Mossberg’s Mailbox

Transferring Files to Windows 7, iPad Multitasking and Tablet Alternatives

September 29, 2010 at 2:10 pm PT

How do I migrate all the contents of my old IBM computer running Windows XP to my new Acer computer running Windows 7?

If you mean to include everything, including your programs and not just your data files, I’d suggest using a utility program designed to automate and simplify the process using a cable that connects the two machines.

Two of these are PCmover by Laplink, which starts at $30, and Parallels Desktop For Upgrading to Windows 7, by Parallels, which starts at $40. More information is at http://bit.ly/VZMVP and http://bit.ly/9fov2k.

Will the forthcoming multi-tasking feature you mentioned for the iPad be a software upgrade or will it require a new device?

It will be a software upgrade, a new version of the operating system—due in November—that is similar to the ones periodically introduced for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It will include other features, including wireless printing. Sometimes such upgrades don’t work on older versions of a hardware product, but as the iPad is in its first generation, it should work on any iPad.

I want to buy a tablet but how do I find one that looks as good as the iPad but offers the out-of-home coverage of my BlackBerry? My community is a dead zone for AT&T wireless, which is the only carrier for the iPad.

BlackBerry PlayBook: One of a wave of iPad alternatives on the way.

I suggest you watch and wait over the next six months. A number of iPad competitors are on the way.

Many will use Google’s Android operating system and some will be sold with cellular data connectivity from carriers other than AT&T.

In addition, Research in Motion, which makes your BlackBerry, has just announced a forthcoming tablet called the BlackBerry PlayBook. The device will use the cellular connectivity in BlackBerry phones.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox and Walter Mossberg’s other columns, free online at the All Things Digital website, http://walt.allthingsd.com. Write to him at walt.mossberg@wsj.com

Tagged with Android, Apple, Blackberry, Google, iPad, Microsoft, Parallels, PlayBook, RIM, software, tablet, Windows, Windows 7, Windows XP

comments so far. Add yours.

http://www.facebook.com/gopiballava Gopi Flaherty

For the person who wants an iPad without AT&T:

You can buy a 3G WiFi access point from a few carriers. It will let a WiFi iPad get online. Some cellphones also have this feature – primarily Android.

Finally, the 3G iPad is unlocked. It will work with TMobile, no hacking needed. However, it will not be 3G, only EDGE.
Anonymous

All Apple computers also run XP, Vista, Win 7 better than any other PC, notebooks, or netbooks available.

Store all your Windows content on external hard disks, USB drives, or clouds. These contents will be processed if you use the current version or a newer version of Windows.
Anonymous

iTunes run on Apple computers or Windows (all versions). The iTunes program will prompt you to upgrade to iOS for iPad version 4.01 with new multitasking automatically. All you do is click ‘yes’, iTunes will take care of everything else. It’s that easy.
Anonymous

You cannot connect a vanilla iPad to any cellular network. iPad does not come with cellular connectivity. But fear not. You must purchase from Verizon, or any other carrier such as Sprint or AT&T, a data plan for the iPad. Verizon will provide you with a micro-SIMM card that you have to simply plug into a covered slot in the iPad, and then voilà ! You now have a Verizon iPad, or Sprint iPad, or AT&T iPad, or China Mobile iPad, or …..

As great as the first generation iPad is. Apple is creating the next version of iPad. As is standard Apple practice in providing stability and standardization of tablets, Apple ensures that all iPad supporting hardware and software remain fully functional optimally from year to year. Apple never releases the specs of next versions. Pending another dramatic product info leaks like the iPhone 4 prototype lost and exposed by Kismodo, no one would know what the next iPad would be like. Like JD Power says, there is no peer to Apple anything in terms of user satisfaction, now isn’t that running a business is all about?
Anonymous

Cellular networks, like voice plans, are quickly becoming things of the past. With rumors of super-wifi, cellular network would become obsolete like the dial-up modem.
http://www.facebook.com/gopiballava Gopi Flaherty

Jamesapple: Sorry, but you can’t use an iPad on Verizon. Physically impossible. Wrong radio. A micro SIM will not fix the lack of CDMA. In the USA AT&T is the only 3G provider you can use.
http://www.facebook.com/gopiballava Gopi Flaherty

iOS 4.01 does not and will never run on iPad. iOS 4.2 is the next iPad version.

iTunes will not run on “all versions” of Windows. You really think it will run on Windows for Workgroups 3.1? Or Windows 1 from 1985?
Anonymous

Windows 7 includes a program called Easy Transfer that allows one to transfer email, documents, music, pictures, etc from an old Windows XP computer to one with Windows 7. The only thing you need is a physical medium. I used a key drive to transfer everything when I built a new computer for my father. Go to the Windows 7 computer armed with the key drive, open Easy Transfer, and follow the directions.

I wasn’t aware that programs can be “transferred” from one computer to another. I have always understood that the installation discs have to be used to install the program on each computer.
Anonymous

Dunno. My HP dm4 runs Windows 7 pretty darn well.
m. D.

To Gopi and jamesapple, eh No.

there are 2 versions of IPads, wifi and wifi 3G.

http://www.appletell.com/apple.....or-not-3g/

you can connect a wifi only IPad to a Vz mifi hotspot

http://www.verizonwireless.com.....ducts_mifi

so technically, You CAN connect an IPad to a Vz network.
http://twitter.com/Muhayerboy Bobby New

My 4 year-old Dell has not had any problems running Windows 7.
http://twitter.com/Muhayerboy Bobby New

I can’t wait for a good tablet that is comparable in physical size to the iPad, but will allow me (1) to get away from AT&T and (2) enable me to use FLASH. Steve Jobs inane decision to not allow Flash software on the iPad or Iphone and poor AT&T service will definitely drive me away from Apple.