As far as the upside of moving to an iPad 4, I had used Google to search “iPad 2 versus iPad 4”. Google is always a great first step and I was quickly able to ascertain some quick benefits, among them a better processor, better display and camera and Siri. In all truthfulness, I haven’t detected a great difference in regards to the processor and the camera enhancements were not a big deal to me either. The display did seem a bit clearer, but this alone would not motivate me to make the change. The two big factors for me in making the decision to migrate were Siri and the “datedness” of the iPad 2. When folks think of Siri, they typically think of that cutesy voice responding to dumb questions. When I think of Siri, I think of the ability of the iPad to translate voice to text. My Android phone has long had this feature; simply click the little microphone icon and speak and my words were translated into text. Similarly, Siri adds this capacity to the iPad so now when I send an email, I can simply verbalize my “subject” and it is translated into words on the subject line and then I can proceed to dictate my message. Yes, I was able to use Dragon Dictation app on the iPad 2 and then copy and paste, but with Siri on the iPad 4 there is no need for this second step. Similarly, I had heavily used the Chrome browser (app) on the iPad 2 because it had a speech to text feature included; however, with the iPad 2 whenever the Safari browser was launched from email or other source, I lost the speech to text capability.
The datedness of the iPad 2 is actually 2 distinct issues. First, was the datedness of my particular iPad 2 which was about 2 or 3 years old. While the battery life still seemed strong, I did sense that it was not as strong as new and do feel it was not as strong as the battery life I now experience with the iPad 4. Secondly, while Apple is still selling the iPad 2, on some level I wonder how much longer this will continue. I find it curious that Apple has continued to sell the iPad 2, but does not continue to sell the iPad 3 or 4. I suspect that the reason this is done is so that Apple can create distinct price points based on feature distinctions between the iPad 2 and the iPad Air (whereas there may not be considered as significant of difference if the iPad 3 or 4 were compared to the iPad Air). While the Apple marketing strategy may have bought some time for the iPad 2, I wonder how long it will be before this device follows the path of the original iPad and becomes more obscure and less desirable. Further, I believe that at some point the secondary market of the iPad 2 will be impacted as the market becomes saturated and further, it becomes more difficult to differentiate a used iPad 2 that is 6 months old from a used iPad 2 that is 3 years old.
For the most part, my migration from iPad 2 to iPad 4 was a snap. As I've written in a past post, it is critical that you are aware of Apple’s “Find My iPad” security and ensure that this has been removed from the iPad you purchase or sell. Next, you should consider what data is contained on your old iPad that you want to migrate to your new iPad. Chances are your music is stored on your computer in iTunes. What you may need to consider are pictures that you have taken with your iPad or perhaps an obscure PDF document (such as an owner’s manual for your remote control or other important reference that you may want to save). In my case, I had taken many pictures of Craig’s list items that I didn't want to lose in addition to a handful of family / home pictures. Moving these pictures was a snap, I simply Googled “Import pictures from iPad to computer” (and then, “computer to iPad”) and found many references. I opted for using the sync cable and simply moved pictures to my computer and then synced them onto my new iPad. I did not have any PDF documents that I felt strongly that I needed to migrate. A quick Google search identifies strategies for moving these type of documents as well. If I only had a handful of PDFs, I would probably just email them to myself and then open it in whatever PDF app you prefer on the new iPad.
Adding back my desired iPad apps was also a snap. I simply clicked on the App Store application on the iPad and then clicked Purchased on the bottom of the Store and then went to the top and clicked the “Not on This iPad”. From there it was just a matter of choosing the apps that I wanted to install on my new iPad. In doing this exercise, there were many apps that I chose not to install on my new iPad 4. These are my top choices for the apps that I identified as a "must" on a new iPad:
Craigslist by Lifelike Apps
eBay
Yard Sale Treasure Hunt
Ez Calculators (fncalculator.com)
Dolphin: I use this browser for quick checks on my Blog. (on the iPad 2, I used Chrome a lot due to the voice to text feature, but it seemed like as the features increased on Chrome it began to not perform as well.)
Talkatone
Google Voice
Google Maps
Kayak – I’ve tried many travel apps and this has become my favorite. I am able to quickly and easily get a ballpark look at prices in a given area for given dates.
AroundMe and Yelp – both are great to eyeball an unfamiliar area for nearby offerings.
Foxit PDF – I don’t know exactly why, but I like this pdf app the best of the ones I’ve tried. It just seems simple and straightforward to use.
Time Warner Cable (TWC TV)
Local News apps and the remote deposit app for my Credit Union