iPad Mini / iPad / Tablets

Alright duders, since Best Buy's associates were to busy for me I'm going to ask you guys a question.

Well my first question is do any of you guys/gals own an iPad mini or tablet of some sort and do you guys like it?

Another question is that I have an ipod full of music, if I bought an iPad would those songs transfer onto it and not mess up my ipod or anything. So two devices synced onto itunes.

Thanks guys!

Two years ago I got an iPad, primarily for use at university as my classes for that year had digital notes, so I no longer needed to type everything up. It also made it very easy for me to show people results from sample testing I was doing for my thesis and a couple of other quick-reference things. I got the 3G model for use on the train, though I only did so sparingly.

In short, for that year it was great for my use case - so if that sounds like what you'd be using it for (reading, showing people pictures / graphs and maybe a little browsing) then it's indeed a good move to make.

On the other hand, since that year I've transitioned to using my laptop far more (for work, etc) as I need something to run the programs I use / with input methods which fit my form of work now (ie, a keyboard). My iPad has become my device for watching videos before going to sleep and essentially fulfilling the same function as my Vita - a mobile gaming platform with some multimedia functionality. It works well in that case, too.

As for music, all that stuff is pretty seamless. They are treated wholly differently, you manage the music and apps on each entirely separately.

@selfconfessedcynic: Very useful information. Kind of weird how they can't sync two devices to one library.

@lord_xp: ?

If you mean having the same library on both, you're right, I don't think there's a way to do that, though I would have liked there to be.

But aside from that, they both sync to the same music library - you don't need a separate account for each (not sure if I've misunderstood you there, sorry).

Nowadays I'm rocking an Android phone, a Windows PC / Laptop and an iPad - so general interoperability is something I wish existed to a larger degree in general. Well, aside from dropbox and a couple of other apps which do go across all 3.

On a side note, I'll say springing for iCloud was worth it. It upgraded a lot of my ripped music from back in the day from 192kb/s mp3 (I know, I know, but I had a frikin 20GB hard drive when I ripped those) up to 256 AAC, which was fantastic - and beyond that, being able to choose on the spot from your iPad what you want to listen to from your whole library is good. Of course, there's services like Spotify which do similar, but the upgrade was totally worth it.

My iPad has become my main device for browsing the web. When the air finally goes retina and I pick one up, I can easily see that changing however. I'd still use the iPad for things like Comics/Magazines and some gaming. Also there still are situations where for video and the web it's still easier to consume with a tablet. The second I wanna type something I still would go to one my computers.

Own a 32gb white iPad 4, love it. I never really listen to music on it since if I wanted to listen to something I'd just use my iPhone or stream music from the SiriusXM app or Pandora, or use Air Play with my MacBook (or use the Remote app to control iTunes on my Mac from anywhere on the same network connection).....

I actually just picked up a 64 gig iPad mini a month ago and im pretty damned smitten with the thing, it was pricey but worth it I think. I was going to get a nexus 7, but actually holding a dislplay model I found the 7inch form factor to be just a bit too small for my man hands, but the minis 7.9 inch screen and form factor are pretty much perfect for me, even the regular 10 inch iPad felt too big. Plus, since I have a Windows Phone 8 cell, I wanted a device to get back into apples app ecosystem. I love it, Ive found some really awesome games ( PUNCH QUEST!!! GET IT!!!), its great for web and youtube consumption, and as for music, I just bought an app called gMusic for 2 bucks, and It lets me access my google music library over wifi. Just uploaded my music to google music (you get space for 20,000 songs free), signed into the app and boom, insta music without taking up 30 gigs of my precious space! As long as you know what youre buying it for, I say go for it, especially if you know you will want some of those itunes exclusive apps and games (Spaceteam!)

This is all very useful guys, I appreciate it. But.i would mostly use it for work like keeping appointments, taking pictures of shoplifters, keeping all of my investigation notes in it, and then the rest of.it's uses would be for my personal things like netflix and finances