I like my iPad, I really do. For what I do with it, it fits the bill.
But I am not a citizen of Apple’s dream community, and I will not be casting lots with the iEcosystem. Mainly because Apple still doesn’t get the Cloud.
The one time I did connect my Contacts to iCloud, it created a jumbled mess of my contacts’ photos. When I get an email from my wife, my boss’s avatar should not accompany it. (Even if my wife were bossy, still not cool.)
Now my issue is just the simple backups. Every morning, I get an alert from iCloud, telling me that I don’t have enough space to backup my iPad on the wireless sync. Every morning, it tells me that I would need more than 6 Gig in my iCloud to house all my data. Every morning, I un-select the 4.3 Gig of photos, and try again.
And every morning, I wake up and the Camera Roll Backup option has re-selected itself, and prevented my backup.
Well, some would say that I’m the one preventing the backup. After all, I should just drop the dime and pay for upgraded storage on Apple’s cloud. Then all would be right with the world.
I do love my iPad, and what it allows me to do.
But my next tablet is probably going to run Windows, because believe it or not, Microsoft understands the cloud.
Problem is, Microsoft doesn’t get tablets. I think Google tablet and cloud better than any of them. I’m using SkyDrive a lot, because it seems a little faster, but it doesn’t share as well. Dropbox is fine, too. But what you’re describing is my big beef with Apple: It “just works” … so long as you buy into the whole package … iEverything. Their cloud, their music system, their keyboard, their storage. If you want to add a 64gB micro SD, you’re out of luck. Should have bought a bigger iPad/iPhone. Under in my roof, there’s an iPad, an iPhone, a Galaxy S3 and a Galaxy Tab 2. The Galaxies are mine. The missus takes what Apple dictates and does what she’s told, and I fix it when she messes something up.
I agree with you there, except for the part about Microsoft “not getting” tablets.
The Surface Pro is an outstanding device, and the processors that make it go now (Haswell and Bay Trail) have the battery life to run all day. Notice I said “device,” because it really doesn’t fit in either the laptop or the tablet category. For many professionals, it is exactly what they need, but they’ll never notice if they keep trying to force it into existing slots.
The RT was released as a stopgap, waiting for the technology to catch up. And it also will be part of the bridge uniting all devices under a single OS. It’s a great long-play by Microsoft, and they are certainly ahead of Apple in providing the cloud to back it all up.