Our office Fanboi just exclaimed "That's almost enought to do video processing!"" and dashed off, I think to go order one...
Apple confirms 128GB iPad. A hundred bucks for an extra 64GB
Apple has slapped an extra 64GB - and a $100 price increase - on its fondleslab range to create the 128GB iPad. An announcement today from Cupertino confirms the device's existence after references to the hardware were found in the newly released iOS 6.1. The new iPad will be available from US Apple stores, the company's …
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 20:30 GMT Zaphod.Beeblebrox
Re: Wait...
No, not joking. He's fun to watch - said something this morning about an iOS 6.1 jailbreak party this weekend. I've seen him at the lunchroom table with an iPhone, iPad, MacBook of some kind and recently what looks like it could bean iPad mini too, all spread out & interacting with them almost all at once.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 12:18 GMT the-it-slayer
Fandroids are off again...
If you don't want it, don't worry about it. For some of the media abusers out there in tablet land, this is a dream product. My 16GB iPad mini does me for reading and generic use (with a tiny bit of video use). For me and many others, it's too much money for what I use it for. To store iTunes, iPlayer, Sky Go stuff, it's the best thing out there for now.
If this was a £700 Samsung/Nexus tablet with 128GB of storage (without SD cards), it would be marked up as the holy grail. Sheeeeesh. The Apple abuse needs to stop and some common sense restored (and black badges dished out to timewasters here).
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 18:35 GMT El Presidente
Re: Shine going off your business?
How many more years until they announce the first USB port?
About 2 years and they'll claim to have invented it, sparking another patent war.
The first iPadu™ with USB will have 1 USB port and it will cost an extra $100.
The iPadu2™ will be released 6 months later and will have 2 USB ports so $200 extra.
Usable with non apple USB devices only with an adapter. Which will cost $50.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 23:02 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Shine going off your business?
How many more years until they announce the first USB port?
It will be a special Apple USB port, requiring a $50 cable to operate...
Don't joke about it ... USB only really took off because when everyone was wanting to use FireWire Apple tried to hold out for something like $2 royalty per port when everyone else was agreeing on 50c per device .... so a group split off, took the previously discarded as too slow USB spec, announced plans to bring out a much faster 2.0 version.
So in a real sense Apple did invent the USB port as we know it today ... and part of the reason was their prices!
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 23:31 GMT R 11
Re: iPads already have USB
Not quite true. My iPad would happily recognize my Blue Yeti USB microphone, at least until iOS 5 which determined it used too much power so stopped it working. I understand they still work if connected via a powered USB hub.
My iPad also recognizes my Fender electric guitar when connected via the Rocksmith USB cable.
I'm guessing that's no coincidence, both likely presenting themselves as similar USB audio devices. Anyway, with a USB adapter, there are other devices that can work with an iPad.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 12:20 GMT Alan Edwards
Re: "without needing their old PCs"
Probably got more grunt than the crusty 3.2Ghz P4s some of the design people here were using until very recently. I'm sure I've seen some 1.8Ghz Core 2 Duos around still, albeit with Quadro graphics cards.
There are likely still some ThinkPad T43s around with 1.6Ghz Pentium-Ms, slower that the Atom Z2460 in my phone.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 17:56 GMT adnim
"Taking a pot shot at the ailing desktop computer market, Apple marketing veep Phil Schiller suggested iPad owners could use the extra space on their tablets to store all their work and media without needing "their old PCs”.
Yup they sure could store 128Gb data in their 128Gb iPad or a 128Gb USB key.
What's that? I hear yells of... "it's much more than a storage device".
Yes it is, one can watch movies on it, browse the Internet, listen to music and buy software from Apple with it.
The iPad like all tablets is a toy and not a serious computing device. There is a reason I use a laptop and a desktop for work and a tablet as a media player and a browser.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 18:10 GMT ThomH
But naturally you're not willing to tell us what that reason is or make any other arguments beyond a bare statement of your position?
It would seem to me that the use case Apple cite — AutoCAD — is quite real, even if rare; designs often need to be shown at sites and in meetings. Tablets (including but not limited to the iPad) have fully functional office suites for 95% of computer productivity tasks and have or are acquiring a bunch of the more specialist software, like Mathematica, DICOM viewers, first draft video editors, etc.
Tablets are serious computing devices, including the iPad.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 18:31 GMT G R Goslin
Re-ThornH
You can't be serious! As an ex CAD draughtsman, the iPad comes in as the equivalent as the back of a fag packet, against a full size drawing board. Marginally OK for showing pictures, so long as you don't want to see detail. As for meetings, you'd probably get more attention by passing round a picture of a pin-up
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 21:21 GMT Steve Todd
Re: Re-ThornH - @G R Goslin
I come from a family of draughtsmen. My Uncle was one of the first to use CAD in the UK. They ran an 8 user system off of a single Univac mini with 64K words of RAM, and used it to design oil rigs. There's plenty of capacity in an iPad to render CAD files (it's got about the same CPU/GPU oomph as a Windows box from 5-10 years ago, and they were more than powerful enough to run the likes of CATIA)
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 23:02 GMT Mark .
Re: Re-ThornH - @G R Goslin
Great, so you can run software from 5-10 years ago.
Believe it or not, CAD software doesn't just use that extra CPU power and RAM for "bloat" - it hasn't stood still for 10 years. Yes sure, you could use an overpriced underpowered ipad to run CAD software that was cutting edge in 2002, or you could use a real computer and have the latest technology and functionality.
(And if you really want a tablet that's high end and can do what a real PC can do, they're the ones with x86 inside.)
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 08:51 GMT Steve Todd
Re: Re-ThornH - @G R Goslin
The hilarious thing is that while all these armchair experts are prognosticating how an iPad couldn't possibly run a modern CAD package or render AUTOCAD files, Autodesk have gone out and written a version that runs on iPads, iPhones and Android devices that lets you share, view and edit files with desktop systems. No one is suggesting that the iPad will replace full CAD workstations, but its a perfectly viable tool for taking drawings out into the field and making minor changes.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 11:07 GMT David Cantrell
Re: Re-ThornH
An iPad might be the modern equivalent of the back of a fag packet, but back when I worked in metal bashing, just about all my employer's products started off as rough sketches on the back of a fag packet, either in a meeting room with our customers, or on the shop floor to fix a production cock-up. Being able to easily transfer sketches from fag packet to CADDS would have been Quite Handy.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 05:46 GMT ThomH
Re: Tablets are serious computing devices... @AC
It's cheap to criticise; how would you define your anointed 'serious computing'? I can think of no distinction that doesn't either bar all computers more than about five years old (ie, based on processing capacity) or deign that only about 2% of the world takes part.
My feeling is that — even if you exclude leisure browsing — as tablets can do at least 90% of what people use computers for, they are computers. Just like an oven without a hob is still a kind of oven, a two-seater car is still a kind of car, a light aircraft is still a kind of aircraft, Heat is still a kind of magazine and Vin Diesel is still a kind-of actor.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 11:30 GMT Naughtyhorse
Re: Tablets are serious computing devices... @AC Vin Diesel is still a kind-of actor....
By precisely the same standard a iPad is a 'kind' of computer.
best of luck transporting your 450 passengers 5000 miles across the atlantic in cessna 152 with 2 seats and a range of 800 miles.
while you're doing that i'll be doing cad on this here iPad
the point is that we are talking about cad here - not just surfing the web and reading e-mail, which is indeed all that 98% of the worlds computers need to do. But that does not apply to CAD users.
And as for computers more than 5 years old, well i havent seen a serious CAD operator use a machine from 2007 since about 2009, so yes, pretty much any machine more than 5 years old is in the same box as an iPad - thats the one labeled 'crap not suitable for CAD.'
Wait til an array of iPads crops up on a list of the top 100 supers then i'll take it seriously (but i aint holding my breath)
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 11:55 GMT Steve Todd
@Naughtyhorse
While the Casna might not have transatlantic range it will certainly let you ferry passengers who arrived on such a flight to their intended destination.
Similarly you can do all the heavy work on a full desktop workstation, but such a device isn't practical to take on site or down to the factory floor where the people who are actually building your fantastic design want to see what they are supposed to be making and enter minor corrections when things don't quite fit.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 13:19 GMT TeeCee
Re: Tablets are serious computing devices... @AC
....as tablets can do at least 90% of what people use computers for......
Well, as around 50% of what I use computers for involves typing on a keyboard and requires a couple of full screen displays in front of me so I can both see WTF I'm doing and look at more than one thing at a time, in my case I have to call bullshit on that.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 18:58 GMT adnim
I thought you would be
smart enough to work it out. OK I will tell you.
VM web server and database server for web development. Vector and bitmap graphics editing, SD/HD video and music production. Multiple applications running at once without the system choking or having to wait for a context switch.
A tablet is not a serious computing device even if all the productivity software in the world was ported to iOS or Android. I am sure that with a couple of more years development they will be powerful enough to be taken as serious computing devices.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 19:11 GMT Lusty
Re: I thought you would be
@adnim, I take it then that you never go to meetings? I use mine to take notes, give presentations and for data input while interviewing users about how they use their computers. Important though you clearly are, you are a tiny TINY minority in terms of use case for business computing and as such I suggest you add the caveat that it's not a serious computing device for you.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 21:10 GMT JEDIDIAH
Re: I thought you would be
> I use mine to take notes
Sounds like a palm pilot from the early 90s. It's a media consumption device.
If your use case doesn't sound like "media consumption", then it's going to be a disaster.
Sure, there are business reasons to do "media consumption". That doesn't make your glorified ipod a serious computing device. It makes it a slightly more portable take on a VHS player.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 07:21 GMT Lusty
Re: I thought you would be
Taking notes is not media consumption you muppet. It's creation. As is using the mind mapping software and word processor, both of which I use frequently instead of taking the heavy laptop and power supply especially when I need to be mobile within the office so can't stay plugged in.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 04:47 GMT Mr_Bungle
Re: I thought you would be
@Lusty
It seems you are one of those people who's job consists of going to meetings, giving presentations, and inputting data for reports nobody will ever read.
We have many people at my workplace that complete these dubious tasks. We have no idea what their purpose is or why they are paid comparably to skilled engineers.
Productive work is done on a desktop/laptop, no amount of prancing around with a tablet will change that.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 07:24 GMT Lusty
Re: I thought you would be
@Mr_Bungle yes I go to meetings, give presentations and input data to create a report. My last report is 87 pages and cost the company I produced it for £50k. Many people will read this report as it will be used for their IT strategy over the next 5 years as well as being used for budget planning. Maybe in your world there is nobody writing things worth reading but that doesn't mean that nobody does, try thinking outside your little box and someday somebody might want to read your stuff too.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 13:54 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I thought you would be
@Lusty
Using an iPad in a meeting to take notes, or whatever is a perfecty valid use for an iPad - nobody said it wasn't. But doing 'serious work' on a computer does not equate to 'serious computing'. Do you thing sending an important corporate e-mail is serious computing as well? Well it isn't - if it was then my phone is a 'serious computing' device too. I think you may be confused as to what serious computing is - anwer - something that requires a serious piece of kit - and not an electronic journal.
PS. I can also take notes on my phone.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 16:35 GMT Lusty
Re: I thought you would be
@AC, no the comment about serious computing device was as opposed to it being a toy computing device so was not referring to compute power. In this case, I am not confused about what serious computing is, it's anything that is not done for fun, and therefore anything work related fits the bill.
As to the other meaning, no an iPad is not a serious compute module, but then neither is your average office desktop capable of "serious compute" and even CAD these days often offloads the complex rendering bits to proper systems in the computer room rather than keep upgrading the endpoints. Serious CAD users don't give a flying fig what their endpoint is because it's only in charge of the input and display.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 16:43 GMT Lusty
Re: I thought you would be
I do have a real job, I'm a technical architect and interviewing users is a part of finding out how a company works. I don't work directly for the client and so don't necessarily know their business. Part of my job involves recommending endpoints for different user types (hint, there are more than one!) and other parts of my job involve recommending storage solutions, servers, management etc. In terms of endpoint recommendations, it's mainly fat desktop if we can get away with it, with management services to deploy them and the apps. I also sometimes recommend session visualisation or VDI where appropriate, but when I find users who spend a lot of time on trains commuting who don't need to write huge documents or source code (and there are a lot of people like this) then I often get them to try a tablet to see how it may complement what they do. You'd be amazed how many people, not just at board level, really value what these devices can offer once they realise it doesn't have to be a laptop replacement. Most geeks don't realise that it's not an either or choice and so they see tablet as a failure, but anyone who has invested some time in using one for business finds that they can and do add value and the pricetag is actually quite low for what they offer.
I like the way you gave yourself away too by the way. Anonymous Coward, come back when you get a job.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 19:07 GMT Naughtyhorse
Bullshit
fondleslabs are toys, fit only for management.
Autocad is a resource hog (justifiably... maybe!) you _can_ run it on a single core chip with a gig of ram, but if your 'designs' are more than a line with 2 squirkles then forget it.
if i need to show my designs at site/in a meeting i plug an hdmi cable in the lappie and bung it up on 50 inch lcd hanging on the wall - where everyone can see it, not just the blokes/blokettes to my immediate left and right. if theres no LCD, i can bring a projector, or we can move the meeting to a location with proper facilities.
My <PH>boss on the other hand, is more than happy playing irritated poultry on his fondleslab, away from the sharp end where he cant do any damage.
cad on a 9" slab - MY ARSE!
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 20:39 GMT zanto
Re: Bullshit
"Autocad is a resource hog (justifiably... maybe!) you _can_ run it on a single core chip with a gig of ram, but if your 'designs' are more than a line with 2 squirkles then forget it."
when i was in college, we had autocad running on a "tower" server, which was a 486-DX, 270MB hdd and i do not remember how much ram.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 13:59 GMT Anonymous Coward
Ironically you're right
Because what Apple really mean when they say you can do CAD on it is that some shithead salesman can come around to your house and show you mock up's of the new kitchen, extension, loft conversion etc in a SIM's kind of environment on their crappy iPad.
What they don't mean is that you can design anything of any real value that you can then send of to a fabrication plant and expect to get a working copy back ... or build a real building from etc.
Only when the Surface Pro comes out will Tablets will be serious computing devices with the required input devices to ensure accuracy and speed ... until then they are all little more than toys.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 17:21 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Ironically you're right
Supercilious something or other: I think rather a lot of people would benefit from the mock-up of their proposed new kitchen, extension etc. and I would call that a serious use of a tablet computer for something of serious value, or do yo live in a discarded cardboard box? In fact, many modern kitchen designs, once approved via an iPad or similar, probably do go, in effect, to a "fabrication plant" (workshop in English? Or factory?) to be tailored, prepared for delivery and fitting. I know a company supplying carpets to businesses with individual designs on them. They found it rather valuable when they gave all their chaps iPads and you may be surprised on how many of their carpets you have placed your feet.
It is just amazing how many snobbish little Luddites reveal themselves on these web pages. Catch up: it's 2013. Computing is changing and you had better keep up or move to something else. If youi really think only your version is valid, please get out of this profession. You are giving the rest of us a bad name as inflexible nerds who are not really very bright or practical.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 18:45 GMT LinkOfHyrule
Re: The only tablet
You don't need to take out a loan to buy the thing - that would be very silly! If you aint got the readies for one, do the sensible thing and do not eat for a couple of years!
You will be both slimmer and have an iPad - Double the coolness!
You need to start thinking smart son, maybe even think different, if you want to be an iPad user!
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 21:56 GMT Adam 1
Re: The only tablet
Perhaps Apple could patent my new invention?
You see, what if there was a small hole in the side where a small plastic card about the size of your thumbnail could be inserted. This card could internally contain some solid state memory where files could be stored and read.
The customer could simply purchase such plastic cards with their desired capacity. They could call it a micro SD card.
Ahh, don't tell those folk at Samsung who definitely have no similar offering.
Furthermore, transferring large files could be done at over 40MB/s. Actually scrap that last point. I see no issues transferring 100 GB over Wi-Fi.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 17:57 GMT JDX
Otherwise the specs for the 9.7-inch tablet and its Retina screen remain the same
I wouldn't be so sure. They already released iPad4 without really telling anyone which practically doubled the performance. So this might indicate another refresh, which seems to be the plan rather than announcing new versions every time.
It's a lot of cash, but are there many 128Gb tablets out there?
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 21:12 GMT Charlie Clark
Re: Otherwise the specs for the 9.7-inch tablet and its Retina screen remain the same
@JDX - yes, undoubtedly some other stuff will have been updated to make room for the memory if nothing else.
It's still an eye-watering price, presumably to wave in the face of Windows Surface Pro waverers, in which case it's a good ploy: get the real thing.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 01:30 GMT Blank Reg
Re: Otherwise the specs for the 9.7-inch tablet and its Retina screen remain the same
Well the surface pro comes in a 128GB version. I expect the reason Apple released the update now was so that when the surface pro launches they can claim to be have been the first to implement such a wonderful "innovation" as 128GB of storage.
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Thursday 31st January 2013 15:22 GMT bygjohn
Re: Otherwise the specs for the 9.7-inch tablet and its Retina screen remain the same
Thing is though that with the iPad you'll get to use most of the 128GB (and likewise with an Android tablet when fitted with that amount of storage). With the Surface a great chunk will be taken up with system stuff.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 18:25 GMT Anonymous Coward
you got it wrong...
If you already own the $699 64Gb one, to upgrade to 128Gb costs you $799 or $929, not bad for 64Gb of extra storage... personally I'll just buy a few 64Gb usb drives for £30 each. Unlimited storage.... now why don't Apple think of that?
Yes, I know you can offload your ancient 64Gb iPad to some hard up wannabe fanboi for $xxx blah blah blah TCO blah blah... value for money blah blah. If you still think buying a complete new iPad is value for money compared to a £30 usb drive, you're a fool.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 17:35 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: you got it wrong...
You know that funny word, "portable"? Do you understand "lightweight"? People looking for the kind of thing that is hardly bigger than an A4 block of paper are not interested in carrying around separate disc drives or swapping in and out SD cards and, news for you, a £30 USB drive is cheap for a reason - not because it is extra durable or reliable, especially when being carried around.
Even at home or in an office, most of us get pissed off with finding shelf or desk space for a myriad extra drives, cables, power supplies ....
Those days are gone, hence for most of the world, laptops ar replacing desktops with all the space they require unless you really need a vast amount of power for some specialised or badly written application. Wireless is replacing ethernet cables, ultrabooks are even replacing laptops. Come out of your cave and look around at how the rest of the world has evolved.
Lots of people have realised that throwing money at the problem can work out cheaper than making do and certainly make life pleasanter and, throwing enough at the right time can even be cheaper in the medium to long run.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 18:14 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: How much?????
Don't want it? Then don't buy it!
Simples!
At no point do I ever remember Apple marching people into their shops and forcing people to buy their products at gunpoint.
Maybe, just maybe, people (and I mean REAL, NORMAL people, not us geeks), actually, you know, like their products and ease of use????
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 18:21 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: How much?????
@AC 18:14 Three friends of mine all dropped Apple devices for Android or Windows machines. I know no one who went from Android to Apple without their workplace picking up the tab (Pun intended).
Apple is like a stadium that bars you from bringing in your own food and drink then hoses you with $7 hot dogs.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 19:08 GMT Lord Elpuss
Re: How much?????
"Three friends of mine all dropped Apple devices for Android or Windows machines..."
Everybody I ever knew, plus all the people in the pub at the moment, AND their friends, all spontaneously dropped their Android devices this afternoon and went out to buy iPads. See, this is conclusive proof that Android is shit, Apple rule the orchard and 94.7% of commentard statistics are made up on the spot.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 19:36 GMT GitMeMyShootinIrons
You want portable?
How about an ultrabook? A quick look at John Lewis (not a massively cheap outlet) will flog you a HP Envy Touchsmart i5 box with 8GB ram, 500GB HDD and a 32GB SSD for £800 all in. Go for a tailend Windows 7 ultrabook from an Amazon/eBay disposal store and you'd get an even better bargain.
Hell, a MacBook Air isn't much pricier than one of these iPads.
I like the iPad, but not at these prices.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 07:29 GMT Lusty
Re: You want portable?
Ultrabooks don't have the same great battery life. They may be better than laptops but not as good as an iPad. Also, laptops of any kind (including netbooks) are not as nice to use on the train and tube and therefore are not as portable. They also take considerably longer to start up, reducing casual usage to pretty much zero. The iPad can be turned on for a quick use then switched off again. To achieve this with a laptop it must stay in standby which uses power and warms my bag, even with Windows 8 on a decent laptop.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 18:41 GMT Dana W
You all keep forgetting.
Its not a computer replacement for US, its a computer replacement for the unwashed masses, people who want e-mail, Facebook, Netflix and web browsing and that's about it.
I've said it again and again and again, if you read this site you are NOT the market! If you can cobble your own box together you are NOT the market. If you are comfortable installing your own OS or multi-booting you are NOT the market.
I have an iPad Mini, and I like it a great deal, "mind you I didn't actually PAY for it" but its not going to replace my computers. Its just nice to run my smartphone apps without squinting through bifocals. Its what my Nintendo was 10 years ago.
On the other hand I help a lot of older and disabled people with their computers and for 99% of them an iPad is all they need. Again, for seven out of ten of the home users I have to support, an iPad is all the "computer" they need, and pretty much all they can understand.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 18:46 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: You all keep forgetting.
I don't care if an Apple product costs £100 more - it's worth it for the better support, better apps, lasts longer (my iPhone 3GS is going strong and still supported after getting on for 4 years). I know people with Android tablets and mostly they get used now and then - most people I know with iPads use them much more and for much more.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 23:20 GMT Mark .
Re: You all keep forgetting.
Ah, anecdotes. Most people I know with ipads bought them because they didn't know of any alternatives, and then hardly use them as they realise they don't have much use for them.
I get plenty of support on my Android and other devices, as well as long support. And anyhow, if you're willing to pay more, it's better to simply upgrade more often anyway, then you get newer hardware. Better apps? Hardly - and not that any OS designed for a phone has software comparable to real computers. I already have an ipad beating tablet, it's the Nexus phone that fits in my pocket.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 19:14 GMT Anonymous Coward
The biggest problem with the iPad...
...is that it's designed to be used as a computer peripheral, rather than a replacement for a laptop.
My mother-in-law (not unwashed, but definitely computer illiterate) bought a shiny new iPad to use for web browsing, email, photo editing, and listening to audiobooks. After two months of frustration at the fact that so many basic tasks (e.g. uploading and retrieving media files and audiobooks to/from the household server) could only be done through an intermediate computer (which she hasn't got) running iTunes, she gave the iPad to one of the grandkids and bought a Nexus 10.
iOS != OSX.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 07:40 GMT Gary 24
Re: The biggest problem with the iPad...
So a computer illiterate mother in law uses a Server to manually mount shares and browse for files? I call out lies, plus if you had a half decent server you can run iTunes on it, or if it's a Synology NAS they do streaming.... or, you know, use apps like VLC ...
So much hate for Apple from people who think it's cool... enjoy your Android with its laggy UI and spyware in built.
I miss Maemo a proper Linux Smartphone OS.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 23:17 GMT Mark .
Re: You all keep forgetting.
But people are responding to the bit: "Apple marketing veep Phil Schiller suggested iPad owners could use the extra space on their tablets to store all their work and media without needing "their old PCs”"
The points people have made are talking about work and media, not cobbling together your own OS, or multi-booting.
"Again, for seven out of ten of the home users I have to support, an iPad is all the "computer" they need, and pretty much all they can understand."
It's a myth that ipads, or tablets in general, are easier. Yes, you don't have to learn the touchpad, but the UIs are no easier, plus you have the complexity of multitouch and gestures. Most the people buying tablets seem to be computer-savvy people who already have computers, not computer inexperienced elderly who if anything are put off buy touchscreens, and prefer physical buttons to press, in my experience. And an ipad is just an overpriced Nexus anyway.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 18:44 GMT Anonymous Coward
Normal people want or buy Apple. Geeks who want to be different and cheapskates buy Android but wish (later) they had bought Apple. I see plenty of people coming into the light (Apple) from Android / RIM / other tablets as they simply wanted it to do more and didn't feel the need to re-rom it or have it be end-of-lifed / insecure either out of the box or after 6-12 months.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 19:09 GMT Anonymous Coward
You are kidding right? cheapskates? really?
No - we are not cheapskates, we are just sensible and buy a product that can do so much more that Apples offerings at a way cheaper price. Take for instance my Android powered Samsung S3 (not a tablet I grant you but the same principles apply) I needed a bigger battery so guess what ? I bought one and installed it. I needed more space for my music so guess what? I bought a micro sd and installed it. See a pattern here?
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 20:21 GMT Anonymous Coward
"Normal people"?
Well, my household is full of "normal people" who like OSX and Apple's build quality, so we have plenty of old and new Macs around. But tablets are a different thing altogether. The iPad is rather unsuitable as a computer replacement, unless your use model is primarily consuming content purchased from iTunes. The Nexus 10 is a step up from the iPad Retina in all respects (including screen resolution), yet is much more capable as a computer replacement, rather than a peripheral.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 19:40 GMT Lusty
Re: "Normal people"?
"The iPad is rather unsuitable as a computer replacement"
Which is because Apple didn't design it to replace your computer.
"unless your use model is primarily consuming content purchased from iTunes"
If that's all you managed to do with the iPad then you weren't thinking very hard or perhaps just don't have any needs that it serves. Try getting:
SimpleMind+ to help with outlining large documents or planning software development
Keynote to deliver presentations at work using a projector
Penultimate for whiteboarding using that same projector, then email the pdf of the whiteboard to the whole room of people before they leave.
GoodReader so your secretary can sync a folder of important documents for you to read on the train (lawyers and execs LOVE this)
BigHand TotalSpeech so you can dictate documents for your secretary to type and print while you're on the train, ready for you to sign when you get back to the office. In yesteryear, tape dictation required getting back before the typing started.
WikiTouch to write hyperlinked documentation and sync it to the web for your whole team and/or customers to read.
Twitter so that you can update company feeds from anywhere
LinkedIn so that HR can browse for candidates
Conference Apps so that you can take part in polls, get your schedule, see info on other attendees and exibitors
Thetrainline so you can book and pay for tickets while the other people wait in line
Citrix receiver so I can access that hopeless fat app that my company insists I need and that "cannot" have a web interface
Yes, I could do all this on an Ultrabook, but I couldn't guarantee that my battery would last over a day with confidence that it won't fail at 4pm. I also couldn't use it comfortably on the tube, train or airplane seats. At least not the ones I can pay for on expenses. I'd also have a bad back, just like I used to have from carting a laptop, laptop bag, charger, notepad and any other crap that landed in my work bag around London on one shoulder day in, day out...my back is fine now, thanks for asking :)
Yes, I also consume content like music, video and magazines (with Zinio) which are handy while I'm at the airport or in a hotel for work. It means I can still catch my regular TV shows and receive my magazine subscription despite being out of the country.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 21:32 GMT JEDIDIAH
The mystique is gone already...
The mystique is gone already. As soon as Apple got into heavily subsidized consumer devices, the Apple mystique was doomed. When you have heavily subsidized phones, you just can't keep the secret. Apple devices are nothing special and if anything they are crippled and limited. Apple confuses usability with gutting features and flexibility.
Unfortunately, that doesn't work even with non-geeks. Not everyone is as stupid as your blatantly anti-intellectual attitude implies. Many people are quite able to fend for themselves and are demanding technology users. It's not 1976 anymore. You don't have to be an electronics technician to be a power user.
Attempting to redefine the term "geek" won't alter your fortunes.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 21:34 GMT MrXavia
You must be mad...
My non-geek friends ask me for advice, and take it... I ask what they use it for, and then recommend a device based on that... so far no one has asked for something that an android device can't do better than android...
Also my android tablet can do way more than my ipad can... so much so that after a week of usage the ipad became a kids toy... but the android tablet is a useful device (galaxy note 10.1), with tehe android tablet i can copy media to/from my NAS, I can use it to edit photos (real photoshop & pixel accurate pen), keep full backups, copy to/from my microsd's etc etc... stuff I can't do on the ipad....
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 18:56 GMT Naughtyhorse
3D design tools, CAD
so thios piece of overrated iCrap will replace my i7 lappie, with 16gig of ram, 750gb hdd, 2gb dedicated grafix, dvd writer, 4 count them 4 usb ports, firewire and 2 22" monitors......
Hey guys the reality distortion field is back and stronger than ever.
get back under your rock! iTwats
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 20:13 GMT Dan Paul
Re: 3D design tools, CAD
Or perhaps my homebuilt PC that is an Intel i5 Quad Core 3.4 Ghz (overclocks nicely to 4.2), 32 Gig Ram, 2 Gig Radeon 7870, 128 Gig SSD, combo Blu Ray & DVD/CD Writer and Leftover 2nd DVD/CD Writer and 1 Tb WD 7200 RPM drive on an ASUS Z77-V Mobo (more USB ports than common sense) that I put together for $1,200 USD (and is worth over $3,000 retail by comparison).
That baby gets a 7.8 out of 7.9 max "Windows Experience" score with every feature in Win 7 Pro turned on. Boot time is crazy fast without any tinkering, word, excel etc opens in less time than I take to sneeze. I'm waiting for a particular game to come out before I comment on the graphics. Browsing the web just snaps open pages.
Meanwhile, I gave my girlfriend a brand new SOTA Ipad for Xmas (just to stop the WHINING) and while testing it out it just seemed to run like an old dog. The $401 difference between the two not withstanding, one will be good for real work and the other is only for play.
Guess which one?
That's why desktop computing is not and will not be over. The last pc I built 9 years ago ran everything I could throw at it until it inexplicably died in December. Infinite expandability, universal capability, easily serviced, readily available software, relatively simple interface, what's not to like about a PC?
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 19:00 GMT zanshin
I agree it's not a PC replacement for most of us, but that's what makes the comment about using it for something like CAD work pretty laughable.
Current touch interfaces would be a truly horrific way to try and do serious 3D CAD work. A workstation class PC is also likely to completely blow away any tablet on the market (iDevice or not) on raw grunt power used for a lot of things like 3D rendering or even video encoding.
Maybe someday, but right now the suggestion that we use a tablet for anything other than social and multimedia consumption seems pretty silly. I don't even particularly like using them for office productivity stuff like spreadsheets, but that's down to either having to use touch or at least lacking a mouse, rather than tablets lacking the power for most of that.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 19:32 GMT Bad Beaver
$1000 buy a lot of interesting things
Yet to me, an iPad is not one of them. Admittedly, I had a glimmer of hope the company would hand them out for XMAS as little productivity gifts. I guess they know just as well as I do that they are not really that productive.
Anyway, the iPad mini, with added handwriting recognition (3rd party of course, why the hell can't Apple integrate their own one?)… now that could finally do some of the things my Newton used to be good at … in 1998. Apple, always ahead of itself. Sigh. The Newton MP2100 features: 2 cardslots for up to 64MB (sic! A bitchin' lot and nigh impossible to use up back then) of memory or numerous expansions (WiFi, Ethernet, Bluetooth, GSM, Faxmodem… ), a serial port and, lo and behold, a user replaceable NiHM-pack or optional AA-Battery operation. Which is why a Newton from 98 still works fine these days and will continue to do so for a good while, even if you threw it down a number of stairwells which it likely survived with hardly a scratch. Now that's a proper piece of computing equipment in my book.
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 19:49 GMT Jolyon Smith
"the extra storage is ideal for customers who use 3D design tools, CAD and other such packages"
Unlike the device into which the extra storage is being fitted.
Move along please, nothing to see here (except perhaps more mobile HD porn - the REAL reason that such devices are called "fondleslabs").
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Tuesday 29th January 2013 22:37 GMT Anonymous Coward
Braindead idiots trying to store their digital world on their device.
Next year they will be buying a 256GB ipad with enough space, the year after a remortgage and a 512GB model.
Where does it end?
In the sane world, 32GB is more than enough for anyone. I have my entire music collection stored in the cloud (Google Music), and only pin a sub-selection of playlists and favorite albums on my device for offline listening, I can stream anything 99% of the time.
In the cloud powered world, there is no need to store everything on the device (but seeing how rubbish iCloud is, I can sorta understand it).
Anyway, my Nexus7 has a USB port, so it's all moot really..... Let the idiots burn cash.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 00:04 GMT Dana W
Re: Braindead idiots trying to store their digital world on their device.
Must be nice to afford a bottomless mobile data contract and use it constantly. 32 gig is nothing. My 160 iPod is still in constant use.
I deal with media in half terabyte blocks. This is NOT practical or sane for cloud storage. Like I'm going to be waiting for 60 gig of music to move up and down an internet connection. "and I'm not even mentioning video"
ONE of my Macs has four terabytes, how the hell is CLOUD going to replace that?
A lot of us no matter the OS war want NOTHING to do with cloud storage of our media. My Media is NOBODY'S business. And a lot of my music and video is from MY source material. Wait till the media companies start grabbing on to cloud storage and demanding receipts to see what music you are "authorized" for. That's what the cloud is really for, making sure your media is where it can be seen, controlled and most of all marketed.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 20:39 GMT Jolyon Smith
Re: Braindead idiots trying to store their digital world on their device.
So living in a country where 3G coverage is less than 100%, most especially in the areas where you are most likely to go on vacation makes me a "Brainded Idiot" ?
"The cloud" is great for backup, but it's lousy as portable storage. I once thought the same as you... who needs a player with lots of storage - just sync the stuff I want to listen to at any given time and leave the rest on the PC (these days: in the cloud). But that really doesn't work. You (or at least I) can never predict what I'm going to be in the mood to listen to at any/all times. Or maybe you don't have as broad/eclectic tastes as some.
Hmmmm, how about that... could it be that, possibly, your individual experience/preference is NOT universally relevant to all of mankind who are thus "braindead idiots" simply for having different needs or preferences ... ?
I know, it's a wild possibility, but it just might be true.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 08:52 GMT Mark Gilbert
It is amusing how quickly the negative comments roll in as soon as Apple announce a new model of anything.
To agree with previous posters, if you read this site you are most likely not the target market for this device. So read The Reg review, enjoy the over excited hate filled comments, then for a more objective view, read AnandTech's review http://www.anandtech.com/show/6472/ipad-4-late-2012-review
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 12:25 GMT Chris D Rogers
Taking the iPiss!
Apple's iToy's have been crippled on the storage-side for at least two years and given the fact that flash memory prices have reduced drastically since the launch of the groundbreaking iPod Touch one would have though Apple could actually install 128G of flash storage for the present cost of the 64G iPad - to say they are gouging consumers is an understatement, they are taking the piss out of the Apple idiots - next tablet I buy will be a Asus with hopefully 128G of storage and microUSB external storage capabilities.
Apple, you are having a laugh - hope your stock price collapses you greedy feckers.
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Wednesday 30th January 2013 13:46 GMT JDX
Re: Taking the iPiss!
When you say crippled, what % of iPad owners do you think struggle with running out of space?
And that's before taking into account the fact that everything you buy from iTunes is automatically stored in iCloud so you can swap which 50Gb of crap you have on the device.
I think it's mainly a problem Android fans love to latch on to regardless if it's actually a problem in real use.
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