Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

What's Not To Like About New iPad?

Posted by timothy on from the let-him-count-the-ways dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "With 3 million sold over the last week what's not to like about the new iPad? Michelle Maltais at the LA Times does a good job of putting together a compendium of gripes about the new device, justified or otherwise. Most people thought that Siri on the new iPad was a gimme; instead it has a scaled back version — dictation. 'If you want Siri, buy an iPhone. Plain and simple.' The new iPad is a little heavier than the iPad 2, thanks to the better graphics processor and more powerful battery. At one-tenth of a pound heavier that really doesn't sound like much, but it can start to matter if you hold your iPad in one hand for long periods or have any kind of repetitive stress injury. Apps designed for Retina display can be up to five times bigger and it's not just a problem for owners of the new iPad. Legacy owners of the original and iPad 2 who have these apps get to feel the pain too, since updates aren't device specific." The list continues, below. "The hot-selling device can reach up to 116 degrees during intensive use, according to a test by the Consumer Reports. PCWorld tested 43 tablets and found that the third-gen iPad takes the longest — almost six hours — to fully recharge its battery. You'll love the blistering speed of the 4G iPad, you won't love blowing through your monthly data allotment in just 24 hours if you use streaming video. A number of customers have been complaining on the Apple Support page about a weaker Wi-Fi connection that in some cases will hold a connection for only a few minutes. And last, whatever you do, don't drop the new iPad. From waist height, the damage to the third-gen iPad is fairly extensive. 'Only a small portion of the screen survived.'"

1 of 617 comments (clear)

  1. Just waiting for this to all end... by erroneus · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    This "woll your eyes" moment brought to you by SlowNewsDay and SteveJobsisDead.

    The new shiny still doesn't deliver on the basics and the obviouses. Scaled back siri? Really? Why? It's such a simple mechanism right? The processing for it is actually being handled elsewhere isn't it? A central processing network? What's "not ready for new iPad" about it? This rather reminds me of the first iPhone not having copy and paste.

    And really. Why no sdhc card support? So they can sell you the same 'upgrade' from 32GB to 64GB for a bunch more money? I'm pretty sure that's why... that and we need to be able to donate our old iPads to charity so we can feel good about not putting them directly into a landfill when we buy the new ones. Seriously, the failure of Apple to include expandability and replaceable parts is so environmentally unfriendly it's sad. People want to be able to change their battieries and upgrade their memory. Why doesn't Apple deliver on that? I think I know why...

    Even the average joe is getting a little tired of it all when everyone with an Android device can do all of those things and more.

    I hate to say it... (I know you probably think I love to say it but I don't) but without Steve Jobs the mystical cool-maker who died and went to starbucks, Apple just can't live long as we know it.

    But here's what I want and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get it:

    More focus on workstations like MacPro. Those are some REALLY nice machines. Built for lots of hard drive space and lots of RAM. Interally, a JOY to work on and externally a joy to look at. And the power? They got some good guts in them. I don't have much room in my life for Mac OS X... I've tried, I really have. I support Mac users and I know my way around the OS and most of the really cool hacks. I'd rather just use Linux... but at least I can run some "mainstream" apps on Mac OS X like MS Office and such if I really needed to... I think that abomination of a "Portable Document Format" application which every PDF supporting application should be able to read and write is about the only thing that isn't really duplicated in the F/OSS world in some way.

    I've written all this drivel for no good reason -- it's stupid to reply to it or even mod it. I'm just sick of Apple's crappy consumer/entertainment stuff getting headlines when every update is just kind of incremental and it is obvious they are just holding back to keep milking the gadget lust from all those brainless people out there with more dollars than sense.

    Apple can do a LOT better than this. It's sickening and disappointing.