My new gadget

[Rico]

Jen showed me a cool app today that records mp3s and sends them.  Very cool.  it's called TinyVox.  and it's free.  Works great.

Oh, thank goodness!  PLEASE, anyone that records comments on their iPads or iPhones and sends them into the podcast, please use this app!  Then I won't have to constantly convert those .m4a files all the time.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I'll look into it. 

King

[WillEagle]

I don't know if you had to convert my comments Rico, but I went ahead and had my wife download the TinyVox app to her ipod touch. She got the free version.

[Rico]

Hey, do you iPad owners turn your iPad fully off at night, or just let it go into sleep mode?

[moyer777]

I put mine on the cool homeade stand next to my bed and charge it overnight. 

Check out what I did with it today.

Scoring Rose Of Mars, with the Ipad...

[Jobydrone]

I never turn it off unless it starts acting funny.  I charge it every night, usually it's down to like 25% charge by the end of the day, and so far the battery is as good as new.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Hey, do you iPad owners turn your iPad fully off at night, or just let it go into sleep mode?

You don't really need to turn it off unless your restarting the software for bug reasons or you need to super conserve the battery.  I never do, I just slap it on the charger and go to sleep...zzzzzzz ;)

King

[RickPeete]

Yeah, what King said.  No need to physically turn it off.  There is a nicer adapter cable on apple.com that gives you about 6ft of cord ending in a 3-prong adapter which you can plug your USB cable into.  It is perfect for a nightstand because it gives you plenty of length.

I use it to charge my iPad overnight but it is long enough to let me use it laying in bed while charging.  Then I just sit it on the night table and go to sleep.  It's all charged by the morning!

[Rico]

I've been leaving mine plugged into my PC since I have been syncing it a lot and stuff.  But I turn the PC off at night and just let the iPad go into sleep mode.

[RickPeete]

Rico, just be aware that an iPad requires more juice than what flows from a USB 2.0 port so even if you leave it plugged into the PC overnight, it is charging very slowly.  In fact, the indicator on the iPad says "Not Charging" (it is but it is like a trickle charge).

So if your iPad is really low on power, you might want to leave it plugged into a wall outlet so that it is 100% by the morning.

[Rico]

Thanks for the tip.  In my short time with the device so far using it a couple hours in the evening I'm going down to maybe 75% power.  I normally get home and power up my PC and go do other stuff.  I think now I'll juice it up via the wall.

Hey, about this battery stuff.  Where do you guys all stand on the whole recharging when thing?  Do you think it's better to let the battery run down to maybe 20% and then charge, or is it ok to charge each night if you are only at say 75% power?  I know certain battery types used to retain sort of a shadow and if you always charged them only after they lost 20-30% they would soon loose the ability to give you a full charge.  I think those issues are kind of gone now, but I was just wondering if anyone has heard reports of iPads and suggestions on when to charge them for optimum use.

[RickPeete]

I seem to recall Apple saying the iPad batteries do not have the memory issue so that you do not have to worry about 'when' you charge it.  For me, I am out the door at 5:45am and usually in bed by 11PM and my iPad battery will last for that entire period of time.  So I usually only recharge overnight when the battery is at like 20-30%.  I have taken the device all the way down to 5% a few times. :)

I do not just keep the iPad plugged in all the time.  I charge it and then I use it.  If I were to leave it at home all day, I probably would not leave it plugged into the wall all day (don't want power surges or anything to potentially damage it while I am gone).

[QuadShot]

Yeah, there are no battery memory issues at all.  I usually plug it in (to the wall) once I hit about 20% or less. If I'm using it for podcast recording notes, I'll typically plug in while we're recording and editing...

[billybob476]

I was wondering out of all the iPad owners here who has a 3G version? People who have wifi-only units, have you ever run into a situation where you've wished you had 3G?

[Bryancd]

I was wondering out of all the iPad owners here who has a 3G version? People who have wifi-only units, have you ever run into a situation where you've wished you had 3G?

Only the rare occasion where Jamie and I are in the car on a trip and need to find something or need directions, but that's it. Even on planes they have wi-fi and all our destinations outside of home seem to have wi-fi, and I think that will get even more ubiquitous.