Daring Fireball: iPad (3)
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When you are holding the device and just looking at it, maybe trying a few apps - whether at the store, or trying out your friends - the display is the only constant that'll matter and it's the only thing that you can definitively and objectively compare.
And yes - I do agree with you - Apple and their bundles of cash have likely hamstrung world-wide inventories of this display for a minimum of 60, if not 90 days. No other electronics vendor will be shipping the 2048x1536 form factor in large volumes until June/July at the very earliest.
Also, Apple says they'll have enough screen for 12-15 million devices this quarter, and claim there's no supply issue at all. [1]
That aside, shortage isn't bad for in-demand items. It just causes more hype. A year after the Wii shortage, they were still one of the hotest electronic devices you could get your hands on.
[1] http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/03/13/us-apple-idUKBRE82C...
Anyways, I was attempting to upvote your comment because I've noticed the same. I'm sure it will change once they see the display in person, and then see an iPad 1 or 2 again. I stare at pixels all day and it was an incredible upgrade to go from a standard Dell to a MBP with a high res display a few years back. Looking forward to this next step as well.
But I can't. When I put aside any internal biases I realize that I want a tablet whose memory I can expand with SD cards. I want one that I can throw ripped movies onto without jailbreaking or going through time-consuming video conversions. I want one that lets me use it as a simple removable drive, free of the Apple ecosystem and its bloated iTunes client.
The iPad would be a great device for someone like my mom, but I can tell I'd forever regret its limitations and barriers.
I really just wish there was a tablet with the app quality and build quality of Apple devices but the openness and options of Android devices. Currently I'm forced to either work around Apple's simplicity/limitations or Android's mediocrity/obsolescence.
The iPad certainly isn't for everyone, just like most consumer technology products are for certain types of people. But I think Apple's hit the sweet spot where for 99% of their customers, 16, 32, or 64GB of space is plenty and customization isn't really needed.
It sounds like such an old wife tale that people kept saying they can't play video formats. There are a number of ways of doing this. I have numerous friends who thinks this is the case, but it really is just a myth. There are even so many apps that pretends to be like a USB drive.
For format issues, both AirVideo (http://www.inmethod.com/air-video/index.html) and ZumoCast (http://www.zumocast.com/) provide ways to stream data from your primary computer with 'live' transcoding of the data into formats that iOS devices can play without any additional codecs.
My suggestion is buy the new iPad. Play with it. You'll either realize that your concerns don't exist once you have the device, or they matter more than anything else. If the latter, wipe it and sell it. You'll get great resale value for it, even a year later. If the new iPad is as hard to get as the iPad 2 was when it first came out, you might even manage to break even.
Also: WMV, seriously? Where you get those from?
I'd recommend seeing if you can check out an iPad and whatever alternative you're looking into at a local store, and spend some time using them how you anticipate you would on a day to day basis. While I hear there are some good android tablets, some are laggy (Kindle Fire, I'm looking at you), which gets incredibly frustrating over time. There are also other potential limitations, such as the app store (not to say Android isn't doing well there, but a lot of mobile apps still seem to start with iOS first, although this could change).
Disclaimer: I own an iPad, and I like it. I also have friends with both Android tablets and iPads who love their choice. If you feel that the features lacked by the iPad are important, then go for it and get something else. Good luck in your search!
(Side note: I totally agree about iTunes, especially on Windows.)
I want one that I can throw ripped movies onto
Rip to H264. Even the piracy groups have switched to it. If you encode your ripped movies to H264 they will play on almost any device. Xbox, Playstation, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, etc. Even OS/2 Warp has support via VLC. (though good luck getting OS/2 installed on a machine with the guts to play H264 video) With all my files in H264 I don't have to worry about this at all.
I want a tablet whose memory I can expand with SD cards.
With cloud storage/services I feel like my iPad has unlimited storage. The one area I think this is an issue is transferring photos or videos from another camera into the iPad which is what the Camera Connection Kit handles for now. I suspect in the near future it will all be handled wirelessly. Looking back into history as soon as the local area network appeared people didn't really bother walking floppy disks around anymore. The same is going to happen with SD cards. I haven't owned an SD card in probably 6 or 7 years. I'm not really sure what I would do with one at this point.
I want one that lets me use it as a simple removable drive
There are a number of applications that just create a writable network share on the iPad. Seems easier to me than finding a cable and plugging it in. This also goes back to cloud storage/services that just sync the data for you automatically. I rarely find that I actually need to use these apps. I just put the file onto Dropbox and let it sync. Done.
bloated iTunes client.
I don't sync my iPhone or iPad to a computer anymore. Works fine without it.
Regarding repurchasing apps, it may be a good thing. There are plenty of good iPad apps, which fully take advantage of the tablet form factor. Although I have not used many Android tablet apps to prove it, Tim Cook should have good reasons to criticize about tablet apps on Android.
> Going back to the iPad 2 after reading for a few hours on the iPad 3 is jarring.
> ...most graphics and images on the web are behind the curve, as of today
> The iPad display is so good that it shows, like no device before it, just how crummy most images on the web are.
It's like using a product from the future. Except Apple has engineered it now, and everyone can have one for a (relatively) decent price: $500. The new iPad is the poster child of everything that Apple does really well, and why it has been so successful over the past couple of years.
Honestly I'm shocked.
When you're surfing the Internet, a vertical 4:3 screen is awesome. The reason I sold my android tablet and bought an iPad was because the 16:9 screen sucked for anything other than movies.
I havent had any form of cable for about 6 years now, I do have a screen which i watch some netflix on, but watch 98% of everything on laptop or ipad.
TV is dead to me.
Well, I don't see many 50"+ computer monitors lying around.
I really wish people would avoid them both in blog posts and comments. I've been seeing some here on HN as well and really wish they would go away.
If you get annoyed by words online, you have a very unhappy life ahead of you.
And anyone who can't admit that is ignoring reality, yeah.
If I say that you're wrong and a jew, I just made an ad hominem attack, regardless if you're actually a jew or not. That's completely uncalled for.
Half-true. It is true that competitors who build equivalently high-end products as Apple have difficulty competing on price (Apple only sells high-end). But there are Android smart-phones that sell new for $100+ less than even an iPhone 4. (unlocked, non-contract prices!) Equally you can get a kindle fire for $200 less than an iPad 2.
Agreed, and most of the people who say that live in Silicon Valley sipping a $5 latte in a Starbucks with a Macbook in tow.
Whereas, in countries like India, you could be working a great job, have all luxuries, even have a housemaid and the iPhone will easily set you back a months salary. Whereas, in the US, you can buy around 7 unlocked iphones with a month's salary. People's perspective is screwed up when they don't understand why everyone doesn't rush to buy Apple products. How many in the US or Europe would buy the iPhone if it was $5000 ?
I am not implying Apple should lower the prices but I think the people making that claim about them not being high priced products have completely lost their sense of reality.
Apple is already making a lot of money in China, and I'm sure they will eventually make money in India after they open up a few stores and get people off the gray market (where iPhones are sourced now). I'm dreading when the next iPad comes out in China, there will probably be yellow cow riots again.
Really?
>FYI, its not $5000, its $820 for a iPhone 4s in Beijing.
I said, IMAGINE if you had pay $5000 for an iPhone in the US or Europe. It is that expensive comparatively to someone in China or India.
I did not say or imply that they aren't making money, I was saying people who say they're overpriced havent "lost all touch with reality" as much the person making such an argument.
In fact, I think Apple is a bit cheaper in China compared to the luxury alternatives. Apple is very aggressive in China, and their markup is probably just totally due to taxes. This is compared to Samsung or even Lenovo, whose markup is much higher. Apple is actually cheaper than the alternatives, which is why the Chinese are buying their products up.
He is talking about the US.
If you pick arbitrary countries, even the lowest $200 laptop can be a year's salary.
1) some semblance of impartiality
2) the comments will be about the iPad rather than about Gruber
Samsung could take the risk, but then they'd have an entire production run of Samsung tablets that no one wants to buy and they will have wasted their entire capital investment.
(Now let's all take a moment to recover from the shock of hearing this.)
He's a blatant apple fanboy, but unlike most others he's not a stupid fanboy.
Haven't notice an actual big Microsoft announcement get far less votes than Gruber's snide and often factually wrong take on it? It's the community of fanboys and worshippers he has created.
Sure, that might explain why Thurott's articles don't make the front page and Gruber's do, but does it explain why they're completely hellbanned from HN from even appearing on the new page where people can actually see them and vote on it if they find it interesting?
Very nice. I think tikhonj's comment from below applies better here instead.
Maybe there is a new word in here someplace - because there is certainly a career to be made out of it, although he could just be the modern Cringly/Dvorak.
FanOpp?
EDIT: I love being downvoted for an honest and direct reply to a question.
Early PC Mag, Dvorak had a great column. Geeky insight, pretty good BS detector. Now he's just a crank with a libertarian vibe. Haven't read him in years. I actually met him once, early web days. Great guy. Learned he was a serious amateur civil war historian. Liking Dvorak (the guy) as much as I do, I stuck with him for a long time, hoping he'd get back to having fun. Oh well.
Personally - I find them all to be the same; Opportunistic writers (Yes, they all have skill - I was not disputing this fact) who have found a niche in hte market where they can fill it.
I think ANY successful technology writer must be a fan boi to certain extent -- If all they ever did was shit on everything, then why read them?
I think that fan boi, as a term, is just a modern (hipster, even) way of saying that we have a product evangelist.
I do think that both cringley and dvorak were very much in this role early on - maybe they were much better writers, though, in their prime.
Really? Lets look at a recent example of such exemplary commentary:
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/03/12/xyboard
That's just one example, his constant hate of and sneering at not just anything Android but anything Google is what is exemplary and shows that he is a fanboy that like to play his fanbase for fun and profit, and his readers just lap it up.
There's a place for objective journalism but it's not the only way. What Gruber does is more of a specialized type of journalism. If you've already made up your mind you don't necessarily want to waste time with the other points of view. For example if you really like basketball you would probably prefer to read a blog that focuses on basketball instead of a blog that's comparing basketball to other sports in an objective way. It would really be a waste of your time since you've already decided you like basketball.
When it comes to relatively unimportant things like technology, sports, food, video games, your favorite brand of soda, etc there's a lot less value in objective journalism. I prefer specialized journalism in that context. I'm more interested in the opinions and thoughts of someone who shares my viewpoint because they are more likely to focus on the details that are important to me. We're also likely starting from a common point so not every tiny detail has to be explained verbosely. We all kind of 'get it' so there's no need to rehash it. His comparison of the iPhone 3GS->4 for example is something an Apple user going to understand immediately. He doesn't have to write 300 words describing the contrast using examples of a bunch of products I've never used because he has a reasonable expectation that I probably haven't used them. So why bother?
I don't quite understand why people are so hung up on objective journalism in this context. This isn't reporting on the Watergate scandal or something. It's a consumer product. It's Coke vs. Pepsi. I don't think Gruber needs to aspire to be Edward R. Murrow here. He can proudly write for the home-team if he wants to. Another blog that is anti/pro/objective/etc is only a click away. He certainly doesn't tout himself as being the authoritative beacon of objective journalism.
Can't have a Microsoft enthusiast site even be seen or the submitted on the site right? Who knows, it might get some upvotes on the new page and not enough flags from the haters to kill it, it's better to squelch his articles and not take any chances of them hurting the anti-MSFT, pro Apple and Google sentiment on here, right? Bring on the anti-MS articles though, they're surely welcome on the front page.
I'm not going to bother digging through his archives to prove this (it wouldn't take much to do, but you're not actually arguing against Gruber as much as your skewed conception of Gruber), but I'm fairly certain that Gruber's reaction to Ping is "confusion" (at best) to "dislike" (at worst), not like.
It's not hard to find cases where Gruber has had a negative reaction to something that Apple has done, or where he's said something negative about an Apple product.
That's close enough to "liked Ping" in my book.
Obviously, Gruber doesn't like every little thing about every Apple product. But I'm pretty sure it's not an exaggeration to say that he likes every Apple product.
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=...
There's no evidence he's ever used Safari (or iTunes, for that matter) for Windows.
Gruber is also consistently down on Apple for their opaque and arbitrary App Store policies, especially when they hamstring potentially great apps.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gruber/6648080689/in/photostrea...
The ad hominems against Gruber (and they are ad hominems) stem from the fact that he shows no ability to think, or write, anything that Apple doesn't deem he should think and write (in regards to Apple). He is, for all intents and purposes, a member of their marketing department, yet he is at least nominally an independent blogger and reviewer.
There's nothing wrong with liking Apple. They make great products. But to so uncritically buy into the hype and narrative, then claim independence of thought and word, rubs many people the wrong way.
To the extent that Apple's marketing narrative is factually accurate (which you readily admit), why is accepting it bad?
Factual accuracy is not the be-all and end-all of what makes a marketing narrative a good thing on which to base your opinions and what you tell others.
>(which you readily admit)
I did no such thing. I said they make great products.
This is not true. He shows some ability. Three recent examples:
1) http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/26/against-skeuomor... 2) http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/01/19/ibooks-author-eu... 3) http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/03/13/att-4g
I've taken to deliberately going to the second and third comments in a thread before I decide to continue reading or not. I'd read much less if I didn't.
Sadly, it's not enough for me to switch from the ipad1 to the ipad3. If there was a way to have a reduced prize by trading it with your ipad1, then maybe.. :) Still, I wish there was something more to it..