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IPad 2 33% Thinner, 2x Faster, iOS 4.3
Steve Jobs was on hand today deliver a speech at Apple's iPad 2 event. The
new iPad will feature dual-core processors, 2x faster CPU, and 9X faster
graphics, front and rear cameras. And it's 33% thinner. Prices range from $499 to $829 depending on if
you want 3G and 64 gigs, and it ships March 11. iOS 4.3 will ship at the same time.
Looks like mostly a hardware bump and some minor functionality improvements. But will lot of apps emerge that will take advantage of the big increase in speed(at the cost of alienating the 15 million existing iPad 1 owners)?
This space for rent.
I mean, unless you need to use it to shimmy a door handle because you don't want to ruin your credit card...
Someone had to do it.
Will the $829 model be 65% hipper than the $499 model? I *really* want to impress the other guys in the drum circle.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
As an iPad owner the main upgrade incentive would be a higher resolution screen. I see there's no mention of this spec?
So can we take it the iPad 2 will be the same as the original iPad?
It's a tour that covers 64 cities. You know rock&roll Nerd!!! (just kidding)
Do we hv to wait for iPad 3 then? Or never ever?
iOS 4.3 is compatible with any device that is able to run iOS 4... so this includes various iPhones, iPod touches and all iPads.
To be fair, the fact that they bought first-generation products proves that they secretly enjoy suffering and inevitable alienation.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Kept you from buying anything else, didn't it?
No. The copycat nature and ho-hum'ness of 'anything else' is what kept me from buying it.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
The iPad is still assembled by cheap Chinese labor who sometimes get suicidal and jump off the Foxconn factory roof so they installed nets. But hey, it's 33% thinner!!!!!
BTW, I did the numbers a while back...
Foxconn's employee suicide rates are 1/3 the suicide rate of the general U.S. population. We should send people over there to figure out why their employees are so happy and healthy.
I'm not entirely convinced this is aimed at upgraders, apart from bleeding edge users but seems to be more for drawing in the second round of buyers. Those that wanted the camera feature, those that have seen what competitors have produced and are now making their purchase decision. There seems to be a minor price reduction on the existing IP1 too, £329 for the 16Gig is showing at time of writing on the UK store, though the IP2 is not listed there yet. No doubt there's so much stock of the IP1 that a price drop will cause more fence sitters to buy in at the older model if they decide they don't want the newest.
It's a nice tactic and these guys really are the pro marketeers. They could sell water to fish.
This follows (loosely) Intel's tick - tock model and doesn't overwhelm the consumer too much allowing production methods to be refined to lower cost for the next tick product whilst still staying in a good market position with the tock item.
Nope. The 2nd gen ipod touch and 3g iphone can run iOS4 but won't get this upgrade.
Gone!
Yeah, it's not like you can make a chip faster without increasing its clock speed.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Things normal people wanted and didn't get: USB port, wireless syncing, lower price, 7-inch version
Things normal people wanted and did get: faster, more powerful, same battery life, white body, two cameras, FaceTime
Things geeks wanted and didn't get: oh, hell, I'll be here all day. The geeks can go buy a Xoom to hack instead.
No flash. Less features than a XOOM. Lame.
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I guess that's why I drive an El Camino...
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I really dig my iPad, and have no reason to get this new one.
Except..Apple is going to make me download the new OS, making my iPad 1 slow to a crawl. Just like they did to my iPhone 3G.
Yes I know I could never update. But, that doesn't seem like a reasonable thing to ask your customers to do.
No 4G. Less capacity than my thumb drive. Lame.
What I wonder is: how well would Flash web video play with these faster graphics, and exactly how much would it impact the battery life?
(I'm not sure which is more of an issue with Flash: the battery impact, or Apple's fear of web Flash apps duplicating in-store apps. Probably both in equal measure.)
I love the iFire and iShotgun app as demonstrated in this review.
The device is under 9mm thick. Making the battery replacable means you have to add two more layers of thickness around the battery module itself, another layer inside the battery bay, a little space for fit tolerance, all adding up to non-trivial increase in overall thickness just so a small percentage of users can actually replace the battery (most who say "I want a removable battery" won't actually do it). Never mind the extra space/weight needed for the connector, interface circuitry, and other stuff. In addition, the replacement battery would have to be almost as wide as the iPad, only ~3mm thick, and somehow strong enough to not bend & break. Solving all that just isn't worth the problem being solved.
The 10+ hour run time is real. Are you REALLY not going to have a chance to recharge, using a 2 cu in charger, during that time?
In a year of heavy use, I've drained my iPad battery at most a half-dozen times, maybe twice when having a charger nearby wasn't a viable solution.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
I doubt if you have the kind of access to Chinese medical and criminal investigation data that one would need create such a study.
The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
In all of the iOS devices I have ever had, I have not once had to replace a battery. And even if you need to Apple can do that for you, which is something like once every three years at worst, probably longer (since as I said I have not had to replace a battery in a device yet).
In any device if I wanted longer use time (for instance on an international flight) I always found an external power pack preferable, as they can be smaller than a second battery for a real device - I mean think of how an iPad extra battery would have to be shaped, all by itself it would be pretty bulky and large, where an external battery can opt to be much thicker but also far less higher and wider to provide more battery life in a more compact package.
Apple has made the right choice by making the devices as small as possible, and moving the occasional need to longer use into an external form that can be customized into many shapes and sizes and capacities instead of just one monolithic replacement battery.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The same has been true of iPhones. Programmers and designers generally over-estimate what you can get out of a piece of hardware, and it runs slower than it should. New rev of the hardware comes out, and the slow-feeling apps now feel crisp. Everyone starts developing for the new platform, and repeat.
Sure, it will "run" on an iPad 1. But given a few years, and the iPad 1 owners will be a small minority, and everyone will expect apps that push the hardware.
The ______ Agenda
As a person casually interested in tablet computers, I never looked with too much interest at CPU speed. Screen size, application availability, OS and user interface usability and connection ports (USB is a must) are my most relevant factors in the choice. And price. I imagine, however, that even if I were an Apple enthusiast, CPU speed for a tablet would be less important than screen size and user interface. The iPad 2 is definitely an improved model, but no Apple enthusiast will be swept off his/her feet, though some will feel the urge to upgrade, no doubt. The rest of us won't really care about the iPad 2. In fact, at this point a much cheaper Android-based tablet computer may start to look more interesting than before ("Hey, even Apple didn't add much to their own iPad, why not get this $SEMI_ANONYMOUS_BRAND tablet instead?").
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Unless I missed something, it still only comes with an embedded hard drive, forcing you to shell out $$ for a larger hard drive. Even my NookColor has an SD slot (and is also rootable on Android). I feel pretty much about this as I did the first one--looks cool, but considering it costs approx. the same as a laptop (except without Flash), it's an expensive toy.
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
The iPad is still assembled by cheap Chinese labor who sometimes get suicidal and jump off the Foxconn factory roof so they installed nets.
Well if that bothers you I imagine you aren't buying electronics from any other hardware maker that hides the numbers Apple publishes and produces gear at factories that treat the workers even worse. How do you think a $300 Android tablet gets to be that cheap anyway...
Back to your cave now.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
0%, because all programs still have to run on the original iPad. You can have a "fragmentation free ecosystem" or you can have real advancement each generation It's kind of hard to have both. This is why PC games and some Android games have adjustable graphics settings for different hardware, but Apple deems that to be "fragmentation."
The new audio output which supports 5.1 dolby and 1080p is huge. The HD output is especially nice for teachers since it supports any app, not just specific Apple sanctioned ones like the first iPad (at 480p).
And it looks like Apples own playground is starting to build up. Like FaceTime works only between iDevices and macs.
I haven't owned an Apple product before, but after following Engadget's live food I have to say iPad 2 looks fantastic. Really, the Android tablets are so far from it that it would be almost stupid to choose something else. I guess I'm losing it against Apple, but I think I'm going to buy it as soon as it comes out in Europe.
Same here. Funny how they say they got 9x faster graphics and 2x faster CPU, but didn't bother implementing retina display, which, at it's worst-case point, would take a 4x higher toll on the device (assuming quadrupling total pixel count).
I think the manufacturing of the higher-res displays was the problem. Either they ended up being too expensive or there were too many defects.
I need a tablet to read stuff. I want to do it in a way that would match the visual experience of reading a book.
I work in the art departments of various movies. Lots of reference images and paintings floating around. I would reaaaaally like to go paperless. I'm not the only one, the iPad is popping up all over Hollywood. It may even finally convince the big-wigs that wireless internet should be part of every facility. I also know a couple of photographers that would love to have a high-res iPad for reviewing photos.
Mas pixels por favor.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Looks like Jobs is 33% thinner, too. Poor guy.
Actually Facetime is an open spec, anyone can implement a device that supports it...
Now how you find them from an iOS to non-IOS device, that part I'm not sure how easy it is to implement.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
All the "used" ipads on ebay and craigs list are still within 20% of MSRP...
Your Used ipad 1 should go for at LEAST $200.00 less than what you bought it for.
APPLE even discounted new ipad 1's by $100.00 as well.. I can buy a NEW Ipad 1 for $399.00 so your used one is worth $299...
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
In addition to the lack of retina display, there are some underlying technical issues which prevent professional photographers from using the iPad. Many photographers would like to use an app related to Adobe's Lightroom for immediate importing, tagging, and initial review and screening of photos from a photoshoot. But because of Apple's restrictions on direct writing of files and a few other technical issues, this is not apparently possible at this time, according to Adobe. If Apple and Adobe were to find a way to resolve these issues, the iPad would be a perfect device for a photographer to use in conjunction with his existing work-flow. As it stands now, though, the iPad is only really useful for displaying work that's been reviewed and edited on other machines, or for doing the very simple manipulations and organization allowed by Apple's own apps.
I would disagree. The iOS APIs specifically allow for graceful degradation of framerate in 3d rendering. To give a concrete example, when I switched from the iPhone 3GS to the 4, framerates for 3d games and augmented reality apps shot through the roof.
As far as adding adjustable graphics settings, it's completely unnecessary. With only a handful of devices to support, standard practice to to pre-select optimized settings for each device, which are transparently loaded without user involvement. Very elegant and very very easy for developers to implement.
You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas
Most games for iOS include high-resolution textures which are loaded when you run it on an iPhone4 or an iPad and lower-resolution textures when the game runs on an iPhone 3G(S) or iPod Touch. New games will surely make use of the power of the new iPad2 and will simply scale down to run on the iPad1 or any other iOS device.
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
And IIRC, Android tablets like the Xoom reportedly even have higher end components than the ipad. The simple fact is, Android in placing tremendous pressure on Apple to compete. To date, there isn't a satisfied Apple iphone 3gs and later, or ipad user, who doesn't owe a great big thank you to Google too.
This is the way the market is supposed to work. Multiple companies all competing to grab customers with the best widget. Therefore, forcing all competing in that widget space to compete based on the goodness of their widget. Thanks to Google, we now have that market place.
You joke about that, but my girlfriend does her makeup with either her iPhone or PhotoBooth for OS X.
A great use of technology, to be certain.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
It's on all the 3G models.
I HAVE CUBIC WISDOM THAT TRANSCENDS AND CONTRADICTS ONE DAY GODS
Something tells me they won't be releasing an iPad 3 the same year they release v2. Just sayin...
However a year from now I could believe...
Care to link to a similarly featured and cheaper alternative?
Have you read the reviews of Flash on Android?... every review points out how it turns the entire experience to shit.
Speaking of that, installing flash is kind of like turning my basement into a septic tank for the entire municipal sewage system. Nobody really wants that, but we all have to listen to "that guy" going on and on about how real end users like my mom love the experience of finding diamond rings that accidentally get flushed, and the smell isn't really so bad once you get used to it, and its the most modern way of civil engineering so it must be the best way to do it.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Honest question, I'm wondering what you feel the upcoming gingerbread tablets are lacking that makes the iPad that much better? I'm still not convinced i need.. or even want.. either, but right now if i did it would be android simply so i'm not locked into iTunes again. Hated that with my iPhone, don't want to go back.
Honest question, I'm wondering what you feel the upcoming gingerbread tablets are lacking that makes the iPad that much better? I'm still not convinced i need.. or even want.. either, but right now if i did it would be android simply so i'm not locked into iTunes again. Hated that with my iPhone, don't want to go back.
The android market has a very small fraction of the high end apps and games that the itunes store offers. I believe this will change in the future, but as of today its not even close. Honestly, it wouldnt matter if not for the fact that almost all of the most popular applications are ios only.
"The food was terrible and the portions were too small."
A sedan and a pickup are not similar at all (well, slightly)...
They both get from point A to point B. You can go the same places with either of them. The key difference is they have distinct advantages in different contexts. The same is true when comparing the iPad to the iPhone.
When people call these the iPad XL, it is very close to the truth since they both run the iOS and have close to the same functionality...
... if you ignore the flatbe... er I mean the huge touch screen.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
246 posts and nobody has discussed the magnetic covering? That seems to be the biggest design change. I'm can't decide if it's really cool, or really silly....
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Love the Slashdot reaction, especially the comments about what 'normal people' think. The iPad has a fucking awesome, objectively great battery life. How does Slashdot react? "It's not user replaceable!". Whatever. I've had mine for nearly a year now and it still gets over 10 hours. Maybe in another 2-3 years it'll degrade but, honestly, like I give a care.
The iPad is incredibly cheap. This thing was widely expected to start at $1000+ last year and it started at half that. The iPad 2 is coming in at the same price points and is way cheaper than the competition. The Xoom 32GB goes for £499 in the UK. The iPad 2 32GB? £399. A fucking c-note of difference, and a sterling c-note at that. So what's the Slashdot reaction? "Too expensive!" and "lower the price!".
iOS devices have a track record of holding up well against new cycles of iOS for at least a couple of years. As someone said above, the original 2007 iPhone 4 held up well until iOS 4 in 2010, and is still faster on its pared-back iOS 4 than some other non-Apple smartphones I've seen. Compare that with Android phones released months ago that already have no prospect of ever even seeing any OS updates, let alone being able to handle them with grace. What's the Slashdot reaction, though? "So I suppose they're going to brick my iPad now to force me to upgrade!". Bull. Shit. It's amazing how, on Slashdot, completely make-believe, possibly-maybe-in-the-future downsides for iOS seem to outrank actual, major-fuck-up downsides happening right now for Android.
The iPad has a solid, very nice capacitive resistant IPS display. Let's not forget that some tablets are still coming out with horrible, piece-of-shit resistive screens that can only actually be viewed from one angle beneath a layer of plastic. No, the iPad 2 does not have a retina display (whatever that would mean in the iPad world), but then again the only people who ever speculated that it would have absolutely no fucking clue what is going on inside Apple, just like the rest of us. So, what's the Slashdot reaction? Do they satisfy themselves with what is already a display that is better than most and as good as any out there, but which fails to live up to a standard that only existed in the realm of fantasy? Fuck no they don't! "No retina display! Rip-off!"
"No 4G!". Okay, seriously, get out more. Yes, in a few years, greater cellular data speeds will obviously be needed for services we can't even fully imagine right now. But right now, 6-7mpbs on an iPad 3G should be enough for everyone (ho ho). What is anyone doing today on their iPad in mobile situations anyway? Browsing Flickr? Streaming Netflix? Can't these things be done perfectly well at 3.5G speeds? What about data caps? Besides, are there tablets out there that actually have 4G? Whatever '4G' even means. Do you mean LTE or WiMax? American LTE or Chinese LTE? The one available in some places in the US or in some places in Europe, and none of which is available in any true scale? Man, I can't imagine why Apple hasn't leaped head-first into this technology, which is so obviously ready for primetime!
"No 7-inch screen!". Fuck off. This from the same crowd that roared that the iPad was just a big iPhone. 7-inch screens are a cop-out by bullshit manufacturers who cannot price-match the iPad at 10 inches.
"No Flash!". Yeah okay. You get that one. I'm really missing those wicked banner ads spamming my eyes from all corners. What about iAd, you might cleverly retort? I have 200 apps and maybe 15 that I use daily or very often, and I have never - as in not once, ever - seen an iAd. Anyway it's true that, once in a blue moon, I come across a video that isn't playable via HTML5 video. Somehow I get by. If you're genuinely bothered by the lack of Flash, then I respect that. IMO this is as close to a genuine trade-off as the iPad comes. I have a sneaky feeling, though, that a lot of the uproar surrounding Flash and iOS is actually coming from people who are scrambling for something (anything!) that they can fire at Apple
Not what the rumor mill is saying: http://www.bgr.com/2011/03/01/ipad-3-is-the-tablet-worth-getting-excited-about-not-the-ipad-2-apple-staffer-claims/ Neither would surprise me, as they released the iphone 4 on verizon only to presumably release the iphone 5 in a couple more months.
11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
1111 Race
12112
For android the question is can it run Flash. Do the batteries last a long time. These is where iOS is venerable.
The only pressure that Google has placed on Apple is to prematurely an updated iPad. If not for the Android devices, we would have likely gotten a full update late summer with retina screen, 128 GB. The only notable upgrade here is the two cameras. The processor speed bump is for people who want to use the iPad more like a desktop. I am not sure if the iPad iWork apps, for example, are equal to Mac applications, but as far as I have seen they are not.
Not to say that competition is bad, simply that Google is growing the market for these devices, not competing with Apple products.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
The 3G equipped iPads have and have always had GPS.
How hard would it be to find the number of suicides in the US, the number of people in the US, the number of people in China and then (the only hard one) number of suicides by Foxconn employees?
Turns out not hard at all. Foxconn = 400,000 employees, with 12 suicide attempts. US suicide rate is 11 per 100,000.
Google is hard.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/business/global/07suicide.html
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/21/science/sci-suicide21
God, you made me laugh so hard. Copycat nature of everything else? You mean the ones who did these things way before Apple did?
I stand corrected. The massive success of all these other tablets proves just how run-of-the-mill the iPad is. You win.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I need some advice about a good exercise regimen; is moving goalposts effective for you?
Many photographers would like to use an app related to Adobe's Lightroom for immediate importing, tagging, and initial review and screening of photos from a photoshoot. But because of Apple's restrictions on direct writing of files and a few other technical issues, this is not apparently possible at this time, according to Adobe.
Do you have a link for that? Because all of that is possible currently. There is no restriction on "direct writing of files".
You do currently have to use the iPad photo app to read images from the Apple SD reader. But there's a third party SD reader which works, that someone like Adobe could leverage into a full-blown photo management/review application.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You can buy a third party adaptor That lets you read SD cards on an iPad or iPhone.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
My iphone 3G is 2.5 years old. HTC, samsung and motorola so far aren't supporting hardware older than 18 months and then only if it was really popular in the beginning. The very fact that there are Android phones selling right now with 2.1 on them is ludicrous. the fact those phone will never get a software update is just scary.
When apple ships 4.3 all devices that they are currently selling will ship with it standard. Minus the ones currently in the supply chain. In 6-8 weeks you will have a hard time finding a device running the old version in the retail chain.
MSFT does something similar for most of windows. When a new version comes out the OEM's start installing it fairly quickly.
Android they are content on selling a three year old OS.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
The GPS chip is part of the 3G board, which is missing from all the WiFi only models.
Yeah, I was totally going to buy that android tablet, but it had a USB port so I was like "no way".
It's why I love Apple so much -- Not having useful features is *awesome*
Required reading for internet skeptics
The XOOM is thicker, heavier, larger in all dimensions, and has a slightly better resolution and has the same processor (roughly).
But the real thing that kills the XOOM is the base cost. It's rumored to be $800 (or higher), far more than the $499 base iPad which is very practical. Lots of people do not need a huge amount of storage or 3G support.
I agree the XOOM looks like a good tablet, but it really shows that Apple is competing quite well on price in the tablet space.
As for September, as I said this release is for new tablet buyers - If you are are comparing the iPad and XOOM I honestly can't see many people choosing the XOOM, especially when you factor in software (which is the reason why you buy a computer of any kind). But a higher res version in September will make sense for current users to upgrade and at the same time produce a FUD cloud over buying other tablets (though unlike other FUD we are used to this thing will ship).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm wondering what you feel the upcoming gingerbread tablets are lacking that makes the iPad that much better?
What they're lacking is the $500 "sweet" price point that the iPad is repeatedly able to hit. Would I pay more for a more feature-rich tablet? Maybe. Would Joe Sixpack? Probably not - The current iPad price is in his sweet spot.
HTC may not support old phones but that doesn't mean you can't update the phone (unlike iOS based handsets). I have a 2-3 old HTC G1 that I use as a hacking phone and I recently updated it to Android 2.3 thanks to XDA developers. If you have an old Android handset and want the latest firmware just search the XDA developers forums.
They should have made a "low end" Xoom and undercut Apple
This is harder than it sounds - Because Apple is so vertically integrated, from processor to other hardware to software they're able to build at a cost that others find hard to match. Additionally, the App Store exclusivity means the device can be sold at a low margin and they can make it up on apps. A low-end Xoom would probably still cost the same as an iPad with fewer features.
Sure, but you know who I really feel sorry for? All those poor suckers that bought iPhone 4 and who will miss out on all the great features iPhone 5 will probably have whenever it is released. That's why I never buy any version until the final, ultimate one which will never be improved upon and which has all possible features.
I'd be perfectly happy with a 2048x1536 iPad with a 2 and a half hour battery life, frankly, but I don't think you really understand how these things work.
Most of the energy for this is spent literally in the backlight. Given that the display size doesn't change (resolution doubles, pixel count quadruples, yet display size stays the same), then neither does the backlight. Energy driving the electronics isn't all that much of an issue when the update rate is as slow as an LCD is. It's not about power. It's about fabrication and how many panels are lost at those resolutions, that's all. And they'll fix that.
As for processing power, 4x the pixels requires 4x the compute power; and they just upped the GPU speed by 9x. Nine. So that's not a problem either. As for capacity, 2048x1536 of RGB is barely ten megabytes of ram for a display buffer; breaking it into four zones keeps the memory bandwidth the same. This isn't even difficult.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Of course, they'd leave out the fact that the Mac in question had much better specs than $249 Dell.
Sure, but that's not what is happening here.
So, are you really comparing a $499 iPad with 8GB of storage, 1024x768 screen, and no 3G, with a Xoom that has 32GB of storage, 1280x800 screen, and 3G support?
The smallest iPad has 16 GB. In practice, that has been plenty of storage, even for long trips with video.
But lets say we want to go about equal. Ok, that's $599, still $200 less. Or lets say you want 3G with that (though why you'd spring for that with a smartphone that can provide connectivity is beyond me). That's as you noted $70 less.
That's still a lower price, and you have a tablet with the same specs in terms of processing power, slightly less screen resolution (if you look again the XOOM simply has a slightly longer screen). That's still $70 less, with a far larger application selection. Only you ALSO have the option of paying $300 less if you already have wireless connectivity, and can make do with 16GB of stuff at any one time (remember that most people use tablets in addition to PC's - I have well over 100 GB of content but I just sync what I need for the week).
Have you really looked at the bundled software on an iPad? I mean, maybe Apple has improved this on the iPad 2, but my iPad doesn't even have a clock!
Well, there is a clock in the status bar and on the lock screen... but who cares about bundled software? I care what I can do with it after I get it, not what can be done with it before I get it. For clocks alone - there are in fact many Apps For That. The only exception would be stuff that you can't change, which includes Safari (you can buy other browser apps but they have to use Safari as a rendering engine). Those parts are more than good enough and the equivalent on other platforms are marginally better. I'm seeing nothing in Honeycomb that is compelling over what you can do with iOS, especially with expanded wireless video options built right into the OS.
And also lets remember these are just projected XOOM prices, I have seen projections that were substantially higher. You aren't getting more, you are getting less by almost any metric EXCEPT screen resolution. It's not like the Mac/PC comparison at all.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why would you want to stream MKVs? Why not just rip your BR discs to MP4 containers with x264? Or are you not getting those MKVs from your own masters, and you're too fucking lazy to put them in a different container?
Emulator? Flash Browsing (by choice? are you a masochist?)? SD? Okay, I guess I can give you that last one...I suppose...though with 64GB SD cards hitting the $150-200 mark, I don't think I'll be carrying many of them around with me to use in a $500 device. Might as well drop the extra $330 and get that 64GB embedded and have a $130 cell/gps card in the thing. Please don't even think about complaining about price, and then tell me you're going to go drop $10000 on SD cards so you can take your ripped MKV bluray collection with you (mine is about 3TB, so whether I use SD cards or transcode, I'm going to have to cull what I take with me).
Sad fact is that, unless you goal is to tinker, you won't really find anything better for less money; and if you really need something with power, you're going to step up to a real laptop or tablet.
I was waiting for this announcement to decide between a Xoom (or other honeycomb) tablet and the iPad2. Funny thing is, I'm having a hard time finding the apps I plan on using for the tablet version of android. I use lots of Google stuff so Android would be a perfect fit, but I also own an iPhone because when I bought it the android phones were very, very immature. Now it looks like all the devices can do what I need, and its going to come down to the market. That's not good for Android this year. Lucklily, if the market catches up in a year, an iDevice will still sell to fanbois on eBay for nearly what I pay for it today.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?