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New iPad Air and iPad Mini

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221–230 of 395 posts

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 1st generation iPad was woefully lacking RAM (256MB) even though the iPhone 4 that came out 3 months later with the same SOC had 512Mb. That led to the iPad being unusable with iOS 5 that came out 2 years later and unsupported after that. The iPhone of the same generation was supported through iOS 7. The 3rd generation iPad was heavy, slow, and had horrible battery life and was discontinued six months later as th…

All of the great tablets available that run full Windows.

“Great tablets running Windows”. Those four words don’t belong in the same sentence. Windows is a horrible mess as a touch screen UI, the tablets are either large and heavy or slow and underpowered. Intel doesn’t exactly make a great low power/high performance processor.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#222
post #157
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually for old timers it feels like the old Apple, just before Jobs came back.

i.e. the unprofitable and future-less Apple

The big difference is that they are swimming in money, but even that doesn't last forever.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#223
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 s…

Out of curiosity, what do you use for PDF annotation?

Notability is really nice for PDF annotation but not great for reading since it occasionally forgets your position in a book (although there is a bookmark feature). It’s very well optimized: I have over 500 notes in it, some over 1000 pages.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes because “when Steve Jobs was alive”, they didn’t have the iPod shuffle, Nano, regular iPod and the iPod Touch....

You have to admit they were vastly different products, both in appearance and functionality. A random person could understand quite easily their differences without going deep in technical details: the classic was bulky, with lots of storage and the original interface; the touch had a touch screen, the nano was small and compact, while the shuffle had no display and no way to select music. What really characterizes t…

The differences are the price. You choose how much you can spend and the features you want.

A total noob is going to spend the least possible

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#225
post #46
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 28 (just outside your demographic) but I have an iPad Pro 12.9" as my main driver and a 27-inch iMac at home. I am a software engineer by trade but I don't have time to do that outside of work so that's not a concern. I carry the iPad with me throughout my house and use it for just about everything. I also take it with me to the high school classroom where I volunteer teach computer science. All of their assignme…

OT but have you found a good case for that model?

My 12.9 is perfect for reading and annotating music sheets. Bought an used one mainly for that. The large screen size is close to a regular paper.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#226

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…

It basically means those schools who bought the 30 iPad case don't have to replace the cables and I would guess the chargers.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 1st generation iPad was woefully lacking RAM (256MB) even though the iPhone 4 that came out 3 months later with the same SOC had 512Mb. That led to the iPad being unusable with iOS 5 that came out 2 years later and unsupported after that. The iPhone of the same generation was supported through iOS 7. The 3rd generation iPad was heavy, slow, and had horrible battery life and was discontinued six months later as th…

> The 3rd generation iPad was heavy, slow, and had horrible battery life and was discontinued six months later as they transistionef to a better processor and lightning. The 3rd generation iPad was also the first iPad with a high res screen. I used it happily for many years, because I loved that screen.

And it was a “messy transition” device. That was my point. The 4th generation iPad was what the third gen should have been. It came out six months later.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#228
I'm 39 and have been using the iPad since Gen 1, it's the ultimate media consumption device where it's effectively become my "personal TV" (since I don't have a TV). I have a keyboard attached on my larger pro model that I prefer to use over my MBP/Air when going to Cafe's or on Airplanes. But I only use it for a limited set of "productivity" tasks like writing docs, answering emails, forum and StackOverflow questions, never for writing code but have needed to use it for some emergency RDP sessions on the go.

It's also surprising how many Apps optimized UX are just nicer and more fluid to use on iOS, like News, Bank/Stock/Real Estate Apps, Houzz, Maps, Starbucks, AirBnb even Twitter/FB/Pintrest are nicer on iOS.

It's also become my parents primary computing device, they've never really felt comfortable using their iMac, Laptop or Chromebook (which are now dust gatherers), but they absolutely love their iPads. They always feel "lost" when using a PC, but never on their iPads where I believe the restrictive UI/functionality of iOS leads to more enjoyment from feeling their more in "control" of their device.

Given most people are content consumers instead of content creators it's not hard to see why the trend is towards most people using Smart Phones / Tablets as their primary computing device.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#229
post #176

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.

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 "us…

"alive and well" might be a stretch. I don't know a soul who plugs their devices into their computers. Using VLC to watch media is also a blast from the past. Grandpa, is that you?

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#230

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…

It is so weird that the iPad Air and iPad mini only support the old Apple Pencil

Perhaps it's because the new Apple Pencil charges by docking with a host iPad, and there's no place on an iPad Air or iPad mini to put a dock.

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