Do any of you Gents happen to own an Ipad , If so would you advise on getting one as my 11 year old wants one for her birthday.

Just wondering what do they actually do , and what in particular are they good for ........

Thanks in advance for any info on them ..

I have the 64GB/3g version - one thing it isn't is a laptop replacement ! I like it but unless you can save documents to iDisk/the cloud and pull them back using wifi/3g then you cannot save anything on it. I bought mine to use as a decent screen to view memorymap while off roading my Defender as the iPhone screen was making me blind trying to see the maps - while screen is great the way that the Memory Maps works on it is not as you have to buy map sections from the Memory Map website as you need them there being no "memory" on the iPad. No 3g or wifi signal means no maps! There is no built in word processor but I manage with "pages" app. Due to a squabble with Apple there is no Flash Media on it so quite a lot of websites cannot be viewed. It is an expensive cool device, one of the Acer "Netbooks" is far more versatile and costs a lot less.

One of my friends has just bought an iPad for his elderly mother and she loves the software and finds it easy to operate and doesn't keep sending her silly messages about updates to software etc that confuse some folks. She finds the touch keypad easy to use with arthritic fingers and she doesn't need word processing, it's and email/websurfing screen for her. The touch keypad is great but iPad can be used with one of the cool Apple wifi linked keyboards as well.

I would say that a netbook/ sub notebook laptop would be a better bet for your daughter, even though they are way less cool to that age group, they are much more versatile and she can still put iTunes onto it to listen to her music files. I still have to send stuff that I want to print from the iPad to my PC or imac to print them too as I cannot get my wifi/bluetooth equipped HP printer to talk wirelessly to my iPad (or my Sony laptop for that matter!) - a netbook can be linked direct to a printer. I would also think that an ipad would also be highly desired by the less pleasant kids at school and put your daughter at risk of theft or bullying out of envy. It is as easy to work as an iPhone, just without the phone capablity. Basically now I have had mine for 10 daysI wasted my money as it cannot do what I originally intended it to do, but it gets used everyday and it can play all my audible books/ music files, I would have been better off with a netbook to replace my ageing Sony TX3 sub notebook

Sent from my iPad!!! Now the FFRR has morphed into a 2012MY RREvoque Dynamic Lux Plus Auto SD4 Coupe in Fuji White with full ebony interior

Cheers for the info Tim , as she already has a Laptop (wireless for Bedroom ) and a Desktop PC (For her sitting room ) I for one am trying to point out to the Other half that the Ipad will only be good for certain things .........

No doubt the wife will take pity on the wee one and moan at me to cough up the dosh .....

Meant to ask do you have to buy a sim card from one of the network companies for to use 3G ....

No you don't have to - I have my mobile phone account with O2, I bought a pay as you go micro sim card from 3 for the iPad because they were cheapest and have lots of coverage in Hong Kong and China where I work and can use the card on local rates, but you can buy an iPad that doesn't have 3g if you want to, but it means no GPSA. Don't need to be tied to any data contract for it either if you go pay as you go. Now the FFRR has morphed into a 2012MY RREvoque Dynamic Lux Plus Auto SD4 Coupe in Fuji White with full ebony interior