First let me say that I lothe iTunes. Actually I hate library-based media players. I just want to play a file. I don't need an application to arrange my media for me. It's already arranged. That's what the file system is for. I especially don't like iTunes because it aspires to be all things to all people, and inevitably disappoints.
So my employer buys me an iPad 2 to play around with. I was slightly miffed when I received my iPad and it asked to be plugged into a computer that had iTunes installed. So I plugged it into my MacBook Pro (which I love, except for you-know-who). Click on a bunch of buttons and, oh, iTunes is going to update the iPad OS? Ugh.
So after dinner I check on the iPad. Fool around with it for a few minutes and figure out that one cannot simply move files onto the iPad. Well, that's a bummer. Apparently one has to install an app that uses a file and use itunes on a computer to copy the file onto the iPad. So next I'm showing the boys the camera on the iPad. They take a few shots which are blurry, so I go to delete them. Can't So I search the web and find out that one must use iTunes to manage photos. OK, so I'm here at work and I have a PDF I could read on the iPad so I install iBooks and look for the icon. No icon. Click drag swipe swear. Back to the web. You have to use iTunes to arrange icons? My MBP is at home and I'm not putting iTunes on my work computers!
For someone who doesn't like iTunes, the iPad is a living hell!
I'm sorry you are so disappointed in your free iPad.
I, too, am not a big fan of iTunes, but I've accepted it as a necessary evil if I want to own iDevices. And I don't use my iPad nearly as much as I did when I first got it.
So next I'm showing the boys the camera on the iPad. They take a few shots which are blurry, so I go to delete them. Can't So I search the web and find out that one must use iTunes to manage photos.
On my iPad I click an image and at the top right, there is a little Trashcan icon. No iTunes required.
You have to use iTunes to arrange icons?
Nope, as Bear stated. Simply hold the icon until it jiggles then you can arrange all your icons. When done, hit the home button.
Just because you don't have icons filling up the screen doesn't mean you don't have another page (or more). Look at the bottom for a tiny magnifying glass with little dots to the right of it. It will be very small just above the dock. There will be a dot for each page. You can also just swipe the screen and see if it changes.
If you truly don't have an iBooks icon anywhere, that is really odd. I too, have not experienced that issue.
Gregg Bolinger wrote: Look at the bottom for a tiny magnifying glass with little dots to the right of it. It will be very small just above the dock. There will be a dot for each page.
I though that was an artefact on the background image. It has one dot. If I swipe I get the search screen.
It sounds like this might be your first encounter with iOS. I suspect most iPad owners are iPhone/iTouch owners. So the transition is cake. If this is your first experience with iOS, then I can understand your frustration.
Gregg Bolinger wrote: Look at the bottom for a tiny magnifying glass with little dots to the right of it. It will be very small just above the dock. There will be a dot for each page.
I though that was an artefact on the background image. It has one dot. If I swipe I get the search screen.
Ok, so one dot means one page. Do a sync with iTunes. Then see if iTunes has iBooks listed. If it does, delete it from iTunes and sync again. This should remove it from your iPad. Then, I would try installing it again.
I can use a standard SD card in my phone. I can plug my phone into a computer with a standard USB cable and copy files to and from it without installing software. That's what I meant by "open" compared to the iPad.
Speaking of which, I decided to install Dropbox so I can access some files and it installed to a second page. On that second page is the iBooks icon with a progress bar and the caption "Loading...", so there's something else wrong.
We made up and I respectfully rebooted it. Now iBooks works.
Thanks guys. Maybe one day I'll be able to use this thing that is so easy anyone can use it. . .
Joe, I am filled with nothing but sympathy for your trials and tribulations. I'll tell you what I'm going to do, out of the goodness of my heart: I'm going to take that wretched thing off your hands and... properly... dispose of it. Yes. Dispose of it, that's right. Please carefully pack it in styrofoam peanuts and send it to me at the address I'll provide under separate cover. Please pack it carefully as... I... want it to look good in the video I make of putting it in a blender. Yeah. That's it.
First on the upgrade. You can select no and no upgrade happens.
2) There are other apps you can get for transferring files without using iTunes. Some set up a webdav server on your iPad, where you can go to a URL and then copy files.
3) Try Good Reader, that is the app I use for books especially pdf versions. It has integration with DropBox, so I can click the DropBox button and get all the files in my DropBox, again no iTunes.
4) Also, many apps use iTunes for transferring files, but not where you have to put the files into your iTunes library. In this scenario iTunes is just the software to sync your files/contacts etc. When you plug in you iPad and iTunes starts up, you click the iPad, then the Apps tab, and if you scroll down to the bottom, you will see all the apps that can take files. Then you just click the "Add" or "Browse" button and select your file and it gets copied onto your iPad.
5) There are also many apps that specifically are about copying files to and from your iPad, like iFiles.
6) Also, if you have the Camera adapter that allows a USB connection, can be used to connect an external Hard Drive/Pen Drive where you can copy files from them.
As far as deleting pictures. I took pictures on my iPad2 and deleted them. But I could only delete the ones I took from the iPad2, not ones that I had synced with iPhoto.
Mark Spritzler wrote:First on the upgrade. You can select no and no upgrade happens.
I want the latest iOS, I'm just boggled that it takes plugging into a PC with iTunes to get it (every other device I own updates itself)
Mark Spritzler wrote:
3) Try Good Reader, that is the app I use for books especially pdf versions. It has integration with DropBox, so I can click the DropBox button and get all the files in my DropBox, again no iTunes.
DropBox and iBooks seems to work for my purposes. Of course, now my files are in 3 places (iPad, Dropbox, media server).
Mark Spritzler wrote:
4) Also, many apps use iTunes for transferring files, but not where you have to put the files into your iTunes library.
I guess I need to get more apps to take advantage. On the other side, I like files. It's where I keep my stuff!
Mark Spritzler wrote:
But I could only delete the ones I took from the iPad2, not ones that I had synced with iPhoto.
That's funny. I have other devices, like my Android phone or my WD TV Live seem to bend over backwards for the user (when I plugged my WD Live into my network, it not only found my media server, but shared itself out so I could copy files to/from it). Friendly and easy to get along with. The iPad is more like a totally hot chick who's also way psycho.
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I especially don't like iTunes because it aspires to be all things to all people, and inevitably disappoints.
to copy the file onto the iPad. 
So I search the web and find out that one must use iTunes to manage photos. 
My MBP is at home and I'm not putting iTunes on my work computers!
You're at the end of a very long list!
