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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.
No flash. Less features than a XOOM. Lame.
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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.
On a desktop, adding more resolution to your monitor allows you to fit more stuff on the screen. On iOS devices, where each app takes over the entire screen when it's running, the only way to scale up the resolution without making everything look like crap (anti-aliasing, anyone) would be to *double* the resolution in each direction. That's what the upgrade to the iPhone 4 Retina Display did. Is that even technically feasible for something the size of an iPad at the current price point? Thousands of app developers are thrilled that they don't have to redesign their applications for a new resolution.
Forever. It is a strategy tax. Adding SDHC would make the lower end models compete with high-end models, and Apple prices the low-end models competively, but they make the profit on the high-end models that are much more expensive than expanding the low-end models would cost. 32Gbyte SDHC($50) plus a 3G modem($20) cost a lot less than the $330 price difference.
If they added SDHC-readers they would either have to raise prices on the low-end, or reduce the profit margins on the high-end.
Not that that makes it okay, I still resent them for it, but it makes perfect business sense, and this is no point in dreaming unless they are put under more customer pressure.
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."
Looks like Jobs is 33% thinner, too. Poor guy.
Why pay $30 for a dongle that does something that most every netbook ever made has built in?
Please, how do you expect Apple to charge $100 for 16 gigs of memory if they start throwing in SD slots all willy-nilly.
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
Saying you'll publish a spec doesn't make it open. Actually publishing it does.
And Apple has had plenty time to do it too.
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.
I dunno how it is in UK, but in US, no-contract Xoom is $799, while iPad with comparable specs (3G 32Gb) is $729. So the actual difference is $70, and Xoom is exactly 10% more expensive than iPad. "Way cheaper"? Not really.
But Xoom has a slightly larger screen (10.1" vs 9.7") and higher resolution (1280x800 160ppi vs 1024x768 130ppi), and smaller physical dimensions. Then there's the SD slot. Compared to iPad 2 specifically, a much better camera. For geeks, there's also openness, even if you don't unlock/root - you have proper filesystem shared between apps, full support for background processes (I run an FTP server on mine so that I don't have to muck around with cables to sync it with PC), and much more. Is that all worth the extra $70? It certainly did for me, but it is, of course, subjective.
Oh, and it doesn't need iTunes to sync. That alone is priceless.