I’m out walking the dog and was thinking that I will be taking the iPad abroad in the next couple of weeks and I know little about how it will behave in an off-the-grid kind of environment where when you do have a connection it’s probably going to be extortionately priced roaming mobile data.
I tend to have my mobile locked down so I can’t run up a bill and if I do have a foreign data sim I tend to drop it in my MiFi. Foreign 3G can be very unpredictable and so I tend to rely on open WiFi. I much prefer typing and editing blog posts on the iPad over the phone and the extra bit of flexibility means I can check my horrific spelling a little easier and attach edited multimedia quicker. In the little bag I have with me now is my phone, my iPad (non 3G model) and a Mini Gorilla. I wanted to recreate my normal overseas situation which is strictly use only the wifi I can find in hotels, bars etc.
Asking on Twitter today, it seems the apps of choice for moving photos between devices are ‘Bump’, ‘Transfer’ and ‘Mover’.
Both ‘Bump’ and ‘Transfer’ appear to need a wifi network to shift data between devices but ‘Mover’ seemed happy to shift two photos and a small video in record time from my iPhone to my iPad. You need the app installed on both devices for this to work and it will look for wifi first and then prompt you for blutooth if no connection is found. So far so good. All I need do now is save this as a draft and ping it up as I pass some open wifi on the way home. Of course could do all of this on my phone but having access to decent editing apps and an interface that will allow me to play with formatting a little easier means I can ultimately do things quicker and hopefully better. If you need to file a story against a deadline then you may need that speed advantage.
Of course if Apple would just stick a camera in the iPad things would be so much easier. That said.. It’s nice working from a phone and it’s also fun experimenting with limited functions to see what can be done.
Thanks to @Jopkins for pointing me towards ‘Mover+’. I can see lots of fun to be had as I experiment abroad over the next few months.
My main ponderings are around whether it’s time to leave my laptop at home and just hit the road with the iPad and iPhone..
I take it you’re using Mover+ and not Mover Lite? (It only says in App Store that it transfers from iPhone-iPhone, doesn’t mention iPad?) I had always thought Bump relied on Bluetooth.Anyway, I think I’ll try Mover+ – hadn’t really thought about transferring pics from my iPhone to iPad as I always depend on email. Sans data connection however, and I’d have a problem. So a backup would be handy.I’m also thinking I should have gone with the non-3G iPad instead, and just got the MiFi, but I only saw details on it after I’d ordered the 3G iPad. D’oh.One thing I will say about iPad is it’s great for draining my bank balance in the App Store – £30 in a weekend haha! 😉 But I’ve bought so many awesome apps and that’s before I go home and add the 2 Square Enix offerings that I’ve just read about 😀
Yes it’s Mover+ and although Bump is meant to work it seemed patchy and it doesn’t look like it does video. It was also pretty slow compared to Mover+. Good luck and post your findings!
I will do! I also found Bump quite slow in the past but I’ll give it another try. Oh and I’ve just discovered the Print and ePrint apps for iPad & iPhone so I’ll be testing those too. *squeal of geek excitement*Honestly I’m in danger of getting ‘I <3> tattooed somewhere at this rate 😉
That was supposed to say ‘I heart my iPad’; apparently Posterous dislikes my poor formatting 😉
great post. nice to read about someone trying to use ipad in real world suitations and not in a cafe 😉
Is this all tying in with the solargorilla testing hooked up to the kensington battery backup?
Ultimately I guess I want to know if i could work, journalistically or otherwise with ipad & iphone alone. I’ve a solar solution, a wifi solution & a way to transfer data across devices. All i need now is a sat link for comms & a way of backing up & restoring the ipad should it have a fatal crash. Failing that i’m stuck with a 13″macbook pro and an iphone which may well be 3 times the weight.. It may also be 10 times the functionality..
Not knowing how the iPad really works I would assume it to be the same as the iPhone and it creates a backup file when you sync it? You could leave the macbook at ‘base camp’. But that doesn’t really solve the restore dilemma as you would lose all data after the sync. It’s an interesting conundrum to try and solve.Is satellite comms cheaper than a roaming 3g data charge?
Sometimes your backpack is your basecamp. Occasionally I have to travel with everything I have on me at all times for security reasons. In the next few months I will be visiting places with no 3G. That’s why a compact BGAN system would be preferable.
Exciting times. Those BGAN systems are very pricey, upwards of £1000. I think you’ll need to get a few contacts or approach people like the http://www.rsgs.org/ as they have gear like that. 😉
In terms of restoring iPad if it fatally crashed, AFAIK you can only do that from the computer…are there any solutions available if you jailbreak the iPad? Similar to rebooting a Mac from an OS on an external drive. Personally I don’t want the hassle of jailbreaking and managing that when updates come out etc, but if there’s a 3rd party backup available in that sense, it may be useful for you.I’ve never had to restore my iPhones at all since the day of release, and I’m assuming the iPad will be as stable, to be honest.MobileMe restores all contact, email, calendars etc from your account so that’s that part of backup covered (though of course only when you have a data connection) plus you’d have remote wipe facility if you ever lost or had the iPad stolen. I don’t think it deals with backing up other files (video etc?) and app data though, and you still have to consider backing up when there’s no connection.Early days, but I reckon before long this will be my main working system away from the office 🙂
All good points. I feel that if i’m to be traveling with ipad alone i would still need a CF/SD back up system like this http://su.pr/2Q9S9VI don’t think the iPad is ready to edit any serious files from a serious camera yet.
Going back to one of the original points, if you use your MiFi (with or without a SIM inserted) can you still create a local network that allows you to transfer files over WiFi from one device to the other locally without having to touch any mobile data?
Will the iPad interface with a BGAN system? If not, what sort of light weight laptop would you recommend for remote regions with ability to edit photo/film and post multimedia blogs?
Hi Sarah, Only if you have a wireless router plugged into the BGAN. I am working on a compact Satellite Mifi device. If you know of any who would like to commission a prototype let me know.. 🙂