I Pad - Is it worth it? advice please

cinderfella

I have had an ipad for a week now & am very impressed.
Unfortunately the purpose for which I bought it is no longer available.
I wanted to save some money by downloading the Telegraph on a daily basis as an epaper, instead of the paper version. To do this you have to download a 'app' from itunes. Much to my horror I found that my itunes account (used very rarely) had been hacked with €30 of games on it.
They (itunes) will not let me download this app without updating my credit card details - no chance. Neither will itunes respond to my emails. As a result I have cancelled my Telegraph subscription.
I rather fancy that I will have one idle toy too many now

penrhyn

I'm happy with my Nexus 7, £160, and you are not locked into Apple.

Barney30

I would like one as well. Haven't got one yet but am seriously tempted. Just need to justify the cost when I already have laptop and iphone. THink it is a luxury. I guess it depends if you can afford it!

bob_bobson

Sounds like you're well on your way to having a spoilt brat.

Simon7685

coolagarry wrote: »

Obviously it is not a practical purchase but then again neither is a Blackberry for a primary school youngster but it's your money and your choice.
Buying it will get you serious brownie points with your daughter.

I know where you're coming from and I thought that myself last Xmas when she "desperately" wanted one. However I have completely changed my opinion as far as the Blackberry goes. All her freinds have them and they are always BBM'ing each other all day long. Yes it was expensive to buy (£130) but she has got more use out of it than anything else she has had.

Unfortunately in 2012 all the kids want these gadgets and I think there is quite a lot of peer pressure involved. So so different from when we were kids and the highlight of Xmas was a new board game........

I am still undecided on whether she will get an I pad as her main present this year (there won't be much else if she does) but I am thinking that it seems more like a luxury item that will not benefit her very much at all.

Thanks very much to everyone for their replies about this, they have been very useful in helping me get an understnding of what the I pad is and what it can/can't do.

I will have to spend some time mulling it over before making any decision.

tonyh66

I would not recommend letting your daughter take an Ipad to school. They are quite fragile and I imagine school bags get thrown around, kicked, sat on etc...
If your daughter can give you a good reason why she needs one (other than because her friends have one) then go for it, if you can afford it and don't mind it getting broken. If your looking at oneupmanship, get her a macbook pro.

bris

Just starting secondary school, far to young to let her wander the streets with a £500 toy.
Compromise and buy a cheaper android tab, I got a cracking £160 tab from Ebuyer that does the same job although the screen is slightly lower res, but my daughter doesn't notice that.

GunJack

£400 would keep her in useful laptops for anywhere up to 10 years, if they're looked after - can you honestly see the ipad lasting that long and being used in a productive way through gcse/a-level/uni ??? I don't think so somehow, and then there will be the compatability issues as pretty much every (but not all, I appreciate) school will be running on and using Windows-based sytems and programs.

Very expensive toy, and also the enforced tie-in with apple for the life of it....

SunnySusie

Having just bought a Nexus 7 I would highly recommend it.

Personally in this situation I would say she is free to buy what she likes with her own money. If she has to save up weeks and weeks of pocket money and combine several years of Christmas / Birthday presents to get it (as I had to when I got my first computer as a teen) then she'll think very carefully about taking it out and about, or will look into cheaper alternatives.

If you are willing just to go out and buy it (totally your choice and who are we to judge) then how about challenging her to justify it to you. Ask her to build the "business case", a useful challenge with the advantage that if she can't put the case to you then she'll understand why you've said no (not that she'll like it!).

wba31

£400+ on a christmas present? really? If it were my parents they would offer me other presents for christmas (totalling nowhere near £400!) and suggest i save for an ipad myself if i wanted on.

now im 27 and no longer living with mom and dad, i have considered an ipad. I borrowed a friends last week while he was away, alongside my iphone and macbook it had little/no use, it's just a luxury item.

if she'd settle for a cheaper tablet as others have suggested, consider that route, but again, what exactly she going to use it for?