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Apple iPad is a Faster, Cheaper iPad Air 2 (cnet.com)
Say good-bye to the iPad Air, it's just the iPad now. From a report on CNET: Apple announced on Tuesday morning that it will be dropping the price of the 9.7-inch iPad by $70. The tablet's A8X processor will be getting an upgrade too, jumping over to the A9 chip used in the iPad Pro. The upgrade will replace the iPad Air 2, but the iPad Mini 4 will live on, starting at $399. The updated pricing will start on Friday, at $329 for the 32GB model and $459 for the 32GB WiFi with cellular service model. It's Apple's cheapest iPad, after the company decided to replace the iPad Mini 2, which started at $269. Although Apple's iPad is leading the tablet market, it's still a tumbling one as demand takes a decline thanks to people holding onto their tablets longer.
It's back to the iPad Air1 thickness (including the non fully laminated display)
The new iPad shares the same 7.5mm thick 1.03lb body as the iPad Air 1. It also shares the same non-laminated screen and no anti-reflective coating as the iPad Air 1. The Air 2 was 6.1mm thick, 0.963lb with a fully laminated screen with anti-reflective coating.
The new iPad is an iPad Air 1 on the outside, with an A9 CPU (from iPhone 6S) on the inside and the camera and TouchID from the iPad Air 2.
Yah. I know that's old. Sitting here in a corp of Apple Worshippers (myself? some crappy 350$ netbook, with GNU/Linux on it -- tah horrors).
All trying to talk me into a dead man's reality distortion field. Once a month I *have* to do something on an iFad, for bureaucratical reasons. Yuck.
...value Windows tablet that can run full Windows programs (not "apps")?
Doesn't the iPad Pro use the A9X processor, not the A9 ?
It amazes me that they can offer the iPad for so cheap compared to the iPhone. Most components are the same, but the display and battery (probably the two most expensive components) must be much more expensive on the tablet, because of the size.
We can thank carrier subsidies. A lot of people buy phones they can't afford because of that. I doubt they would be going to the bank to get a loan if it wasn't offered by the carrier.
Jony Ive must be rolling in his gra... oh wait he's still alive. Damnit, and here I was hoping for a Mac with a decent assortment of ports on it again someday.
such innovation! I wish Steve was still herel. Apple continues down the path of disappointment.
My iPad 2 is getting long in the tooth after five years. I only use it for the alarm clock app that blast an air raid siren at 4:30AM so I can catch the express bus at 6:00AM to start work at 7:00AM in Palo Alto.
Weird announcement - no dog and pony show, just a website update and some new info. And there's all the rumors about new hardware. As an Apple-head who wants to replace an older iPad, I'm torn. Get a mostly-better for less, or wait and hope they've got something coming in a month?
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
WTF is with Apple's fear of the number 3?
The iPad 3 was not the 3 - it was the New iPad
Now the iPad Air 3 is a New iPad, but is neither the Air nor the 3.
Is this what you get when you have marketers sit around a table and you ask them to brand your new device revision and you just get blank stares back?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
This is exactly what I was waiting for. I'm buying 2 of the new 32GB iPads as soon as I can get my hands on them (for the kids), and if Apple updates the iPad Pro later this year, I'm going to pick up one of those for myself. Good job Apple (it's about damn time).
Is probably due to the Apple III fiasco back in the early days... Although they DID release at Macintosh LC III in the 90s.
I bought an iPad last year for entertainment purposes for my travel. I had a first generation one, but that one was obsolete long ago because it can't go past iOS 5 and so most new apps won't work. Heck, even old apps won't work. I'm mostly disappointed with my new purchase.
The problem is that some apps are written for iPhone only...why is there a difference? It's the same goddamn OS. Like, how is there not vector scaling of graphics? Instead, you can view it at iPhone screen size, occupying about 30% of the iPad screen, or blow it up to 2x...which results in blocky text since it's just a zoom, not re-render for the higher resolution. Southwest Airlines, for instance, doesn't have a full iPad app. It was only recent that Hilton got a full iPad one. Other airlines don't have them either. As a frequent business traveler, these apps take up half my installs. I suppose if I dig deeper I'd find that there are even more apps that are iPhone only.
That makes it an entertainment device for me. That's mostly what I bought it for but...$500 to watch some TV on the plane and surf the internet is a bit much. It can't really do anything else. They probably need to move it to its own version of OS X so it can compete with Windows tablets. "BUT BUT BUT..." you might say, and then follow that with "...then developers will have to write separate apps for it and can't just use the iPhone apps!" Except they already have to do that, unless they're content to provide a reduced functionality version meant for a 4" screen. So what's the difference? If Apple had its act together, they could make an emulator for OS X that runs iPhone apps and just let that run on the revised iPad.
Instead, they are trying to sell 2011's innovation in 2017 and wondering why the sales keep dropping.
The demand isn't tumbling because people are holding onto their tablets longer, it's because people are not even using the tablets they own. Phone screens have gotten larger since the iPad was introduced, and they are more than adequate for most tasks thought to be suited for tablets. Tablets are simply niche products.
I was in the market for a smaller iPad. I've had my 16GB iPad 4 for several years, but it seems to choke on newer apps. I really wanted a new iPad Mini, but I'm not buying a model that's two years old at any price. Apple has billions in cash, but they can't seem to engineer regular updates into their product lineup since Jobs died.
Honestly, none of this will change the downward trend of sales. Anyone who wants a Apple tablet probably already has one, and there just hasn't been any game changer function or feature to justify buying a new one. Even worse, they have been out long enough that the old/refurbished market actually exists, and is a practical alternative for anyone who doesn't care for features like finger ID, portrait cameras, or whatever else is new.
No, its not a typical durable good (like a washing machine), but in context of electronics, it does not evolve quick enough to warrant yearly re-purchases.
... That's not confusing at all! Thanks, Apple!
I believe there's two reasons for that:
1) They're not innovating, only upgrading. This "new iPad" (which should probably be called the "new iPad 2", since the first "new iPad" was generation 3) is an iPad Air with its CPU upgraded to an A9. There's nothing else new to celebrate about it.
2) They need something spectacular to announce to complement their new two billion dollar complex, and this just isn't spectacular. Something spectacular is coming later.
3) (What's probably spectacular...) They're gearing up for an iPad Pro update, but it's not ready yet. The rumor mill is speculating that there will be a newer 10" iPad w/o a bezel that will become the new iPad Pro, as well as an upgrade to the 12" iPad Pro. If Apple wanted to save the pomp and circumstance for something worth celebrating, this would be it.
The O.P. nailed the true up(down)date. The headline should read:
"New iPad gets faster and cheaper, but it is uglier with lower quality screen."
"Liberalism is a very noble idea, currently controlled by some very bad people. Be sure you do not get the two confused.
Do you really need that much to be able to cut cheese with your tablet ?!
I understand that it's preferable for gadgets not to weight 1 metric ton, and not to be as fat as a cinderblock, but as long as they are portable does it really make sense to chase after every last millimetre ?
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
So it's got an iPad Air 1 body on the outside, and screen, and it has iPad Air 2 internals... it's a marriage of the Air 1 and Air 2. It's Air 1 + Air 2.
Um... Air 1 + Air 2 = (Air) (1+2) = Air 3.
Is Apple mathematically challenged? Arithmetically challenged? Numerically challenged? Calling it just "iPad" without specifying what the fuck it is, (it's basically the Air 3, more advanced than the 1 on the inside, but LESS advanced than the 2 on the outside.
Or maybe it's more like...
1 + 2
iPad Air --------- = iPad Air 1.5
2
There's a huge difference between "portable" and "I can comfortably hold this with one hand for an extended period of time".
Again, we're not speaking about something shaped like a brick.
We're speaking about 6.1mm vs 7.5mm.
i.e.: differences in the mm range, in a object that's less than 1cm thick.
What weird shape does a hand have so that a 6.1mm thick object can comfortably fit for an extended period of time, but a 7.5mm thick object suddenly can't anymore ?!
I just can't get why people are paying so much attention to mm differences in objects that are thin enough for nearly all most common use cases...
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]