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What the iPad 3 Looks Like
redletterdave writes "If you were expecting a radically different-looking tablet from the iPad 2, prepare for a minor letdown. In the same way Apple upgraded the iPhone 4 into the iPhone 4S, the exterior of the iPad 3 mirrors that of the iPad 2, despite completely renovated and upgraded innards. iLab Factory reportedly provided Sharp with the necessary parts to build the high-resolution iPad 3 display, and in a company blog post, various iPad 3 components are displayed alongside those of the iPad 2 for quick comparison. In addition to a new camera mount that will reportedly match or improve upon the 8-megapixel camera system in the iPhone 4S, the post also revealed that the iPad 3 will be approximately 1 mm thicker than its predecessor to house Apple's upgraded components, including a bigger battery, an improved camera, and a dual-LED lit system to make the 2048 x 1536 display even brighter."
Even though I have no need for it, I feel a strange compulsion to throw money at it.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Why have we grown so accustomed to the style changing radically every new release? Not just apple, but any phone, or gadget, or car... Why do we feel this need to see a new fancy box?
Seems like once we arrive at the thinnest tablets, it will be the ultimate "form follows function": a flat panel. Will we then no longer expect a radical new shape? (circular tablets?)
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
Maybe they could sue themselves over it.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
I seriously doubt they will shoot so low. At best I expect a price drop to $350 (but most likely $399) for the iPad 2 (and only available Wi-Fi 16 GB without cell data options.)
As for the PC market vs. Tablets... I got to ponder... Many people are defensive saying that tablets can't or should never take over and that PCs must live for us to keep our computing freedom... but what if we are looking at it wrong? What if we look at tablets not as downgraded computers but as the next evolutionary step for consoles and handheld entertainment units?
Will it be 4G or 3G?
3G = who cares.
4G = needs a nuclear reactor for 5 hours of battery life.
There is no clear win.
Normally I don't pay much heed to comments like this, but that shit was so canned it still has the ring marks. Cranberry anyone?
"Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world." - Alan Greenspan, 1999
Apple is carefully leaking information to dilute the new tablets that are going to be presented in the Mobile World Congress 2012 just in a few days. Samsung is rumored to present there a tablet with high resolution like the iPad3 and Apple might not catch up in time, and it seems that they are leaking this and announcing a bit afterwards...
I bought an ipad 1 right when it came out, because it was exactly what I had been waiting for, a large screen web surfing/media consumption device. The question is, how is apple going to get me to upgrade it? Sure the ipad 3 will load web pages faster, but I doubt itll be 500$ faster. It may run some applications better, but I just want to consume media. By designing a device that (at least for me) is just about media consumption, the only way I can be driven to upgrade is by some form of media coming out that my ipad cant handle.
Yes, that's literally the only thing that separates the iPhone/iPad's design from everyone else's, the fact that it's a rounded rectangle with a flat surface and glossy paint. It's certainly not the radius of the corners, the 1-inch black border with chrome backing that peeks over just enough to frame it, the grid of icons, the thievery of artwork, the touchscreen gestures that originated with iOS, etc.
Tablets didn't start looking like the iPad until the iPad came out. That really should clue you into the idea that the design comes from Jonathan Ive's design studio and isn't some obvious thing that has been around forever. Of course it seems obvious now, because the iPad is so successful. There's a cognitive bias going on where the thing that succeeded now seems obvious in retrospect even though it didn't before it came into existence.
"Sufferin' succotash."
assuming it still even works 5 years from now, the battery life will have decayed to the point where it will be barely usable
You mean like a laptop? And before you say something about, "You can work with the laptop plugged in!", remember you can do the exact same with a tablet.
and if you think you will have the newest version of the OS available on it, excuse me while I laugh my ass of at your naiveté.
And how is that different than the 90s, when desktop computing really started to take off?
a regular PC is just straight up better in so many ways.
Depends on your use cases.
Anyone who has ever written iOS software knows that the UI scaling is done by float, and can easily take a value of 1.5.
It can technically be done, but results will look like crap, because scaling of bitmaps does not look well if you don't use an integer factor - either you get some pixels larger than other, or you need to use interpolation, resulting in an altogether blurry picture. There's a reason why Apple did 2x upscale with iPhone 4, rather than going for the then industry-standard-already 480x800.
Besides, from TFA, it looks like they have already identified the specific LCD screen that looks like it's tailor made for iPad 3 in dimensional terms - and it's 2048x1536.
Notice that the time-stamp of the response is the same as the time-stamp of when the story came live. Notice the lack of an asterisk, meaning he isn't a subscriber. Notice how quickly it went to +5, and the jabs at Google (much less pronounced than normal, however).
He (and bonch, and a few others) are either shills or fanboys who are waaay too invested.
Of actually knowing (or predicting) what and when the notoriously secretive Apple will release its next product. Swallow any claims not coming from 1 Infinite Loop with a Large Dose of skepticism.
Actually, my iPad 1 battery life is just fine. And it runs pretty much all the apps that my iPad 2 does. Same goes for my iPhone 2G - battery life is still good, and it still runs a surprisingly large number of apps, even at iOS 3.1.3.
Quite frankly, you should do some research before you speculate
Like it or not, Apple basically defined the tablet market, and their hardware + iOS ecosystem is incredibly profitable. Like it or not, Samsung is perceived as a major clone maker -- the 21st century equivalent of Compaq in the late 1980s.
That was once true, but desktop and laptop screens have regressed over the past few years towards 1080p (high-def TV) resolutions. There are only a few 2560x1600 desktop displays now - Apple for example no longer sells one. 1600x1200 screens were available on laptops for some time, too, but no longer.
With that resolution and dual backlights, I bet the new iPad screen will look fantastic. Now give me a 'retinal' 30" display for my desktop, please.
Everyone knows that the 3rd party accessories market for iDevices are HUGE, and one reason is because Apple sells MILLIONs of devices out of very few form factors. If you've ever been shopping for any iPhone accessory (cases, car holder/radio kits) vs. a typical android phone, you'll see what I mean. Apple knows that being 'different' isn't the same as being 'good', and that changing the design and button placement of their iOS devices just to be 'new' isn't a good enough reason.
I'm guessing the iPad 3 looks kind of like a rectangle with rounded corners and a screen on one face?
You're missing the point. Tablets are popular in several niches, the biggest one (probably, pulling out of my netherregions but hold on for a sec) is the demographic that can't keep a PC, either Windows or OS X or whatever, running for 5 years if their lives depended on it. The concept of 'upgrading' anything is foreign. They just want their GBs and Angry Birds and whatnot. Thinking is not part of the experience.
Yes, the battery is going to go south in 5 years (2 years, 3 years) but buying a new Shiny every couple of years is what these folks are designed to do. It beats actually learning about the computer or car or TV or $InsertHiTechItemHere.
This is a totally different 'computing' paradigm. It's not the computer you grew up with. It's probably not something you're much interested in.
But YOU are not THEM. You're a rumor, recognizable only as deja vu and dismissed just as quickly. You don't exist; you were never even born. Anonymous is your name. C++ your native tongue. You're no longer part of the System. You're above the System. Over it. Beyond it. We're "them." We're "they."
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
YES PLEASE! Finally high res screens on consumer electronics! I hope the rumor that Apple's computers will get updated with high res screens is also true. Laptop manufacturers need a kick in the butt to get them out of the 1366x768 doldrums.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
That device (and I notice you had to look VERY hard pre-iPad to find something even sort of close) doesn't even have SYMMETRIC borders! They vary from 1-2".
Also it had all kinds of features along the front plate like speaker grills. Basically you were a mile away from anything like the iPad we have now.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
In an increasingly narcissitic society, we look to the gadgets we wield to say something about our social status.
Perhaps you do. Apple users just want something that works. That's why Apple doesn't need to change designs between cycles and people still buy them anyway- because they are actually useful and people buy them for that more than for something they display for looks only.
What you say is true of cars and clothes, to give people some reason they might want a new car or new clothes.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Fanboys. Anti-fanboys. Two sides of the same irrational coin if you ask me.
Okay, you people are retarded. What jabs at Google? And of course it quickly went to +5 (or whatever it's rated now), it was the first post that moderators saw.
Normally, I don't respond to comments like this, but the goofy paranoia on Slashdot whenever anyone dares to--gasp--say positive things about a really popular tech gadget is really nutty.
"Sufferin' succotash."
First off, I am most assuredly not an Apple shill. I work for a company called DiSTI (www.disti.com). I would be happy if anyone at Apple even knew who the hell we are and what we do, let alone actually PAY me to post on slashdot.
But let me rebut your answer to the question: "Are they [tablets] more useful than a desktop or laptop?"
They most assuredly ARE more useful in a very large number of specific niche markets. Sure for _generic everyday use_ a laptop is better, but when your purpose is to make someone more productive at a specific job, then tablets can be not only better, they are also often much cheaper and more capable.
For instance, laptop computers have been around for a decade and yet not one has been approved for use by pilots in the cockpit as a job performance aid. You've doubtless seen the numerous stories about pilots using tablets as Electronic Flight Bags, replacing pounds of paper? And for $500. And it weighs hardly anything. And it has a 10 hour battery life, enough to have it on the entire time while crossing the Atlantic, though they usually only use them before takeoff and their approach for landing.
There are numerous other niche markets where the iPad is a totally disruptive technology. In the military training field, soldiers are now carrying training with them on an iPad instead of going to a dedicated training center.
I will also personally rebut "Are they as easy to read on as a dedicated e-reader?". I have friends who have Kindles, Nooks, etc. I have an iPad2 and a GalaxyTab 10.1 (my company's products support both). I've read dozens of books on my iPad and see no reason whatsoever to spend extra money or add extra weight to my bag for a dedicated reading appliance.
The OP said Apple defined the tablet not that they had the first ones. MS had Windows tablets long before Apple and Android. But MS' vision of a tablet was a more expensive version of laptop with a touchscreen and a stylus. Little was done to define a tablet as anything different. And these tablets failed to sell in any significant numbers. To this day, MS still declares tablets to be PCs whereas everyone else sees them in a separate category. According to that logic, that would give Apple the largest marketshare of PCs.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
No, you're talking about bitmap scaling which is not what is happening. When you create an iPhone 4 app you provide separate graphics at the new resolution. The same would be done here. UI elements are also native images for the resolution.
When you create a new app, or update one, sure. But it won't happen overnight; in the meantime, existing apps should be usable. iPhone 4 can still run apps created for iPhone 3 and below. And the reason why it can do that without them looking like crap is because it scales them up using an integer factor.
I'll tell you why. Because troll moderators have taken over the site and are trying to subvert it. Because the IT readership that used to visit Slashdot has been bleeding from the site in the last few years, leaving behind the more extremist posters. Because if you say something that those posters don't like, they abuse the moderation system to drive you off the site rather than reply and explain why you're wrong.
The latest thing is to accuse absolutely everyone of being a "shill" so that others will follow along and do their dirty work. My post didn't go down to -1 Flamebait until someone else accused me of being a shill and got modded +5 Insightful (!). Because of the default filters, +5 comments are automatically expanded while less than +2 is collapsed, so now every moderator reading the comments for the first time will see that post first and likely not even read what I wrote.
CmdrTaco promised a new moderation system for years, and it never arrived before he left the site. This limited moderation pool concept is terrible. It makes it so that a single point in either direction has a drastic effect on karma and effectively restricts people from posting something that's unpopular, even if it's legitimately true.
This is off-topic, and so I'd be justified in getting downmodded for this, but since my karma is getting completely destroyed right now anyway, I may as well post it before I'm limited to two posts a day. Thanks, Slashdot. Thanks, troll moderators.
"Sufferin' succotash."
I have both an iPad and a Galaxy Tab. I also have an HP Touchpad. I have on a couple of occasions grabbed the Tab thinking I was going for the iPad, and vice-versa. They actually are strikingly similar. I have never mistaken the Touchpad for either of the other two.
You can look at jpegs of the devices in question until you're blue in the face, but when you actually have your hands on them it's embarrassingly clear that Samsung copied the iPad down to tiny little details. That's why the 'rounded corners' bit of the case is only one of twenty five details Apple took issue with.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
The true tablet market right now is composed of iPads, Kindle Fires and Nooks. All have similar lockins. Microsoft's ARM Win8 has already been stated will be similar. True Android Tables (non branched like the Nook or Kindle) are the exception but to be honest, they are not selling well relatively speaking.
People in this site have also vocally criticized those two tablets for the same points.
That's why I don't single out Apple's iPad.
I have to disagree. My iPad 1 is really feeling old after a couple consecutive software updates. After the multitasking update, I experienced many app crashes. Games like Infinity blade won't even load unless I start it after a fresh reboot. The newest iBooks 2 update is exceptionally slow to open even regular ebooks. Safari crashes regulary and especially on longer pages. Were my desktop computer doing these things I would simply upgrade the RAM for $30. Instead I have to buy a new iPad 2 for at least $499 or never update my software.
To be fair, Apple has slashed the price of iPhones by $100 every time they retain a previous generation in the market. That is why I say $399. It's not blind faith or a gut feeling. It's just being based off Apple year to year habits.
Besides, a $100 reduction may be enough to bring the iPad2 into "budget" range. At the same time it's not so much that anyone that bought an iPad2 a month earlier would be annoyed at the insanely lower price.
Slash the price to $200 and even the most rabid Apple fan will knock at Apple's door with torches and pitchforks if they bought a full price iPad 2 one month earlier.
The metamods rated your post interesting. It really was though. Enjoyed it. But one thing in particular is wonderful but at the same time terrible all in one:
I had a Toshiba Thrive a while back. I've delivered a thorough critique on tablets in general before, but suffice it to say, for anything more than watching a simple movie or reading an e-book, they're terrible. Attempt to actually do anything or use it more than this, it just isn't comfortable, flexible, or featureful enough.
However:
Games. This is it for the consoles. After watching Dead Space and an MMO and Rainbow Six on iOS/Android, the writing is on the wall. I was amazed at playing this on a phone. Granted, a console offers a stable config for developers, a platform for better sales, etc. But when featureful games keep on being released, after a while one will ask themself why bother buying another unit. And it's kind of amazing to have quick aiming in FPS's after being so hampered by a controller (Call of Duty on consoles versus Modern Combat on iOS/Android).
And as a side note, as much as I refuse to ever purchase another Apple product (for a myriad of reasons they're an awful and evil company), the Android situation for games (not the rest--app fragmentation is only a problem games--nothing else) is terrible. iOS gives a stable environment for developers and its app store forces devs to release the full version for download. Gameloft won't let you run it's games on half of android devices, or won't carry them in store, and makes one download them directly thus negating any benefits of the Android Market (auto updates, re-downloading games, etc.). Do they even provide updates? It's a mess.
Though I am curious with the higher res screen how games will perform. Hell my 8800 GTS 512, while old, can't even handle games at that resolution. Though kudos for pushing the resolution forward. Two things are the biggest factors in how good a games graphics are--the texture detail and a higher resolution.