You like iPads, you like things called 'Air'. You will LOVE this puppy As expected, Apple refreshed its iPad lineup on Tuesday morning. Unexpectedly, it renamed its top-of-the-line 9.7-inch tablet to the iPad Air. Seeing as how the MacBook Air has been one of Apple's most successful products in recent years, it's perhaps no surprise that Cook & Co.'s marketing folks decided to borrow some of that …
Weird, while I am only an amateur photographer, I find I taking photos with a real viewfinder much better than with an LCD, the exception being when I am using the LCD to allow me to take a photo from a point I cannot get my head to...
Sure the big screens would be great to review the photos, or even as a remote viewfinder, but NOT as the main viewfinder physically attached to a camera...
Hmm Samsung do a remote viewfinder on their cameras I think!
"I'm a professional filmmaker and I would beg to differ, sir; I think iPads are great for taking photos and videos - we've spent all our lives peering at tiny little LCDs or through viewfinders when we make images; finally a nice big picture to look at. Really lovely IMHO, a big step forward."
Eat your heart out, Canon, Nikon, Leica, Sony... - you're designing it wrong.
and it also includes the battery-saving M7 motion processor that's in the top-of-the-line iPhone, offloading sensor-monitoring and processing duties from the A7
That would be the motion processor that's turned out a bit dodgy?
Oh, and graphs without numbers == meaningless. Those are practically the same curve, yet one is "8x faster" and one is "72x faster". Get lost.
Based on iPad3 & 4 benchmark results, I see no reason to disbelieve them. iPad2 smashes iPad1, iPad3/Retina smashes iPAd2, iPad4 smashes iPad3. The stats are on the web for all to see.
Whether all this power is of any use is a different question - the other manufacturers are increasing the grunt of their devices just as quickly.
Based on iPad3 & 4 benchmark results, I see no reason to disbelieve them. iPad2 smashes iPad1, iPad3/Retina smashes iPAd2, iPad4 smashes iPad3. The stats are on the web for all to see.
I'm not contesting that newer chips are quicker, that just makes sense, but if the numbers are real, then why use bullshit graphs to show them? Why not have a real graph, if you're not exaggerating things?
"That would be the motion processor that's turned out a bit dodgy?"
No, as I'm sure you know...! You're just trolling with this. It's not the copro (mopro?) in this case, it's a difference in calibration between one brand of sensor and another, and was resolved by 7.0.3 anyway.
I'm sure that won't stop the haters banging on about it for the next year though.
My god talk of little innovation and small progression, a thinner tablet with an incremental processor upgrade??
Most people bulk out the iPad with a protective case so their is little point in a thinner tablet. Especially since you have spent so much money on a thin tablet you are going to buy the obligatory bulky protective case since we can only assume it will be near impossible to fix should you let it drop.
A bit of an own oxymoron from Apple a thin, weak, expensive device that users will bulk out with a protective case to protect it.
One might, if one were to be a bit pedantic, suggest that moving from a 32-bit processor to a 64-bit processor is something that qualifies as a bit more than an "incremental" upgrade.
But far be it from me to be that pedant. Carry on!
"One might, if one were to be a bit pedantic, suggest that moving from a 32-bit processor to a 64-bit processor is something that qualifies as a bit more than an "incremental" upgrade."
I, however, will be pedantic and say that I think it is exactly an "incremental" upgrade... what other increment is there from 32-bit? 33-bit? 48-bit?
I can't make a comment on whether it will be more than incremental for performance, though.
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Re: A thinner tabler is that it, how robust, it will need a bulky case????
Hmm, while I do not recall a 33 bit architecture, we certainly have had 36 & 48 bit architectures in the past as well as varying number of (n)bit memory addressing systems where n>32, so yes, there are other values of the increment.
The big changes in the A7 chip are not the 64 "bitness" of it, and your claim to know something about this subject suggests you might do well to actually brush up on the subject before ranting away and making yourself look silly.
On second thoughts, rant on ...
Nah, not just Asians. I know one (very Anglo) Apple fan who insists on using his iPad to take pictures rather than his iPhone. I pointed out that not only did this look silly, but that the camera on the iPhone would yield better pictures. He tried to argue that the cameras were exactly the same, and I could not be bothered to direct him to the tech specs.
I think it has something to do with the bigger screen. People equate the immediate viewing experience of "iPad photo is bigger on that big screen, thus is better" (actual megapixels and f-stop ratings be damned).
Calling it the iPad Air is legitimate, given that it is thinner and lighter than its predecessors. I approve of the improvements in CPU and graphics performance, but I'm puzzled how they were achieved if it still uses the same processor. Perhaps that wasn't clear in the article, and they actually are using a different implementation of the same architecture.
Pity they didnt suffix it with an "S". and the $100 increase for every incremental iteration of memory (which actually cost pennies these days) is eye gouging.
Where are the panting fanboys having orgasmic gasps ? OR is it that Apple have shafted them so deep, that many are saying, enough is enough !
So whats new? 64 bits processor? Thats all? Does it wipe my bottom?
and, as with every other Apple release in the past five years, the haters will be shown to be wrong in their analysis and their opinions. Their bile will be on view forever here on the interwebs for all to see - lol.
The problem is that the haters simply can't get past their envy and hatred for the world's most successful company, a company which continues to provide an enormous number of punters with exactly what they want - apparently.
And for the logically challenged, this statement does not preclude that other manufacturers can and do provide what other punters want.
They simply cannot come to grips with the fact that their opinion has no merit and is worthless. Sadly we must read these broken non-insights in here on a daily basis.
Interestingly, I heard some idiot analysts on Bloomberg today, they sounded like the haters in here - clueless morons as well - I say this having had first hand experience with quite a few WSAs (aka. wankers)
The maps app is fine, better in many ways than its predecessor (features Google refused to offer on the iDevices). However, Apple aligned itself with one of the world's major suppliers of data to feed their own app, and the completeness & quality was not to the same level that Google provided previously.
These are two statements of fact, and the end user experience was not up to Apple's standards and worse in many ways than the app that Google had previously provided.
The fact that everyone (including you I guess) blamed the poor user experience on the App, merely indicates the lack of nuance and understanding that the anti-Apple (and pro-Google) brigade demonstrate on every available occasion.
The whole exercise was Google throwing its weight around, successfully.
Don't let the facts get in the way of your bias though, carry on.
"Re: Lol @ the hate.
haters... wrong in their opinions... bile... can't get past their envy and hatred... logically challenged... opinion has no merit and is worthless... broken non-insights... idiot analysts on Bloomberg... sounded like the haters... clueless morons.... wankers"
No hate there, then. Nice to have a balanced appraisal of those "haters".
Are you a "Genius" (Sales Assistant), by any chance?
What is this nonsense I see everywhere nowadays about "haters"? I might think something is poorly designed, unpleasant to use, inconvenient, even plain dumb. Or I might dislike something (such as crayfish, let's say). How does ANY of that make me a "hater"?
Looks like a rather simple-minded way of poisoning the well wholesale. "Anyone who disagrees with me is a HATER" (and that's obviously a bad thing to be).
"Typical; fAndroids and arm-chair experts criticising the best technology company in the world.
Now there's a surprise."
Yes. The thought they they are the best technology company in the world would, indeed, come as a surprise.
Most litigious? Least value? Highest on the iChav scale? Most undeservedly self-congratulatory and unwarrantedly boastful?
No surprises there.
I suggest you read up on who actually MANUFACTURE the processor in your ithings. Apple assemble, they hire foxcon to do their dirty work. They don't manufacture any processor themselves. How can you even class them the best tech company when they are merely assembling other peoples tech? Even more embarrassing, the "brain" is made by the people fanbois hate all the time. Don't believe me? One example of the 5s http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/09/20/samsung-confirmed-to-be-manufacturer-of-apples-new-a7-chip-in-iphone-5s
that the speaker point out the back of the damn things?
Seriously, who though this was a good idea, you have to turn it all the way up to hear it, and bother everyone in the room. I always end up coming up with a mess of a contraption using menues or placemats to bounce the sound off of. Every time I want to watch a video on my iPad, one of the only things it's really good for, I need a Rube Goldburg machine just to hear it.
Although I've now moved into the Android ecosystem entirely with Android tablet and phones, I can still appreciate the great engineering that goes into the iPad. The 4 was lovely, and it looks like the air will be even better.
However, there's no chance I'll be buying one- a nexus 7 and cheap windows laptop cost about the same (£500 or so) and are more flexible for my needs
Apple devices generally look amazing but they're too expensive, especially beyond the base model (those with more storage + 3g/4g variants) and when the cost of peripherals is factored in.
The reason Android has exploded as a platform is because tablets exist at all price points and it's not hard to find a perfectly good tablet for < £200 in 7" and < £300 in 10". And if someone does have the cash there is a choice at the top end too, some such as the Galaxy Note 10.1 could give the iPad Air a run for its money in terms of features and functionality.
"The reason Android has exploded as a platform is because ..."
... it is free for manufacturers and they can sell cheap crap using it, at price points for which there is always a ready market. Oh yes, and the fact that geeks like it.
There are exceptions, Samsung, Sony, Google Nexus.
I wonder what the sales of non-name Chinese underpowered, unusable crap tablets is compared to premium products?
Chinese cheap tablets sell well, and generally work fine. Not as quick, but handle games and video playback well, both of which are a major use case.
But if you want to go a bit more expensive? I just bought a 9" Nook HD, for £129, and its utterly great. It does absolutely everything I need just as well as an iPad would (not to say that would be the same for other users). So, can anyone explain what benefit the extra processing oomph of this latest iPad is?
It seems the only unexpected thing about Apples announcement was the fact that they called it the iPad Air...
It was nothing we didn't expect, the iPad mini design, which was lighter and thinner. I don't blame Apple though and I think it will be a big seller. They are taking the same approach that they use with their Macbooks and the fact they called it the iPad Air seems to point to them going down that route too.
Who can blame them for making revisions to a winning formula? I don't own one (I prefer Android personally) but this is a successful product that they've made thinner, lighter and faster. Yeah you could add a USB port or a HDMI out, but that's not their plan their end game is to get you on the iTunes and AppStore gravy train so your content is all in the cloud and you use Apple TV if you want to view things on the big screen..
I think we will start to see another model next year onwards being realised where they'll do a pro version alongside the Air version. Maybe the pro version will run OS X and be aimed more at people who design and do computerised drawing and include a stylus
"IMPROPER LINE EXTENSION!"
And yes, that was meant to be shouting. What was the point of the MacBook Air? Laptops were big and heavy and awkward to lug about, so let's make one that's small and light.
What's the point of the iPad Air? Fondleslabs, er, tablets are small and light and child's play to carry around, so let's, er,...
"It's no wonder the market went blah at the news."
You don't really understand the market do you?
The market moved leading up to the release, where everyone placed their bets. This is how it works.
The market will now stabilise to the level the market assesses looking forward including the evaluation of the affects of the now released products (rather than speculation).
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