Live data from Hacker News

iPad Air

arstechnica.com

121–130 of 286 posts

Re: iPad Air

#121
post #23

So their new commercial for the iPad focuses on the fact that so many people use it for productivity, so why can't Apple create a decent, first-party pressure sensitive stylus, so we don't have to deal with expensive, clunky, third-party solutions.

Steve Jobs said it best: "if you see a stylus, they blew it."

Lets pretend paper is the leading technology for communication. The leader in the paper industry thinks you should write/draw with your finger. You have ten of them.

But, some people, need more precision than a human finger allows. They use an object with a finer point than our fingers. But, the rest of us are okay with just finger painting. The paper was designed to be large enough for fingers to use.

It would be nice to sometimes use a different input method on paper when the finger won't cut it. I see nothing wrong with having more than one input method. There is no right or wrong way.

Re: iPad Air

#122
post #107

I find it slightly odd that Apple goes into a decent amount of technical detail on the processor in the iPad - calling out the number of registers and transistors - but still doesn't ever disclose how much RAM is in the thing. This is especially vexing, as my biggest complaint with my current iPad is that it doesn't have enough of it.

Thats also why the Ipad1 now crashes on almost every app now - just has 256 megs of ram.

Re: iPad Air

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My, how entitled we are! Your priorities may differ from the tens of millions who have bought these, the most popular tablets in the world. Apple is making safe, welcome changes to their products, which is something you can do in times of plenty. Personally, I will be happy to have an iPad that lasts longer, doesn't take ages to turn a page in a high-rez PDF, and is half a pound lighter. What happened to doing someth…

> Why not a Surface or whatnot, if that's your priority? Oh, that'd what I'd been planning to do. Only it turns out that the battery only lasts 6hrs, compared to 12hrs in the otherwise comparable MBA :(

So their 'non-revolutionary' changes have somehow produced a better product for you than their competitors?

Re: iPad Air

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is making safe, welcome changes to their products, which is something you can do in times of plenty. Apple is also the company that made risky, aggressive bets cannibalizing their own products during times of plenty and was highly praised for doing so. (I speak of the iPod) I'm not surprised when people wish to see that kind of movement again.

What product(s) did they cannibalize with the iPod?

I think the poster meant how the iPhone cannibalized the iPod.

Re: iPad Air

#125
post #62
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.

Totally agree with this. In the keynote they played one of their new ads like they normally do, with the usual monologue from Jony Ive and he said something like "It's difficult to make something smaller AND more powerful at the same time" Well... stop trying to make it smaller then. Would prefer bigger improvements in battery life or performance or some new feature over a 2mm gain of um... space...

Whereas the massive weight reduction is what will enable me to buy an iPad air instead of an iPad mini.

The larger device is far more usable for collaborative work than the mini, and the weight difference makes it far more portable.

Re: iPad Air

#126

Lighter. Faster. More magical. Sigh. Disappointing. What happened to doing something revolutionary? Where is the the text input? Apple are driving by creatives. When can I write my book on my Apple tablet? And what's with the 16gb model. As they said, it has been almost 4 years now. And the 16gb model persists.

If you look back at their last decade or so, Apple only rarely releases revolutionary things. The bulk of Apple product releases have been incremental upgrades. We just forget about those more easily.

Re: iPad Air

#127
post #25

Okay. Looks good. Recently, Apple seems big on iteration and small on innovation. Miniaturising an existing product is definitely a good iteration, but when I see Microsoft experimenting with touch covers and the like, I do wish Apple would try one or two new things again.

Touch covers are a bad idea. That's why Apple isn't fooling around with them.

Re: iPad Air

#128
post #37
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1 lbs for a 10" tablet is not revolutionary? It's a welcome incremental upgrade, but that's not what most people would consider revolutionary. The 10" Sony tablet is 1.09 pounds. Revolutionary would be something like eye tracking and constant voice input to make it possible to do completely hands-free usage.

Kindle HDX 8.9" a similar size, but 0.82 lbs (20% lighter)

But that's hardly revolutionary, given that the HDX is ~20% smaller.

Re: iPad Air

#129

From Apple's tech specs, the only differences I can see between the Retina Mini and the Air is the weight and size of the screen (the resolution is the same). So the extra $100 is for bigger heavier pixels?

More materials and more battery. That's what you are paying the extra for. The larger device is better for collaboration and creative use whereas the smaller one is better for casual use and reading, but both are equally capable when it comes to choice of software.

Re: iPad Air

#130
post #79

At this point they are not even trying anymore. They put up the same tactic as with the iPhone 5C (marginally cheaper, definitely worse device than the top line just to make the step to the high-end device seem more reasonable and will be taken faster whilst getting rid of their old iPad supply), made everything a bit thinner, did some software updates and upgraded the hardware components. So, enjoy your time waiting…

Why is this comment at the top? I don't know what else people want. You can't rewrite the script every year, iteration after iteration apple has improved this device and it only gets better. There is nothing wrong with that.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN