What can you do with an iPad, but not an iPod touch?

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Papa Deuce

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My wife has been hinting for a long time that she would like an iPad for Christmas, so I went and bought her one. Thing is, she she barely ever uses her Touch. Really she only uses it for video when on a plane. She doesn't really use apps, though she has many ( it used to be mine, so there were lots of apps ).

Other than the advantage of screen size, what advantages are there to having an iPad? She has a 2nd gen Touch.

I just want to give her ways to use it and get some value out of it as more than an item to use for watching video.

Thanks.
 
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It really depends on what you're going to do with it. The thing is there's not a lot the iPad can technically do that the iPod touch cannot. However, don't discount the screen size by itself in changing the way the device can be used. Watching videos, reading e-books and surfing the web are all FAR better experiences on the iPad due to its larger screen. There are web sites that are virtually unusable on the iPod touch that work quite well on the iPad because it provides a more realistic and readable view of the whole web page. Further, there are third-party apps that can be much more useful on the larger screen, such as drawing and photo editing applications. These are all things the iPod touch can technically do, but are not necessary as practical on a 3.5" screen when compared to a 10" screen.
 

Code Monkey

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Well, if she's not into apps, I truly don't think anyone is going to suggest anything she can do with it she's not already not doing on her touch ;)

The larger physical screen allows for more and different interface elements within apps written to take advantage of it, and is, eventually, going to attract a new class of periodicals, but otherwise, there is little obviously different with the iPad and the touch.

On the other hand, going from a second gen touch to an iPad will allow for some customizations (wall paper is the most obvious) not possible on a 2G touch and, unlike the 2G touch that is likely going to be limited to a handicapped 4.X iOS and no 5.X iOS at all, the current touch should remain compatible at least through iOS 5.X.

Although don't discount screen size importance for some users. My wife had little interest in a touch, but she loves her iPad even if she doesn't do all that much (surfs the web, plays some light games, and actually still watches most video on her 4G nano, go figure). It's the screen size that makes all the difference to her.
 

kornchild2002

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There are some technical things the iPad can do over the iPod touch and vice versa (at least with the 4G iPod touch). The iPad can last for at least 10 hours on a single charge when playing videos, surfing the web, using apps, etc. That time is cut down to a little over 7 hour on the 4G iPod touch (6-5 hours on the previous generations). Additionally, the iPad has a built-in digital compass. This would only come into play if she was interested in using apps.

The Star Walk app is really nice on the iPad and provides an all around better experience than on the iPod touch due to it having a larger screen and having a built-in digital compass.

In all reality, I don't see much of a point to an iPad if you aren't going to actually use apps on it. Safari is a much better experience, iBooks is better on the iPAd, the iPod app performs more like iTunes, and the iTunes Store looks pretty much identical to accessing the store on a computer running iTunes. That is all due to the larger screen. However, that is pretty much it in terms of using the built-in apps. The potential of an iPad is really only realized whenever a few apps are installed on it. Games are a whole lot better (even the little titles made only for wasting time), the larger screen means that you can see more information and that really helps for news/internet radio apps, and there are many more things that won't be used unless she starts using apps.

To me, buying an iPad and not using apps (even free ones) is like buying a new Mustang and letting it sit in the garage with a 1/8th tank of gas. Sure, you can start the engine, play with the radio, fiddle with the air conditioner, and play around but its full potential is reached whenever you fill up the tank with gas and take it out on the open road.
 

Papa Deuce

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OK, thanks...

Maybe screen size will encourage her to use some apps. I guess size really does matter. :D
 

timgrant

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IPad vs iPod Touch

OK, thanks...

Maybe screen size will encourage her to use some apps. I guess size really does matter. :D
I bought my wife an iPod touch 32 GB 2G when they came out. She would use it occasionally (weekly, or a couple times a week?). There were a couple of apps that she would, but not so much. It was a lot of money for very little use.
When the IPad came out, I had to have it, but knew that buying it for me wouldn't fly at 978$ for the 64GB 3G model. so i did the next best thing. I bought it for her for an anniversary present. Best case, she loves it and uses it, worst case, she doesn't like it/want it/use it and then I get it.
Well, she has found uses for it. Before, she would use my laptop for Facebook/email/light surfing (even though these are all available on the touch, I find them to be extremely cumbersome. and not an enjoyable experience and only use them for quick one offs). Now, she's on the IPad. She rarely uses the laptop and only goes upstairs to the desktop computer when she is creating content (documents and stuff), video conferencing with her sister and parents or printing stuff off.
Her primary iPad uses are: web browsing, email, contacts, face-booking, book reader, her Bible, weather, recipe book, photo library, shopping list, navigational tool (when I'm driving), movie/video watching, checking out new movies in the theater, note taking in meetings, sleep app, and the odd game or three. We haven't even come close to discovering everything that we can use it for yet (OK, slight drawback, wading through piles and piles of apps to find the gems).
I have some additional uses. I have the vpn config'd to connect to work and have an SSH client, rdp client and SAP client (all of which allow me to do most of the basic functionality of my job).
All in all, it has been much more useful than I even imagined and I see even more value and functionality potentially in the future. That is not to say that it doesn't have it's short comings (printing, connectivity, local file system? camera, cost to name a few).
All that being said, I am pretty sure that we will be buying the 2G model. The only question that is outstanding is whether I get the new one or if she gets the new one and I get the hand me down (now that I have said it out loud, I'm also pretty sure that there won't be any question as to who will get the new iPad - now where are my damn pants!)
So back to your question, will your wife use it? If she is anything like my wife, she will find uses for it. And if not, then maybe you will! :D
tg
One last note, since the IPad came home 4 months ago, she's used her iPod touch about twice.
 

Mr. E.

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I've had my iPad for about a week now. I don't think it's a question of what you can do on an iPad that you can't do on a Touch, but rather what you will do, or will want to do.

I've used my iPod Touch for just about everything I can think of: books, comics, web surfing, note-taking, SSHing into my home machine, VNC access to my home machine, games, email, etc. So when I look at what the iPad can do that's above and beyond that, there's isn't much, if anything. My iPod can't run iBooks, but a newer iPod could. But every thing that I do on my iPad is better/easier than on the iPod Touch. Granted, there's a speed factor: with a 1st Gen. iPod Touch, it runs a little slower than current versions, and some apps it won't run at all. But mostly it's what the extra screen real estate makes possible. A page of a book actually has a page's worth of content, rather than a paragraph. A comic displays the whole page, legibly, on one screen without a lot of zooming and panning. Likewise using VNC is 100 times better as I don't need to zoom in to hit a button, and then zoom out to see the rest of the screen. I haven't done much typing yet, but I notice I'm much more likely to hit the correct key when I do type.

All-in-all, right now that iPod Touch has the advantage that I can slip it into my pocket. That is the only advantage. I used to try and read my news feeds on my iPod Touch, and would frequently pass one over and say, "That will be better to read on the computer." Now, instead, I pass over news items on the computer and say, "That will be better to read on the iPad." And a fair number of websites have "dumbed down" mobile versions that trim their content for the benefit of smaller devices. I appreciate when sites do this, because trying a navigate a website in its full-screen view on the iPod can be a chore, but the iPad takes all that issue away, too, by displaying full screen-sized web-pages in a readable size.

For typing, a computer is still very helpful, but for any reading that you would do on an iPod or on a computer, I'm finding the iPad to be the best solution. So when you say, "other than screen size," it's hard to say, but bigger screen size makes a huge difference. I love my iPod Touch because it gave me a semblance of connectivity when I was away from my computer, but I am loving my iPad because it makes a better reading/viewing experience then either my iPod or my computer. The other day I spent an hour or more sitting in my computer chair in front of my computer reading a web page on my iPad. That's something that would never happen with the iPod Touch unless it contained info that wasn't available on my computer.

So, from my experience, it's not about the apps. There are few, if any, apps that don't seem to have a comparable version for both devices. It really is about the screen size. Battery life and speed will probably also be better than your wife's 2G iPod, but that only becomes a factor if you are actually using the iPod Touch. I would just look at what she currently uses any internet-enabled device for, and if there's an app to facilitate that on iPad, get it, but if not, Safari on the iPad still makes for a better reading experience than the iPod Touch or, often, a computer monitor.
 
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Well said. Comic Book apps are actually a great example of something that's far better on the iPad, since they're almost unusable on a smaller-screened iPod touch device. I never got into any of the comic book readers until I got an iPad.

There are, however, applications that are either a completely different ballgame on the iPad, or not even available for the iPhone/iPod touch at all. While many of these are more "pro-grade" apps, several that come to mind right off the top of my head are Apple's own iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) as well as OmniGraffle. These apps would all be ridiculous to try and use on an iPod touch even if there were versions for it. The Omni Group has also done a great job of reinventing OmniFocus for the iPad -- although there's an iPhone/iPod version, the iPad version is a completely different app in terms of how it's designed and what you can do with it. Some of the Twitter apps, such as Twitter's own iPad app and Twittelator are also great examples of apps that have reinvented themselves for the iPad.

The really sad part is that many developers have just produced enlarged iPod touch apps and not truly taken advantage of what the iPad is capable of, both from a screen size and improved UI point of view (there are iPad-specific UI elements that aren't even available on the iPhone/iPod side), so many users look at the apps and see the iPad as little more than just a "big iPod touch."
 

Mr. E.

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Comics is one thing I hadn't tried on the iPod Touch until just recently. In preparation for an iPad purchase, I started looking into comic application and trying them out on the iPod Touch. I didn't expect them to readable, but I was surprised to find that they were, and I read several before getting the iPad. I then began to question whether or not I "needed" an iPad at all given that I had done just about everything I hoped to use it for with my iPod Touch.

After only having the iPad for week, the differences between the devices have definitely become more clear. The iPod feels terribly undersized now, even though I've been using it daily for several years. The actual differences in capabilities, as Jesse said, are limited to a few production-based applications and to some UI enhancements, but the difference in user-experience is much more noticeable. There's a lot you can make the iPod do, but on the iPad so much of that is just a better experience then what you get when narrow your field of vision to a 3 X 2.25 inch screen. I think the iPad gets it's form factor close to perfect as being just about the largest screen you can comfortably hold in your hand(s). A tiny, viewable screen that can fit in your pocket is still a pretty cool device, but if OP's wife has an iPod she doesn't use but wants an iPad, it may be that she doesn't need special applications to get some use out of, she just needs that bigger screen to enjoy using the applications that are already on the device.
 
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