed platform to get attractive and consistently high quality hardware, a consistent user interface, and an unlimited supply of non-judgmental support at the Apple Store.
nothing is perfect…
Blackberry users get the satisfaction of their email had never being hacked while RIM was a going concern, at least not as long as the server in their broom closet didn’t get hacked by WikiLeaks.
Android users get the satisfaction of knowing that they aren’t just saving money, they’re proving the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln’s to the 21st century. The company that was proud of the motto “don’t be evil” and assembled one of the most able staffs the world has known hasn’t figured out how to evade … “and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Samsung users don’t just get new hardware features 12-18 months before iPhone buyers, they also get to paint the flags of the airplanes their burning lithium batteries have forced down on the back of the case.
Not that I’m insulting anyone’s preferences; I’m just pointing out the limitations of iOS memory device support, and giving a reason why it is like that. If you take that personally, that’s down to you.
My original posting was driven by a frustration that the capability promised by the ‘Apple approved’ software for ‘Apple approved’ hardware has been consistently NOT delivered over several items.
While I agree with many of polychromeuganda’s points, I do believe that point 4 is erroneous. It is great in theory, but is not being delivered.
IBM’s mistake was in not understanding that the business paradigm had changed. They thought the hardware would always dominate, whereas Microsoft backed the Software! The rest is history, as they say!
Thus, I believe Apple are taking a great risk in still pursuing the ‘walled garden’ model to the detriment of their customers. Otherwise, Android wouldn’t have been such a success!
So, my plea to Apple is to recognise the needs of their ‘real world’ customers, before it is too late!!!
Sorry to adopt a ‘pulpit’ appeoach, but others seem to have done so! As the OP, I felt I should join in!
Agree, folks are getting carried away with their biases here. I am not a fanboy of any of these tech companies, they all have their strong and weak points.
I would never own an Apple computer ( too much bucks for the bang.) I like the Windows platform. BUT, I own iPhone and iPad, because they ere the first with the concepts and have then perfected by now, I had a used iPad, gen 1 for a while until we bought the 3gens and now have the 2017 gen iPads, along with current iPhones. I love the user interface, the ways apps are designed and work, and appreciate the walled garden. I also have some earlier Kindle HD tablets. They define the meaning of you get what you pay for. The Apple products really deliver.
To, OP, as I said before the Apple tablet is not a Swiss army knife and therefore cannot do everything under the sun, and why I and many others have a wireless drive w/SD slot as well. So, get over that you can’t always get what you want. You have been given good suggestions here and be happy with that.
Please read my posting before implying that I am not satisfied with the responses I have received.
The thread had changed into a discussion of the different business approaches. As someone who lived, professionally, through the downturn in IBM, I did feel that the facts needed stating. (Incidentally, my Windows and Apple experience and opinions match yours! I like the ‘too much bucks for the bang’ comment)
I did not imply dissatisfaction with the responses I received, but rather gave my opinion of the business strategy of Apple. Although responses naturally varied in relevance and helpfulness, I am sure they were all offered in good faith and were welcome.
So, please do not instruct me to ‘get over that you can’t always get what you want’. That was not the point of my last posting!
My thanks to all who contributed. Much appreciated!
