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New iPad Air, powered by M4

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Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#651

Post by Cthulhu_ »

jimbokun wrote: post #206
spudlyo wrote: post #18

I'm about to head to the gym with my 12.9-inch 2017 vintage iPad Pro, which is still going strong. I prop it up on the elliptical trainer every other day or so for entertaining me while I grind out an hour of cardio. I use it for reading, watching YouTube, listening to music, audiobooks, etc. It's been my regular gym buddy for years, and is showing no signs of needing to be replaced. It's stuck on iPadOS 17.7.10, whi…

There is no greater punishment for a corporation’s shareholders and employees than making a product so good and so reliable it doesn’t need to be replaced for a very long time.

Which is... an odd thing to say because Apple's support is ~7 years nowadays, which is more than most of their competition, and their devices are not EOL by then. And yet they're one of the biggest / wealthiest companies in the world.

I think your comment is incorrect. some companies / shareholders push for planned obsolescence, but I can't accuse Apple of that.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#652

Post by Cthulhu_ »

atoav wrote: post #212
jimbokun wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no greater punishment for a corporation’s shareholders and employees than making a product so good and so reliable it doesn’t need to be replaced for a very long time.

Which is why we need regulations on the subject.

And we do: https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/news/new-eu-rules...

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#653

Post by Cthulhu_ »

NetMageSCW wrote: post #444
atoav wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why we need regulations on the subject.

No, we really don’t. Perhaps regulations on recycling, but punishing poorer people who can’t afford an iPad isn’t the answer.

Can you explain? Good rules on long term maintenance and repairability (which are in effect, see [0]) allow for cheaper, secondhand devices to remain viable for said poorer people. Market forces also exist so you can get a tablet or smartphone for less than €100 - and they also fall under said laws so they should work and be supported for a reasonable amount of time.

[0] https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/news/new-eu-rules...

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#654

Post by Cthulhu_ »

isodev wrote: post #174
HaloZero wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd be surprised by the horsepower some games require, my wife plays Love and Deep Space and she recently just bought a new iPad because the game requires some good specs and a LOT of storage space. She's not a "serious gamer" as your parlance.

But the iPad is not a console … it doesn’t even do Steam. All that horsepower to play … a couple of forever titles and that’s it. I have the M1 iPad Air and it has never used that processor to its fullest. I think iPad is just an odd device for most people

> But the iPad is not a console

This is a very naive take - the iPad and iPhone are both multibillion gaming devices, and to dismiss it is short-sighted.

I'd even claim (but can't look up statistics due to a restrictive company network) that singular mobile games like Honor of Kings generate more revenue than 95% of Steam games. Yet a lot of people that style themselves gamers (like myself) never even heard of it.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#655

Post by Cthulhu_ »

theshrike79 wrote: post #629
agoodusername63 wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

mobile gaming is much bigger than HN would believe. A lot of people do in fact, play more than a couple forever titles. I know multiple weebs that want more powerful ipads to play mobage.

People are bad with scale, everyone thinks moves make a lot of money. They really don't. Just Gaming in general made something like $200 BILLION in revenue in 2025. Movies made ... $33B globally. And of that $200B, mobile games were over half. If the average HN'er would just think of the money they spend on their hobbies (or don't it usually doesn't end well =P) and now apply that to mobile games. They're a hobby or…

Exactly. They read headlines like "Game X did 100 MILLION revenue in 2025!" and think that's a lot, meanwhile mobile games nobody's even heard of do 20x that.

But I'd argue that the demographics for "people that read gaming news websites" and "people that play and pay for lucrative mobile games" hardly overlap.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#656

Post by dijit »

mercutio2 wrote: post #427
upmind wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're quite scared to take risks I think, from what I heard it seems it was meant to be released already but they've delayed it a bunch, I wonder if in part due to AVP failure.

“Scared” to “take risks”? This is a bizarre way of saying “if they ship it and it has reliability problems, they know they’re skating on thin ice”. Apple’s brand has taken a beating (I’m as aghast with the latest macOS as the next nerd), but people love that when Apple ships a product, it generally works and the hardware doesn’t break. Butterfly keyboards are a terrible stain on the hardware team’s reputation. “Scare…

I agree, Apple gets hit from all directions.

It's expensive (though largely comparable to business machines) so people dunk on it being low value for money,

People dunk on them for not taking risks, but when there's a reliability problem that would be sort-of acceptable for another product it becomes international news.

When they do take "risks" (like USB-C only) people dunk on them for taking away choice.

Now, I'll be the first to admit, I'm one of the people dunking on them a lot, I was not a fan of the headphone jack removal, butterfly keyboards, discoverability of 3D touch, change of UI paradigm away from Skeumorphism etc;etc;etc -- but I feel like a lot of the other manufacturers seem to get a comparative free pass, which feels unfair.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#657

Post by cj »

halapro wrote: post #577
cj wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not wrong, but I hate the idea of an entire generation growing up without ever using a full powered computer. (Full powered is the wrong word, more like fully capable computer) We have an entire generation who only knows how to interact with "usability optimized" interfaces with zero friction and zero learning curve. Not knowing how to use a regular computer creates a barrier to entry for programming and other…

I get it, there's now definitely a hurdle between "I got a computing device" and "I can program on it". I don’t think it's a huge hurdle though, you can and will be able to upgrade or just buy a full computer when and if you encounter its limitations. Your car can't compete in races, but it doesn't affect you because you're probably not interested in racing. You're more interested in comfort and price.

Manual vs. automatic is a better comparison.

Driving a manual isn’t a required life experience by any means. But the overwhelming majority of people who know how to drive manual appreciate the knowledge and experience. (And it’s not necessarily more expensive, if anything Apple products are typically more expensive)

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#658

Post by dkrich »

I’ve been astonished at how bad the battery is in my base iPad I bought last year.

Granted I’m switching to it from an iPhone 17 pro max but still the thing goes from 100% to 80% overnight without being used and a 40 minute Zwift ride routinely drains 15-20%. Makes me much more reluctant to buy another as it has to be tethered to a charger.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#659

Post by drw85 »

Havoc wrote: post #117

To what end? I genuinely don’t get the purpose of these high end processors in a tablet. Like more power is nice but what would I do on it that needs it? Serious gamers mostly steer clear of Apple. Video editors presumably use desktops/laptops. Browsing doesn’t need power. Video watching doesn’t need it. Programming on iPads is cumbersome. Who is the target audience that gains from this?

Since there is FinalCut and Logic Pro on iPad now, larger projects absolutely benefit from this.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#660

Post by KoolKat23 »

moolcool wrote: post #214

The iPad would go from a never-buy to a buy-right-away for me, if they added user profiles. It'd be a nice thing to have on your coffee table, where anyone in the household can pick it up and be logged into all of their stuff. Windows XP had this feature. Chromebooks have this feature. It's inexcusable that such an expensive gadget can only have one user.

I mean Android tablets have this feature.
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