iPad Air 2

That's ok until there's a provider that they don't have in their database. This may be a big problem for the smaller virtual operators or calling card outfits.

From what I can tell, it's ONLY those US and UK carriers. So, for example, don't come travelling up to Canada :(

On the other hand I'm grandfathered in to an unlimited data plan, If the Apple SIM isn't a swappable card I doubt I'd be able to get unlimited with it.

For that matter I'm also not seeing verizon listed as a participating provider, which seems to be cutting out a previously supported demographic.

With a regular SIM, I can put any SIM from any carrier, and they don't have to be blessed by Apple.

I'm not going to let go this freedom, thank you. I'd rather have a physical operation to do than give even more control to Apple.

So can I still use a regular sim card? If not, this is truly disappointing, not incredible.

Also -- am I right that this is the first iPad to be able to create a hotspot? This changes the economics of mobile -- you can grab a data plan as you like it and when you like it, and use VoIP calling and so forth.

I wonder if the watch may be able to interoperate with a cellular iPad instead of an iPhone.

Many people who were sporting a 16GB Air model had to delete a fair bit of content and apps in order to free up the huge amount of space the iOS 8 upgrade required. And this was on Apple's then-latest and greatest tablet. So there are already technical issues with keeping 16GB as the baseline, at least if future upgrades will be like the most recent one.

Agreed. 16gb kind of sucks, especially with the OS growing and growing, yet 64 or 128 are completely beyond the way I use my tablet. 32gb is great. I really hope we'll see a 32gb minimum in 2015 next year.

At the same time, there ARE people who don't store anything on their ipad. Like my grandpa. He uses it for mail, news etc on his couch. So it's a bit of a waste to hook up this segment of people with an additional 16gb they'll never touch. And having four different sizes (16,32,64,128) is problematic. At the end of the day though, my grandpa could use a cheap nexus 7 for that type of stuff. The iPad at the end of the day is a very high-end device, yet the entry-level product fills up with the OS, three movies and three large games.

So I'm a bit split on this one. But I think next year the time's ripe for 32gb minimum, again we're talking about the premium-spectrum of tablets here that are replacing some of our laptop/desktop life. Of the 16gb you're usually left with 12-14gb...

What high end android phone ships with 8? The only one I can think of is the old Nexus 4, but being a $299 phone it obviously had to cut corners somewhere. I wouldn't call it high-end either considering its weak battery and lack of LTE support.

I find a lot of phones and tablets are stuck at 16gb, as you mentioned, regardless of OEM. End users don't seem to be making space a priority, instead they just want thinner and sexier, which has led to the problem of low battary capacities, bending issues, and screens that are easily cracked.

I think think we're in the infancy of mobile and wearables. I suspect a big sturdy 6" phone will become the status quo soon enough with a smartwatch companion for notifications. I'm kinda doing this now with my N5 and my Moto 360 and its a great combo. Moving to the N6 with its massive battery and gorgeous screen is a no brainer. Also, constant 24/7 LTE or wifi makes storage much less of an issue, but I suspect it might be an issue for me as I migrate away from using a tablet to just using a phablet and then that 16gb limitation will be painful.

As a counterpoint, I have yet to run out of space on my 8GB total (less usable) Nexus 4, and I don't feel constrained by it. I'll take a cheaper model over more storage any day!

16GB is fine for, say, schools and enterprise (it's effectively ~11GB usable if it's like my gen 4). It's hopeless if you want to use it to handle photographs, movies, or lots of games. The next step up (64GB) isn't even an option for the Google 9 (say).

Most (non-nexus) android phones have SD card slots though.

Anyone know what the bottom-left app is? It seems to be a puzzle game.

Shame it took 10 minutes to complete it for me. Not sure it was value for money but it looked and felt good.

OT: This video came up in the unity subreddit this morning. Making of Monument Valley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCCC9hQm6MM

Edit: removed time code, but they go into detail about the visual pipeline around the 30min mark.

Yeah, no mention of it anywhere - not even indirect. It really is a problem for majority of the people trying to get things done with it.

I got a Note 2014 edition with 3GB RAM and though there were initial software hiccups I have stuck with it - rarely do my Chrome tabs reload, background audio die or my RDP session end randomly. Alt+Tab and everything is instantly there. With the latest updates it has become quite smooth - I would say better than the iPad with simple tweaks. Plus I have a uSD slot to throw my music on.

If you are looking for even a semi replacement laptop - you could do much better with Android tablets - Note or Nexus 9 if you prefer stock and don't need the stylus.

Agreed, web reading is a huge usecase for me, the biggest one by far, and the one in which I'm most bothered by performance changes. I couldn't care less to get a few frames faster or -5s loading times on some game, or shooting faster photos with my camera on a tablet. I care about browsing, and I have exactly the same issue with reloading webpages.

In fact, it's why I use safari over Chrome because Chrome is much worse for me in that regard, despite using Chrome for everything else on every other device and disliking Safari generally. But it's the least bad with having to reload webpages.

This was a huge problem on the original iPad. I still don't understand why Apple skimps on the RAM.

After a quick search, it seems that Air 2 still has 1GB of RAM

http://www.devicespecifications.com/en/comparison/213211f3b

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Apple-iPad-Air-2-vs-Google-Ne...

If more apps on Air 2 are 64-bit than on Air 1, the memory consumption with Air 2 would be more than that with Air 1. In case the RAM size stays the same, Air 2 could see more page-in/page-out, especially when you keep lots of chrome tabs open or other tasks on...

But perhaps different user groups have different usage patterns that fit different hardware configuration, and Apple might know it very well...

Sneaky! I was assuming the brother pads had the same chip. Can't get a mini now.

There's no mute switch, so thats something

My guess is for location services to provide better altitude accuracy than with GPS alone. That can be used to figure out if your on or below an overpass, if your on the second floor of some building etc and take elevation into account when exercising.

Personally I'll certainly use it as I'm a private pilot :)

They mentioned the barometer but only briefly.

Did the iPhone 6 get a barometer sensor too?

But you can get the 3 in GOLD! Gold, Jerry... Gold!

Edit: Okay, some people are a little sensitive about the lack of new iPad mini features or don't get the reference. It's from Seinfeld. And it's worth noting that Gold is an option now, since apparently gold models are selling well for Apple.

That's so odd. I guess their A8 yields aren't quite up to snuff yet.

Also minus the apps. I never found any apps close to Garageband, iMovie, iWork etc. on Android when I had an Android tablet.

I feel the same way about the iPhone 6 and 6+. It seems like they looked at the Galaxy s4 and note 3 and just decided to copy them.

Completely agree - I mean there has to be a good amount of people inside Apple who have brought this up already. Maybe they ran the numbers and decided all these options are better than fewer options?

I'm counting 22 variations of the iPads for a customer to choose from - http://www.apple.com/ipad/compare/

>> "Sounds silly but it feels so un-Apple to have that many different variations of one product line."

That's a good thing. They're delivering the best hardware and software, why not leave old versions around to make it more affordable for people who can't buy a new device every year? Remember Jobs talked about wanting to change how kids read books and got educated etc. well if you only have the latest models at the highest prices only kids with parents will have access. I like it and I don't think it's too confusing. The power in each is good so the differentiation is mostly price and screen res which is easy enough for people to grasp.

I think it's more that they can't ditch the 16G option for some reason.

If you check the pricing, what they've done is lower prices of the expansions $100 over what they were before, but somehow left the base models at 16 GB. Yesterday $600 got you 32GB and an A7 processor, while today gets you 64GB and an A8x.

So the better question is: how is Apple getting away with selling a 16GB option for $500? It's not really that much space, especially when you take the OS and the space necessary to download updates into account.

They did the same thing with the new iPhones.

I'm no Apple insider, but my hunch is that 32GB is right in the sweet spot of what most people probably realistically expect to use. So, basically, they could easily give you the 32GB in the baseline model, but they know that if they do that, they'll be leaving a lot of money on the table because there isn't a stark difference for a large percentage of users between 32GB of storage and 64GB. 16GB on the other hand is a different matter.

The fact that so many people are complaining about this is probably a sign that, if that is indeed the reasoning behind the lack of 32GB model, it was a smart choice from a profit perspective.

"I guess the general US public can't really grasp small fractional sizes or thousands?"

The fractional sizes would get weirded and weirder as they get smaller.

1mm is ~1/32 (5/128ths is a really close approximation, but let's assume nobody is that crazy).

Right now it's ~1/4 of an inch Let's say they reduce the size 1mm.

Now which sounds better: 5.1mm, or 7/32 of an inch (or 13/64ths, which is more accurate)

American here: we all were taught the metric system at least as far back as the early 1970s in elementary school, and I'd say even we don't know why the heck we still see the old English system in use.

mm makes it sound small

we don't understand grams or kg as a daily measure so we have no idea what .435kg feels like.

Maybe it was intended for the Canadian audience, where metric for length, and imperial for weight, is common?

We're selective in our use of the metric system here in USA, and therefore Americans will generally have an intuitive sense for how big metric units are for some measurements but not others. If you say 5mm or 1L, no problem. If you say 250km or 22kg, not so much. Americans have an intuitive sense for long distance in miles, small volume measurements in teaspoons or cups, distances in inches, feet, and miles. But micro distances in mm are generally okay, largely due to things like nuts and bolts being largely metric, and the proliferation of beverage containers in 1L and 2L bottles and engine displacements measured in liters give us a hand there.

Careful examination of the specs reveal the iPad Mini 3 is basically an iPad Mini 2 with touch ID, and less expensive memory options. It doesn't have the CPU, screen, thinness, or improved camera. It's kind of like the iPad 3 which was replaced by the iPad 4 within six months. There may well be an iPad Mini 3S or somesuch early 2015.

My guess is the rumored screen production issues for the Air 2 led to the Mini 3 being a less ambitious update.

I have an iPad 3, and I bought my father last year's iPad air. The speed difference is large. 802.11ac wifi is also a big deal. With the new one, it's even faster, and touchID is nice. Plus it has the iPhone 6 camera which is truly one of the best mobile device cameras out there.

4-5x the CPU performance, huge improvement in GPU performance, thinner, lighter, better battery life, better wireless connectivity.