2) the battery life and recharge time were worse on the 3, leaving many people (including myself) recommending that people by the 2.
1. It was heavier. This is one of the few times this has happened with Apple products I think, and to me it was significantly heavier. The iPad 2 was already stretching it as a one-handed device, the extra weight on the 3 was the deal breaker and it wasn't that fun to have it for reading in bed anymore for example. The iPad 4 has not fixed this as it is even heavier than the 3. I used a hover bar ( http://twelvesouth.com/products/hoverbar/ ) and it could no longer support the weight too :/ (yes this is less of an issue but was still annoying and really highlighted the "trade-off" feeling of the iPad 3).
2. The performance sucked. The chip was just not ready to spit out retina-number of pixels. I prefer not losing frames to sharper text or whatever, and as much I'd like to, I really can't tell the difference that much when it comes to retina. I hear a lot of "if you use it for X amount of time you won't be able to go back". This doesn't seem like a great value proposition to me: "after X time this will seem normal (not exciting), and everything else will seem like shit!".
3. I could fit less stuff than before (unfortunately this is true no matter what given the silly way Apple handles "universal" retina/non-retina apps). I had a 64 GB iPad 2, and when moving to a 64GB iPad 3 and upgrading the apps they all increased in size by so much that I couldn't fit them all anymore (plus music, etc). This is particularly frustrating because it is 100% fixable by just having a system that distributes different binaries with different resources (with NO extra work to the developer).
I am incredibly excited about the iPad mini. I bought it at midnight when it went on sale and sold my iPad 3 without a second thought (which basically paid for the mini). As the article mentions, I always felt kind of silly taking a Macbook Air and iPad 3 with me, and after the Nexus 7 came out I would always really wonder which of the two to take (NOT a fan of the OS/feel, but couldn't beat the form factor). I now think this one tiny aspect of traveling will feel really good.
On a related note, the added thickness and weight of the 3rd generation iPad does show Apple's prioritizing of battery life over portability. I actually have the opposite preference: I would love a retina iPad with the same size and weight of the iPad 2, even if it had half the battery life.
2. I've heard from a few people that this is the case, but also that the iPad 4 charges faster, actually delivers on the 10-hour battery life claims and runs noticeably cooler.
Unrelated: I hate Gruber's pedantic style when it comes to Apple product names. Seriously, just write it the way Apple markets it.
I'll be interested in hearing why he's not calling it the iPad mini.
I agree to this. I have an iPhone 4S and an iPad2. Every time I use my iPad2 the pixels seem distorted.
I understand the emphasis is that it's a waste for you personally, but the statement above is analogous to a person with poor hearing saying they can't tell the difference between a cheap pair of earphones and a set of monitor headphones. To those with decent hearing, it's night and day, so it certainly has value in the market place.
The same applies with high DPI screens and eyesight - individuals with good vision will reap the rewards just as those with a keen sense of sound will appreciate high-fidelity audio equipment.
iPad 4 is now called 'iPad with Retina display' which makes me believe that Apple might even continue upgrading iPad 2 with iPad name, similar to the other product lines with/without Retina.
That's ridiculous, unless you mean they physically can't tell the difference because they've never seen both products.
I have an iPad 3; girlfriend still has an iPad 1. Whenever she shows me something, it's painful, particularly text. Luckily she now gets the iPad 3 once my iPad 4 arrives...
Long story short - the difference blew me away, and I fell in love with the Retina Display. The friend I was with swore he could not tell the difference between my 1440x900 2010 13" Macbook Air and the 2880x1800 15" Macbook Pro Retina - even with an App that had been optimized for Retina Display.
He just could see anything different on the screens. Some people just don't see the pixels.
Then I heard the same sort of things about HD a few years later.
Eventually I had to stop assuming that they were all lying to me... I don't know if people just figure their vision stabilized in the 20s and don't realize it's still getting worse cause they don't go to the eye doctor every year, or maybe they just don't pay as close attention as me, but I've heard that sort of thing too much to disbelieve.
And yes, you are write - a good pair of glasses would probably help.
It's the same reason many people find DVDs adequate for movies. It's good enough. Yes, blu-ray is higher quality, but you can only really "notice" when they're side by side and get used to the quality you're looking at.