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back to article Hands on with the Apple iPad 3

Last night, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed the company’s latest tablet. It’s the new iPad, folks. And this year it’s just called "the new iPad", not iPad 3 or iPad HD. To some, it means that 2011’s model, the iPad 2, sounds newer than the latest, 2012 one. But more important than the name, should you buy one? Apple iPad 3 aka new …

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Still better off with a netbook.

      Netbooks are also slow as hell, useless for gaming, comparatively bulky, and require a mouse to be half-way useful. Plus you have to deal with the ongoing chores of windows life: updates, virus scanners, and the occasional horror of an incompatible dll.

      A tablet has its downsides, but it's preferable to a netbook for most people by a long way - maybe this is why tablet sales are rocketing and netbook sales are collapsing?

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    2. Andy Watt
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Re: Still better off with a netbook.

      Dear god, do netbook lovers still exist? I thought we were all post-PC now?

      - Cheaper? But how's the build quality...

      - Full keyboard? C'mon, there's cases, bluetooth keyboards... journalists are using these in the field now.

      - Storage? What are you doing on this portable, on-the-go netbook that needs more than 16GB minimum (64GB max)? If it's doc production, etc then you don't need a terabyte in your bloody pocket

      - Multitasking - fair point, but G33K - people don't care, and arguably on a small screen multitasking with a standard WIMP OS is a PITA (see previous poster comment re:mice

      - External devices - this is a portable device... what do you need? You could argue the iPad has just enough external connectivity to do the job (esp with the kits). People aren't impressed with how many bloody USB ports something has, they don't view this device that way. You're comparing cox's pippins with oranges.

      - As stated previously in this forum, there isn't a dependency on iTunes anymore and there hasn't been for an age. As for dependency on Apple services... not relevant, personal choice.

      - Multiple users - this is a PERSONAL device. Why would it need multi user profiling?

      You're better off with a netbook if you're a netbook lover and you hate iPads / Apple / etc etc. Otherwise, just accept the masses have spoken and your mini-laptop is doomed to obscurity.

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  2. JimM

    Look forward to Samsung et al slashing prices to compete.

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  3. <spez>
    Thumb Down

    nice display....

    ... for showing of an old and tired looking OS.

    Big resolution but still a 4 x 4 grid array, gonna keep my ICS TF101 thanks.

    yep... I know fandroid here but i am wrong in thinking iOS needs a function/GUI update?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: old and tired comments

      @<spez>: "...still a 4 x 4 grid array..."

      Which reveals how closely you've looked at an iPad - perhaps never. Look up a photo and count the array dimensions (not just the number of icons displayed in the photo). Is that what counts for advanced and/or cool in the Android world - the number of icons you can cram on a screen? Are you also bored with the fact that after millennia we still enter buildings through doors? Most people feel there's little point in changing something that performs a basic function really well.

      iOS is barely 5 years old, and there's been 5 new versions since then. The most recent, iOS 5, is only 5 months old. Seems well updated to me - loads of good functionality with each release too.

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      1. <spez>
        Reply Icon

        Re: old and tired comments

        Well the missus has the ipad2 and recently went from a 3gs to a 4s and I feel it all looks ably antiquatedwith having to clickon one of the 16 icons to get ur news feed or tweets and emails, nice to turn on and have it presented to you on the screen.

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        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: old and tired comments

          The problem with ICS is that it is slow, buggey and has no Apps worth using written for it, so your missus has made the right choice twice in choosing an iPad 2 and iPhone 4s over a battery draining joke of an OS.

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  4. Natalie Gritpants

    I can usually tell the temperature in a photo

    just by looking at it. Clues like the amount of clothing being worn, sunshine, flowers, snow, rain, barbecues, the list is endless. If it's indoors, it's probably 18-20°C.

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    iOS 5 updates vs Android

    One thing from Apple that I wish was in the Android world is being able to update the OS easily without jail-braking.

    It's a pity that the overlays like HTC Sense seem to prohibit Google from pushing out security patches or entire system updates to any devices that are capable of running them. I'm not sure why a replacement launcher isn't just an app that can be uninstalled, along with all the facebook, twitter and stock ticker bloat-apps.

    Perhaps when ICS is ubiquitous (or Jellybean, Key Lime Pie, Lemon Drizzle Cake etc) the overlays will die and we'll just be running the basic Android with a bunch of extra apps added by each builder along with the hardware specs and styling for differentiation.

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    1. Andrew James
      Reply Icon
      Facepalm

      Re: iOS 5 updates vs Android

      So what you're saying is down with differentiation, up with uniform OS.

      You want an OS that can be updated easily with major upgrades or small security patches, at the time when they become available ... seems to me you're in the wrong camp if you're using Android.

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    2. Manu T
      Reply Icon

      Re: iOS 5 updates vs Android

      unfortunately I fear that will not happen. In Windows Phone this is the norm. HTC has it's Sense HUB as a separate app. But since Android is quite open manufacturers can bloat the OS as much as they (and in the US telco's as well) see fit. But indeed you have a point. In fact I said ages ago (when i stll was involved in Windows Mobile) that HTC (and Samsung too for that matter) are very stupid not to sell their UI-enhancements as seperate programs. They could create extra revenue. In fact there's SPB software who have their own UI-overlay for several platforms but I've got no idea how well it sells. Why don't El Reg review these things? I mean they could review all SPB-mobile desktops on several platforms and gives us an idea how well these run.

      As it is now, I guess ppl will have to make a choice. A closed ecosystem completely sealed off from user intervention (iOS/WP7) or a bit more open (Android/Symbian) systems that users can adjust and personalise to their hearts content.

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    It doesn't matter, but...

    The extra thickness and weight doesn't matter at all, but if Steve Jobs were alive, he wouldn't have let it out of the lab until with was thinner and lighter.

    Just sayin'

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  7. The Envoy
    Boffin

    "Sure, it’s thicker by about HALF A MILLIMETRE, but it’s hard to spot this."

    Correction:

    Yes, a half a millimetre difference would be hard to spot. In reality it is 0.6 centimetre = 6 millimetres thicker.

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    1. Robocat
      Reply Icon
      Stop

      Re: "Sure, it’s thicker by about HALF A MILLIMETRE, but it’s hard to spot this."

      According to specs the new iPad is 0.6 mm (NOT 0.6 cm) thicker. The dimensions changed from 8.8 mm to 9.4 mm (9.4 mm - 8.8 mm = 0.6 mm; i.e. less than a millimetre in extra thickness).

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  8. PAW
    Happy

    ipad what?

    Hmm. This article and comments alerted me to the Transformer Prime. Thanks.

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What is all the fuss about?

    Bought an iPad2 used it a while, then the novelty wore off and I went back to my trusty laptop. It sat on the shelf in my study for a couple of months, neglected and unloved, so I gave it to my son. He loved it - for a few weeks - but ended going back to his laptop.The iPad2 now sits gathering dust on a bookshelf in his flat. I wonder how many of these devices end up like this.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What is all the fuss about?

      No excuse for leaving it lying on a shelf if you're not using it; flog the damn thing. You've missed the boat if you wanted a good price.

      I use mine every day as I potter around my flat; bog surfing/twitter on the shitter, etc., is a speciality. I tend to leave my laptop plugged in and charged so the iPad allows me to do basic email and browsing plus reading the paper(Times/Sunday Times App).

      I have a 4S, iPad 2(3 on order) and a MacBook Air. Although that may sound like overkill, I find they each have very distinct and useful use cases. The iPad is a media consumption device par excellence in my view and the new one will be a huge advance when allied with my new Apple TV too. I don't consider myself a fanboi by any means it's just that Apple are making the best kit by a mile and I can afford the premium. I really do want to see an Android tablet overtaking the iPad 3 as the must-have device and it could be this new Prime but we'll just have to wait and see. I suspect the new 10" Amazon Android tablet will be a winner in the value for money stakes but the next must have tablet will likely be the first one to have a 10" OLED display. The question is: who will make it? Amazon, Apple, Asus, Samsung? Looking forward to finding out;).

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  10. Nick De Plume
    Meh

    iPad 2s

    Okkay, so the new iPad is the old iPad with a new screen and bumped up specs so it can keep up with the competition for one more year.

    It has been a winning formula so far, so Apple hasn't changed much, it's the ipad2S. But even if this is faster than Tegra3, Tegra3 equipped competition is out today, and I'm sure faster stuff is just over the next hill.

    The resolution is awesome, but it is also a case of massive overkill on a screen smaller than 10 inches. But Apple HAD TO quadruple the res, or lose acceptable backwards compatibility for existing app catalogue - Being resolution agnostic (or flexible) is not an iOS strong point.

    So it is a refresh edition. Yawn. I think a design change would be in order too (or was Apple just too busy litigating?) -

    - or who in the whole cafe will know you've got the newest pad of them all?

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    1. Andrew James
      Reply Icon

      Re: iPad 2s

      "- or who in the whole cafe will know you've got the newest pad of them all?"

      Those close enough to see its .6mm thicker, or that it has 4x the sharpness on screen.

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    2. ThomH
      Reply Icon

      Re: iPad 2s

      The claim in the launch was that the iPad 2 remains faster than the Tegra 3; the new iPad is even faster still. I, probably like you and everyone else reading this, have never cared enough to bother seeking out an independent assessment.

      But, yes, it's a product refresh. Like every other piece of consumer electronics you'll hear about this year, and probably all but one of those you've heard about in the last five.

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "If you haven’t had a tablet computer before, this looks like it is head and shoulders above the competition" That definately needs jsutified!

    Sorry but that is complete RUBBISH! A transformer Prime is better even without 3G.

    If your a mug who believes everything you hear, buy one, else, dont watse your money because it has a shiny screen.

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