To buy an ipad?

[nellyjelly]

We are fairly skint (2 kids, both in nursery so paying a kings ransom in fees every month). This situation won't be forever thank god - when they start school we will be much better off.

Anyway - we need tons of stuff. Big things= new kitchen and bathroom. Small things=a new bed for me and DH and possibly a washer, if the current one packs in soon.

BUT we also could do with a new computer/laptop/pc. The current one is on it's last legs and we definately need net access - just to be vaguely living in the 21st century. Use it alot for shopping, banking, mumsnet of course. Kids play games on computer etc. So it's not like some form of computer is not needed. I want an ipad though - small, portable and easy for kids to use. I know it's limitations but it would really suit our small house too!

So........in view of our restricted finances and all the other stuff we need, is it madness to buy an ipad? Should I save the cash for something more useful? Even when we have a huge list of stuff we need?

Ooo which one did you go for? b/w? 16?

Even Adobe are turning away from Flash - abandoning development altogether for mobiles - and starting to work with HTML 5, and the rumours are that Windows8/Internet Explorer10 will only have limited support for Flash. Flash has too many security flaws - they are always having to patch critical vulnerabilities. I'd rather have a tablet I know is secure.

They aren't expensive? Last time I looked they were about £500 . You can get two decent laptops for the price of that.

I absolutely love mine. BUT as a family thing, I would recommend it.

Very easily broken, a lot of children's sites use flash which iPad can't support etc.

You can get an ipad2 in the Apple store for £329.

If I had to start again from scratch (say if we were burgled) I would probably buy an iPad and a desktop, probably an iMac, I'm not sure I'd bother with a laptop at all

Of course, it's entirely up to you what you do with your money but I don't think you needed an ipad - especially not when you had other appliances on their way out - you kidded yourself that you did.

But you know, isheep are isheep - and I say that with my tongue firmly placed in my cheek. I have a Macbook Pro and LOVE it - I will never go back to Windows as an OS and it has been my best buy in terms of laptops, but equally I chose an HTC over an iphone, and hate my ipod (bought for me). There's other makes of the kind of technology being established now - other Smart phones using Android platforms that are much more stable, other kinds of tablet computers that are much more accessible in terms of hardware, other kinds of MP3 players that don't force you into using a proprietary piece of software (the rebel in me HATES being forced to use a particular something!)

And it always takes Apple several generations of something to get it properly worthy of buying. I'm waiting on watching how the tablet market goes before I'd decide if an ipad was actually the best kind.

Love mine on the whole and the cloud is ace. Only gripe I have is the Flash thing, my 8 year old has just discovered Moshi Monsters and she can't use the site. We don't have a laptop at the moment so it's a pain for that.

iPads are expensive if you compare them to net books without a doubt. I bought mine with my end of year bonus and it has been used a lot more than we thought. We have just got a second ipad2 for the children so one uses the original, the other the new because the apps I have for them are good.

We had considered getting them a DS each but after pricing up, it was less to buy 1 ipad2 as the apps are so much cheaper than DS games.

Some of the apps recommended on here are great for learning with.

You could get an iPOD touch and a laptop for the same money.