This was a very good piece from gruber and I say that as someone who has consistently hated his snarkiness and apple fanboyism in the past. He makes deep analyses of the ipad mini here and dare I say, sets himself apart as a key asset in the Apple tech press. There should be someone as capable of doing in-depth analyses in other tech fields too. I was thinking specifically about android device news. The folks at androidpolice are the best I know. But not of Gruber's calibre.
Thinking This iPad Mini Thing Even Througher
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Re: Thinking This iPad Mini Thing Even Througher
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm glad Gruber seems to be writing more of these long form pieces. Short and snarky is not as much of a strength for him as he thinks it is. My thoughts exactly. His recent talk with Siracusa must have helped. [edit] From the show, 1h24m23s: “You haven't done one of those in a while where you do like screen shots and stuff, you used to do that more…” He also changed his favicon soon after Siracusa remarked that it w…
He still manages to come up with gems like this: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/08/01/nokia-nail-polis... He and Siegler come off as partisan hacks and nothing else. Hence mostly only Apple fans seem to think he writes great. I do not know why they have to hate other competing platforms so immensely to love Apple.
Even outside impartial observers see the Nokia situation just getting worse and worse, and Windows Phone doing absolutely nothing to pull them out of the hole they're in.
I appreciate Gruber because he's unapologetic about something like that. We can dance around it forever, but judging by sales and in-the-wild presence of WP7, that briefly if crudely summarizes the Lumia & WP7 ecosystem to date. Doing this stupid old world stuff like distributing nail polish that matches your phone isn't distracting anyone from the increasingly untenable situation Nokia is sliding into right now. Moreover, moves like that make it seem like they're treating their situation flippantly.
It's not about "hate", it's about not candy coating things to appease certain groups. We heard for the last two years about how beautiful and fast and revolutionary WP7 is and how nice the Lumia hardware looks. Now it's time to put up or shut up and they just haven't. That's a fact, and I don't see why someone should have to ignore that and paint a happy face on the situation to not be considered a "hack". Moreover, I don't think you can extrapolate from that that Gruber hates Nokia, the Lumia or WP7. It's just a snarky observation.
If your issue is with the joke itself, I'll give you that. It wasn't all that funny or anything. I also agree he's a much better writer when in long form, and his snark does get over the top. I see where he's coming from here though.
Re: Thinking This iPad Mini Thing Even Througher
#23After reading both this and the iMore article, I really feel like Q4 this year is going to be like nothing we've ever seen. There won't be a reason for the average consumer not to get an iOS device. I think we're heading into a time where Apple's dominance will pass the threshold of what Microsoft had in the 90's. And, if you consider a revamped TV is on the way in a couple years — man, we're talking about iOS in the…
Um... So a quarter notable mostly for Apples entry into a tablet form factor market already pioneered by other competitors is somehow a testament to the platform's... dominance?
(I really want to respond to the idea of yearning for another IBM/Microsoft-scale monopoly too, but I'll limit myself to simple snark for now.)
Re: Thinking This iPad Mini Thing Even Througher
#24As a Kindle Fire owner I have to say the form factor of tablets this size is great. I just wish there was a better fix to the resolution issues. Limiting to low PPI for app compatibility seems like a hack.
>Limiting to low PPI for app compatibility seems like a hack. What, and give developers another resolution to develop for? No. The iPad Mini will use the iPhone 3GS LCD pixel density. Then in a year, the iPad Mini will adopt the iPhone 4 pixel density. This means that every "retina" iPad app that currently exists will display natively on the device. So basically: wait a year and then you'll have that crazy-good iPhon…
How will that work without having that other resolution you want to avoid? The issue was avoided on the desktop by not requiring everything be full screen.
I understand the issue, but my personal iPad usage would not be affected by more resolutions (I surf, read and watch video) but the greater PPI would be very appreciated. That's why it's frustrating.
Re: Thinking This iPad Mini Thing Even Througher
#25As a Kindle Fire owner I have to say the form factor of tablets this size is great. I just wish there was a better fix to the resolution issues. Limiting to low PPI for app compatibility seems like a hack.
What about it's utility for documents like PDF's?
That's not something I care about when I want to read something laying on the couch or in bed. I don't do it much on my iPad either actually.
Re: Thinking This iPad Mini Thing Even Througher
#26I wonder if Apple is going to replace the iPod Touch with this. Think about it: the Touch didn't get a spec bump while the iPhone, iPad and even the AppleTV did, and it sells for the same price of a Kindle Fire, Nexus 7 or Nook Tablet, all popular small tablets in the category where this iPad mini would compete. PMPs are dead mostly because the same kind of people who bought PMPs are now buying tablets and Apple can'…
I've seen it suggested that the Nexus 7 isn't the Android iPad, it's the Android iPod Touch. This makes sense to me, and it makes sense to me that Apple could be moving in a similar direction with the iPod Touch itself, especially if it can hit those weight goals. This would also seem to open up some space for the iPod nano to gain functionality.
Alternatively, maybe soon – with the small iPad filling the $249 price gap – Apple will finally kill the iPod Classic and cut prices on the rest of the line. They've been manufacturing the lower quality retina display for the iPod Touch for two years, and costs must be down significantly.
Combine that with falling costs for flash storage, and I could see them going down to $150-$250 for the Touch ($150 for 16GB up to $250 for 64GB), $100/$125 on the Nano, and keeping the Shuffle at $49.
Re: Thinking This iPad Mini Thing Even Througher
#27From the standpoint of a mobile developer and a user of one of Samsung's 7" tablets, the 7" form factor is too big for phone apps to really feel right on it, and too small for the big tab apps to be naively scaled down and feel right. So any Apple tablet at that size will suffer from a lack of good software until everyone catches up.
On the plus side, with the entry of an Apple device, there will be a much greater incentive to create workable design paradigms for the form factor, and both Android and iOS devices this size will benefit.
Re: Thinking This iPad Mini Thing Even Througher
#28I wonder if Apple is going to replace the iPod Touch with this. Think about it: the Touch didn't get a spec bump while the iPhone, iPad and even the AppleTV did, and it sells for the same price of a Kindle Fire, Nexus 7 or Nook Tablet, all popular small tablets in the category where this iPad mini would compete. PMPs are dead mostly because the same kind of people who bought PMPs are now buying tablets and Apple can'…
iPod Touch updates come in the fall (Sept/Oct) with the rest of the iPod lineup. You make an interesting point, but I think the devices are different enough that the Touch will stay for now. They fill different needs. The Touch is pocketable, a better iPod, and has a retina display. The mini iPad is better for web browsing, reading.
Re: Thinking This iPad Mini Thing Even Througher
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
He still manages to come up with gems like this: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/08/01/nokia-nail-polis... He and Siegler come off as partisan hacks and nothing else. Hence mostly only Apple fans seem to think he writes great. I do not know why they have to hate other competing platforms so immensely to love Apple.
Even outside impartial observers see the Nokia situation just getting worse and worse, and Windows Phone doing absolutely nothing to pull them out of the hole they're in. I appreciate Gruber because he's unapologetic about something like that. We can dance around it forever, but judging by sales and in-the-wild presence of WP7, that briefly if crudely summarizes the Lumia & WP7 ecosystem to date. Doing this stupid ol…
See, even you managed to write many more words than him. It's not just that one post linked which is bad, it's a whole series of posts especially about Google and Android full of smugness, snark and sneering designed for his target audience, Apple fans and apparently, Google haters. It's like some of his posts are inside jokes at a fraternity club, and frankly are of that quality. It's tabloid journalism and nothing else, frankly.
You think any article by someone calling Ping a brown piece of shit would ever be featured on HN? Hell, even Paul Thurott's Winsupersite is hellbanned on HN.
Re: Thinking This iPad Mini Thing Even Througher
#30After reading both this and the iMore article, I really feel like Q4 this year is going to be like nothing we've ever seen. There won't be a reason for the average consumer not to get an iOS device. I think we're heading into a time where Apple's dominance will pass the threshold of what Microsoft had in the 90's. And, if you consider a revamped TV is on the way in a couple years — man, we're talking about iOS in the…
> There won't be a reason for the average consumer not to get an iOS device. Wow, that's some hyperbole. Other than price I presume you mean.
Actually, I suspect the presumption is that the "iPad Mini" is going to take price off the table as an objection -- if Apple brings such a device in for even a base price of $249, it's going to be seriously competitive.
(And, of course, "average consumer" is also probably a key phrase. There are rational objections to be made to iOS, but they're mostly relating to things that HN readers are likely to value more highly than most consumers.)