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New iPad Air and iPad Mini

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Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#31

Post by crazygringo »

jackfrodo wrote: post #3

I'm 24 years old, work in software. Neither I nor any of my friends uses a tablet for work or pleasure. I guess I know a couple of people who have Surface Pro's, but that's about it. I'm wondering if the appeal of these begins when you get older? Seems like a lot of the market for these is people who are 50+, but I'd like to know if any people under 25 are interested in them.

I got my first iPad a year ago, suspecting I wouldn't use it for anything (and I'm nowhere close to 50). Turns out I couldn't have been more wrong. It's now my primary device for:

- Reading and annotating books and papers in PDF format (academic research has never been easier, I use a stylus too)

- Mounting to a tripod and recording video (e.g. professional presentations, with a lapel mic connected -- again, screen size makes it far better than a phone for reviewing a take)

- 3D anatomy app (whether you're working on massage therapy, posture, etc. -- nobody uses printed anatomy books anymore. Phone too small, laptop doesn't have touch)

- Playing video games (same games as on a phone, but so much better on the larger screen)

- Watching TV/movies while traveling (you can do it on a flight on a laptop, but it's hard in an airplane seat -- this is so much easier)

- Video calling (bigger view than phone, but more portable than my laptop)

- Doing light work in a coffee shop (writing, e-mailing, etc.) -- I pair it with the Bluetooth magic keyboard and do my work in Mail and Google Docs/Sheets -- it's way more lightweight than my laptop and just feels a bit more civilized than a big clunky laptop

It's honestly really surprised me how I can't imagine my life without my iPad Mini anymore. Turns out there really is a sweet spot between my phone and my laptop.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#32

Post by komali2 »

More and more I get the sense that there is a gap in the market for a device that ticks these boxes:

Ultraportable

Stylus enabled

Fully capable desktop operating system

Ports to allow hook-up to external monitor

I wanted something like this as a frequently traveling and programming, conference hand written note taking engineer. Then I notice some of the designers in my office experimenting with iPads, Pencils, and Mac minis (seeing if they could depend 100% on the iPad for portable work). The main complaint has always been, why didn't they stick osx on this thing?

Devices that have come close, besides the iPad:

Acer Chromebook tab 10: stylus support great, ultraportable, but abysmal battery life and lacking peripherals to turn it into a reasonable laptop alternative. Chromeos though, with Linux Apps on Chrome combined with Android Apps on Chrome, now seems a powerful contender in this niche. USBC. Stylus built in.

Lenovo y500: ticks all boxes but ultraportable - thing is a tank. For now I swap between this and the x1 yoga on trips. Runs chromeos which means I take notes in onenote for Android, and program in a vscode for Debian binary or emacs or vim. Getting localhost to work kosher is tricky. USBC. Stylus built in.

Lenovo x1 yoga: not ultraportable, just a damn good laptop. Unfortunately, there's no good handwritten note taking app (at the level of onenote, anyway) for Linux, so I swap between Ubuntu or windows 10 depending on what I'm doing. Same for photo editing, which is a deficiency I forgot to mention for the chrome books. Usbc. Stylus built in.

Surface pro line: probably actually ticks all the boxes, I just hate programming in windows and haven't touched one of these that are powerful enough to run Ubuntu in a VM in a reasonable fashion. Also, the keyboard is awful imo. And, I don't know if they do USBC yet? That would mean no charging from the backup battery if so. Finally, the stylus isn't built in, which is obnoxious.

I've heard fun things about Linux on Android and other Samsung specific offerings that I'm looking forward to experimenting with. The hunt for this device has become a mild hobby.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#33

Post by gpmcadam »

cranky_coder wrote: post #22
gpmcadam wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, this just reads like an ad.

I mean, what else would you expect from a press release announcing a product release by a company? An engineering spec?

To be more specific, I'm talking about the headline on HackerNews.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#34

Post by maz1b »

Way too diversified of an iPad line up, and that's coming from someone who really keeps up with the details.

Also, hard to fathom that it took them so many years just to launch a refreshed iPad mini, just with a minor incremental upgrade. Glad to see it happened though, but it was a missed opportunity to really make a bezel-less, beautiful mini. I'm sure it will come around soon enough.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#35

Post by CoolGuySteve »

The internal layout of the old iPad Pro was remarkably similar to the iPad Air 2 and this iPad looks very similar to the old iPad Pro.

This leads me to think that in spite of the name change, this is really the third or fourth motherboard refresh on an old assembly line somewhere in China dating back to the iPad Air 1 or 2 and first iPad Pro.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#36

Post by 0815test »

jackfrodo wrote: post #3

I'm 24 years old, work in software. Neither I nor any of my friends uses a tablet for work or pleasure. I guess I know a couple of people who have Surface Pro's, but that's about it. I'm wondering if the appeal of these begins when you get older? Seems like a lot of the market for these is people who are 50+, but I'd like to know if any people under 25 are interested in them.

The iPad itself is just too limited to be usable, in my experience. But the tablet form factor can work reasonably well for not-too-intensive activity (i.e. it's no good if you'll be doing a lot of data/text/code entry, of course), and the mainstream Linux desktop is starting to support it quite nicely.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#37

Post by steven2012 »

jackfrodo wrote: post #3

I'm 24 years old, work in software. Neither I nor any of my friends uses a tablet for work or pleasure. I guess I know a couple of people who have Surface Pro's, but that's about it. I'm wondering if the appeal of these begins when you get older? Seems like a lot of the market for these is people who are 50+, but I'd like to know if any people under 25 are interested in them.

My kid is 6 years old and all he uses is an iPad. I think the next generation will be using iPads and tablets and think using laptops are for old people.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#38

Post by Tepix »

hopler wrote: post #2

Steve Jobs must be rolling in his grave. 4 separate iPad lines, plus extra screen size variation? How is an "Air" variant useful? Why does the iPad Pro have a screen size choice, but the mini is a separate line? It should be iPad and iPad Pro, with screen size choices in each line.

Confusing indeed. It seems like "air" now means "faster".

They introduced the "air" model (550€) to fill the gap between the 350€ iPad and the 880€ iPad Pro 11".

They should have just released it as "iPad (2019)" with the new CPU at a higher price and kept selling the 6th gen. iPad (2018).

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#40

Post by intellent »

jackfrodo wrote: post #3

I'm 24 years old, work in software. Neither I nor any of my friends uses a tablet for work or pleasure. I guess I know a couple of people who have Surface Pro's, but that's about it. I'm wondering if the appeal of these begins when you get older? Seems like a lot of the market for these is people who are 50+, but I'd like to know if any people under 25 are interested in them.

Do you have a large smart phone?

I like small phones. So I own a tablet for all the personal stuff at home. I use my PC for work, my Phone for messaging and travel and my tablet for everything else. It’s really the most comfortable way of consuming.

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