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iPad Air

arstechnica.com

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Re: iPad Air

#201

Post by auctiontheory »

madeofpalk wrote: post #192
auctiontheory wrote: post #188

Is there really enough here to persuade a current iPad owner to upgrade? Not for me. Apple's really going to have to push developers to crank out resource-intensive apps.

> Apple's really going to have to push developers to crank out resource-intensive apps. Why? I would say Apple is more interested in having developers crank out _great_ apps, rather than resource intensive. It just so happens these are usually more resource intensive.

I disagree that great apps need to be resource intensive. To borrow from another industry, "12 Angry Men" is still a great movie despite a complete lack of whiz bang special effects. A great app is about the story, not the photo-realism.

At least for the upgrade market (of existing iPad owners), Apple does not benefit (much) from great apps that run fine on an iPad 1 or iPad 2.

Re: iPad Air

#202

Post by taude »

dman wrote: post #122
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.

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

My iPad 1 has been basically a brick for awhile.

Re: iPad Air

#203

Post by smacktoward »

gregpilling wrote: post #189
Osiris wrote: 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.

The modern electronic gadget focus on "thinner" is similar in thought to the "longer, lower, wider" focus of cars from the late 40s and 50s. It gives marketers and salespeople something to talk about. Customers want to hear about "What's new" and not about a perfectly serviceable alternative that has been on the market for years. For six years of my life I owned a Snap-on Tools franchise. Every week people would jump…

"Thinner" is also a good sales talking point because unless you know a lot about computer hardware it sounds self-evidently better. Why wouldn't you want something you carry around to be easier to carry? To the average person it's a no-brainer, because they don't connect "thinner" to things like "smaller battery you have to pay $100 to have pried out when it dies."

Re: iPad Air

#204

Post by jasonlotito »

enraged_camel wrote: post #90
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.

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

Steve Jobs also said you'd write your apps for the iPhone using JavaScript. Or that you don't need multitasking.

Here's the thing, it's not the stylus that is the problem. It's the dependency on a stylus. There is a difference between doing it, and doing it right.

Re: iPad Air

#205

Post by teamonkey »

kenrikm wrote: post #168
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.

Though you're probably right, iPads have had 1GB of RAM since the iPad 3.

Re: iPad Air

#206

Post by potatolicious »

tnorthcutt wrote: post #115
sliverstorm wrote: post #95

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?

OP may have meant iPhone, but the best example is the iPod -> iPod Mini, as well as the iPod Mini -> iPod Nano. Both products were flying off the shelves and racking up massive sales when Apple undercut themselves with the cheaper product (the Mini) or completely replaced it with a radically different form factor (the Nano).

In both cases it seemed like money on the table, but in both cases the products became the core of Apple's product offering and dramatically out-sold their predecessors.

Re: iPad Air

#207

Post by ek »

I really, really dislike how much hate there is in this thread. I feel like someone always ends up making similar comments every time there's a new launch from Apple/Microsoft/Google/whomever, and there is never any change. Do you guys get psyched about anything?

On the one end we have "Oh man, iPad air only has 1GB of RAM and 16GB of flash, how stupid" and on the other end we have "iPad hasn't cured cancer yet; would have expected more from Apple under Steve Jobs."

Has it occurred to people to like, take a step back for a moment and think about how amazing it is that we as a society have advanced to the point where we can even have something like iPad? The iPad, and devices like it, have done so much to enrich so many people's lives, and isn't that what we're about in this community? We're all trying to make people's lives better with computers, and Apple is as much a part of this mission as any of the people on this site.

Maybe it's easy to get karma by ranting and raving, especially on a site like this where controversy drives more upvotes than downvotes simply because more people have upvote-only privileges. But I want us to be better than this; I don't want this to be the norm for discussion in this community.

Re: iPad Air

#208

Post by gfodor »

falcolas wrote: post #101
Cookingboy wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? The new Mac Pro isn't even available for sale yet. That revolution design was only announced at WWDC a few months back. Are you sure you are not confusing it with the MacbookPro?

Erm, yup. You're right; I was thinking of the Macbook Pro. I think I've put a mental block on the Mac Pro, but that's due to my use cases for a computer having no intersections with the Mac Pro's use cases. That said, calling it revolutionary seems a bit much - the form factor is certainly new and unique, but none of its components (or its roles) are distinct from that of the previous Mac Pros. Certainly not on the s…

If your bar is so high that the new Mac Pro's case is not called "innovative" I don't know what to tell you. It is almost self evidentially a out-of-the-box, non incremental approach to how to design the case of a desktop machine. You can decide you don't like it, but it's clearly innovative.

Re: iPad Air

#209

Post by onedev »

IBM wrote: post #92
bsimpson wrote: post #30

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…

Touch ID sensors are supply constrained and putting it on more things than the 5s wouldn't help.

Probably the most logical answer to the question. Sometimes in the midst of all the speculation we forget about the simplest explanations.

Re: iPad Air

#210

Post by acchow »

ek wrote: post #207

I really, really dislike how much hate there is in this thread. I feel like someone always ends up making similar comments every time there's a new launch from Apple/Microsoft/Google/whomever, and there is never any change. Do you guys get psyched about anything ? On the one end we have "Oh man, iPad air only has 1GB of RAM and 16GB of flash, how stupid" and on the other end we have "iPad hasn't cured cancer yet; wou…

> Has it occurred to people to like, take a step back for a moment and think about how amazing it is that we as a society have advanced to the point where we can even have something like iPad? We're all trying to make people's lives better with computers, and Apple is as much a part of this mission as any of the people on this site.

Anyone who bleeds in six colors is quietly celebrating the achievements in this new launch; enriching and delighting lives with technology is exactly what they've always believed in.

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