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Amazon.com criticising new iPad on homepage

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Re: Amazon.com criticising new iPad on homepage

#141

Post by talmand »

gnaffle wrote: post #88
neya wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently read an article on HN wherein a user posted asking all of us to be 'civil'. This is the reason why HN isn't so civil. You like a product, you try to support as if you created it and as if the company cares for you, while in reality the company doesn't care about you and you're just doing free marketing for them. Not to say that you can't defend what you like, but most of what you've written here is very ve…

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6324/the-iphone-5-performance-... - or do you think benchmarks are irrelevant? Also, Apple claims it's the fastest _iPhone_ ever. I haven't seen any claim from them that it's the fastest phone ever.

My experience with synthetic benchmarks is from the old days of PC gaming video card comparisons where they ultimately meant very little. Since then I view most benchmarks as almost irrelevant. I say almost because they all have their uses but should not be glorified as much as they are.

Re: Amazon.com criticising new iPad on homepage

#142

Post by ctdonath »

bradwestness wrote: post #78
JeremyBanks wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure they've included side views in their main product galleries before. I've looked at the previous lines, but I was surprised (and entirely lost interest in the product when it was clear they weren't willing to present it honestly) when this gallery was so misleadingly shot. Steve Would Never Have Let It Happen®. Seriously, their main selling point is "it's so thin" and they won't even show us how thin i…

It's also a weird marketing tack to take since "thinness" doesn't really matter on a desktop system. It's another example of Apple's impressive ability to shift the conversation (as polshaw mentioned above) when their products don't come out on top in traditional specs.

I think the iMac "thin" hype was in part a setup to the iPad mini reveal. "See how thin the iMac is...see how thin the iPad is...oh look there's an iPad mini hiding behind there!"

Re: Amazon.com criticising new iPad on homepage

#143

Post by axx »

smackfu wrote: post #118
jws wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but he never showed the thicker part of the iMac. He did turn it full sideways to the camera and revealed its bulging back. You can't show off its full thickness any more than that. It wasn't on screen that way for as long as the "ooo!" moment of the brightly lit knife edge, but it was there for all to see. Unrelated random thoughts on iMac thickness: It is really just an aesthetic. The foot print of the machine can'…

From my viewpoint, he very carefully moved it between pre-determined camera angles.

yes, pretty sure there where predefined marks to place it perfect for the video. if you look closely you'll see how Schiller looks to a monitor and corrects the angle slightly.

It's just a little detail in opinion, but it shows how staged all those presentations are and you can't blame amazon for doing the same.

Re: Amazon.com criticising new iPad on homepage

#144

Post by podperson »

neya wrote: post #50
georgespencer wrote: post #16

There's so much about this which is disingenuous. I'm not surprised by this, but it's worth pointing out some of the tricks Amazon are employing here: 1. Much More for Much Less. Much More is obviously the kindle fire HD, and Much Less is the iPad Mini. Heck, if you remove the 'f' of 'for' you get to the central point here which is to turn the choice into 'Much More or Much Less'. 2. Kindle Fire HD branding is used (…

I recently read an article on HN wherein a user posted asking all of us to be 'civil'. This is the reason why HN isn't so civil. You like a product, you try to support as if you created it and as if the company cares for you, while in reality the company doesn't care about you and you're just doing free marketing for them. Not to say that you can't defend what you like, but most of what you've written here is very ve…

So in the interest of civility you call someone -- in essence -- a dupe and unpaid shill and quote the word "fanboy" in criticizing his/her comments. If this is civility, let's go back to simply insulting each other instead of making a pretense of civil discussion.

You then go on to provide evidence in the form of asserting that everything Apple says is "just plain BS" and go on to quote things you assert Apple frequently says which are either (a) not things Apple says or (b) general purpose unassailable and unverifiable claims (best, most comfortable, happiest, etc.).

"Disingenuous" means "lying while pretending to be sincere" versus merely lying -- the key component is hypocrisy. The classic example is when almost anyone starts a sentence with "Well, to be honest..." Another example would be making references to a thread on civility while blatantly insulting someone.

Amazon quoting Gizmodo is disingenuous. The rest of the ad is simply Amazon highlighting the good bits of their product against the correspondingly inferior bits of the rival product.

The fact that Amazon has failed to update its "fastest WiFi of any tablet" graph (despite clearly having updated it since the iPad mini was launched) might also be construed negatively.

A similar ad from Apple would probably discuss size of app library, iOS vs ???, camera quality, size, weight, thinness, and quote professors, school teachers, and reputable reviewers.

Apple claiming their OS is the best in the world is at worst lying and most likely actually what they believe. (Most Mac users probably believe it, even if they recognize that no OS is perfect, right?)

Re: Amazon.com criticising new iPad on homepage

#145

Post by Me1000 »

macspoofing wrote: post #71
georgespencer wrote: post #16

There's so much about this which is disingenuous. I'm not surprised by this, but it's worth pointing out some of the tricks Amazon are employing here: 1. Much More for Much Less. Much More is obviously the kindle fire HD, and Much Less is the iPad Mini. Heck, if you remove the 'f' of 'for' you get to the central point here which is to turn the choice into 'Much More or Much Less'. 2. Kindle Fire HD branding is used (…

You're overthinking it. Amazon is basically saying the iPad Mini is underpowered and more expensive. Yeah, what else is new? If Apple competed on tech specs and price, they wouldn't have sold a single Mac in the last 15 years. Price and specs is not why people will be buying the mini.

It's nearly impossible to compare raw specs when Apple is making their own chips. Android devices have had more cores and more Hertz than the iPhone for years, but only recently have they been able to start matching the iPhone in performance… that's that was entirely because of faster software.

Re: Amazon.com criticising new iPad on homepage

#146

Post by MattSayar »

podperson wrote: post #133
jusben1369 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Apple would never even show a competitor on their site, because they are the market leader.." - One thing that struck me from the iPad Mini announcement was just how much time they spent comparing it to the competition - a sure sign that they really do think there is competition now. Then they disappoint on the iPad numbers in their latest earnings - chalk that up to people waiting for iPad Mini's but that seems lik…

The "brilliant" part was convincing people it was $199, whereas in fact it's pretty close to $250 after shipping. I ended up buying a 16GB model ($275 including shipping) because the price difference was so small.

Where does the extra $50 go for shipping?

Re: Amazon.com criticising new iPad on homepage

#147

Post by yohui »

eykanal wrote: post #119
jrockway wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Much More for Much Less. Much More is obviously the kindle fire HD, and Much Less is the iPad Mini. Heck, if you remove the 'f' of 'for' you get to the central point here which is to turn the choice into 'Much More or Much Less'. You are reading way too deeply into this. Unless you have some research to back up your assertion that people frequently misread "for" as "or", it's hard to believe. 5. Because the iPad M…

> It's strange that they can't continue to compete in this category, especially given the high price of their device. Given that Amazon posted a net loss this past quarter in part due to manufacturing expenses, I wouldn't call their strategy "effectively competing".

That's relevant to a holistic discussion about Amazon's strategy vs. Apple's, but beyond the narrow topic of display resolution.

Apple plainly chose the iPad mini's resolution to ease app compatibility. That this leaves it with a lower-density display is an uncomfortable fact. How much it'll matter to the regular customer, I don't know.

I would have just moved on rather than drawing attention to this fact, but Apple instead chose to return to physical screen size. Personally, I've always valued other aspects of displays more, but they made their call.

Re: Amazon.com criticising new iPad on homepage

#148

Post by jws »

DannyBee wrote: post #128
jws wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best two reasons for not being retina: • panel availability at volume and price • power availability. Retina means about four times the power draw for rendering. Both of these will improve with time. Eventually retina will come.

Do you have any actual data to back up the second point? Don't get me wrong, I understand the fill rates necessary, but i keep hearing this with no real data. After spending the past 6-8 months working with all sorts of embedded GPU's (mainly as an HTPC hobby on embedded boards), I kinda have serious doubts that the power usage is the factor here, and would like to see real data, not assumptions. You are assuming tha…

In my 3D iOS and Mac OS work I'm working on now, I am essentially entirely fragment shader bound (per screen pixel work). Quadruple the pixels and I need quadruple the energy per frame to do the fragment shading. The vertex shading and main CPU work stays the same, and the backlight obviously stays the same, so the total energy required doesn't quadruple, and 30% sounds like a reasonable ballpark estimate for that.

I don't think Apple would accept reducing the battery life from 10 hours to 7 hours in exchange for a retina display on the inaugural iPad mini. That gets the wrong story in the media. Not having a premium feature that most people haven't seen is very different from "can't get through a day without charging and you have to buy all new chargers".

FWIW I have one on order, and I expect to be disappointed in the non-retina display. I moved my iPad 3 to my daughter and went back to my iPad 2 a while ago and it just looks like a bunch of fuzzy mosaic tiles to me now when I try to read on it.

Re: Amazon.com criticising new iPad on homepage

#149

Post by ChrisClark »

podperson wrote: post #133
jusben1369 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Apple would never even show a competitor on their site, because they are the market leader.." - One thing that struck me from the iPad Mini announcement was just how much time they spent comparing it to the competition - a sure sign that they really do think there is competition now. Then they disappoint on the iPad numbers in their latest earnings - chalk that up to people waiting for iPad Mini's but that seems lik…

The "brilliant" part was convincing people it was $199, whereas in fact it's pretty close to $250 after shipping. I ended up buying a 16GB model ($275 including shipping) because the price difference was so small.

Though now with the 32GB at the old 16GB price it's an even better deal, advertised at $249 or $275 in the end, either way it's a great price.

Edit: Wait, you say the 8GB $199 is close to $250 after shipping, but the 16GB is $275 including shipping? Which is it? Either shipping is close to $50 or $25 exactly. Seems like you are trying to stretch the facts to justify your purchase.

Re: Amazon.com criticising new iPad on homepage

#150

Post by cma »

georgespencer wrote: post #16

There's so much about this which is disingenuous. I'm not surprised by this, but it's worth pointing out some of the tricks Amazon are employing here: 1. Much More for Much Less. Much More is obviously the kindle fire HD, and Much Less is the iPad Mini. Heck, if you remove the 'f' of 'for' you get to the central point here which is to turn the choice into 'Much More or Much Less'. 2. Kindle Fire HD branding is used (…

In the Apple keynote the nexus 7 looked a lot crappier than in real life; the bezel was all washed out grey instead of black etc.
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