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iPad Air

arstechnica.com

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Re: iPad Air

#161

Post by aeontech »

devx wrote: post #100
radicalbyte wrote: post #15

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.

I know at least 2 people who'd love to have the option to buy Wacom pens for iPads. Right now it doesn't really work unless you use some very hacky solutions. I wish Apple supported pressure sensitive pens. I'n also still hoping for an 11"-12" 16:9 iPad Pro (they can just make it longer like they did with the iPhone 5 that comes with a keyboard. It should basically be an iPad laptop (not hybrids, no point) that costs…

Have you seen http://intuoscreativestylus.wacom.com/en/ ? No idea how well it works, but might be just what they need.

Re: iPad Air

#162

Post by etchalon »

phaus wrote: 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.

There are quite a few third-party styli available for purchase. Apple doesn't want to include one because they don't want developers assuming the user has a stylus, and thus, crafting interfaces that require that level of precision. The iPad/iOS is about touch.

If the argument is that Apple should build one, but not include it by default, specifically for people who need one, I guess the response is "Why bother?"

Re: iPad Air

#163

Post by dreamfactory »

PilateDeGuerre wrote: post #64
ChuckMcM wrote: post #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? Lookin…

The 'appliance laptop' market is too similar to the failed netbook market for Apple to approach or care about, I think. If Apple were to come out with an new or hybrid category I don't think it would resemble an 'appliance laptop'. Afterall, the MacBook Air wasn't a competitor to the netbooks - it was a competitor to the ultrabooks being touted by Intel et al. The iPad was the sleeper competitor to the netbook and ki…

> What is the state of the art in usability in the 3rd party iPad keyboard market these days?

Logitech ultrathin is very expensive but a must buy for ipad productivity. Ergonomics are excellent for dual keyboard and screen driving (iOS doesn't make sense completely from keyboard) and it can be used as a full laptop replacement for a lot of business applications.

Re: iPad Air

#164

Post by paul_f »

jfb wrote: post #113
AJ007 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you look at the back of the iPhones, the iPhone 3GS was the last one to name itself. Recently an Apple store employee wasn't to happy that I kept saying iPad 4. I suppose in a world where change is frequent and incremental rather than dramatic and rare removing the version number is appropriate to minimize consumer confusion. What strikes me more about this iPad Air is the price points. $499 16GB wifi only is a ve…

The Retina Mini is $399. So, yeah, it's more than the N7, but it's not twice as much.

Close enough. $230 vs $400

Re: iPad Air

#165

Post by randomhunt »

avenger123 wrote: post #22

Where is the mac mini update? This is really what I want to see. An updated mac mini with Haswell would be really nice. I hope they just update it even if it didn't make it to the main announcements.

Yeah this was what I was hoping for as well. Does anybody know when its likely to be released?

Re: iPad Air

#166

Post by gjm11 »

snowwrestler wrote: post #142
phaus wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because every other tablet pc/tablet with a integrated pressure-sensitive stylus is much better than anything released thus far for the iPad by third parties.

Samsung and Microsoft license Wacom digitizer technology for their stylus tablets. It's not just that they provide a stylus--the tablet itself has additional capacitive sensors. Apple would have to totally re-engineer their touch sensor to accomodate that. The reason iPad styluses have fat tips is that they have to simulate a fingertip, which is the only thing that an iPad can sense. The tradeoff is that an iPad is f…

> the tablet itself has additional capacitive sensors.

Inductive, actually, which is why the stylus doesn't need to have a big fat tip.

Wacom also make a stylus for the iPad, which obviously has to be capacitive rather than inductive. I think it has batteries in it and sends tip pressure information to the iPad over Bluetooth.

(How the inductive sensing works: You have some conductive loops behind the display, and in the pen there is a ferrite rod with a conductive coil around it together with a capacitor to make a resonant circuit. You pass an alternating current at approximately the resonant frequency through some of the loops; it couples to the pen circuit by electromagnetic induction, the pen circuit resonates, and for a short time it produces, by induction again, a signal in all the other conducting coils behind the display. How much signal depends on the position and angle of the coil in the pen. If you have enough loops behind the display you can work out where the pen tip is accurately enough to draw with it. The capacitor in the resonant circuit is variable and adjusted by the tip pressure, and small changes in the resonant frequency produce phase changes in the signal that comes back, so you can measure the tip pressure too. Similar technology is used in some interactive whiteboards.)

Re: iPad Air

#167

Post by mikeash »

rje wrote: post #146
4ad wrote: post #20

> Sadly, one thing it doesn't appear to have—at least, not yet—is a gold casing. Can't tell if sarcasm or not.

Given that the gold 5s was incredibly popular at launch, would it really be surprising that someone wants an ipad with the same option?

And given that it was widely made fun of, would it really be surprising that he was joking?

Re: iPad Air

#168

Post by kenrikm »

suresk wrote: 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.

The 5/5s have 1GB, I would expect the new iPads to come in at the same.

Re: iPad Air

#169

Post by Kylekramer »

enraged_camel wrote: post #117
Kylekramer wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if anyone had said the Kindle was better, this snark would be relevant. But this is clearly a discussion of tablets' weight and whether the iPad Air's weight is a significant advance.

The weight does not exist in a vacuum. It has to be evaluated in light of not just the other specs, but also the user experience. Think about this: if the Honda Civic was upgraded to be able to do everything my SUV can, including towing, off-roading, cargo capacity, and overall comfort, but its size AND price stayed the same, would that not be considered revolutionary?

I guess that is a reasonable argument, but it was not at all what I got from your original post. Obviously all the features must be considered in concert under the umbrella of "user experience" but that is also nearly impossible to discuss as everyone's experience is personal and difficult to express. I don't think the iPad shaving off 200g is anywhere near upgrading a Civic to be able to do everything my SUV can for the same price and size, but I can see someone thinking that.

Re: iPad Air

#170

Post by ajdecon »

suresk wrote: 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.

The processor is Apple's own design and its performance is a distinguishing feature. RAM is commodity tech, and Apple will never pick a number that makes everyone happy. I agree that it'd be nice to get that number, but I can also see which one a marketer would rather feature.
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