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New iPad Air and iPad Mini

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Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#61

Post by kalleboo »

Apple's product naming is confusing.

Does anyone know what "Air" means?

I thought it used to mean smallest and lightest. But on the Mac the "MacBook" is smaller and lighter, and on the iPad we have the smaller iPad Mini, and the "iPad" is smaller and only 14 grams heavier.

From the MacBook Air line, we understood the definition to be "it's the cheap one", but that doesn't apply to the iPad line where it costs more.

So what does "Air" mean? It's there to "pad out" the product line? :/

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#62

Post by reacharavindh »

jackfrodo wrote: post #3

I'm 24 years old, work in software. Neither I nor any of my friends uses a tablet for work or pleasure. I guess I know a couple of people who have Surface Pro's, but that's about it. I'm wondering if the appeal of these begins when you get older? Seems like a lot of the market for these is people who are 50+, but I'd like to know if any people under 25 are interested in them.

I'm 33 years old, work in systems engineering. I use my tablet (ipad Pro 9") as an auxiliary device for pleasure and a little bit of work. It does the following, and does them well.

* Spotify player at home. Gets passed around to friends during a get together.

* Fancy annotator - I use the Apple Pencil to draw directly on pictures or even create from images scratch by sketching it out.

* Books - I have several epub purchases that live in Apple Books app. I can read those books on ipad while I'm on the go, or on Mac while at work.

* Netflix watcher while flights - I download some stuff before getting on a plane.

* Youtube by the kitchen - Great for watching cooking related videos while in kitchen.

* Look at photos directly on it, or cast the picture to Mac Mini(my HTPC).

* Notes - I use Apple Notes as my main note taking application on Mac. I rarely find need to handwrite something.. in English or in my native language. Quickly take the ipad out to do just that and continue seamlessly on my Mac.

I think the mileage of use of iPad depends on the user. I for one cannot stand development work, or even writing scripts on the thing. Yes, I have tried/played Pythonista and the bunch of apps in ios.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#63

Post by wlesieutre »

addicted wrote: post #9
crazygringo wrote: post #4

So happy the Mini didn't get discontinued as nearly everyone was assuming, with zero updates in three and a half years . Interesting it still seems visually identical to the last one. So while iPhones change their "look" to be recognizably new as a status symbol (e.g. the notch), nobody seems to care about that with their iPad. (I mean, I certainly don't.)

I can’t imagine using the iPad without the bezels. With a phone you grip the phone by its back, so you can go bezelless without impacting visibility and causing too many phantom screen taps. With a tablet, however, you will usually grip it by its sides. Having the bezels is almost a necessity here.

I have a 9.7" iPad Pro, the one from 2016 before it went up to a 10.5" screen and started the bezel shrink trend. You can hold it by the bezel one-handed, but I wouldn't do this for more than a few seconds.

If I'm holding it one-handed to write/draw with the pencil, I'm generally supporting it on the inside of my forearm and gripping the top corner with my hand to keep it there.

Two-handed I'll hold by the bottom corners to use the split keyboard once in a while.

In either case I don't really need the bezel. I do have a slim hard case on it though, maybe without that people are doing more of the "thumb on the front" for grip leverage.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#64

Post by swozey »

blakesterz wrote: post #51
jackfrodo wrote: post #3

I'm 24 years old, work in software. Neither I nor any of my friends uses a tablet for work or pleasure. I guess I know a couple of people who have Surface Pro's, but that's about it. I'm wondering if the appeal of these begins when you get older? Seems like a lot of the market for these is people who are 50+, but I'd like to know if any people under 25 are interested in them.

I'm pretty much double 24... my usual work machine is a big Ubuntu box I built, with 2 big monitors. I'm stuck working on my MacBookAir for some time and it just sucks. Not because the MacBook sucks, but it just sucks working on a single small monitor, and the machine itself is slower at everything. Working on any laptop is just a big step down from a real machine for me. I can't even imagine working on an iPad, thou…

I can't work on a laptop at all. My work machine is a MBP i7 w/ 32gb ram. I plug it into a thunderbolt dock tied to 2 28" ultrawides that is also chained to my desktop (8 core, 32gb ryzen box) and I just flip over to the MBP when I need to work.

Docks are obscenely expensive but the quality of life improvement is high. You're unfortunately very limited with the MBA, though. Perhaps see if you can replace it with a MBP?

I DO like having my "work" machine be a powerful laptop in the event that I need to travel or some emergency arises where I HAVE to find a coffee shop and write a PR without monitors, as much as I won't enjoy the experience.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#65

Post by Someone1234 »

gpmcadam wrote: post #24
hopler wrote: post #2

Steve Jobs must be rolling in his grave. 4 separate iPad lines, plus extra screen size variation? How is an "Air" variant useful? Why does the iPad Pro have a screen size choice, but the mini is a separate line? It should be iPad and iPad Pro, with screen size choices in each line.

Arguably you could group them as Pro and Consumer. - Pro: iPad Pro (11" and 12.9" - FaceID, Bezel-less) - Consumer: iPad mini, iPad Air and iPad (TouchID, Bezel) I don't see how this differs too much from Steve's approach?

If iPad Mini, iPad Air, and "iPad" were part of the same line I'd agree. You've basically grouped them as if they were (they aren't).

The Apple website is a mess:

https://i.imgur.com/iGnlSUl.png

A more Jobs approach would be more akin to this:

https://i.imgur.com/R15IcVS.png

The Mini would simply be another "iPad" size.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#66

Post by _xluo »

komali2 wrote: post #32

More and more I get the sense that there is a gap in the market for a device that ticks these boxes: Ultraportable Stylus enabled Fully capable desktop operating system Ports to allow hook-up to external monitor I wanted something like this as a frequently traveling and programming, conference hand written note taking engineer. Then I notice some of the designers in my office experimenting with iPads, Pencils, and Ma…

I work for HP so take this with a grain of salt. Have you seen the HP Spectre x360? I was in the market for something very similar to what it seems like you're after. I was completely willing to use another company's device if it was better than what HP makes but we actually came out as the best value for money. The screen flips around for a decent tablet experience, it has thunderbolt 3 with power delivery and a pretty good feeling keyboard. Battery life is approximately 6 or 7 hours with light use. As far as I know, we also offer Linux installations but I always recommend installing your own.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#67

Post by svantana »

komali2 wrote: post #32

More and more I get the sense that there is a gap in the market for a device that ticks these boxes: Ultraportable Stylus enabled Fully capable desktop operating system Ports to allow hook-up to external monitor I wanted something like this as a frequently traveling and programming, conference hand written note taking engineer. Then I notice some of the designers in my office experimenting with iPads, Pencils, and Ma…

Interestingly, this new 7" ipad is really good value for money with regards to raw compute. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it's possible to buy a new complete computer scoring 11k on geekbench for under $500. This one is $400, with an efficient fanless design and a nice screen as a bonus. If it could run linux, it could potentially be an interesting server solution. That's a first for apple I think, to be the cheapest available performance per dollar. Of course the big caveat is that it's locked into the ios ecosystem...

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#68

Post by drewg123 »

Why did they keep the lightning connector? The Pro uses a USB-C. I wonder why they stuck with lightning for these models?

I'm an Android guy, fed up with the clunky experience on Android / Amazon tablets, and thinking of making the switch & getting an air, mainly for media consumption during business travel. The last thing I want is a unique-to-me charging adapter that I'm sure I'm going to leave in a hotel or on a plane and only realize when the battery is dying with 3 hours left in a flight. If it's USB-C, then I can just carry my phone charger (and backup) and not worry about it.

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#69

Post by intrasight »

jackfrodo wrote: post #3

I'm 24 years old, work in software. Neither I nor any of my friends uses a tablet for work or pleasure. I guess I know a couple of people who have Surface Pro's, but that's about it. I'm wondering if the appeal of these begins when you get older? Seems like a lot of the market for these is people who are 50+, but I'd like to know if any people under 25 are interested in them.

I've an 8in Fire HD with just three apps that I use: Chrome, VLC, and DS File. Super light-weight. Price of a trip to grocery store. Why wouldn't you have a tablet on hand?

Re: New iPad Air and iPad Mini

#70

Post by scott_s »

jackfrodo wrote: post #3

I'm 24 years old, work in software. Neither I nor any of my friends uses a tablet for work or pleasure. I guess I know a couple of people who have Surface Pro's, but that's about it. I'm wondering if the appeal of these begins when you get older? Seems like a lot of the market for these is people who are 50+, but I'd like to know if any people under 25 are interested in them.

I'm 37. I use my iPad at home for when I want to watch videos or look something up on the internet, but I don't want to get out my work laptop. I try to limit my laptop usage at home to actual work (or things that are work-like, such as managing personal finances). So my iPad is for casual browsing and news reading. I also have an iPhone, and which one I reach for at home depends on my whim.
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