How To For iPad

How Much Is An iPad?

Let’s be honest, one of the first questions that went through your head when you thought about buying an iPad is what will it cost? How do I know this? Well, you’re here aren’t you?

Before I can answer your question of how much is an iPad, I’ll need you to answer some life changing questions. More on that in a minute.

Throughout this article I’ll assume you’re looking at buying a new iPad, whether it is the iPad 3 or 2 (Apple still sells a couple iPad 2 models). Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with purchasing a used iPad. If you are interested in buying used, I highly recommend you take a look at our internationally acclaimed used iPad checklist. By internationally acclaimed, I mean that people from other countries have read it. It is good though.

Now, back to those life changing questions. In order to figure out how much a new iPad will cost you, you’ll need to answer some questions regarding what features and options you are looking for.

Color

Black or White

iPad version

iPad 3
iPad 2 (see the iPad 2 vs iPad 3 article for a comparison should you happen to be born)

Connectivity

WiFi only
WiFi + 4G LTE/3G

Memory

16GB
32GB
64GB

Made up your mind? Great, now let’s find out how much this iPad will cost.

iPad 3 WiFi models (any color)

$499 16GB
$599 32GB
$699 64GB

iPad 3 WiFi + 4G LTE/3G

$629 16GB
$729 32GB
$829 64GB

iPad 2 WiFi

$399 16GB

iPad 2 WiFi +3G

$529 16GB

So the question of how much an iPad costs really hinges on what you want to use it for. If you intend to use it primarily at home, you can probably get away with the WiFi only model. Most people tend to choose one of these models as the iPad has become a replacement for the home computer in many regards.

For all you business types on the road or daily commuters trapped in trains/buses who demand data on the go, 4G LTE is definitely going to be the flavor for you. Keep in mind that you will also need to account for how much the iPad data plan costs as well if you wish to use the 3G/4G functionality. This will vary by carrier so be sure to shop around.

Which model of iPad did you buy and why? Let everyone know in the comments section…

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4 Easy Ways to Reduce iPad Data Usage

Tired of always bumping up against those pesky data caps each month? Let me show you some easy ways to reduce data usage on your iPad or iPhone without having to give up those internet videos of farting babies. I’ll also spare you worthless tips such as “use wireless connections more often“, although obviously that will help.

1. Optimize Your Location Services

If you read our post on increasing the battery life on the iPad 3, you may recall something that you can do for increased battery life is to turn off location services for apps that don’t need to use it. You can turn off location services for individual apps (or for everything) at Settings/Location Services.

Taking it one step further, if you scroll down on the Location Services screen and select System Services at the bottom, you can turn off location services for some non-app iPhone/iPad functionality. I’d recommend turning off “Diagnostics & Usage” along with “Location-based iAds”.

You can also consider turning off “Traffic” as this settings enables your iPhone to send your GPS location data out for use in generating traffic data on Maps.

2. Save the Downloads for Home

Quick story. One month I was politely informed by AT&T that I was in the top 5% of data usage and was close to being “throttled” as they called it. Well long story (that you don’t care about) short, it turns out that the podcasts I was downloading over 3G while at work were eating through my data cap faster than something that eats incredibly fast.

So if there are apps (including updates), songs (or better yet albums) and other things that you need to download, save it for when you get on your home WiFi network. I said I’d spare you the ”use wireless connections more often” type tips and I think I have. This really is something that can sneak up on you faster than something that sneaks up really fast and thus I think it’s worth sharing.

3. Use Mobile Versions of Sites

Something that is often overlooked when trying to reduce data usage on iPhones and iPads is using the mobile version of a website. This can actually save a reasonable amount of data depending on your usage.

How so Dan?

Glad you asked, let me explain. Mobile versions of websites are designed to strip out unnecessary code and graphics (backgrounds, etc.) to make sites load faster. This also generally means less data needs to be downloaded for the site.

If you are a heavy browser while on the go, this tip may yield some reasonable data usage savings.

4. Set Mail to Fetch New Email Manually

If you’re not as addicted to checking email as I am, try setting your iPad or iPhone mail to fetch manually. This means that your device will only reach out for new email whenever you open the app.

This will use less data (and battery) than having your iPhone fetch on a time basis (every 15 minutes, etc.) or using Push, which is the worst in terms of data usage (but will allow email to immediately show up when someone sends).

Hopefully you find these methods for reducing data usage on your iPhone or iPad helpful. There are certainly other ways to try to stay under the dreaded data cap limit but these are a great start.

Do you have other great tips for cutting down on data usage? Have a funny story about a data cap? Yeah neither do I. Don’t be shy, let’s hear it in the comments!

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How to Transfer an eBook to the iPad

A fairly common question that I get asked by iPad owners is how to transfer an eBook to their iPad. The quick answer is that you import the eBook into iTunes and then sync it to your iPad via iTunes. This procedure is helpful if you already own some eBooks and have just bought a new iPad that you wish to transfer these eBooks to. For detailed instructions on how to open an eBook to your iPad, read on.

You Will Need:

iPad (any generation)
Computer with iTunes
iPad to USB cable
eBook

Instructions:

Open iTunes on your Mac or PC.
Under the “File” menu, open “Add to Library”. Mac users can use Command-O for this.
Navigate to the eBook file on your computer that you want to transfer onto the iPad and select this.
Connect your iPad to the computer and wait until it shows up under the Devices section on the left hand side.
Click your iPad’s name from the left side of iTunes and navigate to the Books tab.
Make sure that the “Sync Books” box is checked.
Select either “All Books” or “Selected Books”, in which case you will need to place a check next to the eBook(s) that you wish to sync to the iPad.
Once you have finished selecting which eBooks sync, click the Sync/Apply button in the bottom right.