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What's Not To Like About New iPad?
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.'"
We make drama where there is none.
Everything is amazing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk
Of course, the next yet-to-be announced version of Android, running on the next yet-to-be announced tablet, will solve all of these problems.
Isn't that how it works?
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.
I'm shocked at how physically inept modern people are becoming. The gnashing of teeth over ounces when it comes to gadgets is truly shocking to me. How does one become so incapacitated that an ounce or two is really worth mentioning?
I don't respond to AC's.
The best part about the new iPad is that the previous versions have gotten cheaper. So if you really want a iPad 2, you can pickup a refurb from Apple for as low as $350 (or $400 new) which makes it more competitive with some of the Android tablets out there.
Note: I am not a tablet user.
I know there is a windows tool to get rid of it.
I have one, the charge times are quite slow. To be honest, too slow. Don't get me wrong, you can live with it, but it does also matter in some situations. And on top of that if you decide to just use your buddies' iPhone charger instead of the included one, you could charge it all through the work day and only pick up 25% charge or something. With the iPad 2, the iPhone charger was an acceptable back-up plan to the stock charger in a pinch. Unless your battery was almost completely dead the iPad 2 would charge completely off an iPhone charger overnight.
The weight isn't really any different, the reason it's so uncomfortable to hold for long periods is the same as any other iPad, there's simply no good way to hold it without blocking or touching the screen.
The drop situation is the same for all iPads, even if you drop tested an older one and got different results, you just got lucky on the old one. The screen is a huge expanse of glass on any iPad, you have to be careful.
WiFi has been the same on the iPad 3 as the 2. I even used mine side by side with a 2 for a bit and the results were the same.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
It strikes me that this is just par for the course for most Apple releases.
iPhone 3GS, iPad 1 -- both of mine had wifi problems until software updates came out.
iPhone 4 -- antennagate -- appeared totally fine by the time I got my 4 in March of 2011.
iPhone 4s -- batterygate -- greatly improved in 5.01 and mostly fixed by 5.1.
Overall, it seems like there's about 6 months after a device's release that Apple releases a serious of fixes to fix or mitigate some deficiency and that by that time the device is largely as good as it will get.
I just wish they would add bluetooth profiles to the iPad for microphone headsets and mice, although the latter I only want with RDP apps, although I think it might be handy if you were using a full-screen editor, too.
It kind of makes me wonder why no one has made a BT mouse adapter that plugs into the microphone port or the dock connector. With an open SDK, vendors who wanted mouse capabilities could add support for the hardware.
I know it has bugs in the LTE connection. It's conked out before, and I even had the WiFi connection disappear after I turned LTE off (to save power). Going to airplane mode and back fixed all the problems, at least for now.
Also, the bars in LTE mode don't make much sense, or at least aren't what you're used to. With 5 bars I get 30mbps down, with 1 I get 24mpbs down. We've been trained from 3G that 1 bar is a lot slower than 5, so they should rescale the bars so that when you are at half speed or less you get 1 bar.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Hear that guys, x0d's brother HAD TO SELL HIS, time to pack up and move on, tablets are done.
Taking a long time to charge means that it must have a really big freaking battery. Apple says you can get 10 hours of use out of the thing. That's pretty good considering how fast the processor, and how good the resolution on that screen is. It take 2 hours to charge my cell phone, and it probably doesn't even have 1/10 the amount of battery as the iPad.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I'm sorry.
... justify to everyone else that the new product is actually worse than the previous iteration. (I own an iPad 2 so this works for me!)
Don't you sleep?
That's when my iPad's charge. I lay down at 12, 1, or 2AM, plug it in, pass out, and when I wake up it's charged and if it took an hour or six to charge I give no fucks. It's charged.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
My iPad 1 takes a fucking year to charge.
Is this one of those biblical things where a day is a year?
It is so rare that I buy any device (or even furniture, for that matter) which is perfect that I'm surprised when I buy something, anything, which I have absolutely no "Had they...", or "They should have..." comments. I read the article before it was posted here. It's just another bit of "journalism" to fill some space. As I look around my home, there are few things I can not come up with some complaint about, no matter how small. I bought an iPad 2 but read about the "next" iPad a day later and the prediction of a better display. So - I called Apple and cancelled the order. It was too late. BUT - They paid for return shipping and refunded my money. When this iPad came out I pre-ordered. So many of my friends with an iPad liked them so much I was pretty convinced I'd like it and I do. The stuff in the article is what it is. You can't please everyone all of the time. Me? No problems. WiFi - Works fine. Charges up fine. It does everything I *expect* it to do, and does it well. It may not be *perfect*, but there are few things in my life which I have bought that were *perfect*, and being in my 60's that's saying something.
It's got a 43Wh battery, that's nearly twice the capacity of the iPad 2, and about 1.5 times the capacity of the 11" MacBook Air.
I'm not interested in a computer that can't compile. I deal with it on my iPhone because it's a phone ( but it's really a computer that's faster than my 10yo box), but I'm not going to buy a Mac and a $99 development license just to make a simple RPG assistant (I've been making them with JavaScript as a result; at least they didn't strip all programs that can interpret code).
I was about to say that the "user experience" has been fragmented across the different types of iPads until I realized that true Apple fans will have destroyed their old iPads (and any others they find) before buying new iPads.
Don't you sleep? That's when my iPad's charge. I lay down at 12, 1, or 2AM, plug it in, pass out, and when I wake up it's charged and if it took an hour or six to charge I give no fucks. It's charged.
But that won't work for me - I like to play Infinity Blade II while I sleep.
#DeleteChrome
For me the fragmentation comes down to whether it has a camera or not. As an owner of a original iPad, I was more and more disappointed at apps that didn't include me: many photography apps, and some games just wouldn't work. GTA3 wouldn't work without crashing before I even finished the first mission.
This will only get worse as people who are developing apps aim their performance goals at the newer devices. It's similar to when you try to put a new windows on your old machine - sure, it "works" but it is slower because you're still running on old hardware.
Restrictions are prohibited. Be well, get better.
"Taking a long time to charge means that it must have a really big freaking battery."
What it really means is that Apple has hit the limit for the amount of current they can put through their proprietary connector. They've already exceeded the spec for what's allowed through the USB end of their cables. A lithium based battery should be able to be fully charged within 2 hours, absent such external constraints.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Doesn't deserve the downvotes.
Android is a nightmare for (game) developers. So many wildly varying specs, some missing major features (no FPU, no multi-touch!)
iOS has been a lot nicer, with only 3 screen resolutions to support, and all devices with FPUs, multi-touch, and PowerVR GPUs. But the new iPad is a big change, with it's huge resolution, making universal apps less practical.
and 1/2 the power the battery my laptop has and it operates for 8 hours on a charge and takes 2 hours to fully charge while using it.
Using a 3 pound 'brick'.
Physics, folks. It runs your life.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Doesn't deserve the downvotes. Android is a nightmare for (game) developers. So many wildly varying specs, some missing major features (no FPU, no multi-touch!)
Compared to Windows it's a dream come true.
There is a sales term called the (Adam) Osborne effect. Based in the era of "luggage" computer where a CRY screen, twin floppy Fisk drives and a transformer could fit into something as small as a suitcase, Adam Osborne proudly announced at one new product exhibition that the next model that they were going to be selling in there months time was going to have even more features. The end result was that no-one was interested in buying or developing for the current model.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
When a developer targets an iPod touch, do you really think they're going to target the version 1 one which has less than 0.1% market share now? Or... Do you think they're going to target the 2 most recent generations, which covers every person who's bought one in the last 2 years? Effectively, to target iOS, you need to target an 800MHz ARM cortex A8, a PowerVR SGX 535, 512MB of RAM, and both 320x480pt and 1024x768pt. Once you've got that covered, you've got 97% of all users covered, and probably 99.9% of all users who are willing to pay for an app.
My iPad 1 takes a fucking year to charge.
Is this one of those biblical things where a day is a year?
If we go "by the book", hours could seem like days.
Dark Reflection
When I'm holding it vertically, like in bed, I can't just palm it. I have to use two hands to hold it.
And if I use two hands to hold it, do I just use my third hand to tap the screen to use it?
This all could be solved with a small ridge or dent on the back, so there is a smaller feature I can span to grip it one handed. The same principle as a handle, just more integrated.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Apps designed for Retina display can be up to five times bigger
FWIW you can easily run Linux on a Mac Pro... been doing it since '08; it's an awesome Linux machine. It's actually better because you can use MD RAID-5 support on those four HDs, something you can't do on Mac OS X without a $1K raid card that they want you to buy.
Well, you asked.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Foxconn has lower suicide rates than the rest of China.
Apple's products overwhelmingly try to lock you into their marketplace and keep you out of the innards of their devices.
Many lower end Android tablets can be converted to a main stream Linux distribution (with a little work).
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
It's impossible to tell the action of gravity near a planet's surface from upward acceleration of one's frame of reference. So in practice, "zero gravity" means "zero net accelerating force within a frame of reference", and this is the case inside a vehicle in freefall, be it the interior of an orbiting space station or the interior of a Vomit Comet aircraft in a parabola.
$60K - $10K for standard IRAs =
$50K - $10K for taxes (guesstimated) =
$40K - $12K for stated savings =
$28K - $12K for mortgage (guesstimated) =
$16K / 52weeks =
$300 / week to live on. Piece of cake, my mom and I each lived on $100/week while I was in Grad school, cars paid off, Ramen noodles for dinner, and that leaves you $5K/year "mad money" to take a vacation or two, replace the transmission that just fell out of your car, or whatever...
On the other hand, I know families living on $200K/year+ who are saving less money than you - they are the heat in the consumer driven economic engine, people like me and you are the sand in the gearbox.
Apple is paranoid that you'll using it for something they didn't specifically intend.
Which oddly didn't make it into the article's list of gripes, but continues to be the single biggest reason I refuse to buy one.
I want to be able to use my devices for whatever the fuck I want. I connect my phone as a USB device and copy files to/from it. I install software from websites. I visits sites that use Flash even.
Steve Jobs made a lot of money but he's dead now. Why is his monopolistic anti-competitiveness continuing to cripple Apple devices?
Mine works great. No complaints here. I see a lot of complaints from people that clearly don't have one. Your opinions have been noted and will be given the consideration merited. That is all.
your gravity fails and negativity don't pull you through
I'd bet part of the confusion is people charging via the USB port on their computer vs a wall charger.
USB ports on a computer are limited to 500mA, wall chargers are typically around 1000mA, though some I've seen go up to 2000mA.
So, someone who is saying "gee this takes forever" is likely the person who is charging via their PC.
The capacity I have seen listed for the iPad3 is 14000mAh. If you were to do a dead battery to fully charged via PC only, it could take almost 28 hours. (though batteries charging rates are not linear)
It also has young employees, where suicide rates are the highest, the same as any culture. You realize there were like 8 suicides? You know that Foxconn employs over a million employees? The fact that you call me an Apple apologist and not a Foxconn apologist (or one of the dozens of other tech companies that contract Foxconn) is very telling. You just don't like Apple.
The biggest issue is the inability for Safari or any iOS browser to wrap text. Reading websites on a 10" screen can get tiresome on the eyes, especially if your eyesight isn't that great. I don't know why Apple hasn't seen fit to include the ability to wrap text in Safari. It's the main reason I stay away from Apple products and force myself to use Android tablets and smartphones. Without text reflow reading on a mobile device is guaranteed to give you eyestraight.
Display, Processor, Chips, Battery, ...But hey, It has an Apple logo!
Actually, Apple has been desperately (and it look like, successfully) trying to become non-dependent upon the technology-thieves at Samsung for a couple of years now. The latest iPad is actually stands as a testament as to the lengths that Apple has gone to cut Samsung completely out of their supply chain.
Display: Designed by Apple. iFixit said it was "probably Samsung". No surprises there. Apple has used Samsung "glass" for years. However, leaked information makes it seem more likely that Apple has turned to Sharp for the iPad 3 Retina display.
SoC (what you quaintly and incorrectly called the "Processor") : Designed by Apple, manufactured in Texas by Apple-owned Fab house, Intrinsity. In fact, Apple's Intrinsity is already the second-largest mobile SoC manufacturer, and ison track to pass Intel as the world's largest mobile chip fab.
Chips: Some are Apple-designed. Most are commodity. I think the iFixit teardown (See steps #15, 17 and 19) identified a number of manufacturers; Apple, TI, Broadcom, Fairchild, Qualcomm, Avago,Toshiba, Triquint, Skyworks... Hmmm. Let's see. What manufacturer's name is MISSING...?
Battery: Apple designed. No one else's battery comes close to size/capacity combination. Manufactured by Simplo Technology, with Dynapak International Technology as Apple's up-and-coming "preferred" source.
But don't let facts disturb your delusions...
...and 40M+ iPad 2 buyers are wrong in my opinion.
For me, spending money on an iPad is a waste of money - I have no real need for it. I'd like to have one, but when I think of it, it's just a gadget - an uncessary purchase.
So people are wrong to make purchases of things that they don't necessarily need? Not everything has to be purely utilitarian.
The other day, I talked a young woman out of buying an iPhone - I think. I asked her, "Why do you really need it." She just wanted a smart phone, especailly an iPhone because it's a fashion accessory.
Realistically the iphone is the most common smartphone in the world, they are the Nokia of the smartphone world, it's hardly a fashion accessory when high-profile business people have the same phone as 15 year-olds at McDonalds. But even then, what's wrong with that? Your philosophy is that you shouldn't buy something unless you really need it?
And we don't spend money on crap like the this.
You wrote that you'd like to have one and now you're writing that it's crap and seem to be justifying that based on what you can afford.
Compared to Windows as of 15 years ago, maybe. The Windows APIs the last few years have been mature enough that while diverse hardware testing can still improve the user experience, it's gotten substantially less necessary for game developers. That just isn't the case for Android games.
It isn't strictly for reading. Personally I use it to browse the web, email/calendering, read books, take notes at meetings, facebook/twitter, watch videos, sketch out ideas (Notes Plus is amazing), zipping through RSS feeds, facetime with family and gaming. I've also attended a number of WebEx and GoToMeeting webinars on it. The new version of WebEx on the iPad is amazing.
I was like most "tech people", I never knew what I needed an iPad for until I got one. I already had a laptop and a multiple desktops and I didn't "get it". But they gave me one at work and next thing I knew it was my favorite gadget.
I can accept your opinion, but still can't say I agree with it myself.
I don't think "paranoia" factors in. That's just more Apple bashing. The fact is, Apple sells their products as part of an entire "user experience" you're supposed to get from them. That's one of the reasons you don't ever see Macs for sale at the local Wal-Mart or "Joe's Computer Shop" down the street in a strip mall. Apple is concerned with the sales experience you receive meeting certain minimum standards of theirs. Even the "unboxing" experience is thought out in advance, so you feel as though your new purchase is something important, valuable and "high end" in nature. As you use their products, they want them to work in the manner they designed too. If you call for technical support, the person on the other end of the line needs to know your product has certain menu options and runs everything a certain way - or else they can't give you the type of "step by step" support answers you might expect.
It's legitimate to disregard all of this as "meaningless" to you, or even to say in your opinion, it's not how a computer product should be sold. But it's part of the formula Apple has for their products - and it's a very successful one.
I'm technical enough so I never need to call Apple's help line ... and sure, there are times I wanted to do something with a product of theirs that's way outside the scope of what THEY intended for it. But usually, I can do that if I so desire (such as jailbreaking an iPhone or iPad) and all is good. 90% of the time though, I actually LIKE what they've done with a given product, and I'm fine with using it within those parameters they built it with. Apple is, by and large, pretty good with that stuff, IMO -- so I keep coming back to them.
why don't you provide a link to the headline you mention.. is it this one?
http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/14/2870374/new-ipad-apps-larger-size-retina-display
"The applications developed by Apple have been upgraded to support the Retina Display. For example Keynote was previously only 115MB but its latest version is 327MB. Numbers is up from 109MB to 283MB, Pages moves from 95MB to 269MB, and iMovie from 70MB to 404MB." (Translated from Vietnamese)"
iMovie is the only one that went up over 5x.. and that's because they added a new feature called Trailers. there's built in themes with animations and music so most of that increase is the stored audio/video assets.. it was NOT a straight retina bump - else it wouldn't have been demo'd in the ipad keynote. you can't compare the current and previous version because they're not (feature wise) the same app. garageband also got bigger.. from 600MB to almost a 1GB I think.. but that's because they added string instruments and the ability to "jam" with other people and record all 4 tracks in the app. those string loops are big.
here's the info about Trailers for the desktop version of iMovie - all the same features are in the iOS version.
http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/#movie-trailers-section
the pertinent copy from the appstore
Create movie trailers
Choose from nine new trailers with immersive graphics and original scores by some of the world’s top film composers*
*Trailers are available on iPhone 4 or later and iPad 2 or later. (probably because of RAM constraints)
the "CMX-HD" format that Comixology and Marvel are using now caused a noticeable increase in file size.. but of all the titles I have, they average increase is about 3x.. and the ones I have (pre-HD) were around 20-25MB, now they're 75MB.
3x may seem like a lot, but look at the difference. (photo by Andy Ihnatko)
https://twitter.com/#!/Ihnatko/status/180865456389885954/photo/1
(note the paperclip in the foreground)