So the specs are on the apple site, any thoughts? it says the graphics processing is up to 9 x faster, I dont know how that can even be possible? Theres no new screen so its still 1024x768 but now its got some high power graphics and processor chips so if this is the last version without the retina screen this could be the fastest ipad ever. Still no usb or pressure sensitive pen.
http://www.apple.com/ipad/
Replies
Without pressure sensitivity its not much good for us. Worse, your stuck with the Appstore and no flash. You have to have everything you buy go through apple.
Games played so much smoother on the iPhone because they only had to deal with a smaller tighter screen, instead of rendering everything on some massive screen with a fuckton of pixels, without any real power to compensate for it.
So when they say 9x faster. It's probably not as awesome as your thinking, because it was kinda behind before.
Either way, this is still cool for indie devs
So everything we do on a computing device must be related to game art? If you do a lot of reading books, magazines, RSS, watching video etc, the iPad is fantastic for that. Sure Wacom tech would be nice, but it's very good at a lot of other things too.
Also, JailBreaking is so simple now and completely reversible, that you can get full Flash (web and video), and you can run HomeBrew/Open Source software just as easily as you can on Android.
It's a reasonable spec bump for those who want one and haven't bought one yet, but it's certainly no reason to upgrade for existing owners I don't think. I also don't personally like the redesign of the actual hardware. Kinda how I felt about the 1st gen iPhone > iPhone 3G, looked so much better before IMO.
I love my first-gen iPad and feel no reason to upgrade. I barely play games on it, just use it for reading and watching video predominantly so the faster processor is largely useless to me.
What does confuse me though is the rear-facing camera... I mean, really? Seems like everything in tech now is like 'Hmm how can we improve this... PUT A CAMERA ON IT!' What the hell is the point. Front-facing, sure, I can see video chat being pretty cool on the iPad, but who in their right mind would stand their taking pictures or video with an iPad?!
GarageBand for iPad though, sooooo fucking excited for that. There's a couple mobile DAW's out already but if GB works as well as they showed in the keynote, then I'm gonna be spending a lot of time with it. I really, really hope it's not iPad 2 exclusive.
well the iphone 4 has a 960x640 screen so thats not much different to the ipads 1024x768 screen so the ipad 1.0 should perform fairly well as it is, thats why Im curious what this new ipad can actually do when it comes to polycounts and texture res. If it really is even 2x faster than the ipad1.0 this could be amazing.
Ipad : 1024 x 768
Not that much of an increase really, certainly not a "fuckton" :P
~ meh. I saw some really choppy stuff on it that looked smooth as hell on a iphone 4. Maybe its something else spec wise that's really making the difference then
There's definitely a difference. Infinity Blade runs smoother on my iPhone 4 than it does on my iPad.
Multitasking could play a huge part in slowing things down, but even with no other apps open, the iPhone is faster. Not by a huge margin, but it can be noticeable.
Does it have pressure sensitivity?
I think its No to both. So, nah. I'll pass.
Im hoping that the ipad 3 or 4 will have usb slots and a pressure sensitive stylus and in the keynote speech they will use the song "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" to describe how much more magical it is!
iPad cover is apparently a straight rip off a patented japanese 'bath cover'. Even the color
Everyone one knows all things tech related should be carbon fibre, brushed aluminium (alooominum for US) or black.
The patent will be for the way it folds and become a raised stand. Unless the bath one folds into a triangular head rest.
Let's see how the competition goes in the next year, I've seen people drooling over the EEE Slate, which costs more than the most expensive iPad - if it actually sells maybe there will be an iPad pro line.
i also got to play with the eee slate, pretty nice but still way too thick for my liking, its a bit too heavy and bulky for me to want to lug around. if they can make one a bit more thin and much lighter, i think i would be on board. but windows isnt exactly made for tablets so i found the whole experience a bit lackluster, you really need a keyboard, or the device needs wacom-esqe function keys.
i will probably get an ipad 2, the covers come in many different colors, dont need to choose blue, and the cover actually turns on and off the device.
I have the iPad 1 and love it, use it everyday. The man reason why it is slow than the iphone 4 is because it NSA half the memory. The iPad 1 only has 256mb where're the iPhone 4 has 512mb.
That was the biggest downfall of the original iPad. If all they did was upgrade the ram for iPad 2 it would be worth the upgrade for me.
It is still not clear on how on how much ram it hs now, but it should be at least 512... I was hoping for 1gb, then it would be a no question upgrade for me. ..
As for the cover, I think it ks great. It is magnetic so I doubt it will lose it's shape easily.
Exactly how I feel.
I must admit, I too bashed the iPad a bit when it first came out, I thought 'great, just a small iPhone' but I now use mine every day too. It's surprising how much it fits into your lifestyle even though you could never see a use for it before. Just the fact that a bookcase full of bigass art books, a whole music collection and a few movies/tutorial videos now fit in my bag/on my lap was worth the price of entry alone.
Also, at the risk of sounding like I've been completely sucked into Mr Jobs Reality Distortion Field... it just...works.
OT: fuck ipads iphones ibooks imacs iasl;dkjfas;djf, where is the cloud itunes stuff?! Part of me feels like technology is being held back not by lack knowledge and skill, but by marketing and greed - Apple must keep people stringed along so they can make money the next quarter/year instead of really pushing for greater tech. Gaarrrrhhh
Yes you can, but that's not what an iPad is for. Since we got the iPad it has replaced the laptop almost totally.
The iPad is a perfect sofa companion, vastly more so than a laptop. I've not used any other tablet, but I suspect that owners of them would say the same thing.
I've even considered buying one of the cheap 150 quid linux ones to leave in my bag at all times.
I am kind of surprised that a lot of people are just calling this a smaller update... In mean what more is needed to be considered a complete refresh? I get that most iPad 1 users not wanting to update because their current iPad does eveythinf they need....
But I keep reading online people saying it is hardly an upgrade..
New look, tihinner, faster CPU, more ram(?), better graphics, hdmi support, 2 cameras,Gyroscope... The only thing that is missing is a newer higher resolution screen..
what more were people expecting?
The iPad2 is a pretty big update, with Facetime, new OS, and hardware specs - but for me personally it isn't enough to justify spending more money on it because what i have is just fine.
I was expecting them to increase the screen resolution, upgrade ram (rumored to be the same as 1stgen ipad), increase sensitivity levels (not pressure) of screen for cleaner handwriting, new multi-touch interactions (the multi-finger stuff they patented), cloud-based store purchases for apps (buy app on one device, install on all), cloud based data for Pages Documents and other files (which exists via subscription service and by manually doing it, saying make it automatic), better multi-tasking gui/interaction, some sort of file system (tho unlikely, seems as if Apple is trying to do away with this concept), better integrated keyboards, zooming on home page to create groups instead of icons for groups... etc. Can't have everything, but at least one of those things is what i was expecting, but would love them all
Things like Garage Band and iMovie are snazzy - but they're applications. Its something cool you can do with your ipad, but i can also do cool shit with the thousands of other apps on the store as well. Apps are perfect showpieces to show the power of the device, but Garage Band and iMovie do nothing for me other than shrug it off and stop caring. I feel that when Apple start demo'ing applications like some silly photo-warping app, they're wasting time because they don't have much new to offer with the device other than a few gimmicky new applications.
The GarageBand thing is actually quite a big deal, certainly not a gimmick, and I can see it appealing to a lot of people. The musician crowd have already gone wild over what iDevices and their apps can do and since GarageBand is a pretty capable little DAW that a surprising number of big name artists use for on the go jamming/composing, it's a perfect match.
Currently even in my most mobile setup, if I want to compose some stuff, I need my laptop, some sort of USB/FW interface, a bunch of cables and a set of speakers/headphones, and of course a guitar or keyboard. Now I just plug the guitar into the iPad and Im good to go, not to mention the built in instruments which work nicely with the touch controls.
Since musicians are used to spending a shit ton on gear already, the iPad is becoming more and more attractive. As Arshlevon says, it's actually a pretty powerful productivity tool and simply snubbing it because it's hasn't got Wacom tech or Flash is kinda silly.
For those of us who can't afford to just blow hundreds on impulse gadget buys, it's definitely a try it and love it device. As I said, I never even saw myself using one, but now I barely put it down.
So who wants to place a bet on the ipad 3 being realesed next year and this vr2 made to look like a high fashion paperwieght?
Tech moves fast, and a yearly update is actually not fast at all. Look at PCs. You buy a £400 GPU, and it's outdated in a couple of months.
Apple are also pretty open and predictable about their update policy, they release an iPhone every June, and Im guessing they'll do the same with iPad now.
~16 gb ipad wifi = 380 euro... quite expensive ehem, i would pay that for the 64 gb version...
I was using the other day an ipad at mediamarkt, and well, i thought it was a cool device... atractive but useless for me. Apart of playing the demo of angry birds, i was figuring out what the heck i could do with it... see photos? play music? do i need to pay such amount of money just for that?
Fuck you apple, i'm not idiot.
For real tasks y prefer a true computer, seriously.
For the price, I would at least expect them to start supporting flash again. I get the idea of having it as a 'on the couch browser', but without flash, I consider a large portion of the web to be useless. I hate browsing on my iPod, because of the constant flash issues
ah sweet not sure why i typed "gimmick," I use a ton of apps for my own productivity. I'm sure an e-trader would have as much ambivalence to a pressure sensitive screen for painting as I do to Garage Band. Didn't mean to be ignorant to others' passions
As for audio, I've got a 4in M-Audio Firewire box that works great with Cakewalk on my laptop. Unlimited tracks, vsti, full MIDI support, etc, etc. Sure, it's bulkier than an iPad, but the fidelity is perfect and it's got great mic ins.
My real issue with the whole of tablet PCs is that they don't do anything significantly better than a laptop that translates into productivity for me. The size is nice, but it's not like my laptop is 2'x4' and weighs 20lbs; I get around just fine with it. They're really going to have to step up both the application support and add functionality (eg. pressure sensitive pen) for it to be anything more than an overpriced media toy for my uses.
EDIT - I didn't mean to come off as combative about it, just saying it's not for me. I do understand the appeal for some people.
Using social apps, watching videos, orginising dates and notes, chatting etc all on touchscreen is something I suppose me and my partner needs.
I'm saving for one now, so I don't think it will disappoint.
It is for some people and other people rather other things, no one can make a product to suit everyone, just get it if you want/need it.
Forgive me if Im wrong but when Apple updates the OS, you have to rejail your device or not? Also does a jail broken pad still allow purchases from the appstore as well as third parties. As otherwise what you are saying is you can only buy or pirate programs off the unofficial black market. Do you not also break your warranty by jail breaking?
As a game system. If its "reinvented" every year, its even worse than a computer price wise. And far from the shelf life of a dedicated hand held console.
So unless some of my conclusions are off. Your trying to argue to use the device in a way that it wasn't intended legally to justify buying it.
From earlier speal about the pad, So your networking into your home computer to work on assets as well? Or just rendering pre made assets you made on your home system? You can do that from any machine these days. But,how are you doing that? To even interact with your home machine, don't you need to enable to keyboard on part of your screen shrinking your home desktop? Is your home machine another Apple product or another flavor OS? If your sending files over the net to render, sometimes they can be 100 of megs large. What happens when you get caught in network traffic?
I mean, I don't see anything you list being that special other than the Ipad being thin. And since it lacks a keyboard, having to shrink your workspace to do anything with other computers.
Edit: You also mention flash, which I assume yours is jail broken as well. So a non jail broken legal version of the ipad, can it do all you are currently using it for? If not, why are you buying a ipad, when an Andriod 3 device could do the same for a cheaper price?
I dont have the 3G one but I should be able to access good enough WiFi for that...
But then I got a kindle too, now the only thing I want an ipad for is stuff like comics...but then again I just don't read enough of them and I dunno about the quality of the stuff on the app store. Still, it's a nice product....
i use iTeleport: Jaadu VNC, its 25 bucks but its worth every penny.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMjXtT-k9jg&feature=player_embedded[/ame]
(I tried AirDisplay earlier, to use the ipad screen as a third monitor on my home setup in order to place photoshop palettes on it. It worked well and was okay-ish fast, but had no zoom function. I am thinking of trying iTeleport to do that, since I suppose it sure has a zooming function built in!)
If you want to update the software (which isn't forced, you can run older versions if you dont want new features, your device will still sync with old software etc) then yeah you need to re JB. But it's just another one click process, and since you can restore a backup of the phone after updating (which it does anyway when restoring even the legit software) so it's like adding one click to the software update process.
You can run legit apps/purchase from the AppStore, sync your device or do anything else you like that you can with a non-JB device, all Jailbreaking does is open things up, you dont lose any functionality.
This I agree with, as new games are released for the new hardware and run like crap on older hardware.
Aside from Android being a clunky, unstable OS in comparison to iOS, you'd be surprised at the price of the devices. They're more expensive than the iPad. Here in the UK, the iPad launched at £429, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab launched at £599. Of course the 3G iPad is more expensive but I'm sure it was still cheaper. Same as the Mororola ..., more expensive than the iPad.
Phones are similar, the latest Android handset will cost you around £400-£450 off contract in the UK, the same as an iPhone.