How much space do I need on an iPad?

I'm looking to purchase a new iPad(with retina display) but am torn on size of storage. I'm thinking that with iCloud, I probably don't need to spend the money on GB's and get hte base model at 16GB. Is my thinking flawed?? I don't know alot aobut iCloud but from what I've read it looks like I can put my entire music and picture library on it and simply "access" it from an iPad vs. storing any of it on the iPad. That would leave apps and other items to be stored directly on the iPad which I think i could do easily with 16GB. Thoughts??? Thanks...


Rob

Posted on Dec 1, 2012 6:02 AM

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5 replies

Dec 1, 2012 6:25 AM in response to CP Railroader

Storing all your music in the cloud (or via iTunes match if you want to store non-iTunes purchases) is possible but will mean that you will need internet access in order to play them - personally I would prefer to have the content on my iPad and not rely on having access to a wifi or 3G/4G network.


On a 16 gig iPad you have something like 13 gig available to you, due to some of the space being taken up by iOS and the built-in apps and also due to the definition of a gig.

Dec 1, 2012 6:33 AM in response to CP Railroader

Those photos that you think are being "stored" in iCloud are merely being backed up there and will still appear on your device. If you remove them from the device - from the camera roll in the Photos app - you remove them from the cloud as well.


The camera roll photos (photos that you take with the camera or save from websites and emails) are backed up to iCloud in the event that you need to restore from a backup. If the photos are that important to you, you will want to import them to a computer in order to save them.


Purchased Music "stored in the cloud" is just music that you can download again for free or if your music ripped for CD's, it is it requires a subscription to iTunes Match which requires a computer running iTunes.


With regards to music - I feel the same way as King Penguin does. I would rather not rely solely on the "cloud" for all of my storage.


If you think that you might want to download movies or TV shows - or any number of games (some take up a good bit of storage capacity), the 16GB iPad would run out of space pretty quickly.

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How much space do I need on an iPad?

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