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Apple Announces iPad Air
Today Apple held a press conference to unveil its updated software and hardware products. The biggest news was the announcement of the 'iPad Air,' which has a 9.7" Retina display. It's 7.5 mm thick, which is 20% thinner than the older iPad. The weight has dropped from 1.4 lbs to 1.0 lbs, and it runs on a 64-bit A7 chip with an M7 motion coprocessor. Apple claims performance has doubled over the previous-gen iPad. The iPad Air will be available on November 1st. The iPad Mini is getting a new revision as well. The display has been upgraded to 7.9" at 2048x1536, which is the same resolution as the iPad Air. The new Mini has an A7 chip as well.
Apple also announced that the new version of Mac OS X (10.9 Mavericks) is available now and is free to all Mac OS X users. It includes better multi-monitor support, tabs in Finder, and a number of performance optimizations. The Macbook Pro is getting updates to the 13" and 15" models, which are now running on Intel Haswell processors. They both have PCIe SSDs, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and Thunderbolt 2 support. Apple also talked about the redesigned Mac Pro line. As you may recall from WWDC, the new model takes up about about 1/8th of the volume as the old one. It's cooled by a single fan, uses 70% less power than the earlier model, and puts out 12 dB of noise when idling. It'll be available in December. On the software side, Apple has been updating a lot of their software to add 64-bit support and mesh with the new iOS 7 style of design. This includes iPhoto, iMovie, and Garageband, as well as the iLife and iWork software suites. iWork is also getting collaborative work features, and it's now free with new Macs and iOS devices.
Apple also announced that the new version of Mac OS X (10.9 Mavericks) is available now and is free to all Mac OS X users. It includes better multi-monitor support, tabs in Finder, and a number of performance optimizations. The Macbook Pro is getting updates to the 13" and 15" models, which are now running on Intel Haswell processors. They both have PCIe SSDs, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and Thunderbolt 2 support. Apple also talked about the redesigned Mac Pro line. As you may recall from WWDC, the new model takes up about about 1/8th of the volume as the old one. It's cooled by a single fan, uses 70% less power than the earlier model, and puts out 12 dB of noise when idling. It'll be available in December. On the software side, Apple has been updating a lot of their software to add 64-bit support and mesh with the new iOS 7 style of design. This includes iPhoto, iMovie, and Garageband, as well as the iLife and iWork software suites. iWork is also getting collaborative work features, and it's now free with new Macs and iOS devices.
iWork is now free, and include collaboration features that MS Office will have a hell of a time trying to match.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
That's pretty impressive engineering. Think it allows Android to be installed on it? :)
The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.
since every new version is twice as faster as the previous one, given the fact that we see new versions in less than 18 months.
unless apple's engineers are optimizing this infamous loop:
for(i=0;i1000000000;i++);
Not to bash the iPhone, but how is it that Apple seems to be so much ahead of the pack when it comes to the iPad but the iPhone seems to be just another high-end smartphone? I mean the new full-size iPad seems so much better especially in size and weight than anything else out there, while the 5s is just a nice spec bump.
Apple haters or not, the saddest thing to realize is that the only UNIX(R) Workstation on the market is now the Mac. As Apple is the only UNIX 03 certification holder who is still making desktops and laptops. All the other UNIX 03 hardware produced at the moment is Datacenter-only rackmounted servers.
So $2999 for a powerful UNIX(R) Workstation is a fair price.
1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
Not true... http://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/specs/ specifically lists the chip as: "A7 chip with 64-bit architecture and M7 motion coprocessor"
iWork is now free, and include collaboration features that MS Office will have a hell of a time trying to match.
-jcr
A major shot at other operating system, computer *and* mobile device makers. Free (as in beer) major OS update (computers) and free productivity apps (computers and mobile devices). Bundling the productivity apps with new computers and mobile devices will help Apple maintain their price points. Once again, Apple demonstrates that they are a hardware company at heart, that software is a tool to sell that hardware.
wouldn't a better name have been "ipod hair"
Not to bash the iPhone, but how is it that Apple seems to be so much ahead of the pack when it comes to the iPad but the iPhone seems to be just another high-end smartphone?
It seems that way because the press is incapable of understanding what it means that both iPad and iPhone now ship with a 64-bit processor, and full-time motion chip - as well as strong BTLE support, something Android has only recently begun to adopt.
The iPhone 5s is leading all of the other smartphones on the market today in terms of technology - just not in screen size.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Apple haters or not, the saddest thing to realize is that the only UNIX(R) Workstation on the market is now the Mac. As Apple is the only UNIX 03 certification holder who is still making desktops and laptops. All the other UNIX 03 hardware produced at the moment is Datacenter-only rackmounted servers.
So $2999 for a powerful UNIX(R) Workstation is a fair price.
A $600 Mac mini is also UNIX(R) and for many UNIX(R) users it is quite usable. Not all UNIX(R) users need a *high performance* workstation.
The Mac Pro is intended to be a graphics/video workstation. You use external disks to hold your data because you have massive amount of data you need to deal with.
No internal drive is big enough for the workloads it is intended to be used for, you attach a external cage with a bunch of disks via thunderbolt or a SAN.
Apple makes their money primarily from selling hardware. By making OS updates free it makes moving to the Mac ecosystem that much more attractive.
Not really true. It just needs special bootloaders to emulate Macs' EFI, and a few customized drivers, and a healthy disregard for EULAs.
Remember the mid-90s, when Apple had dozens upon dozens of Macintoshes, Power Macs, Quadras, and so on? And how one of the first things Jobs did when he returned was slash all of those, which put them back on the road to their current success?
Yeah, they're up to four different iPads now, all currently being sold. The iPad Mini, "iPad Mini with Retina", iPad 2, and iPad Air, and I'm sure they still have some "Fourth-Generation iPads" to sell off. Each of these has a few variants for WiFi/3G and storage. And they also have a trio of iPhones - the 4S, 5C and 5S - again with storage capacity variations.
On the desktop, a pair of laptops (the Macbook Air and Macbook Pro) with a few size options, and trio of desktops (Mini, iMac (two sizes) and Mac Pro) has worked pretty well for them. They really need to cut down on their other models - using the old iPhone as the "cheap" model worked, discontinuing the old one in favor of a low-cost second model would also have worked, but as it is I see little purpose to keeping both the 4S and 5C around. And for the iPad? A Mini and a Pro would have been fine. Google is actually being smarter than they are on this - they have a Nexus 7 and a Nexus 10, updated as needed. Clear product differentiation - you want a small, cheap tablet? Nexus 7. Larger and more powerful tablet? Nexus 10. Apple is less clear - their high-end "Mini" costs the same as their low-end "full-size". They could probably make the iPad models make sense (iPad Mini, iPad Pro Mini, iPad, iPad Pro), but the way they currently are is crap.
It's somewhat baffling that anyone these days would want an iPad 2. The Mini outstrips it in every area but screen size, at the same price. I would also imagine that continuing to support it is obnoxious for developers.
Anyway, I was planning on buying the iPad Air, but the Mini is looking a lot more tempting, given that the only difference anymore is screen size. I just wish one of them had Touch ID.
If you can't convince them, convict them.
If it was at least linear, I could deal with it. Buy why does upgrading from 16 GB to 32 GB (an additional 16 GB) cost $100, while upgrading from 64 GB to 128 GB (an additional 64 GB) also cost $100? $100 for 64 GB extra is almost reasonable, assuming they are using quality NAND storage chips like you find on hard drives, and not the kind of stuff you find in SD cards. But $100 for 16 GB of storage is just robbery.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Then you're an idiot and need to learn how pricing works....i5, 8gb ram, aluminum case pc laptop on newegg RIGHT NOW, $400. Comes with windows, and then add office for $140 more? Ohhh....soooo much more $ than a Mac!!
Nine-hour battery life with reasonable weight? A battery that lasts five years with only 30% decrease in capacity?
Reasonably well color-calibrated screen pretty much covering sRGB, with reasonable sharpness, viewing angles and brightness, which doesn't wobble or develop faults in a couple of years?
Accurate, pleasant-to-use trackpad?
Backlit keyboard, typing on which isn't uncomfortable, annoying, or error-prone? And which doesn't lose key caps when you sneeze or develop unresponsive keys?
Good durability? Good resale value?
Windows laptops with these features, the features that make the difference between resenting your tool and enjoying using it and owning it, do exist. Granted.
But every time I've looked for one in the last four years, in the place where I live, matching a Macbook Pro in the Windows space seems to cost between 50% and 200% more. And no Windows laptops match MBPs on resale.
I don't think Mac users are the idiots. I think I am, for refusing to buy a good tool at a fair price.
It's somewhat baffling that anyone these days would want an iPad 2.
It's not baffling and it's not about "want." Apple has signed a lot of contracts with school systems for large volume, fixed price delivery of iPads and most likely those contracts included qualifiers that Apple must deliver products which are "commercially available" at the time of delivery. Discontinuing the iPad 2 would probably require Apple to deliver the newer products which have a lower profit margin and a higher consumer demand.
Those are fairly common terms to put in when you're writing long term volume purchase agreements.
which has a 9.7" Retina display
Let me just pass that through my "marketing bullshit" remover:
which has a 9.7" display
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Okay, the cheap laptops are not in the same league, but there are comparable Windows ultrabooks with excellent calibrated displays, similar specs, battery life etc. NEC's LaVie series, some ASUS and Samsung models, and of course Sony.
Apple laptops are not magic, or particularly good value. They are similar to the competition, it's just that no-one else has the Reality Distortion Field that makes them seem so much better.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Yet another person who thinks throwing a bunch of substandard crap together in a box makes it equivalent to a nicely designed machine. When you show me a box that have similar hardware, thermal, weight, battery life, PCIe flash, screen resolution, etc characteristics for that price, then we can start talking.
A $400 laptop is essentially netbook territory with spinning rust. You expect that to have the same performance as a macbook pro?
*SERIOUSLY?!*
Apple laptops are not magic
but they are unix, and unlike linux, everything just works out of the box. for some of us, it's worth paying more to not have to dink around for hours on the weekend to hopefully get things running smoothly.
macs are overpriced, but not as much as some folks say. consider this MBP,
http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro
it's $1800 with no upgrades.
the most comparable thing i can find at dell.com is this,
http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-12-9q33/pd?oc=dncwi16b&model_id=xps-12-9q33
it's $600 less, but it has 1/2 the memory, worse graphics, a slightly smaller display and lesser res, and a 128GB SSD vs. a next-gen 512GB SSD. also, it runs windows, not a unix-based OS.
how about toshiba?
http://www.toshiba.com/us/computers/laptops/kira/kirabook13/KIRAbook13-i5-touch
$300 less, but has last-gen graphics, last-gen core processor, and a last-gen SSD that's 1/2 the size. it does have a touchscreen where the MPB does not.
Psychology. A lot of people will stay on the base model and pat themselves on the back for $100 well saved. The people who want more space will by sold up to the 64/128 GB model and pat themselves on the back for getting so many more GB/$. I think the subset of people who are:
a) certain 16GB won't be enough
b) certain 32GB will be enough
c) willing to pay $100 extra for the privilege
is in an extreme minority. People have no idea what NAND prices are, they just need to feel good about their own choice and the easiest way is to give them a bad choice to make it look good against. So raise your hand everyone with a 32GB model ;)
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
The vast bulk of the market has already turned it's back on this notion of "design". Once you take that away, Apple is nothing special at all.
I promised myself a long time ago to stop replying in Slashdot Apple fanboy/troll wars, but this one really got me.
Having used all modern OSes quite a bit, I can tell you plainly that if you think Apple is about fancy hardware cases and rounded corners, you don't get it. Please do not make comparisons to Windows commodity PCs solely based on hardware, because that's not what Apple is about on the desktop. Unlike almost anyone else in the industry, Apple is a software company that makes their money with hardware.
Their goal is to sell you a high-margin, high-end piece of hardware that may not be differentiated based on hardware, but is differentiated based on shipping with a UNIX-based OS that has a slick and efficient UI; integrated cloud sharing and automatic backups; bundled office apps that can match or beat MS Office/LibreOffice; iLife apps (iMovie, iPhoto, Garage Band) that have so serious free competition; and an integrated entertainment ecosystem (iTunes) that nobody else but Amazon comes close to (sorry, Google Play is nowhere near competitive for a desktop user). "I can get the equivalent hardware for cheaper with Windows or Ubuntu" is a false argument, because it's the software that makes a Mac special. I know there are "lots" of people who buy Macs and install a different OS on them, but I think that's a Slashdot-centric view of "lots" - a.k.a. "lots of people buy Raspberry Pis."
YMMV as to what that software differentiation is worth, but for those who buy Macs, the answer is clearly "it's worth a lot and still a bargain."
"95% of all Slashdot
> R&D
It's simple. Were it not for Apple and a very few other companies that do research, who take chances, who bet their lives that you want to move ahead, we would be using DOS.
R&D costs money. Dell and HP won't invest there; their money goes for marketing. Apple does real R&D and I am happy to support that.
Additionally, some foreign companies are investing increasingly in R&D. Apple (and Qualcomm, a few others) may be the only viable American company that remains.
Give your money to those who innovate, not to mass junk producers.
...omphaloskepsis often...
>> Apple laptops are not magic, or particularly good value.
Two things that I like about Apple laptops that are unmatched:
1. Trackpad is just first class. I have never seen any windows machine with a trackpad so smooth and accurate. Also the gestures in the OS are actually useful to the point where I prefer using the trackpad over a mouse for most applications (not image editing).
2. Magnetic power adapter. This is just killer compared to the stupid barrel connectors everyone else has. I would pay an extra $100 just for that feature.