iPad memory question

[Hum]

I haven't noticed it anywhere, reading about the iPads, but why exactly can you not add, replace RAM in iPads ?

Is RAM soldered in ?

What does the insides look like ?

Thanks.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Nope can't replace the memory

[THolman Veteran]

It's pretty much the same as any of the modern portable devices; it's locked down tight, and everything inside it is pretty much soldered down or hidden away. Of course, the iPad isn't any worse than anything else on the market in that respect, it's just more concerned with design and ergonomics than with user upgradability. Personally, I like it that way. Just don't think of it like a desktop and you'll love it. The iPad is the best in its class, it does what it's supposed to and doesn't need any tinkering with to make it do it better.

Here's a video of someone opening up the latest iPad: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad+4+Teardown/11462/1

[Hum]

^ So if I got an only 16 gigger, I can save, off-load files to an external hard drive ... ?

I don't think I'd need that many programs.

[Stetson]

Like most mobile devices the RAM is either part of the SOC CPU chip or right next to the CPU in a single chip. A normal laptop DDR3 stick would be about 100 times the physical size of the single chip or on-chip solutions that mobile devices use.

Edit: You mean the flash storage? That's not the same as RAM. You still can't upgrade it because again it's just one or two tiny chips soldered onto the logic board.

You can't really transfer apps or other things to an external drive from an iPad. It will let you import photos and videos from an external drive (like to offload them from a camera) but that's about it.

If your music and video is purchased through iTunes you can stream it rather than keeping it all on the device.

[Hum]

^ Not really concerned about 'iTune music' files.

I might save documents off the internet, photos, personal data files to a hard drive.

If an iPad does e-mail, I can surely e-mail a file to another computer.

[THolman Veteran]

^ Not really concerned about 'iTune music' files.

I might save documents off the internet, photos, personal data files to a hard drive.

I've seen a few drives that are supposedly iPad compatabile, but I haven't tried them. As I understand it, they're wireless. My strategy for transfering stuff between my iPad and other devices is to use SkyDrive, or something similar. It needs internet access to work, but it essentially gives you a file system. From there, you can upload things from your iPad and get it on everything else, download things to your iPad from other devices, or just look at the information you need within that app.

I wouldn't worry too much about documents, they're not going to take up much space. 16 gigs will hold a lot of PDFs and photos. The worse thing to eat up space is going to be apps, particularly games. 64 gigs ain't enough for me, but I'm an app hoarder. You'll just have to decide what you're going to do with the device, to be honest. I can't fathom using a 16GB iPad, but it's probably just fine for a lot of people.

[Stetson]

^ Not really concerned about 'iTune music' files.

I might save documents off the internet, photos, personal data files to a hard drive.

If an iPad does e-mail, I can surely e-mail a file to another computer.

Yes, you can also use Dropbox as an easier way to move files back and forth, a lot of apps support saving to and opening directly from Dropbox.

[Hum]

I wouldn't worry too much about documents, they're not going to take up much space. 16 gigs will hold a lot of PDFs and photos.

I would at the very least, want to back-up my important files.

Especially if I worked out special programs that I have created.

A thanks to all who took the time to answer.