kyounge1956
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2008
- Messages
- 2,171
Sixty dollars a month for just the cable modem?!??!? I don't know if DSL is available there. I think you have to have a street address to find out, and since I don't yet have a property, I don't have a street address to check.You may be able to get broadband without subscribing to cable TV. You may be able to get DSL or even if you don't subscribe to cable TV, a provider like Comcast will still sell you cable modem service for a higher monthly price, like aroumd $60 a month.
I hope it isn't Comcast country out there. My parents have Comcast, and it seems so complicated. They have four remotes for three devices (TV, dvd player and now the new movie box my brother got them for Christmas) and heaven help you if you turn things on or off in the wrong order. It confuses the heck out of me (and sometimes them too).
I use dial-up to download updates etc to Mac programs. It does take forever but I don't care, I just leave the download running all night while I'm asleep or all day while I'm at work. I assume the files for an iPad update would be about the same size as for Mac updates. I've never tried downloading a movie on dial-up—I've always assumed it would take longer than overnight.You really need broadband to be able to download movies with any kind of decent picture quality. You also need it for the iPad, to download system updates and some apps. which will take forever on dial-up.
OK well this is where my ignorance starts to stick out like a sore thumb. I thought 3G was broadband. How were the iPads in the store on broadband? They had no cables coming out except the anti-theft tether. The guy who did the class showed how to turn off the 3G and/or wifi but I don't remember if the iPad went on the internet after that part was turned off? Or is the whole Apple store a wifi hot spot but if so how does broadband come into it? This is so confusing to me. Anyway it is the you-only-pay-for-it-when-you-use-it feature that appeals to me about 3g. What I hate about cell phones is you have to buy minutes and they expire after only a few months, even if you don't use them. I wanted to get a cell phone just to keep in my car for emergencies, but I couldn't just buy 15 or 30 minutes and just leave them until I need to use them. If I understand how the plan for iPads works, this doesn't happen with them. It's a month with a maximum usage and if you don't use the 3G the next month, you don't have to pay for it. But since there's only one wifi hot spot I'd need to use the 3G every month anyway I guess. I don't really have this all clear in my own mind yet.THe 3G version of the iPad lets you buy month to month 3G service for $15 or $25 for 30 days of service. You can buy 30 days of service and then decide not to buy it until say 6 weeks later. But 3G service is slower than home broadband and there's a limit to how much data you can download and upload (though home broadband service sometimes have caps as well but they're usually much higher).
Yeah, I could do that—if I had a big screen HDTV.Depending on which service you download the movie from, you can watch on the bigger screen of the computer. And if your computer has the right kind of output ports, you may be able to hook it to a big-screen HDTV and watch movies there.
You mean one movie is bigger than the allowance for one month? Ouch!The iPad could also play back movies but after transferring movies from a computer to the iPad. You can't directly download movies to the iPad because of the 3G service limits I mentioned above.
So you pretty much need home broadband to really take advantage of the iPad.
I'd be pretty surprised if I just happened to land next to someone with an unprotected broadband connection. You're right, that doesn't sound very neighborly.Maybe some of your neighbors failed to put a password on their Wifi and you could use theirs but that's really not a neighborly thing to do. Plus it may be illegal in certain countries or jurisdictions.
I wasn't planning to buy it yet anyway. I've been kind of expecting one to come out with a camera in it and since I don't have a digital camera or a cell phone which might have a camera in it, that seemed worth waiting for (and then waiting some more for the price to come down a little or until I could get a used one on ebay). Also, I don't know if broadband will be available on the property I end up buying. (That's why I still have dial up, I didn't want to get used to high-speed and then maybe have to go back to a slower connection. But if just broadband internet by itself costs 3x as much, I also still have dial up because I'm a cheapskate). If I end up buying a property where broadband isn't available, I guess I will just have to hope that internet cafe survives, or they put wifi in the library. Or I could take the bus out to Ocean Shores for a mini-vacation in one of the two hotels out there that have wifi. Download a bunch of movies and watch 'em later. Nya-hahahaha!So if you had home broadband, you could set up a Wifi network in your home and unless it's a real big home, you can use the iPad anywhere in the house, including possibly the porch or the patio in the backyard, etc.
Oh and one thing, there is expected to be a new iPad model by April. One of the new features is expected to be at least one camera to allow you to use FaceTime, which is a way to videoconference. I believe the Skype app. for iPhone and iPad also lets you video chat too.
So you may want to wait.