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New iPad Air and iPad Mini

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Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#241

Post by mturmon »

blakesterz wrote: post #51
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 pretty much double 24... my usual work machine is a big Ubuntu box I built, with 2 big monitors. I'm stuck working on my MacBookAir for some time and it just sucks. Not because the MacBook sucks, but it just sucks working on a single small monitor, and the machine itself is slower at everything. Working on any laptop is just a big step down from a real machine for me. I can't even imagine working on an iPad, thou…

> ...any laptop is just a big step down from a real machine...

A friend (age ~30) works on very large-scale climate model comparisons. He directs his model runs (done on a remote supercomputer, which is his version of a "real machine") from his 13" Air. I work with smaller datasets, and it's kind of amazing what power he can command from that little thing.

He uses a dock to make visualizations on a larger monitor when at his desk.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#242

Post by crazygringo »

rorykoehler wrote: post #135
crazygringo wrote: post #31

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…

Which 3D anatomy app do you recommend?

I use Complete Anatomy, free install/preview.

The full content is ~$45 downloadable, but if you sign up without buying, you'll eventually get some promos in your e-mail -- I wound up buying it all for $10 during a back-to-school discount.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#243

Post by arvinsim »

neuronic wrote: post #196
wintorez wrote: post #103

I'm sad that Apple's focus has shifted away from macOS devices to iOS devices. We could have gotten MacBooks with touch-screen by now.

> We could have gotten MacBooks with touch-screen by now I had a touchscreen laptop before and to me it was just incredibly useless. I am quite happy that Macbooks do _not_ have a touchscreen. If I want that, I get an iPad Pro.

I have the iPad Pro. It doesn’t even beginto compare to what I use my Macbook for.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#244

Post by boxfire »

Interesting juxtaposition with the article [1]

  [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19421612]
  Pilots trained for Boeing’s 737 Max airplane with “an iPad lesson for an hour” (qz.com)

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#245

Post by sambe »

Does anyone know how much RAM this has, or will that information only come to light when it gets opened up?

I've always had the feeling that RAM becomes the limiting factor for long-life of such a device (because newer iOS/apps/websites use more and more of it - once you are healthily into multi-core you don't have to worry so much about CPU/GPU performance). I think 2GB has been around for years in non-Pro models, but 4GB also for years in Pros. Getting 2GB now seems like a step back even for a mid-range model.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#246

Post by asark »

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.

1) they're great for certain kinds of graphic art.

2) they're great for various sorts of low-end creative work, like making films (think: for kids or adults to learn the basics of shooting and editing on a single device capable of making something half-decent, not pro-level)

3) Good as a writing terminal, given an external keyboard. Better than a laptop in a lot of ways.

4) The 12.9" pro's the best device I've seen for reading comics, by far.

5) iPads are easily the best devices I've seen for reading PDFs (lots of non-fiction books and papers)

6) in a lot of important ways, they Just Work, unlike most other computing devices. More so than macOS machines, even, by a good margin.

7) it's where edutainment and casual science software's at now. Want software for some not-super-serious stargazing? You'll want an iPad. Edutainment programs for kids (like the Math Blasters and Number Munchers and Microsoft Dinosaurs! of yore) are mostly on iPads. Swift playground, for that matter.

8) can be positioned to take up a lot less space on a desk than a laptop while in use—nice when you need that desk space for other things, like books or notebooks.

9) portable second monitor for your macbook.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#247

Post by profmonocle »

kalleboo wrote: post #61

Apple's product naming is confusing. Does anyone know what "Air" means? I thought it used to mean smallest and lightest. But on the Mac the "MacBook" is smaller and lighter, and on the iPad we have the smaller iPad Mini, and the "iPad" is smaller and only 14 grams heavier. From the MacBook Air line, we understood the definition to be "it's the cheap one", but that doesn't apply to the iPad line where it costs more. S…

I'm especially confused because I thought the iPad Air and "standard" iPad were different generations of the same product family, and the Airs were called that because they were much thinner than earlier models. There's never been a (current-gen) "iPad" and "iPad Air" at the same time. But now there are, and based on how their web site organizes them it seems like they are considered different families.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#248

Post by pixelkritzel »

askafriend wrote: post #178
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)…

If they would apply this stategy also to their MacBook Pro line we wouldn't have this disccussions about keyboards etc. The old Macbook Pro Retina chassis with a new board would be a dream. (Or even better with a non glare FHD display)

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#249

Post by tolmasky »

intopieces wrote: post #220
tolmasky wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edit: inlining the comment here instead since this turned into a conversation 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 maj…

How does reducing customer choice follow from working backwards from the customers’ needs? Doesn’t the variety in product imply a variety in customer needs? There is not one kind of pro, not one kind of consumer. Shouldn’t Apple be able to offer a wide choice of options and rely on marketing and the 100 blueshirts in every store to guide the customer? It was confusing to have so many options when tablets and smartpho…

Because customer needs rarely vary that greatly within one brand. The whole idea behind a general purpose computing device is that it is, well, general purpose, no? If you require minimum 4 "high level product concepts" (iPad,Mini,Air,Pro), then it doesn't seem so general purpose anymore. Especially when you realize that people are actually also often deciding between upgrading to iPhone Max (not that different in size or capability to an iPad Mini), or MacBook/Air/Pro (not that different in size or capability to iPad Pro). So, are you selling a great general purpose tool, or have you degraded back down to screwdrivers vs. hammers? I personally don't believe that the tasks these devices aim to serve merit having 7+ separate "high level product concepts", and that even if they do, these particular products don't clearly delineate those separations. That is to say, maybe there is room for this many different product choices -- but these products in particular actually offer a confusing array of choices due to their, often arbitrary, intersection of capabilities.

It's important to make a distinction here: I think there is certainly more room for configuration within a product line ($x upgrade for a faster version of product X), but this is very different than essential feature axises that define a product line itself. Some of them are unavoidable, sure, like a smaller form factor often needing to have less cpu/ram/whatever. However, that's certainly not the case here -- the iPhone Max is smaller than the iPad mini, yet much much faster. Per your own argument, why is Apple not serving the part of the market that needs the portability of the iPad mini but wants the best CPU? Well, because the real point of the iPad mini is to satisfy some budget window probably, not a deep empathy with the user.

Also -- I keep forgetting to bring this up in these situations, but I would not be surprised if the actual purpose of the iPad mini is point-of-sale terminals, conference room check-ins, and office visit terminals. That's the number one place I see these particular devices, and in fact the number one place I see iPads in general.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#250

Post by jonfw »

baobrain wrote: post #239
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.

> Are you developing apps on it? That's a pretty niche use-case. A niche but extremely important use case, isn't it? Without app developers the platform is dead.

App developers aren't likely to switch ecosystems over minor quality of life issues.
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