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New iPad Air and iPad Mini

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Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#171

Post by qubex »

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'm pushing 38 and an executive and iPads of various generations (which I have refreshed yearly) have been my main working/travelling machine right since the release of the very first versions. I still have a i7 MacBook, a specced-out quad-core 2012 MacMini (with dual CinemaDisplays) and a trashcan Mac Pro, but somehow the iPad (currently in it's 11” iPadPro incarnation) is always my favourite tool both because of its portability and because of its focus. You'd be amazed what I can do locally on this machine: construct, symbolically solve, and make predictions based thereupon mathematical models being one of the things that surprise people most. Writing and locally executing Python code. Storing versioned copies of business plans.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#172

Post by subhro »

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 mini is extremely popular among pilots. The iPad Pro is too big for the general aviation (and even commercial aviation) in my opinion, and iPad non pros so far does not have enough oomph to run ForeFlight.

Source: I am a pilot.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#173

Post by irrational »

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.

They are great for playing digital board games: Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, Agricola, Colt Express, Patchwork, Twilight Struggle, Pandemic, Splendor, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, etc.

Though there is also something to be said for the eye sight factor. I'm in my mid-40s and my focusing just doesn't work as well as it used to. Its becoming increasingly difficult to do a lot of reading on a small screen like my iphone 8+.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#174

Post by chrisseaton »

hobs wrote: post #169
chrisseaton wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to connect their iPhones/iPads to their computers Why do you need to connect your iPad to your computer? I have never connected mine - everything goes through the cloud or Bluetooth. Are you developing apps on it? That's a pretty niche use-case.

Because they want to do a manual backup instead of just iCloud? Because it was initially designed and delivered that way? Because they like manually managing music and videos? etc

I think these are pretty obtuse use-cases these days for the vast majority of people. I also manage videos and things but I do it via the cloud like most people. You may disagree with a that but it explains why they went that route - it wasn't a case of them not thinking.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#175

Post by vbezhenar »

baobrain wrote: post #143
tolmasky wrote: post #30

It is so weird that the iPad Air and iPad mini only support the old Apple Pencil. The iPad mini was my favorite incarnation of the iPad line when it came out, and I was considering getting one again, but I have no interest in needing two different kinds of iPad pencil. Apple keeps creating and extending these arbitrary transition periods. The old Apple Pencil should be in the past. Instead we have an entire other gen…

Keeping the lightning port is what really jumped out at me. Now some iPads are going to have USB C and others are going to have lightning, all under the same umbrella product of the iPad. What is even worse (!) is that the iPhones and iPads still ship with a USB A to lightning cable, meaning even users inside the Apple ecosystem need a USB C/thunderbolt dongle with usb A ports to connect their iPhones/iPads to their…

I like lightning port, it's pretty natural compared to USB-C. Male port which could break on cable, female port which won't break on device. USB-C seems like very fragile decision, so it's only good that they don't abandon their better port. That said, they should definitely ship all necessary cables, it's really strange that they trying to save tiny money on premium product.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#176

Post by bt3 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #162
baobrain wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keeping the lightning port is what really jumped out at me. Now some iPads are going to have USB C and others are going to have lightning, all under the same umbrella product of the iPad. What is even worse (!) is that the iPhones and iPads still ship with a USB A to lightning cable, meaning even users inside the Apple ecosystem need a USB C/thunderbolt dongle with usb A ports to connect their iPhones/iPads to their…

> to connect their iPhones/iPads to their computers Why do you need to connect your iPad to your computer? I have never connected mine - everything goes through the cloud or Bluetooth. Are you developing apps on it? That's a pretty niche use-case.

As someone that historically relied on an iPad Mini for media consumption on the many weekly flights I take, it is not realistic to download 10+ GB of content directly onto the device. Especially since I don't use Apple's ecosystem of media and generally rely on my own, I find myself using the VLC app to watch content that is loaded via iTunes and its ability to load files as you would any other document app.

The "use case" of connecting your devices to your computer is still alive and well, despite being in the era of cloud.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#177

Post by tolmasky »

tolmasky wrote: post #30

It is so weird that the iPad Air and iPad mini only support the old Apple Pencil. The iPad mini was my favorite incarnation of the iPad line when it came out, and I was considering getting one again, but I have no interest in needing two different kinds of iPad pencil. Apple keeps creating and extending these arbitrary transition periods. The old Apple Pencil should be in the past. Instead we have an entire other gen…

These products just feel like “component pipeline optimization” instead of working backwards from customer needs. There should be 3 iPads, all with the same form factor, same connectors (can’t believe I even have to specify this): small medium large, and they should be called iPad mini, iPad, and iPad Pro. The iPad should serve the vast majority of the market. The pro should really feel like it’s for Pros. The mini should feel like it cannot be beat on a hike taking nature photos. Stories based on use, not price. The way I imagine them talking about iPad uses cases instead is: “imagine you want to buy an iPad, but you only have $399. Boom: iPad mini, the perfect fit!”

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#178

Post by askafriend »

tolmasky wrote: post #30

It is so weird that the iPad Air and iPad mini only support the old Apple Pencil. The iPad mini was my favorite incarnation of the iPad line when it came out, and I was considering getting one again, but I have no interest in needing two different kinds of iPad pencil. Apple keeps creating and extending these arbitrary transition periods. The old Apple Pencil should be in the past. Instead we have an entire other gen…

This is a supply chain optimization and also the reason they can keep the costs low for these products. Cost is important here and the whole reason this product line exists. It’s a mirror of their iPhone strategy where they sell last years model for cheaper.

They’re using old components and designs where they think it makes sense, but are being uncompromising about the compute power (e.g. A12 Bionic, AR capabilities).

It means they can give lower-end customer what they want, without compromising the software capabilities of the devices or ultimately the margins of their business.

It makes sense as a strategy and obviously comes with trade offs which it seems like they’re willing to make. I mean, the old pencil isn’t THAT old. The new iPad Pros and new Pencil were announced only months ago.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#179

Post by tyleo »

jordache wrote: post #59
tyleo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 26 and the iPad Air and iPad mini do not appeal to me but I own an iPad Pro and I am enamored with it. I use the iPad Pro at my full-time job as a Software Engineer at Microsoft. I get a lot of mileage by taking notes on it in OneNote and preparing/reading documents from the other Office apps. I also use the iPad to listen to music with Spotify (my headphones have trouble connecting to my work PC). Outside of the…

for a software develop what is the material difference between a pro and and air? the higher refresh rate of the pro?

I got the Pro for two reasons: the screen-size (for use as a 2nd laptop monitor) and because the pencil was only supported by the Pro when I bought it.

I don't use the 2nd screen as much as I thought I would though and there is a good chance any of the other iPads (which are all smaller) would have been better for me. Hard to tell exactly what size has the max utility. Smaller isn't better necessarily because my iPhone can do pretty much all of the same stuff but is too small to be useful. A good heuristic might be "large enough that the keyboard is comfortable".

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#180

Post by vbezhenar »

chrisseaton wrote: post #162
baobrain wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keeping the lightning port is what really jumped out at me. Now some iPads are going to have USB C and others are going to have lightning, all under the same umbrella product of the iPad. What is even worse (!) is that the iPhones and iPads still ship with a USB A to lightning cable, meaning even users inside the Apple ecosystem need a USB C/thunderbolt dongle with usb A ports to connect their iPhones/iPads to their…

> to connect their iPhones/iPads to their computers Why do you need to connect your iPad to your computer? I have never connected mine - everything goes through the cloud or Bluetooth. Are you developing apps on it? That's a pretty niche use-case.

Why ship any cable at all then?
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