New iPad Pro - Free Software Recommendations

Oblivion

Hi folks. Having said for ages that I would never buy an Apple iPad, in a fit of lunacy involving copious amounts of wine, I've gone and ordered a 9.7" iPad Pro 256GB which should be here on Monday. I just couldn't resist that gorgeous screen.

I'm thinking about what I might need in the (preferably free) software department and in particular I wonder what everyone's favourites are for these tasks ...

1.) A free office suite. I'm thinking maybe LibraOffice unless there's something better. Ideally I need something that will produce / save and be able to work with Word documents and Excel spreadsheets from my main PC.

2.) Photo viewer. I shall be uploading thousands of jpegs and I need a really good viewer app which keeps them in their existing folders so they are easy to navigate.

3.) Music player. The one on my iPod now that it has updated to iOS 9.3.1 is absolutely pants. Such a shame because the one in iOS 6 was great and I must be the only person on Earth judging by the forums who actually loved the Cover Flow which is now missing.

So, I'd be grateful for any recommendations, preferably based on personal experience please.

pmartin86

*Spends 700 quid on a tablet, asks for "free" software*...

Oblivion

pmartin86 wrote: »

*Spends 700 quid on a tablet, asks for "free" software*...

Comes to a Money Saving forum and contributes nothing.

wongataa

Oblivion wrote: »

1.) A free office suite. I'm thinking maybe LibraOffice unless there's something better. Ideally I need something that will produce / save and be able to work with Word documents and Excel spreadsheets from my main PC.

MS Office if you already have an Office 365 subscription.

Oblivion wrote: »

2.) Photo viewer. I shall be uploading thousands of jpegs and I need a really good viewer app which keeps them in their existing folders so they are easy to navigate.

Doesn't an iPad come with one? I bet it does. Anyway you have absolutely no control on where images are stored on an iPad and absolutely no access to the file system.[/QUOTE]

System

They/we do have a specialist forum for ipad users which you might find useful

http://www.ipadforums.net/forums/
and when you do receive your ipad, you might like to install this free, and throughout the day, they list many free apps, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/appzapp-hd-pro-daily-new-apps/id428248004?mt=8

what you will find, is that once you've started up, there will be a great many pre-installed apps that you might not want, but rather than panic or try to delete them, create a folder and call something like "unused" and drag them there. They can be looked at later, once you've got the hang of things, then you can decide what if anything to do about them.

You will need to adapt your mind to "thinking differently" as it uses a different system to windows, but if I can, with windows on laptop, Ios on ipad and android on phone, anyone can.

One of the apps you get is "tips" and that is worth taking note of.

Oblivion

Very helpful, especially those links, thanks islandman. :beer:

System

Oblivion wrote: »

Very helpful, especially those links, thanks islandman. :beer:

If you get stuck or want to know anything, I'm no genius, but might be able to assist.

Oblivion

Well it's arrived and I've already set it up and loaded all my music via iTunes. I'm now loading my .jpg photos onto it via iTunes and I'm puzzled.

The photos on my pc take up around 6GB ... but iTunes has calculated they will take up 60GB on the iPad! Ten times as much, how can that possibly be?

System

If you install google photo's on each of your devices, ie pc or laptop or phone or tablet they can be synced so that all of them are view-able on each and they are stored in the cloud.

When I take a photo using my phone, somehow it appears on all the other devices. Google this:- https://photos.google.com/