iPad Air
arstechnica.com
arstechnica.com
On the one end we have "Oh man, iPad air only has 1GB of RAM and 16GB of flash, how stupid" and on the other end we have "iPad hasn't cured cancer yet; would have expected more from Apple under Steve Jobs."
Has it occurred to people to like, take a step back for a moment and think about how amazing it is that we as a society have advanced to the point where we can even have something like iPad? The iPad, and devices like it, have done so much to enrich so many people's lives, and isn't that what we're about in this community? We're all trying to make people's lives better with computers, and Apple is as much a part of this mission as any of the people on this site.
Maybe it's easy to get karma by ranting and raving, especially on a site like this where controversy drives more upvotes than downvotes simply because more people have upvote-only privileges. But I want us to be better than this; I don't want this to be the norm for discussion in this community.
Anyone who bleeds in six colors is quietly celebrating the achievements in this new launch; enriching and delighting lives with technology is exactly what they've always believed in.
Sorry, but the iPad/tablets are mostly used for browsing, creating photos and using apps and games.
That's not really "enriching" life as i see it, it's a consumer device, not a production device... If you really want to make it enriching, make it non-obtrusive.
And i would feel sorry for those whose life really is enriched with a electronic device.
Every startup is producing on a non-tablet (pc or laptop), perhaps they make things for tablets, sure.
My words were poorly chosen on the part of "enriching lives" through consuming, i agree.
Take off the last 2 lines of my sentence and it would be more clear what i meant.
A tablet is for consuming, not for producing. (taking pictures and putting a filter on it in 10 seconds is not producing, but consuming)
Every startup is producing things. 0% of the startups are producing their app/webapp/... with a tablet.
A tablet is created to consume, not to produce, that was the point i was trying to make :)
I do use the iPad for Flipboard and netflix and games but just as often when I reach for my ipad I reach for my stylus to draw or headphones to create a song. I know I'm n of one but one of the things I'm teaching the next generation is that this one thing is a tool that can adapt itself to almost all of her tasks in school and beyond, when she wants to play, when she wants to create or when she wants to learn in a non school context. I don't know if most people look at it that way, but those who do will have more opportunity than those who see devices purely for consumption.
But none the less, although your examples are fine. If you want to really produce things like songs, you're going to use software like Ableton Live. Which aren't adjusted for tablets because of hardware (eg. a high quality audio card) or just don't deliver enough productivity.
I don't have any experience with drawings, but can you name someone who is well known that created their paintings/drawings with a tablet? I presume (except 3D artists, graphic designers), all of them are going for handmade stuff. The rest of them produces them with their computers.
And as you explained it, the drawings and the songs in this case are games, not suitable for production. Production takes days, not minutes. That's mostly the difference between consuming and producing things.
I do hope you or your daughter get more interested though, producing can be great.
When it come to making music, absolutely - for professional grade content one would need to use proper tools. I'm barely an amateur and while I enjoy recording my songs and adding to them with garage band, I'm more interested in spending my precious free time doodling with sound than trying to make a living with it. It's better than watching commercials on network tv. Professional do use it for creating though: one example is this - http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/22/trent-reznor-... but there are other pros whom are turning to devices as a way to extend their creativity and enhance their performances. So, I believe that we are not far away from a device powerful enough to record, generate and mix professional quality sound for a fraction of what a recording studio of similar quality cost.
I do think I understand your position and you are likely correct. However there is this anecedal observation I have: people of my parents generation, when they use a smart phone; tablet or computer are very likely to consume with either email, web surfing or one variant of the addicting games that are free. However, being overly optimistic and observing my daughter and her peers as they grow up with device first and computer second I hope/believe/think (not sure if any of those words are correct but they are close) that they will have little choice but to learn to use it as the tool it is and push that to its limits and then extend it for their own purposes.
For the record, while I am an apple customer I'm under no illusion that their products are better or more successful than the other consumer electronics makers out there. It works for me and mine and that's why I stay with it. When it doesn't any more and I need to move on to something else, I'm glad there are robust ecosystems out there I can explore.
For the record, i'm not an Apple fan anymore . I've bought the iPhone 3GS and iPod 32 GB (the fat one) as an "early adapter" in the past and both products had disappointed me (software fault on the iPod's hard-drive firmware and failed support from Apple).
What's more, those costly Apple devices seemed the only electronic devices that haven't survived more then a year. For example, my HTC Desire (2010 - Cyanogenmod) still works as a charm, my primary phone is a S2 (bought somewhere in 2012 and yet again, Cyanogenmod) and i still have a Nokia 1100 (2004 and no Cyanogenmod :P) in my car just in case something would happen. Added bonus, that old phone had a flashlight ;-)
She is 60 and she never learned to use PCs and laptops but she easily uses iPad for the things I mentioned.
iPad has definitely enriched her life.
That's aside form the effect iOS is having on education. Just take a look at "Bobo Explores Light" and "Dragonbox", not to mention the dozens of Khan Academy videos my girls have watched on their iPad Minis. Then there's the times they do their homework with their Mini to hand so they can look up reference material on the web. And then there's bed time, when they often curl up in bed to read an iBook, often a free one from Gutenberg or elsewhere. They've read a lot of Kipling that way.
Why would you remember anything if you can just look it up on Google? :) - Google effects on the brain.
Why do you need to know spelling, if you have auto-correct on your device?
What did they do with the Khan Academy videos? Did they have a pen and paper with them? Or a pc to do things with it? Note stuff on it. Then they used their tablet to consume things and something else to produce things :)
Yeah, you can watch videos (consuming) to produce on something else :). You can learn by consuming, yes. I have never said otherwise.
PS. Reading is still consuming, watching videos (educational or not) is still consuming.
PS II. I know people get easier access to digital media with a tablet. In that way, it can be enriching.
But severly disabled people can (indeed) enrich their lives with a tablet. But it's still through consuming and not producing.
Heck, here was an article i read some years ago from someone who explains it better then me: http://impossiblehq.com/an-unexpected-ass-kicking
Something as simple as checking a hotmail account was out of his reach.
With his iPad he is able to:
- keep on touch with my expat brother
- see pictures of his grand kids on FB and emails
- catch up woth long lost fire do on FB
- read magazines without his glasses
...in general: just take part in the modern world as opposed to being an outsider.
If you pity him then your pity is misplaced because he is massively grateful to have a tool that enables him to commune with his kids and grand kids and to commune with us online.
Now he's an avid user. The tablet is a miracle of innovation. And the Kindle has enabled my mom to read again, with her macular degeneration.
Tens of millions of ordinary non-techies out there have transformed their lives by means of these gadgets.
The written word is mostly used for very boring or petty purposes.
That doesn't negate the existence or importance of literature.
"Mostly" is irrelevant. Most of the time an automated external defibrillator (AED) just sits on the wall, most of them are never used, ever. Nevertheless they save lives.
There's nothing tawdry or impure about someone's life being enriched by an ipad specifically. ipads, and other computers, allow people to learn, to connect, and to share. These are some of the most important and profound activities any human being is capable of. Is it pitiful for someone to be enriched by reading a book? Pitiful for someone to be enriched by sending or receiving love letters? Pitiful for someone to be enriched by being able to share their expertise or enthusiasm in a subject with others?
All the responses seem to "consume" things, even though it could be articles, photos, news...
Perhaps my 2 last sentences where to much. But there is a difference between consuming and producing.
A tablet is for consuming, if you are enriching your life through consuming things (skype, facebook, articles, news, ...), then yeah. A tablet would be easier to do this.
But it's not for production and all of the examples you showed me are not for producing anything. It's merely for consuming things and i don't think creating a photo with some filters on it in 5 seconds is producing anything.
All the ones who are producing things (apps, books, ...), did a tablet really let you throw away your laptop or pc? (in my experience, it hasn't).
There is actually a "debate" going on because of this and i only showed my personal opinion. I even think that it started with this blogpost: http://impossiblehq.com/an-unexpected-ass-kicking . Read it, he sure as hell explained it better then me.
If i look at my mom, who hasn't been a pc fan ever.. She is an avid user of the tablet, but i don't see her producing anything. But yeah, she sure does consume a lot and it has helped her join the digital world..
If i would have known some people referenced their dads who haven't ever produced on a pc, i would have explained it differently... But hell, you can't say anything in a quick post, i presume.
Didn't mean to offend anyone. But i'll explain myself better in the future :)
In turn I'm getting tired of these meta that comments discuss criticism, like yours. Yes I know, others will become tired of comments commenting on these meta comments, like mine, and ad infinitum. I think yours, mine and all these other meta comments have a point, but I don't see why it needs to be made every time.
The margins will only get better on the older hardware, and there's no way they'd walk away from that stream.
It seems to me that this is to put a floor under the second hand value; in terms of bang-for-the buck, the right price for a used iPad 2 should really be about $175 by now, but it's rare to see one under $200.
One reason the iPad 2 remains attractive to many (especially musicians) is that peripherals - there hasn't been that much take-up of Apple's Lightning connector by people who make add-on hardware.
To explain this to you one would have to explain the concept of marketing.
Likewise, how is it a strawman? The original comment was that the person doesn't care about thinner because it becomes thicker when you put a case on it. A phone that doesn't need a case need only be thinner than a comparable phone with a case on it to be thinner in practice. That's a direct response to the original comment, providing a case where the comment is true.
So you don't have a case and you protect your phone quite well. That is a pure anecdote. Just because you want it to be an anecdotal strawman doesn't mean it is one.
One of the properties of tempered glass is that it can withstand great impact on the front, but can shatter if dropped on the side. If you look closely at those Youtube videos, they will all probably be hitting the glass dead center. If you want to see a smartphone shatter, look for a video where the brunt of the impact is focused on one edge of the glass. Like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Nyr...
You also say that iPhones need cases, which is not true.
And the story I told is called "storytelling". It's a way to emphasize a point that's entertaining to read. Point 1: people use cases on their iPhone. Point 2: the Lumia is thinner than an iPhone with an average case. Point 3: The iPhone is thinner without a case. There's your facts, without entertaining storytelling.
The larger device is far more usable for collaborative work than the mini, and the weight difference makes it far more portable.
Many people use these devices without cases, as they were designed to be used. Some don't, for reasons that make sense for them. Many will appreciate the less obtrusive dimensions. Others will never give a crap. Can you explain an obsession with sweets to someone without a sweet tooth? As usual in threads like this, people argue about idiosyncratic tastes.
For six years of my life I owned a Snap-on Tools franchise. Every week people would jump on the truck and ask "what's new?" and then purchase the same sockets that have been made for 90+ years. "Thinner" is just the latest talking point. If it wasn't "thinner" it would be something else. I would see my customers on a weekly schedule, and I was asked "what's new" 100 times a week. If a marketer wanted to give me the words to tell the people who asked that question, then I would gratefully accept as a salesperson, unless I could think of something that would work better.
If you would like a thin case, I am getting this rolling http://sascase.com Apologies for the blatant self promotion.
I'm not sure what apps you're running, but I haven't had the same experience. If the app can be downloaded from the store and doesn't prevent you from opening it on older devices (ex: CSR Classic) it'll run just fine.
It's ok though. It's a 4 year old device I've used literally every day since launch day. I'm pretty ok with how far its gotten me and am surprised it has survived given how much abuse I throw at it.
Apple have never mentioned the amount of RAM in any iOS device.
I would have thought they'd want to build a basic foundation for the future, e.g. "all devices better than the 5s include 64 bit, motion, and TouchID". When you vary on a feature (like TouchID), you discourage people from building cutting-edge experiences that require it.
That's my hunch.
A phone is often in public spaces, and unlocked dozens of times a day. That's rare for a tablet.
But, some people, need more precision than a human finger allows. They use an object with a finer point than our fingers. But, the rest of us are okay with just finger painting. The paper was designed to be large enough for fingers to use.
It would be nice to sometimes use a different input method on paper when the finger won't cut it. I see nothing wrong with having more than one input method. There is no right or wrong way.
Ship it without a stylus. Require that all apps be usable with fingers. Make a sweet pressure-sensitive stylus available for extra precision. Everyone wins.
Here's the thing, it's not the stylus that is the problem. It's the dependency on a stylus. There is a difference between doing it, and doing it right.
He has often said that he thought something was stupid. More often than not, at the time he said these things, he was right. He once disliked the entire idea of the tablet, because the technology hadn't matured enough to deliver a positive experience for the customer. Long after he criticized tablets, he introduced the iPad to the world. It doesn't mean he's a hypocrite, it just means that the technology matured enough to change his mind.
Its hard to argue that Wacom technology isn't sufficiently mature, and there is clearly a market for such a thing. Art and note-taking apps are wildly popular. Both would be significantly enhanced by the presence of a true touch-sensitive stylus.
Apple didn't intend for the iPad to be a content creation device, but now they seem to be embracing it as such, because that's what many customers want to do with it.
If a person never changes his mind about anything, that person has stopped learning.
The reason iPad styluses have fat tips is that they have to simulate a fingertip, which is the only thing that an iPad can sense. The tradeoff is that an iPad is faster and more accurate at sensing fingers than other tablets.
Wacom has released a pressure-sensitive stylus for iPad. I have not tried it though...not much of an artist.
Wacom fucked up this particular product, because they opted to use a large rubber tip. It might be more precise than a normal dumb stylus, but its still terrible. Trying to write like a normal person, or draw thin lines is absolutely horrible with a fat-tipped stylus.
The current iPad has a capacitive touch screen, that's why the current styli use a large tip, the stylus isn't replicating a pen, its replicating a fingertip. That's why they all suck. Its hard to write / draw with your finger, so until we stop making styli that replicate fingers, note taking and drawing on the iPad are going to be suboptimal.
Inductive, actually, which is why the stylus doesn't need to have a big fat tip.
Wacom also make a stylus for the iPad, which obviously has to be capacitive rather than inductive. I think it has batteries in it and sends tip pressure information to the iPad over Bluetooth.
(How the inductive sensing works: You have some conductive loops behind the display, and in the pen there is a ferrite rod with a conductive coil around it together with a capacitor to make a resonant circuit. You pass an alternating current at approximately the resonant frequency through some of the loops; it couples to the pen circuit by electromagnetic induction, the pen circuit resonates, and for a short time it produces, by induction again, a signal in all the other conducting coils behind the display. How much signal depends on the position and angle of the coil in the pen. If you have enough loops behind the display you can work out where the pen tip is accurately enough to draw with it. The capacitor in the resonant circuit is variable and adjusted by the tip pressure, and small changes in the resonant frequency produce phase changes in the signal that comes back, so you can measure the tip pressure too. Similar technology is used in some interactive whiteboards.)
If the argument is that Apple should build one, but not include it by default, specifically for people who need one, I guess the response is "Why bother?"
IMO Apple should integrate appropriate sensors and release an API for stylus makers or create it as an accessory themselves. I've bought two iPads since its initial release, and they work very well for me for some light browsing, but in order to integrate it into my workflow it'd have to become better at note taking.
I loved the MS Courier concept, it's too bad they instead created a solution that does everything, but nothing really well - you can either have desktop OneNote that only works with a stylus or mobile OneNote with nowhere near the features you'd need. Apple's iPad apps tend to have exactly the features you need except stylus support - so there's that.
Sigh.
Disappointing. What happened to doing something revolutionary? Where is the the text input? Apple are driving by creatives. When can I write my book on my Apple tablet?
And what's with the 16gb model. As they said, it has been almost 4 years now. And the 16gb model persists.
Plenty of people are writing books on Apple tablets, it's easy to attach a keyboard and many do. Or maybe you meant that as a non sequitur?
It's a welcome incremental upgrade, but that's not what most people would consider revolutionary. The 10" Sony tablet is 1.09 pounds.
Revolutionary would be something like eye tracking and constant voice input to make it possible to do completely hands-free usage.
Think about this: if the Honda Civic was upgraded to be able to do everything my SUV can, including towing, off-roading, cargo capacity, and overall comfort, but its size AND price stayed the same, would that not be considered revolutionary?
Signed, Physics pedant.
Ah, I see. "Revolutionary" is a code-word for "gimmick which will not work properly, but will look good in the marketing". As in "Siri is revolutionary".
Just because something is capable of doing something doesn't mean it should. A Truck is capable of street racing, but you'd be better off in an actual racing car. Make devices for specific use cases, not for everything. That's how you end up with Windows 8.
Retina apps are big, and are the reason why my iPad 2 is stuck on iOS 5 and that I've not upgraded a lot of apps. They're too big.
16GB is small enough to require active storage management, even for fairly casual users. It's becoming a real issue.
16GB iPads are a poor (or at least mediocre) user experience, even for ordinary users. It's contrary to Apple's ethos to continue making them at all.
It's even sillier when you consider that everything else about the baseline $499 model has been drastically improved several times over since 2010, and Apple has taken steps that clearly reduced the utility of the 16GB baseline (retina graphics, full HD video).
32GB should be the new $499 baseline. It's way past time.
I know some users. I don't know if they are ordinary. I think they are. My parents in their 50's. A grandmother of 80. Some friends which are 30 with a very average computer literacy.
Every one of them took fast with the iPad (that's how Apple is good), but no one of 'em'll fill 16gb of space.
They've all had storage issues on 16GB.
EDGE is not remotely useful in the context of this conversation, I have no idea why you keep bringing it up. The only thing you might possibly hope to stream at EDGE speeds is audio, video is simply not an option. And (re-)installing apps of any substantive size is likewise impractical.
I am in no way ignorant of the mobile data options available to me in the United States. I simply know them to be an utterly inadequate to substitute for adequate local storage, and I can't even begin to understand how you consider them to be otherwise. Feels like you're just here to shill for T-Mobile.
What happened to doing something revolutionary? Lord! Do it yourself! Who says you can't write a book? And why do you have to do it on an iPad? Why not a Surface or whatnot, if that's your priority? Why not a MacBook Air or ultrabook? Your complaints infuriate me!
Apple is also the company that made risky, aggressive bets cannibalizing their own products during times of plenty and was highly praised for doing so. (I speak of the iPod) I'm not surprised when people wish to see that kind of movement again.
The iPad Mini cannibalizing the iPad, or the iPad cannibalizing the MacBook are much bolder moves. That iPad Mini Retina does look good...
In both cases it seemed like money on the table, but in both cases the products became the core of Apple's product offering and dramatically out-sold their predecessors.
Oh, that'd what I'd been planning to do. Only it turns out that the battery only lasts 6hrs, compared to 12hrs in the otherwise comparable MBA :(
Lord! Do it yourself!
Your complaints infuriate me!
It feels like at some point the quality of the discourse on hackernews went downhill.
I'm sure we'll see something in the next year or two that is actually brand new that's not just a small upgrade to their current line up.
Computer Science in hard mode: Do your programming assignments on a type writer. Once.
sigh If only that we're true. iWork for iPad was announced at the first iPad announcement.
I'n also still hoping for an 11"-12" 16:9 iPad Pro (they can just make it longer like they did with the iPhone 5 that comes with a keyboard. It should basically be an iPad laptop (not hybrids, no point) that costs $700, and comes with a new A8 processor in spring, or at least A7X, and maybe 64 GB by default.
Personally I was hoping for two products; a retina iPad with 11"-13" screen -- and a Macbook Air with the same screen!
(If they could reuse the screen and electronics it wouldn't be expensive, but drivers etc would hardly be easy to move over processor architecture?)
Er, attach a keyboard to it? What were you expecting, mind-reading?
Recently, Apple seems big on iteration and small on innovation. Miniaturising an existing product is definitely a good iteration, but when I see Microsoft experimenting with touch covers and the like, I do wish Apple would try one or two new things again.
That said, calling it revolutionary seems a bit much - the form factor is certainly new and unique, but none of its components (or its roles) are distinct from that of the previous Mac Pros. Certainly not on the scale of differences between the original iPad and its competitors at the time, or the iPhone, or the iPod.
It could safely be argued as a simple iteration on the PC's form factor.
Have they just stopped using the A7X style name? Have they just x2 the GPU frequency? (seems implausible, but it's Rogue, which is apparently extremely efficient, and maybe could handle x2 frequency?).
edited above for clarity
BTW: The anandtech iPhone 5S review (http://www.anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/7) noted that the A7's rogue G6430 is more powerful than was utilized in the iPhone 5S:
At 200MHz that would give the A7 twice the peak theoretical performance of the GPU
in the iPhone 5. And from what I’ve heard, the G6430 is clocked much higher than
that.
The iPhone 5S (A7) has x1 the graphics power as the iPad 4.
The iPad 5 (A7) has x2 the graphics power of the iPad 4.
BONUS: for next year, the G6630 gives 50% performance increase + the expected node shrink allows a further ~30% overclock. 1.5*1.3 = 1.95 ~ 2.0.
For the following year, they could go for G6630MP2 (the 6 clusters can be multicored as a whole). Next (three years from now), they could go G6630MP3 plus another node shrink. By that time, there could be 8/10 clusters available G6830, G6A30 etc, and an entirely new architecture in the works, though probably not yet available.
This is really what I want to see. An updated mac mini with Haswell would be really nice.
I hope they just update it even if it didn't make it to the main announcements.
* SoC: A5X was 165mm^2. A6X was 123mm^2. A7 is only 102mm^2 with a 64-bit memory interface instead of 128-bit. They can do PoP memory too for even smaller PCB area. So much cheaper. * WiFi/LTE: same chips probably used on iPhone 5c, 5s, iPad Air, and iPad mini. Simpler inventory and buy in even higher quantities. * Screen: same screen as all previous retina generations likely. * Battery: much smaller since the GPU is more efficient. More cost savings.
This was pretty inevitable; the A5X was _absurdly_ large for a mobile SoC, and they only did it because they had to. Even the A7 is on the hefty side; it's about the biggest of its process node.
New iPad, now iPad Air... seems silly?
It's presumably only a matter of time before the heart of Apple's PC line is converted to touchscreen. Whether they will carry the Macbook branding or iPad branding or a mixture of both will be interesting.
Conversely, Apple wants you to buy a new iPad as soon as you want one, and not sit around waiting for the N+1 model. Spreading out purchases over the device lifecycle gives them better margins as manufacturing and components get cheaper.
I suppose in a world where change is frequent and incremental rather than dramatic and rare removing the version number is appropriate to minimize consumer confusion.
What strikes me more about this iPad Air is the price points. $499 16GB wifi only is a very hard sell to the mass market when a Nexus 7 16GB comes in at $230. Size matters here, but I can see Apple being in big trouble when Google's tablet is half the price and has a handful of more advanced features. I guess that is why Apple hired that Burberry executive last week. They can sit right next to the Vertu store.
Also 2mm thinner warrants the "Air" title? I seriously think Apple are parodying themselves sometimes...
Disclaimer: I am not any sort of "fanboy", I own an iPad and an android phone because they seem to be most suitable for me in those areas, I just feel as though HN is getting a bit caught up in the "hype" of Apple today.
You obviously haven't been around HN very long. Major apple announcements get significant coverage on HN. Always have, always will.
> 2mm thinner
Did you miss the ~30% weight reduction?
Have you considered that the term "Air" may be a name change that sets up space in the product line-up for a future higher-tier tablet – just like they have done in laptop line – rather than being mere braggadocio?
When I purchased a Clamcase Pro, I started using my iPad for pretty much everything, from term papers to code. While it was still pretty small, I could comfortably type about 90wpm on it, which is only about 10-15 less than I normally type.
For everyone else, this looks like pretty good upgrade.
[1] http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/ultrathin-keyboard-min...
The Clamcase Pro, on the other hand, did a pretty good job of converting my iPad into a MacBook Air that runs IOS. I'm curious to see if they'll manage to come out with a usable solution for the new one. If not, I don't really need to upgrade my iPad 4 for another year or so anyways.
Its interesting how most people here assume that the world at large makes same choices as themselves. Consider iPhone pricing: Apple has been selling previous years models for $100 less than the latest version, yet they sold millions of outdated iPhones even in the US.
Not everyone wants the latest gadget or cares about the greatest tech specs as long as they can extract the desired utility at the least possible price. There are laggards in the adoption curve who are more price sensitive than the early adopters.
I'm a victim of this fallacy myself. I used to wonder who on the earth is clicking on those ads displayed next to Google search, why don't everyone just install AdBlock on their browsers? Yet Google raked in billions of dollars as people clicked on those ads that I considered spam.
I'd like to get it.
Can't tell if sarcasm or not.
The only thing that bugs me is that they're still able to charge crazy money for more internal storage. $100 for going from 16 to 32GB, seriously?
The graphics and cpu boosts are nice (and nice that they are accompanied by a run time boost) but what about the camera? What about the sensors? Looking forward to the full appraisal post event.
Afterall, the MacBook Air wasn't a competitor to the netbooks - it was a competitor to the ultrabooks being touted by Intel et al. The iPad was the sleeper competitor to the netbook and killed that market (with help from Windows and Intel desperate to not have the PC platform not go that far down market).
If Apple comes out with something to address the 'appliance laptop' market I expect it to be an official Apple design and manufactured keyboard for the iPad line* and not an entirely new product.
I've not seen it mentioned anywhere yet, but the "iPad Air" and "iPad Mini" monikers leave room for the simply "iPad" moniker to eventually refer to something entirely re-imagined or ultra-premium. At the least it leaves room for a larger "iPad".
* What is the state of the art in usability in the 3rd party iPad keyboard market these days?
This is backwards: the original MBA was introduced in 2008, and Intel only introduced the "Ultrabook" branding several years later. The MBA was largely panned as a far-too-expensive Apple attempt to cover their flank from the inexorable advance of the netbook. It was only when the iPad and competitive Android tablets put paid to netbooks that Intel came around to the design.
Logitech ultrathin is very expensive but a must buy for ipad productivity. Ergonomics are excellent for dual keyboard and screen driving (iOS doesn't make sense completely from keyboard) and it can be used as a full laptop replacement for a lot of business applications.
Most people go through their entire life without thinking up something innovative, much less making it.
Whereas a 30% weight reduction and 100% performance improvement makes the iPad air far more useable in every situation
Why? I would say Apple is more interested in having developers crank out _great_ apps, rather than resource intensive. It just so happens these are usually more resource intensive.
At least for the upgrade market (of existing iPad owners), Apple does not benefit (much) from great apps that run fine on an iPad 1 or iPad 2.
I am always amused by this.
I may have misheard. I had the video minimized while working on other things.
I think that apple is having a case of "taking ourselves too seriously" lately and have believed all the praise parts of the pundits are pouring on them so they cannot see how absurd that sounds.
Sent from iphone air pro.
So, enjoy your time waiting for the NEW IPAD AIR 2014, TWICE AS LIGHT, NOW WITH FINGER PRINT SCANNER. RETINA MACBOOK AIR 2014. You can say anything you want, but this is nothing new. Gimmicks, I tell you. Which is absolutely fine if it weren't for Apple to market this stuff as revolutionary, insane new concepts beating the competition at every point. They are basically scamming customers and they don't even care as long as they get an Apple logo with it.
To those Apple zealots down voting me: do you really need to suppress criticism this bad? Maybe it is because you are in denial or something? Feel bad, because it hurts to know you are being scammed?
People tend to upvote valuable and truthful comments around here, so it seems.
And then you follow it up with the suggestion that people who disagree with you are "zealots" who are "suppressing criticism?" How the heck else would you have expected people to respond to an ad hominem like that?
You are of course entitled to your opinions. Feel free to post them. But as long as they continue to add little value to the conversation they'll probably get downvoted, at least until you say something with more nuance or insight.