by Conrad MacIntyre
By Conrad MacIntyre
Ben Brooks, on John Brownlee's earlier article about undercharging the iPad:
I’d love to see the actual research here. I have only had to charge my iPad once since getting it so I can’t say whether I have noticed anything like this. Obviously it takes longer to charge, but not really being charged when it says it is? Sounds dubious to me.
I agree. I also re-posted Ben's entire post, but his blog is more than worth following. Do it now.
John Brownlee, referencing an email from Dr. Raymond Soneira which stated that the new iPad may continue to draw current (charge) for up to an hour after the display says "100%":
So if you’re charging your new iPad for eight hours every night, time to start charging it to 9 if you really want a full charge for the day ahead.
There are so many things wrong with this statement. How uncharged was the iPad when you plugged it in? "Up to" an hour does not mean a solid hour every time. Do you honestly need to charge every night? I charge my iPad and iPhone only every other day.
Stephen Chapman pens a rather long post about the privacy concerns he sees with the dictation feature on the iPad. I am just as paranoid as the next guy (nope, probably more) and even I don’t see the problem here.
Chapman is trying to paint Apple has being shady about this, when that is far from the case.
Apple warns you that contacts and user data will be stored on their servers when you turn on the feature. That’s about as much as you can hope for.
This is what transparency is to me. Apple is as transparent about what they're doing as I think you can realistically expect someone to be.
This image came from Samsung at the release of the new iPad:
Am I missing something here? Their big claims to fame are the stylus (3.5 separate bullet points) and the fact that two apps can be run side-by-side (3.4 separate bullet points), and don't forget that little (1) which denotes that for apps to take advantage of this great feature they must be specifically coded to use that API. Which is only available on Samsung's devices. Device that are selling so poorly that they are literally being given away everywhere I look (and then being turned over on Craigslist for 1/2-2/3 their MSRP). Oh, and you can use it as a remote control. Oh! And you can hook up a mouse!!
A stylus and a mouse? The tablet revolution is complete.
(Via Neowin)
The drop in price does a bunch of things, and it does them all at once. First, it puts an enormous amount of pressure on Android tablet makers going forward. They were already struggling to compete with the iPad 2 at a $499 entry point, now their margins have been tightened by another Benjamin.
Hadn't thought about this, but it's certainly true. Anything sold for more than $399 will need to be better than iPad 2 - something that has yet to happen.
According to The Verge, the new iPad will indeed feature double the RAM of its immediate predecessor, with a full gigabyte of memory ensconced within its aluminum frame. But why doesn’t Apple ever talk about it?
Because Apple doesn't want to compete on spec. It wants to compete on experience. That has always been Apple's M.O.
iPhoto is totally worth the $5 Apple wants for it. I’d rather Apple dumped the Photos.app entirely and replaced it with this, supplied with every iPad and iPhone. Maybe that’s set for iOS6?
Agreed completely.
Also, I believe that Apple could increase the value (dollar-value by $15, perceived value by more) of iPad by adding the iLife suite to all new iPads/iPhones.
No numbers, no signifiers, no ‘HD’. Just iPad.
I like it. iPad HD would have made me vomit in my mouth a little.
CNet claims that the next iPad that is due to be announced on Wednesday will be named "iPad HD".
There are a lot of sites jumping on this naming convention as being all but certain. As I said before, I really hope this isn't true. "HD" as a phrase has become so pervasive that it's virtually lost all meaning. I've seen HD sunglasses, HD vehicles, HD radio… I sincerely hope Apple doesn't do this. Things with 'HD' attached as a suffix always make me cringe.
So, crunching the numbers Apple is making around $104,546,122 per day. That’s $100m per day Apple stands to lose if people stop buying the iPad 2 to wait for the iPad 3.
(Emphasis mine)
Apple could very well call the third-generation iPad the “iPad HD.”
Oh, this would make me so, so sad.
A new set of leaked parts reveal that Apple’s upcoming tablet does indeed possess a Home button.
I am shocked. Shocked.
A new report tonight claims that Apple is set to announce a 8GB iPad 2 alongside the iPad 3 at its media event on Wednesday, March 7th.
DigiTimes claims it knows this is coming, but it's a smart move and a pretty obvious projection for any Apple follower.
The spacing of the icon’s on the iPad pictured on the invite clearly indicate that it’s in portrait orientation rather than landscape. But there’s no sign of a home button – a design change that Apple has been allegedly been toying with for some time. Google has already deprecated the use of physical buttons on devices and moved to software-only onscreen controls.
I don't think the icon spacing reveals anything. If there is no home button then there needs to be a way to get 'Home' on-screen at all times. No. There is still a home button. The form may change (maybe) but they button remains. I virtually guarantee it.
iPad 3 introduction to be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco at 10am PST, on Wednesday, March 7.
I know what I'm doing next Wednesday.
The iPad 3 is coming next month. Or so says the endless rumors. These rumors also state the next iPad will have higher resolution screen and high-speed data connection. But I couldn’t care less. The iPad 3, if that’s really its name, sounds like a stop-gap upgrade to me.
Stop-gap, eh? Continue.
You see, I’m perfectly happy with my iPad 2. Save the addition of an SD card slot, there isn’t a single feature I can imagine that will make me trade up to Apple’s new hotness.
Faster connectivity, better cameras, vastly superior display = Meh. SD card slot = the own!~!1. Got it.
I guess the iPad 3 sounds great, but it also sounds boring.
Totally makes sense to me.
That’s not saying Apple won’t sell a zillion iPad 3s. It will.But it’s going to take more than a spec bump for me (and likely many others) to upgrade from the iPad 2.
That what I've been saying about laptops since the PowerBook 100 came out. I mean, it's been 21 years - are they ever gonna revolutionize these things?
Prior to most Apple events, rumors swirl, promising a revolutionary device that will change life on planet Earth forever. But then the iPhone 4S launches. A fine piece of hardware, sure, but far from spectacular.
Best-selling phone of all time. Go on.
But there hasn’t been any wide-eyed iPad 3 rumors but rather just predictable leaks stating there will be a slight hardware bump.
Again, see my note regarding the PowerBook 100.
Part of my dystopian outlook is that I’m pretty damn happy with the iPad 2. I passed on the original iPad, annoyed over the lack of external storage and USB support.
Which they never added to the iPad 2, which you are "pretty damn happy with". I see.
I instead waited for the Android tablets…
And…?
…but quickly discovered Honeycomb’s main fault involves trying to replicate a desktop environment rather than creating a mobile one.
You didn't like that? So many others did.
I have a dozen notebooks for traditional mobile computing.
Oh! So people want a tablet to be different from a traditional desktop experience?
So I got a 16GB Verizon iPad last summer. I’ve never been so happy with a device. I’ve had it since July 2011 and still use it hours a day. Apps make up 95% of my usage — the majority of which are not available on Android. I fire up Safari just to check TechCrunch and Techmeme.
So you totally love your iPad? Okay.
A prettier screen is not going to change or increase my usage unless Apple backsteps and includes a SD card slot — which it won’t.
So that only thing that will make a Retina Display screen better is an unrelated port on the side of the machine? I'm totally tracking with you.
When the original iPad launched, I dreamed of using it as a on-location photo viewer. I imagined using the tablet in conjunction with a cloud service for iPhoto. But instead Apple released a lame Dock Connect adapter which falls short of my expectation.
An SD card slot is the most important thing in your life, but investing $30 to have one on your iPad is out of the question. Makes sense.
The current screen looks great. Have you played Infinity Blade 2 or Rage? Awesome.
This screen is awesome, so a more-awesome screen would not be as good. Understood.
It’s important to remember that Apple doesn’t need to reinvent the iPad.
You just said, "The iPad 3, if that’s really its name, sounds like a stop-gap upgrade to me" which sound to me like you think they do, but… okay.
The company makes piles of cash by outing successful products and keeping them on the market as long as possible.
You're talking about Apple? Is that right? The same Apple that killed the iPod Mini in 2005 — when it was selling very well — to introduce the iPod Nano? The same company that killed it's best-selling white MacBook and replaced it with a MacBook Air? The same company that risked the entire iPod brand when they incorporated a best-of-breed iPod into their iPhone in 2007? Revisionist history, but sure.
The iPad 3 will likely be just a spec bump to stay competitive for 2012 and 2013.
Stay competitive because of all the competition from those Android tablets… I think about 6 of those sold. Or the pseudo-Android Kindle Fire which sold an undisclosed amount. Yeah, sounds like Apple really needs to pull up it's socks.
It will match (and outsell) future Android tablets, causing companies like Samsung, Asus and Motorola to quickly redesign and release an even more “powerful” tablet just to get a bit of an edge.
Well, they're all doing splendidly so far.
Apple didn’t need to release the iPhone 5 in 2011 because the iPhone 4 was still outselling most other phones. Instead, Apple released the iPhone 4S, which while packing some new innards, is mostly a stop-gap solution allowing the company to milk additional revenue from supply contracts on aging components.
Sounds like a flop to me. If only we knew the sales numbers.
It worked. Apple sold 17.1 million iPhones in the last part of 2011 on its way to be the most valuable company. The iPhone 4S gives Apple even more time to refine the iPhone 5 while negating more favorable manufacturing and supply deals.
Oh.
The same thing could happen to the iPad 2. Apple could release the iPad 2S. It would be faster, packing LTE data and a quad-core A6 CPU along with featuring a higher-res screen. Of course there would probably be a new camera and new software to take advantage of the quad-core CPU — the software would likely be exclusive to just the new model, though.
Yup. The name matters more than the product. That's important to remember. Also, Apple is historically TERRIBLE for supporting older devices with late and non-existent software updates.
The WSJ reports that Apple is playing with an 8-inch iPad. But once again, Apple doesn’t need to release an 8-incher right now. Sure, the Kindle Fire is scooping up plenty of marketshare but the tablet scene is far from saturated and the Fire helps bring attention to the product type.
I talk to people all the time who say, "iPad? What's that.. oh, you mean iPod!"
If Apple releases a stop-gap iPad in the coming weeks, I fully expect the company to completely reinvent its mobile line before the holiday season including a smaller, cheaper iPad.
Apple has always been a very reactionary company. And considering not a single one of iPad's competitor's will release actual sales numbers that can only mean dooooooooooom for Apple.
I’m sitting the next iPad out. My iPad 2 works just fine and none of the rumored iPad 3 features justify upgrading to me. Apple will likely hype a meaningless feature during the keynote, deeming it a game changer. But I’ve learned my lesson. Heads will stop spinning shortly after the event and reality will set in. Avoid the Apple spin zone. It has a tendency of sucking credit cards towards pre-order buttons.
Just look at iPod, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad, iPad 2, and MacBook Air — their sales numbers all trailed off into oblivion within weeks of launch. At least — I'm pretty sure that's what happened… right?
Sources say the company has chosen the first week in March to debut the successor to the iPad 2, and will do so at one of its trademark special events.
(Via 9to5Mac)
Images of leaked iPad 3 components hot off the Foxconn factory floor have been provided to Cult of Mac. They reveal that the internal components of Apple’s third-generation iPad are significantly different to those features in its first- and second-generation tablet. However, its design seems to remain almost the same.
It's going to be a huge disappointment, just like the iPhone 4S.