Which iPad 2 to buy? | Hacker News Reader

Which iPad 2 to buy?

cultofmac.com

3 pointsitzthatiz10 comments

I wonder if the author actually own a first generation iPad. 16GB is enough if you have only one screenful of apps and games. 16GB is definitely not enough if you ever play games such as Infinity Blade (850M), Fifa 11 (1.2G), Real Racing 2 etc. And even GarageBand is over 400M. How about your mp3? movie files and ebooks? 32GB is more adequate.

And iPad 3 will be March 2012. It is too soon. iPad 2 might not even complete its worldwide launch by fall. The Fall rumour most likely is a 6 inch iPod touch launching in September iPod event.

The way Steve vigorously came out against 7" tablets makes me suspect they'll launch one, too. His logic was rather questionable (you need to sand your finger tips to points to use apps on a 7" tablet, but not a 3.5" phone?).

What he probably means by that is that he doesn’t want any further fragmentation. A 7" tablet would need an optimized UI for the reduced screen size (you can’t just shrink down iPad apps or blow up iPhone apps), Apple doesn’t want that.

There won’t be a 7" tablet anytime soon (within the next twelve months) and that whole September business is based on pure speculation, not any sources or evidence.

While I'd love to have an in-between sized Apple device personally, I agree with that line of thinking. I can picture what facing that would be like as an iOS developer - it would be a pain.

On any device with video recording capability, get the biggest size. You will not regret this once you start using the camera. Yes I know, the form factor leaves something to be desired for shooting, but this is a thing that kills you later down the road when you realize why you're full.

If you have a phone though that does tethering, I don't see the point of the 3g anymore.

I worked on the same decision in buying my iPod Touch and found that

- Wifi only is quite inconvenient. If you're in your car, a hotel or coffee shop with lousy wifi performance, you'll miss having a cellular data connection. Using random 'open wireless hotspots' is not always a a secure (or legal) idea. Needing to use a second device to supply an internet connection is rather clunky, but I do appreciate the efficiency and thrift of that.

- 8 GB isn't nearly enough space, and 16 might be, but I'm not sure. I have come up to the limit many times on my iPod. I've removed apps, limited music to a fairly small selection, and am still left with so little space that I had to remove material just to download updates to certain apps (Infinity Blade)! If Apple would include an SD card slot like everyone else, though, this wouldn't be as big of an issue. I suppose with three other devices laying that can store and play music, my iPad might not be the 1st choice.

If I buy one, I'd probably get a 32GB with 3G.

A friend wanted to buy and setup a smartphone (ie, iPhone4) as a failover internet for their house using tethering.

I recommended the iPad2 3G since you can create a hotspot (myWi) and not pay the monthly until/unless you need the service.

If your house has signal, it can be a nice backup.

None. Since there will be a new one in the Fall.

I've seen a fair bit of speculation about this, but do you care to elaborate? Wouldn't it be quite unusual for Apple to significantly update a device more than once in a year?

Do you have any evidence for that?

Gruber speculated about that but he said that he has no sources whatsoever, it’s pure speculation. Did you hear it from someone else?

(Not that it matters. You should buy stuff when you need it.)

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