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Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

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Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#111
post #19

Were it not for constantly updated buying guides from tech news sites, Im not sure anyone even Apple employees themselves would know which iPad to recommend to anyone.

Studies have shown that when companies present an overwhelming number of choices, consumers often end up spending more. The psychology behind this is rooted in decision fatigue, where consumers are more likely to choose something familiar or assume that a more expensive product is the best choice.

Ah, psychology.

Pretty sure that worked on me. I waited for the iPhone SE 4 (now called the 16E), then when I saw the feature set for the price, just went for the vanilla 16. This was while I was knowing exactly how the 16E was acting as a price anchor to move me to the next tier.

Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#113
post #4

iPad is a product I want to love, but still never find a reason to use.

I have an old one that I use daily... to do crossword puzzles. We also have a newer one, and my kid uses it for much of her free to draw in Procreate. I am not very artistic, but she is, and I am not sure if the difference here is age or artistry.

> I am not sure if the difference here is age or artistry.

It could be the period of life - there are times when we have more space for exploration, and at that time, if we come across art and it "clicks", we might spend hours doing that. At another period, that same activity might seem pointless/not interesting.

Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#114
post #2

I'm so confused by their lineup. I'm in the market for a new iPad, but I can never remember the difference between an iPad, iPad Pro, and Air. What's the difference between this an a 13" Pro or Non-Air? I wish they'd just have a single line of iPads with different screen sizes but the same CPU and stylus support in every generation. I'm so tired of having to play the "compare every permutation" game when shopping. Ed…

I think just think about the categories cheap, light, and feature packed. I'm sure these categories are studied for price, weight, technically possible. I believe Apple creates the iPad lineup based on usage demographics and designs to those specifications. Choose which of those categories is the most important and shop that line. If a feature in that model lineup is no good wait a year or prioritize that particular…

Weight is now very close to each other:

  iPad 477 g
  Air  460 g
  Pro  444 g
(11” non-cellular)

Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#115
post #8
post #4

iPad is a product I want to love, but still never find a reason to use.

It could be a great do-everything machine if they let you run macOS on it, but of course they don't want to sell one machine that does everything, they want to sell you an iPad and a MacBook even though they are basically the same hardware plus or minus an integrated keyboard.

You can kind of get that now with the 360-degree rotation laptops, which are available with Windows or Chrome OS. I haven't used a Windows one, but Chrome OS behaves pretty nicely as a tablet.

The trouble though is, once you get an acceptable laptop keyboard and a corresponding screen, the resulting device seems excessively heavy and bulky when flipped over into the tablet form factor. You probably won't want to hold it up for more than 10 minutes.

I like the idea of one all-in-one device, but it's hard to see a way around these things. The cheesy tiny portable "keyboards" they make for tablets are pretty lame for extended typing, but better keyboards are too heavy for tablets. Meanwhile, I expect a desktop device to have the compute horsepower and RAM that are tough to get in a proper tablet form factor.

Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#116

Were it not for constantly updated buying guides from tech news sites, Im not sure anyone even Apple employees themselves would know which iPad to recommend to anyone.

I don't really see the value proposition for the iPad Pro. It's got powerful hardware, but I can't imagine myself doing any heavy work on a tablet.

I think it's probably aimed at people using them to create digital art.

Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#117
post #18
post #4

iPad is a product I want to love, but still never find a reason to use.

This is a meme comment by now. I've been using an iPad Air (with Paperlike) for the past 4 years for basically running my life at school, and I can't imagine going back to working with actual paper for daily note-taking and homework assignments. It's great for reading whitepapers and marking them up while laying on the couch. That functionality by itself justifies its existence in my estimation.

For the same reason I bought the cheapest 10" Android tablet with external memory slot. I don't know what it's like now, but in the past Apple tried very hard to offer entry level models cheap, but for anything usable in terms of storage you had to pay a big premium.

Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#118
post #49

I owned multiple iPads and never found a compelling use case for them. I don't know why I keep buying them but they have been great computers for my parents so it's not like I buy to shelf them. Are there any use cases (apart from drawing maybe. I can't draw a stick figure if my life depended on it so that's not for me) for developers?

They are good for music production with a Logic Pro subscription, the touch screen interface is great for virtual instruments, mixing sliders, etc. With powerful chips you can add more tracks and effects.

Re: Apple introduces iPad Air with powerful M3 chip and new Magic Keyboard

#119

How often do people upgrade airpads? I am not even sure who the target audience for them is anymore. Most people are comfortable with their phones and if it cannot be done on a phone, most people go to a desktop/laptop.

They still age out, my mum has had excellent success with iPads, after somehow killing a litany of laptops.

Shes a consumer through-and-through, and an iPad is great for that- and occasionally calling people.

Unfortunately she’s had her current iPad for about 8 years, so it has aged out of security updates- so I am looking to upgrade her. Battery still holds charge though, at least enough that she doesn't complain.

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