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Comment by nickpp | Hacker News Reader

Because syncing a 32gb personal collection of music, movies and photos wirelessly takes too long?

Funny I think it's only people without any iTunes purchase complaining about this. The ones enjoying the media capabilities of the iPad, capabilities completely missing from Android, have no complains.

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What about my Grandma? I wanted to give her an iPad, but the only computer she has is the one she shares with her entire nursing home, and there isn't an Apple store within a thirty minute drive of her house. I get that syncing is faster when connected, but that shouldn't be a requirement for use. Why can't I just turn it on, sign in and be done with it?

Explaining this to my sister was a headache I wish to never have again.

The initial sync didn't seem to take that long on a 802.11n connection using DoubleTwist/AirSync. (around 20G music/videos).

But that's besides the point - the neat thing about wireless sync is that you don't have to wait with the device physically tied up to your PC. In my case I was using it while the sync happened in the background. More over with wireless sync - I buy my MP3s at Amazon on my laptop and they automatically go out to my Android devices without needing any special action on my part.

Out of curiosity, how much storage have you been able to get on your Android device?

You can get at least 32GB on most of the phones (plus internal storage ranging from 512MB to 4GB). Some of them may support SDXC, meaning you can go beyond 32GB (I know there are 64GB cards for purchase, probably larger ones for insane prices).

Link to 32GB card that will work in just about all Android devices: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139...

Thanks, I just ordered one. I have a G2 now, but I've had everything from the G1 to the CLIQ to the MyTouch Slide and it's been really confusing figuring out what microSD will work and what won't.

I don't know what the technical issues are, but I can't wait until you can match the storage of an iPod. I love doubleTwist, and if I could have it just sync everything automatically it would be so ideal, but my collection is way too big, but it fits on the biggest iPod so I end up still carrying both.

That's an SD card - not microSD - you might want to revisit your order. Sandisk 32Gb (http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-MicroSDHC-SDSDQ-032G-A11M-Reta...) works for me on 2-3 devices.

Yeah, my mistake, I just saw the similar description and figured it was the same model. The Amazon link is the one I ordered. Good looking out though, thanks.

Sorry about that, I've updated it to be a microSDHC card now. I clearly wasn't paying enough attention with my original link.

No sweat, you're in the clear. On another topic, are you aware of a good leading indicator for storage increases? I can't believe that I am at the stage where 32GB doesn't seem like that much, but here I am.

Unfortunately, since your phone has an SDHC slot, you're going to be limited to the 32GB card. Hopefully phones will begin supporting the SDXC standard, which goes to 2TB cards, but the largest I've seen so far have been 128GB and they're unbelievably expensive. I suspect that those prices will drop soon, but I have no insight as to what indicates price drops for them and such.

4Gb(Internal) + 32Gb(external) on my Nexus One. 32Gb(Internal)+32Gb(External) on Xoom - external one awaiting a software update.

There are Android devices that go up to 48Gb (16+32) IIRC.

If you're looking for someone, I have iTunes purchases, and I'm not happy about it.

1) What are these magical capabilities you're talking about that are so egregiously missing from Android? At least with my Droid, I can download software to let me sync wirelessly.

2) When I get new music, why do I have to a) go through the steps of adding it to iTunes b) connect my iPad to sync c) connect my iPod touch to sync d) connect my iPod nano to sync? When Apple's pushing us to buy all these devices, it would definitely be convenient to have it sync wirelessly (or even just sync the stupid folder in iTunes). I don't care if it takes long if I never have to invest any of my time to do it.

3) I don't see how iTunes purchases changes any of this?

That's completly besides the point. Also why the hell are you claiming Android have no media capabilities, I don't think you know what you are talking about.

But what if you don't want to sync all of that? The article made it clear that the problem is that you need to connect to iTunes just to turn the iPad on the first time.

The article is wrong about that if you buy one from a store.

Apple wouldn't want people not living close to one of its stores buying its products, after all.

Interesting -- that's an improvement from iPad v1 -- my wife bought one of those and was annoyed that she had to plug it in to her Mac and sync it to make it work. (And she's the Apple fangrrrl in the household.)

So just because it happens to be convenient for you, you want everyone to be forced into that mode?

Sure wire synching with a computer should be possible for people that have huge music collections and are too eager to let their ipad sit on their desk one night to synch everything. But why is it required?

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