[doydie]

My daughter recently bought one. I was there this weekend and I love that thing! Of course she knows how to make the most use of it since her husband is such a geek and being an active Mom she probably uses it to it's full degree. I would not but till it's so neat, if nothing else but the camera and face time. My husband says I can get one for Christmas. I don't need it, I have a Nook color, laptop and PC but it still is neat. For one thing it i so portable and I didn't even know anything about I cloud. I could put stuff in the cloud and take it over to my sister's house

[Erin524]

I LOVE my iPad Mini!

my iMini, his name is Sherlock, is pretty much my constant companion. It's just the right size to carry in my purse. It's about the same size as a Kindle. Pretty sure it's lighter than the Kindle Fire or the Nook.

My iMini is exactly what I hoped the original Kindle Fire would be when it came out. I'm learning new things to do with the iPad all the time. I was at the Apple store today, and they have classes for learning how to use the iPad. I don't know if they charge for the classes or if they're free. I might look into what they teach when I go to pick up my dead iMac (hopefully they can reanimate it)

It's not exactly a computer replacement, but it's great for when you don't want to fire up the computer for doing things like paying bills online.

I love the camera on it. I use that all the time. Plus, I have a printer that has wifi on it, and I can print thru the wifi directly from the iPad. Love that!

[GladysD]

Originally Posted by doydie

My daughter recently bought one. I was there this weekend and I love that thing! Of course she knows how to make the most use of it since her husband is such a geek and being an active Mom she probably uses it to it's full degree. I would not but till it's so neat, if nothing else but the camera and face time. My husband says I can get one for Christmas. I don't need it, I have a Nook color, laptop and PC but it still is neat. For one thing it i so portable and I didn't even know anything about I cloud. I could put stuff in the cloud and take it over to my sister's house

The thing I like about ICloud storage, is it's a perfect backup to everything, such as photos and music and documents, so that if, anything happened to your hardware--ipad, laptop, pc, etc. It would still be there.

Sounds like your husband is planning a Christmas gift for you <3

[doydie]

Gladys what my husband is doing is saying go ahead and get it and then you won't be asking for me to buy you anything. He hates Christmas. I have always told him that my gifts sure would be cheaper if he bought for me. But since I buy what I want I tend to go for the electronics which are more expensive. I do need a new GPS unless the I pad would do that for me.

[Erin524]

If you get the iPad with the 3G (or is it 4G? whatever, you can get one that you pay to have a cellular connection with it)

The one with a cellular connection, you can probably get an app that works as a GPS. I don't know how good that is. My iPad's are wifi only. No cellular service for mine.

[doydie]

I don't think I would need cellular service with mine. I will enjoy the face time and I don't think you would have to have cell service to do that??? Or would you. I have to admit I don't know a lot about it. I looked online tonight for prices and Walmart is the cheapest.

[Erin524]

you just have to have an internet connection for Facetime. Wifi is better because you don't have to worry about burning thru your entire allotment of data like you would on cellular. Cellular only gives you so much data that you can download before you have to start paying extra for it. Wifi doesn't charge you anything.

I don't use the Facetime, I tend to just use Skype when I talk to my boyfriend. (he doesn't have an iPad or iThing to Facetime with)

My iPad Mini and my iPad 3 are both just wifi only. I didn't want to have to deal with paying a monthly fee for the cellular service.

[doydie]

Erin what is your opinion of mini I pad vs Kindle Fire

[Erin524]

I don't have the new Kindle Fire HD, so I can only really compare it to the original Kindle Fire.

The iPad Mini is tons better than the original Kindle Fire. Lighter, and easier to use. I kind of consider the original Kindle Fire to be old technology, so I don't think you can exactly compare the two.

I did look at one of the new Kindle Fire HD's in a store yesterday, and was surprised at how heavy it was. My iMini is a lot lighter. The Kindle Fire HD that I looked at was a floor model, so I don't think it had all the functionality to it, but I didn't really care much for it's layout. I also didn't like how heavy the KFire was.

Basically, the iPad Mini is what I was hoping for when Amazon put out the original Kindle Fire.

You wouldn't believe how much I use my iPad's. I almost always have the iPad Mini with me. Hardly ever put it diwn

[GladysD]

Originally Posted by doydie

Gladys what my husband is doing is saying go ahead and get it and then you won't be asking for me to buy you anything. He hates Christmas. I have always told him that my gifts sure would be cheaper if he bought for me. But since I buy what I want I tend to go for the electronics which are more expensive. I do need a new GPS unless the I pad would do that for me.

I am a bit biased about GPS. I, literally, argue with GPS. My uncle handed me down one of his old ones, and when I needed to bring him somewhere, he set it up, and I was already 2-3 steps ahead of that thing. We had a good chuckle over my 'talking back' to the GPS.

Needed to take my son, one morning back in December, to a wrestling tournament, his first. It was about 7am, the sun was in my face driving, his dad was in the Navigator seat, and decided to use the one he had on his phone. I ended up telling him to turn that thing off, use the mapquest app on my android and call it a day. Give me directions a couple steps ahead unless you feel like driving with a complete Mass---'driver' Because, if I need to turn a few streets up ahead, I need to know before I have to cut off people and risk an accident.

That said, I hear you, about your husband and the holiday. Some are adverse to the holiday season and I completely get that.

Shopping around on-line to price compare is a great way. I use a variety of places such as amazon and newegg and walmart and target, etc. To price shop. Best Buy, is good to talk to a rep, to ask questions, provided I know I can say, thanks, I'll be back later, I need to think it over((or when married, I need to discuss this purchase with my husband first ))

It's good to look at RAM, etc, and have an idea if you are getting the better processing spead. Sometimes, the lowest price isn't the greatest, and the most pricey can mean there will be a drastic drop sooner than later. It's a marketing ploy, I learned all about in college.

I'd, personally, go Ipad Mini over Kindle Fire, if I were to choose. Right now, I am shopping around for Ipad2's. I need 3, Santa is coming this holiday and frankly, it's time to go completely wireless and no more arguing over whose turn it is, the PC is going to storage, the desk is going curbside. I need 2 over 1 because one of the online games that my kids play can only be played on 2 or higher. I found some great kid friendly cases on the dirt cheap through one of my favorite vendors.

Your research for shopping is sounding fun, from my side of the screen. It's actually a big decision. I just replaced a TV in January. Spent months, waiting, watching and found something 1/2 the price...