Stupid questions about ipads

Will Kumley

Will Kumley

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Aug 6, 2019
Messages
697
Location
Pacific Southwest
Display Name
Display name:
Will
Sitting at work with little to do during the virus and started thinking.

I am considering getting an ipad mini to use with flight plan go when I fly. Currently I use my iPhone and it works but I like the idea of having a dedicated device to use and one with a slightly larger display. At most this will be a flying/work note taking device. No I don't fly for work. As I have an iPhone will all of my iPhone apps get dumped onto the ipad? I really don't think I'll want social media, stockmarket apps, or even games on the mini as its primary purpose will be flight planning and use in flight with a very small portion being used for work research online or note taking. But honestly that even seems like a stretch as I'm typically a paper and pen kinda person.

I know that if there are apps I don't want to see I can just group them all into a folder that never gets opened but I'd rather not even have them on the dang thing if I don't plan to use it for that. If the mini is overkill for something like this then what are my other options?

Oddly enough, I've spent years fixing electronics and understanding how trons work but I'm not a tech savy person when it comes to the latest and greatest chip that speeds up our lives one millisecond at a time.
 
Can't speak about the Apple cybersphere specifically because I don't own any Apple products, but believe you have control over what personal apps you choose to put on each of your devices, but not operating system/manufacturer's apps. I have an Android phone that is NOT linked to ANY Google account, and I also have a Samsung tablet which IS linked to a Google account. You have pretty much complete control over what apps you'd like to have on each device individually, although certain operating system and manufacturer-specific apps can not be deleted. You CAN disable most of the stuff you don't want but can't delete. You DO have complete control over the social media, stockmarket, games, and other apps that you may already have on your phone. I have had Avare, FltPlan Go, and iFly GPS on all of my devices (currently sticking w/ iFly GPS.. only paid option I've used, but I really do think it's worth it over the others). I keep my tablet pretty bare bones for flying.
 
Will Kumley said:
As I have an iPhone will all of my iPhone apps get dumped onto the ipad?
Click to expand...
No, you can have different apps on different devices.

Will Kumley said:
Oddly enough, I've spent years fixing electronics and understanding how trons work but I'm not a tech savy person when it comes to the latest and greatest chip that speeds upconsumes our lives one millisecond at a time.
Click to expand...
FTFY
 
If you are logged into the same Apple ID in both your iPhone and iPad, if you download an app on either one, it will automatically download on the other device as well. Not sure if there’s a way to deactivate this feature. You can still have separate apps on each device though.
 
jordane93 said:
If you are logged into the same Apple ID in both your iPhone and iPad, if you download an app on either one, it will automatically download on the other device as well. Not sure if there’s a way to deactivate this feature. You can still have separate apps on each device though.
Click to expand...
I think that's where I'm getting this idea from. I guess if I download an app on my phone and it auto downloads on the ipad I could just delete it from the ipad.
 
A few Apple apps are preinstalled like the clock and App Store and you cannot remove them. Other than that and maybe a couple more that I can’t remember, you control what’s on the iPad. If you want sync all devices, you can or you can opt out of that feature.

I use my mini with ForeFlight (and iPhone as backup) and all the other apps are still on both. No big deal to me.

Cheers
 
Will Kumley said:
I think that's where I'm getting this idea from. I guess if I download an app on my phone and it auto downloads on the ipad I could just delete it from the ipad.
Click to expand...
Yea that’s what I do. If I don’t need the app on the other device, I’ll just delete it.
 
Will Kumley said:
I think that's where I'm getting this idea from. I guess if I download an app on my phone and it auto downloads on the ipad I could just delete it from the ipad.
Click to expand...
Yes, you can delete apps you don't want from the ipad and it won't affect your other devices.
 
You can move little used apps into their own folder. You can also remove many but not all. Press and hold an app. They will start wiggling. The ones which can be remove will have a x on them. Tap the x and you'll get an option to remove it.
 
I have what I think you are describing. A dedicated iPad for flying. I have 1/10th the apps on it that I do on my phone and daily use iPad. It does not automatically download all your apps.
 
jordane93 said:
If you are logged into the same Apple ID in both your iPhone and iPad, if you download an app on either one, it will automatically download on the other device as well. Not sure if there’s a way to deactivate this feature.
Click to expand...
Yes, there is a way to deactivate this. Go to Settings > Your Name > iTunes & App Store, then deactivate the slider where it says Apps, under the heading Automatic Downloads.

fullsizeoutput_41f0.jpeg
 
To keep it simple, I put all my flying apps on one page. ForeFlight, Weather, GPS app, Radar and even X-Plane are on one page. Other apps are grouped on separate pages by their related topics.

Cheers
 
Hang 4 said:
A dedicated iPad for flying. I have 1/10th the apps on it that I do on my phone and daily use iPad.
Click to expand...

LOL! That what I thought when I bought my first iPad 9 years ago. Basically for flying. Never happened.

I did and still do what @X3 Skier does. One page is primarily aviation.
 
Another dumb question. I know you need the cellular version of the ipad if you want gps and I've heard of people saying you don't need to set up a cellular service contract for the gps function to work. Does this mean you can still get gps to work without a sim card? In other words, can I buy an ipad mini from apple with cellular capability and never insert a sim card or hook it up to a cell service provider and the gps function still work?
 
Will Kumley said:
Another dumb question. I know you need the cellular version of the ipad if you want gps and I've heard of people saying you don't need to set up a cellular service contract for the gps function to work. Does this mean you can still get gps to work without a sim card? In other words, can I buy an ipad mini from apple with cellular capability and never insert a sim card or hook it up to a cell service provider and the gps function still work?
Click to expand...

yep
 
Will Kumley said:
Currently I use my iPhone and it works but I like the idea of having a dedicated device to use
Click to expand...

Explain this to me. How are iPads dedicated?

Are they like love machines and they won't work for nobody but you?

 
A three-parter.... My wife's ipad is having issues..blacking out, etc. Has AppleCare but no one will fix it during the current 'crisis'. We ordered another one as she's got charts etc on it and her flying work continues (limited).

Is there an easy way to get all her ios stuff to the new one without taking it somewhere? Can we just put the verizon sim in the new one?

Any thoughts on expediting getting the old one fixed?

Not an Apple guy, although I broke down and got an ipad for FF. Thanks!

Jim
 
Jim Rosenow said:
Is there an easy way to get all her ios stuff to the new one without taking it somewhere? Can we just put the verizon sim in the new one?

Any thoughts on expediting getting the old one fixed?

Jim
Click to expand...

If you have backed up the iPad to the cloud, all you do is log into your Apple account and sync.

SIMS are SIMS, just swap it or take to a Verizon Store, if they are open in your area. All of them are open in my state.

Cheers
 
I use a regular sized iPad with FlightPlanGo in my Citabria.

iPads with both "WiFi" and Cellular capability have a built in GPS. However, you do not have to activate the cellular service for the GPS to work. A lot of memory is also nice to enable you to download all of the maps, chart supplements, etc.

If your aircraft doesn't already have ADS-B In, an iPad provides a good opportunity to access it via a Stratux. You can buy one for around $250 or build one from a kit for a bit less. It works great and if you rent it's portable. If you own you can run it off a battery that attaches to the unit or run it off aircraft power.

The advantage of this is a much more accurate internal GPS antenna in the stratus or an even more accurate external WAAS GPS antenna.
 
jordane93 said:
If you are logged into the same Apple ID in both your iPhone and iPad, if you download an app on either one, it will automatically download on the other device as well. Not sure if there’s a way to deactivate this feature. You can still have separate apps on each device though.
Click to expand...

you can disable that(Automatic download) in your cloud iTunes settings on each device. I have it disabled. I think it is enabled by default.

you can also setup different Apple ids on each device
 
It shouldn't automatically sync and it sure wont download all of your current apps and such to your new device without permission. Most people have an issue just getting their devices to sync when they actually want them to. If I were you, I would just create a new ID with a new email and go about it that way. I ended up getting the new IPad air 256g 10.5" wifi only to use strictly for my mapping software. I actually ended up putting some streaming apps on it anyway because its a beast and runs everything pretty well. I didn't get the data version because I'm cheap and instead bought an external GPS called Bad Elf. You don't need a sim card to use the GPS and the GPS is built into the one that will take a sim card so you are not required to activate any data plan to use the GPS feature.

Heads up before you decide to get a non data IPad - I put a hard shell case on mine and I had to cut out a section on the bottom to fit the external GPS receiver, so if you are planning on putting it in a case, keep that in mind. Mine fits perfectly after some precision cuts and I don't regret doing what I did, but you may not want to deal with the hassle of it.
 
X3 Skier said:
If you have backed up the iPad to the cloud, all you do is log into your Apple account and sync.

SIMS are SIMS, just swap it or take to a Verizon Store, if they are open in your area. All of them are open in my state.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Careful. Not all apps back up their DATA to iCloud. A large chart download is usually required after iCloud restore.

Also some apps (non aviation usually) are badly behaved and don’t store their *settings* in iCloud so you get the app back, but have to set it up all over again.

As mentioned you can choose whether or not to load new apps “purchased” on one iOS device to all others on that Apple ID.

However also consider two others on flying critical devices :

Whether to automatically update Apps.

Whether to automatically update iOS itself.

Both can render a ready to fly device, useless and broken.

Vendors generally recommend against automatic iOS updates, and to update it only when their official announcements say go. They don’t warn as much against the app itself, but frankly every vendor releases a bad one from time to time.

I only allow the flying iPad to update anything when I know I have a backup device that already upgraded without incident (phone) and it works, or I have time to wait on a vendor fix before the next flight and want to take a chance or look at a new feature.

As far as layout or deleting things goes, the flying iPad has the flying stuff on page one in a specific format, and the phone has all of that stuff in a folder with other daily things more prominent for single button access.

Takes a while to figure out where you like things.

Finally... a full LOCAL backup retains data and settings of everything for the most part. Apple yanked it out of iTunes on Mac, no idea what they’re doing for PC users. But it’s in the core Finder now and covers more than an iCloud backup does. It is documented on their website.

Can also be encrypted locally if one isn’t super happy with keeping things in the Cloud in general and would rather monitor and maintain their own local backups. Tiny bit more effort but generally worth it, if only for one reason... speed up restores. I can put an iOS device in factory restore and it’ll be back to exactly what the broken one was, as fast as USB can copy all of the contents back to it.

With slow home internet, an iCloud restore plus multiple app data re-downloads is literally a day.

Stuff to ponder in this choose your own adventure game. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top