iPad

[Marius]

I also read on the apple forums that a LOT of people are experiencing problems regarding backup, especially when it comes to pictures and magazines. Some people state that the backup grinds to a halt, even though they have only read a few magazines inbeteen backups.

I believe I've figured out what's going on, and it's going to take Apple some time to fix the problem.

It looks like two files are generated for every data table stored on the iDevice. There seems to be a lot of overhead in creating each of these pairs. I notice my disk writes (Activity Monitor) goes in sub-second spurts, averaging about 2 MB/sec during the backup phase. 64GB at that rate would be insane.

It also seems that it's not able to save only the changed part of the data set. If it's changed, it dumps the entire thing. Meaning...touch a magazine in Zinio and it resaves the ENTIRE magazine. My guess is that's because the magazine file contains which page you were on too.

I get as much as 25MB/sec when the iPad is uploading an app to my MacBook Pro. Obviously it's not a problem with the USB 2.0 interface, and there's no significant CPU load at any time.

Does this mean that you are better off having magazines on the ipad in simple .jpg-files instead of an entire magazine in one compressed file? This way, it would simply save one "changed" page instead of the entire magazine, since it would be treated as a picture? Dunno, I'm not exactly an expert...

[MrBob]

goodreader works really well with pdf and jpg. It can unzip archives no problem. useless with cbr files, so I use comiczeal for my groo collection.

Backup always seems to take forever and I've never really had to, so I turn the feature off with this backup switch:

http://www.funkyspacemonkey.com/backup- ... up-windows

Once in a while I'll turn it on and leave it plugged in overnight.

[RiK]

Do you need to convert the files to a specific/recommended format? I have some unzipped in .jpg-format, a few are zipped, while others are .cbr and .pdf.

GoodReader is spot on, reads just about everything and is definitely the best app for PDFs and other office type docs but if you're after reading .cbr's then ComicZeal is the app of choice.

[WiteWulf]

As an aside, I recently got a torrent of EVERY ISSUE of 2000AD in CBI (ComicZeal) format. 35GB

[Deckard]

Get her

[WiteWulf]

Yup, so sue me

What's the point of sitting on all this bandwidth if I don't do something useful with it?

...and is that pirate meant to look like Bog?

[Deckard]

He was the quickest campest pirate I could find

[WiteWulf]

This looks interesting for you (semi-)pro photographer types:

http://boinx.com/photobox/

[Marius]

Does jailbreaking come highly recommended? I'm very interested in emu's and stuff:)

[WiteWulf]

There are a few bits and bobs that are only available once jailbroken that I'd struggle to live without. Not used much in the way of emus, mind, I just don't find any of the traditional control mechanisms work well with the touchscreen interface.

[MrBob]

Imame4all is fantastic, especially with a wiimote. I couldn't do without sbsettings, infiniboard & infinidock. Ifile let's you use external usb drives as extra storage which is now my preferred way of watching movies (avi files work a treat). I also got a $20 Bluetooth gps from ebay. There a jailbroken btstack gps that connects really well to it and so navigon is up and running. There's an app called fullscreen that forces apps to try to use the iPad screen without the 2x pixel doubling thing. When it does function, it's great as you then get to use the iPad keyboard. Big thumbs up from me in favour of jb.

[Deckard]

Ignore mr wulf imame4all is essential with a wiimote - just perfect really and the snes one is pretty brilliant too

[Marius]

I nicked a load off Demonoid and then just dropped them into iTunes/iBooks which seemed to work pretty well

I agree, iBooks works like a charm when it comes to reading .pdf files

Oh man, here I have in my hands an expensive and brand new piece of advanced hardware...and what do I use it for? That's right, reading 25 year old geeky video games magazines

[Marius]

And is there a nice "the ABC's of jailbreaking for dummies" out there that comes recommended?

[MrBob]

If you're lucky to have 3.2.1 jailbreakme.com is the easiest. 3.2.2 and you'll need a jailbreak tool.

Windows: http://thetechjournal.com/electronics/h ... dows.xhtml

Mac: http://www.mobileclues.com/how-to-jailb ... getool-4-1