Should I return my new iPad 64 GB?

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
We're PC people, but thought we'd dive into the Apple world with the introduction of the iPad. We bought one for portability and frankly, because it seemed cool. Looks like it's great for reading ebooks, viewing photo's & listening to music, and it'll probably be good for word processing etc. after we download some apps.



We use Facebook extensively, including many Facebook apps. My wife is Extremely disappointed, though (as am I) to learn that none of the many Flashplayer based applications that we use with Facebook will work on the iPad. This means we'd have to carry around both a laptop AND an iPad if we want to be productive.



This is, to us, a major, major design flaw (or failure in negotiation) that apparently makes my $900 iPad a gimmicky toy that's not worth anywhere near the price we paid. Unless we can find a work-around, we will be returning it to the retailer in the next day or two in favor of a lightweight, PC based notebook (or netbook). Not as cool, but much more practical and functional.



Am I missing something? Is there a workaround? Did Apple let us down? And is there any reason we shouldn't take this back to the retailer while it is still returnable?



Thanks!
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dbpropp View Post


    We're PC people, but thought we'd dive into the Apple world with the introduction of the iPad. We bought one for portability and frankly, because it seemed cool. Looks like it's great for reading ebooks, viewing photo's & listening to music, and it'll probably be good for word processing etc. after we download some apps.



    We use Facebook extensively, including many Facebook apps. My wife is Extremely disappointed, though (as am I) to learn that none of the many Flashplayer based applications that we use with Facebook will work on the iPad. This means we'd have to carry around both a laptop AND an iPad if we want to be productive.



    This is, to us, a major, major design flaw (or failure in negotiation) that apparently makes my $900 iPad a gimmicky toy that's not worth anywhere near the price we paid. Unless we can find a work-around, we will be returning it to the retailer in the next day or two in favor of a lightweight, PC based notebook (or netbook). Not as cool, but much more practical and functional.



    Am I missing something? Is there a workaround? Did Apple let us down? And is there any reason we shouldn't take this back to the retailer while it is still returnable?



    Thanks!



    If you want to play Farmville, there's an app for that.



    If you want to play Pet Society or something, you're right. You'd better return the iPad. It's not Apple's fault, though. Flash simply does not work for mobile devices. You won't be able to play Pet Society on an Android tablet, either.
  • Reply 2 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dbpropp View Post


    This is, to us, a major, major design flaw (or failure in negotiation) that apparently makes my $900 iPad a gimmicky toy that's not worth anywhere near the price we paid.



    So return it and go away. If you're not intelligent enough to research a $900 purchase before making it, you deserve to have this happen.



    What did you think? That Apple's stance on Flash was just for show and the iPad would actually be able to use Flash anyway? I mean, honestly.



    Quote:

    Am I missing something?



    Quite a bit, yes.



    Quote:

    Is there a workaround?



    Returning it and buying something that actually does what you think you want to do.



    Quote:

    Did Apple let us down?



    No, but you've let down rationality.
  • Reply 3 of 30
    banchobancho Posts: 1,517member
    I'm not entirely sure this wasn't just a troll post.
  • Reply 4 of 30
    My gosh, I thought a post asking for help and advice, especially from a newbie to the Apple world, would get some helpful, respectful and polite responses. But except for Tonton's, who was at least respectful, they have so far been mean-spirited, sarcastic, and in part, downright nasty. Thanks a lot, guys.



    I thought Apple users were better than that. If you can't be respectful and offer some real advice, please don't waste my time trying to inflate your own ego by talking down to others. There are forums where kids rant about video games where you can do that. Alright? I mean, Kewl?
  • Reply 5 of 30
    banchobancho Posts: 1,517member
    Lack of Flash was one of the biggest deals made of the iPad's perceived shortcomings. How on earth did you miss that? That alone makes me doubt the sincerity of your initial post. You seem to have made a $900 impulse purchase with no forethought at all. With no idea of the device's capabilities you dove in and picked up the top of the line model.



    As was mentioned above, there are app equivalents for some of the Flash games people play on facebook (some from the same companies featured on facebook like Zynga). If that's your thing then your thing I'd check them out. They'll likely be optimized for use on the iPad and offer a better experience than the facebook hosted equivalent. Check out appshopper.com for an easier to search alternative to the iTunes app store. Before deciding that the iPad can't do what you want, see if there might be an app that does.



    The iPad's a great device. It'll get better over time. That doesn't mean it's for everyone. If you, or your wife aren't happy then return it. You'll probably get hit for a restock fee but that's probably better than buyer's remorse.
  • Reply 6 of 30
    Thanks, Bancho, for a real answer to my question. You are right, not being an Apple aficionado I probably didn't have enough information before I bought the iPod. I made a bad assumption, I guess, or believed the hype without questioning it. My bad.



    In response to an apparent misconception in this thread, Flash isn't just used for games (although games are cool too!).



    Bancho, I appreciate your tip about equivalent apps, and I will check it out. You're right, the iPad is a great device, almost miraculous. But IMHO, I think it would be better if Apple were not so proprietary and protective of its profits at the expense of functionality. That is why PC grabbed the biggest market share back in the day even though it's less technologically advance than the Mac (though I'm glad to see Apple coming on strong!).
  • Reply 7 of 30
    piotpiot Posts: 1,346member
    Curious that you allegedly didn't know about the absence of Flash on the iPad and yet you seem to be aware of the usual anti-Apple talking points.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dbpropp View Post


    But IMHO, I think it would be better if Apple were not so proprietary and protective of its profits at the expense of functionality.



  • Reply 8 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dbpropp View Post


    If you can't be respectful and offer some real advice, please don't waste my time trying to inflate your own ego by talking down to others.



    If you can't do five seconds of research about a product before you spend nearly $1,000 on it, don't waste our time whining on our forums when you find out that it can't do something it was never designed to do.
  • Reply 9 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dbpropp View Post


    In response to an apparent misconception in this thread, Flash isn't just used for games (although games are cool too!).



    I guess I must be missing something. Not much of a social networking kind of guy, but I do follow Facebook. What kind of non-game apps are there for facebook?



    I am also a non-apple sort of guy; previously I was mostly in the camp of the apple mockers. iPad has definitely won me over... we have two in my house now, otherwise I would never get to touch my iPad, as my kids would monopolize it.



    Last winter when I travelled, the only thing I took with me was a Dell mini 9 net book. This time around, it was the Dell plus two ipad's. Needed the Dell still for Microsoft office products. Made actually for a heavy carry-on. An iPad replacement for Microsoft office products would be great, but without the ability to mulit-task it isn't the same... Ie, pull up excel and word side by side so you can drag selections back and forth. So far, nothing on the iPad is that versatile.



    Missing flash? Almost not at all. The only place that has ever bothered me was at vanguard's site, where mutual fund performance graphs are flash based.
  • Reply 10 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bancho View Post


    Lack of Flash was one of the biggest deals made of the iPad's perceived shortcomings. How on earth did you miss that?



    I never planned or wanted to buy an iPad, so I did very little research on it. Wife's friend got one, so she had to have one, and she went out and bought one. If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.



    Quote:

    That alone makes me doubt the sincerity of your initial post. You seem to have made a $900 impulse purchase with no forethought at all. With no idea of the device's capabilities you dove in and picked up the top of the line model.



    Guilty. Like I said, if Mama ain't happy... And now she ain't happy because there are things she can't do with it that she thought she could. And frankly, so did I. Imagine if Apple didn't support Yahoo! or Skype. If they can get the licensing worked out for some of the most widely used formats in the industry, including Flash and Adobe, that would be great. Maybe it's because of the two different worlds - Apple and PC - but I thought that any Apple product was advanced enough to be able to do anything a PC could do (and more, and better, actually).



    Quote:

    As was mentioned above, there are app equivalents for some of the Flash games people play on facebook (some from the same companies featured on facebook like Zynga). If that's your thing then your thing I'd check them out. They'll likely be optimized for use on the iPad and offer a better experience than the facebook hosted equivalent. Check out appshopper.com for an easier to search alternative to the iTunes app store. Before deciding that the iPad can't do what you want, see if there might be an app that does.



    Now that is a helpful answer, and greatly appreciated. I will check it out.



    Quote:

    The iPad's a great device. It'll get better over time. That doesn't mean it's for everyone. If you, or your wife aren't happy then return it. You'll probably get hit for a restock fee but that's probably better than buyer's remorse.



    I agree, the iPad is amazing as it is, and I know it will get better, and cheaper, over time. I was hesitant to buy one now for that reason, but like I said, if Mama ain't happy...



    Thanks for the advice!
  • Reply 11 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tmarks11 View Post


    I guess I must be missing something. Not much of a social networking kind of guy, but I do follow Facebook. What kind of non-game apps are there for facebook?



    First, thanks for the intelligent and respectful reply. I think you answered your own question with your last sentence. Flash is used for things other than Facebook and games. The iPad's inability to use Flash and Microsoft applications is a big weakness that I am sure Apple will address in future versions (especially with competing products soon to be released.



    Quote:

    I am also a non-apple sort of guy; previously I was mostly in the camp of the apple mockers. iPad has definitely won me over... we have two in my house now, otherwise I would never get to touch my iPad, as my kids would monopolize it.



    Me too - not an Apple guy, which is funny because the first personal computers I worked with were the Apple 2, the Apple 2E, and the original Macintosh (funny looking little box!). I switched over to PC because there were more applications for it that I would use. I did miss the graphical interface, though, and the advanced graphics and media capabilities. Microsoft has tried to emulate all that with Windows, but not well, especially with buggy OS's like ME and Vista.



    Quote:

    Last winter when I travelled, the only thing I took with me was a Dell mini 9 net book. This time around, it was the Dell plus two ipad's. Needed the Dell still for Microsoft office products. Made actually for a heavy carry-on. An iPad replacement for Microsoft office products would be great, but without the ability to mulit-task it isn't the same... Ie, pull up excel and word side by side so you can drag selections back and forth. So far, nothing on the iPad is that versatile.



    My wife does a lot of travel, including overseas travel, and had really hoped that even if it were somewhat limited, the iPad would be all she'd need to carry. Now, like you, we have learned that this is not the case.



    Still, the iPad is an amazing device and excellent for what it's designed to do. Certainly no argument there!



    Quote:

    Missing flash? Almost not at all. The only place that has ever bothered me was at vanguard's site, where mutual fund performance graphs are flash based.



    Again, thanks for an intelligent and helpful answer!
  • Reply 12 of 30
    If you think the iPad will get Flash anytime soon, or any time at all, basically, I think you're in for some more disappointment.



    There are a few Flash-based apps on Facebook that I use that are not games. There's an iPhone app for Are You Interested? (though I dumped it because they removed almost all functionality for non-subscribers). But Voomaxer is great for my swimming record. And I love to share my books and organize my reading library with weRead.



    But the thing is, I can use apps for iPhone instead, or just wait until I get home and use these apps on my laptop.
  • Reply 13 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tonton View Post


    If you think the iPad will get Flash anytime soon, or any time at all, basically, I think you're in for some more disappointment.



    That's a shame. I know Apple is a different world than PC, but I'd sure hope they'd share at least some technologies.



    Quote:

    There are a few Flash-based apps on Facebook that I use that are not games. There's an iPhone app for Are You Interested? (though I dumped it because they removed almost all functionality for non-subscribers). But Voomaxer is great for my swimming record. And I love to share my books and organize my reading library with weRead.



    Thanks for the tip about weRead. That sounds like a good app, I'll check it out!



    Quote:

    But the thing is, I can use apps for iPhone instead, or just wait until I get home and use these apps on my laptop.



    My wife figured out how to download the Zinga Poker iPhone app onto her iPad, and she is much happier now! Mama's happy, so everyone's happy!



    THANKS EVERYONE!!
  • Reply 14 of 30
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dbpropp View Post


    Facebook... we want to be productive.



    My wife figured out how to download the Zinga Poker iPhone app onto her iPad, and she is much happier now



    Somehow this whole thread didn't quite gel into a reasonable argument for the lack of Flash. One thing about Flash for mobile devices, not just the iPad, is that it literally just came out in the last month or so.



    Adobe have taken over 3 years to bring this technology to the market so nobody is on the ball yet. Apple just declared their stance because their devices were popular and people were noticing the missing functionality.



    The decision not to support Flash is a sensible one because why should every single company in the world depend on Adobe to step up and get a working Flash player on every platform and have it work properly with stability, security and good performance along with an update mechanism when a flaw is found? That is the epitome of a monopoly and shouldn't be supported when it comes to the web, not when 75%+ of the media content is authored with it.



    Flash needs to be eradicated from the web for good. If it's absolutely essential to use in the odd case, you can use a VNC app like iTeleport to connect to a PC and just control it from the iPad. If a company offered this as a network service, it would probably work quite well but they'd want to charge a monthly rate.



    There's also the issue of getting the Flash movie to work properly as they are generally designed for touch, emulating a right-click, scroll-wheel, keyboard keys etc is going to be tricky no matter how they implement it so it's far better getting iOS optimised apps. For one thing, they should load faster because you aren't having to download the binary every time you play.



    Unfortunately, a number of companies want to cling onto the old way of doing things with Flash because it's the easy/lazy option but sooner or later they are going to realise the size of the market they are missing out on.
  • Reply 15 of 30
    areseearesee Posts: 776member
    "That's a shame. I know Apple is a different world than PC, but I'd sure hope they'd share at least some technologies."



    Flash isn't a part of the PC/Mac wars. Flash works on the Mac just as it does on the PC. Where Flash does not work is on the iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad. Google and the anti-Apple community has jumped on this as a major failing of the iPad. But as Marvin says, it wasn't until last month that Adobe got Flash to work on any tablet device. And based on comments from the Android crowd it looks like Apple made the right decision. Flash is getting some bad reviews on the Android platform.



    If Flash is a deal breaker, then by all means get a Netbook. But for most of us the lack of Flash is not an issue.



    The anti-Flash crowd is pushing HTML 5. HTML 5 works fine on the iPad.
  • Reply 16 of 30
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    So return it and go away. If you're not intelligent enough to research a $900 purchase before making it, you deserve to have this happen.



    Shut up. Guy's pissed off, it's his right.
  • Reply 17 of 30
    I'm still trying to figure out how the original post tied Facebook to PRODUCTIVITY !



    Perhaps I'm missing something on Facebook, but isn't time spent using Facebook the exact opposite of being productive?
  • Reply 18 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by KingOfSomewhereHot View Post


    I'm still trying to figure out how the original post tied Facebook to PRODUCTIVITY !



    Perhaps I'm missing something on Facebook, but isn't time spent using Facebook the exact opposite of being productive?



    Who's to know? Maybe "Mama" is a professional poker player.
  • Reply 19 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    Shut up. Guy's pissed off, it's his right.



    Not when it stems from a lack of intelligence, it isn't.
  • Reply 20 of 30
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    Somehow this whole thread didn't quite gel into a reasonable argument for the lack of Flash. One thing about Flash for mobile devices, not just the iPad, is that it literally just came out in the last month or so...



    Thanks, Marvin, for an excellent answer to my question. I am learning a lot, especially since my wife got this iPad. I used to know PC's inside out (literally), through the XP operating system. I also used the old Mac operating system (this was way back in the 80's). But I'm retired and haven't kept up with the technology of either PC or Mac the way I used to, so I have a lot to learn about both. And forget about mobile technology... as Sergeant Schultz used to say on Hogan's Heroes, "I know Nothing!!!"



    So I appreciate all the answers on here, (except those from users who are just acting like ignorant, adolescent jerks, which maybe they are). I am learning, and I'm so frustrated with Microsoft and their crappy new operating systems that I'm strongly considering buying a Mac when I'm ready to replace my computer. Thanks again, Marvin.
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