cathrugg--my DH is in IT as well. He helped to some degree with set-up, but not all that much. Not only doesn't/hasn't he used Apple devices, he has been super, super busy lately, so I've been figuring out a lot of this on my own (some trial and error, some via internet queries and searches). I might have email set to manual already, have to check. My Push notifications might be on though, so that might override the ability to set email settings? Brightness set to auto, I believe (automatically dims in lower light situations). Have to check maps setting. I have iPad locator "on", but I think my other locator settings are off. Running down the battery, and then fully charging it (leaving it on the charger an add'l 20-30 min past reaching 100%), helped a great deal. Now if it's 100% when I go to bed, it's either still 100% when I get up, or it's only down 1% or 2%. It also stopped dropping by 10% or more by the afternoon when it's sitting unused all day. Made a big difference. I'll take a look at the things you mentioned and report back! I really am enjoying mine. Would love to have the 4G of the newly unveiled iPad (I'm spoiled with the speed of our home Wi-Fi, so using my iPad on 3G when I have to, does seem a little slow to me at times). When I get a 4G phone and use that as my "hot spot" though, it shouldn't really matter. Not sure how much diff the A5X chip/quad core processor will make vs the A5 chip in the iPad 2, though the demo at the big unveiling yesterday supposedly showed a big diff in speed. Would love to compare the screen resolutions (iPad 2 vs new iPad) side-by-side, to see how visible the difference really is to my eyes. Would not be happy with the increase in weight and thickness, so all in all, I don't feel too bad about getting an iPad 2 instead of waiting for the new one. Mine's 32 GB, which won't be available in the iPad 2 with the release of the new one, so I guess mine will be a collector's item soon! LOL

yes that would be the major downside to doing that type of connection it uses the data plan for the phone and therefore the allotted amount of the data plan would have to be pretty large. I have a minimal data plan for my smartphone so unless I upgraded to the max data plan, which would cost quite a bit more, and also paid for the opportunity to use it as a hot spot, I couldn't do it. I checked into the options with att, who is my carrier for my smartphone, and to be able to get the hot spot option you must upgrade to their max data plan which is not unlimited unfortunately but even the ones that claim to be unlimited are not truly unlimited. Amounts to quite a few additional charges. And even though att tries to say that the coverage is great in fact it's not, here at my house in the Houston area, a major coverage area on their map and a 4G area, I barely have 1-2 bars and not 4g. In Galveston it was about the same, in Louisiana it's worse. I don't know how they determine the map coverage information but I donâÂÂt agree with it from my experience. I am on the lookout for a better solution for the smartphones and the ability to connect with other technology while traveling.

Thanks to both of you, but it's not practical. You cannot use a laptop on a music stand and there isn't nearly such nice software for organizing and reading music as there is for iOS. Also, I would have to carry a very heavy clunky stand if I wanted to do that, and it can't come in nearly as close as a regular music stand because of the keyboard, besides looking terrible. Also, I'd have to turn every half page because laptop software isn't designed for the computer to run sideways, so you can only see half a page of music at a time with most of those programs. I find the suggestion kind of puzzling, to tell the truth. The idea that needing to bring a phone, keys, credit card, and a comb is "a whole lot of other stuff" confuses me. Don't you need those things when you go anywhere in your car? All I want is a case that can also serve as a small clutch for valuables like a phone and credit cards. You don't seem to realize that there is usually no safe place to put valuables on jobs in public locations like stores and restaurants, unless you keep it right at your feet, which clients often don't care for. In the pre-internet days it didn't matter so much, because smart thieves knew that a musician wasn't worth robbing, but these days a smartphone, for instance, is a very tempting target to anyone. I don't happen to have one, but they're going to grab the bag first and find that out later.

Hi, you mention a spreadsheet won't do - why not? With Microsoft Excel, you can sort or filter on any column so easily and keep track of everything you mention, they can store quite a bit of data. You can also add pictures, but Google how to make sure they stay locked to a cell so you can sort and filter at random. The next step towards the inter-relational you mention is your dreaded Access DB or getting technical - easy ends once you step beyond a spreadsheet. I've used Access (it's been a few years) but pretty much meet my own needs so much easier with Excel. MS Access. I use Excel on a MAC, looks like Access is only for pc.