Live data from Hacker News

iPad Air

arstechnica.com

41–50 of 286 posts

Re: iPad Air

#41
Interesting, not sure if its enough to make be upgrade but still. Weirdly when the 'ipad air' moniker leaked I figured they were going to a do an iOS version of the Macbook Air to capture the 'appliance laptop' market that the Chromebook and Surface 2 are gunning for.

The graphics and cpu boosts are nice (and nice that they are accompanied by a run time boost) but what about the camera? What about the sensors? Looking forward to the full appraisal post event.

Re: iPad Air

#42
post #24

Can someone explain to me the obsession with "thinner"? This model is 2mm thinner and it's touted as taking "years of work". Lighter, I understand. Thin is a good goal, but 2mm is pretty pointless when you're just going to put a 5-10mm thick cover/case on it anyway.

>Can someone explain to me the obsession with "thinner"?

To explain this to you one would have to explain the concept of marketing.

Re: iPad Air

#43
post #7

One of the more interesting aspects of this is that they're keeping the iPad 2 at $399 (compared to the Air's $499). I can't imagine the value proposition for a new iPad 2 is at all attractive at that price point (I bought mine used for ~$250 last summer.)

This is definitely for enterprise and school purchases. We have an educational app, Kodable, and a huge number of our users are still on iPad 2s. When you buy in volume, that extra $100 goes a long way, and, for better or worse, schools and enterprise don't always want cutting edge tech.

Re: iPad Air

#44
post #31
post #24

Can someone explain to me the obsession with "thinner"? This model is 2mm thinner and it's touted as taking "years of work". Lighter, I understand. Thin is a good goal, but 2mm is pretty pointless when you're just going to put a 5-10mm thick cover/case on it anyway.

Considering the battery they need to power that hardware, while getting that battery life, getting it that thin is a big deal.

The parent commenter isn't arguing the engineering feats required to achieve the extra bit of "thin-ness"; They're asking why that extra 2mm is so desirable in the first place. At the risk of sounding small-minded, I really don't see why today's phones and tablets should need to be much thinner than they already are. Sure, keep miniaturizing the internal components, but use the saved space for extra battery cells or storage. I'm not trying to fit a second phone in my pocket.

Re: iPad Air

#45
post #32

No TouchID? Surprised they'd introduce a new feature on their premium phone and not include it on the (currently) premium iPads, especially since the other 5s hardware (motion coprocessor, 64-bit architecture) has been carried over. I would have thought they'd want to build a basic foundation for the future, e.g. "all devices better than the 5s include 64 bit, motion, and TouchID". When you vary on a feature (like To…

Mostly agree - although you can only use TouchID now to unlock your phone and buy stuff from Apple. So I think they probably want to give it a year out in the wild to see exactly how secure it is, so they can then unleash it with an API to developers. That's my hunch.

It's also not as useful on a tablet, so there's less hurry.

A phone is often in public spaces, and unlocked dozens of times a day. That's rare for a tablet.

Re: iPad Air

#47
post #24

Can someone explain to me the obsession with "thinner"? This model is 2mm thinner and it's touted as taking "years of work". Lighter, I understand. Thin is a good goal, but 2mm is pretty pointless when you're just going to put a 5-10mm thick cover/case on it anyway.

That's the argument I make when people say my Lumia 920 is too thick and too heavy compared to their iPhone or Galaxy, then proceed to take the case off their phone to show me the difference. The real difference is, my Lumia has been naked since day 1, and dropped many times over. It's a Nokia. Yeah, it's thick and heavy compared to an iPhone, but it also doesn't need a case. An iPhone with a normal case is thicker and heavier.

Re: iPad Air

#48
post #9

> Apple says is 8 times faster and has 72 times better graphics performance than the old processor. I am always amused by this.

That was with respect to the original iPad compared to the iPad Air . I may have misheard. I had the video minimized while working on other things.

Right. But the number seems very interesting. Almost every update you see a similar number. Power of Morse Law.

Re: iPad Air

#49
Revolution and innovation don't happy everyday, that's what makes them special and amazing. Expecting one company to be revolutionary and innovative once a year is expecting too much, once every ten years is probably expecting too much. Good incremental steps is not only expected, it's probably all that's possible.

Most people go through their entire life without thinking up something innovative, much less making it.

Re: iPad Air

#50
With all due respect, I really hope HN doesn't end up turning into an Apple fanatic site as was the case on certain tech blogs a few years ago.

Also 2mm thinner warrants the "Air" title? I seriously think Apple are parodying themselves sometimes...

Disclaimer: I am not any sort of "fanboy", I own an iPad and an android phone because they seem to be most suitable for me in those areas, I just feel as though HN is getting a bit caught up in the "hype" of Apple today.

Post reply on HN