If you have wondered if Apple has an Achilles’ heel you might want to check out a new post over on Gizmodo. It makes clear that there is one and if goes by the name “expectations”. People have come to expect SO much from Apple each and every time they release a new device that there is Simply No Way, Apple can keep pace. That seems to be the case with the Gizmodo crew’s initial reaction to the new iPad. There doesn’t seem to be anything that is making them go “wow”.
It is also interesting to see Gizmodo’s behind the scenes chatter. It is not as four letter worded as I would expect. Maybe all that Frat Boy stuff is for show… nah!
All of this noted, while I have yet to get my hands on the new iPad I do know that it is a huge upgrade for me. The fact that it will have global voice recognition will make this key productivity tool far better for me than it has ever been. And I think that’s what this comes down to. Whether or not this upgraded iPad is for you depends a lot on how you use your tablet. If it is simply a media consumption device you might be wisest to stick with an iPad 2 and save some significant money. If, on the other hand, you do a lot of gaming or you use your iPad has a key productivity tool it is a worthwhile upgrade to consider. I know that, for me, having the global voice recognition will make it even more of a “don’t leave home without it” device.
This was the same basic reaction as with the iPhone 4S. Y’know … the #1 smartphone in the world in the months since release?
I think it is people like Gizmodo who need a reality check – the iPad was already better than any competing device in pretty much every way that actually matters (hint: numbers on paper and saying ‘open’ do NOT matter), so I think that what Apple did is clearly evolutionary, but packs a pretty amazing value.
I have mine, it is hooked to my laptop now syncing up apps … I just wish I had time to play with it!
Agreed. When it starts the best an incremental improvement is huge in many ways. BUT I do think people will be okay saving money and getting the 2 in most cases.
Most likely written with Siri. Please excuse any and all errors.
So far the screen improvement is huge for me. It makes reading things much more relaxing and pleasant. It was good before (on my first generation iPad), but this is much more pleasant. For me the dictation feature is nice, but not the “killer app” for me. The screen improvement IS. And a big “Thank You” goes out to Amazon for getting their Kindle app updated so quickly – the books look GREAT on the new display!
But I think that other than the screen the updates are seen as “meh” because they aren’t flashy updates. But the processors are updated – and faster than the much-touted Tegra 3 – and I’m talking the benchmarks that are appearing now, not Apple’s vague numbers. The 4G version has LTE and something that keeps getting skipped over in the discussions in the WIDE number of 3G bands/frequencies that have been added to the thing! This is huge if you want to sell these things ourside of the US and Canada. They also updated the main camera to 5mp. Much better than the old one (but it would have been better if they updated the front camera too). And they are now taking an estimated lower margin in order to keep the price the same. And let’s also not forget that they did all of this and managed to keep the battery operating at almost the same level. THAT alone is huge and anybody with a current LTE device (can you say battery life gone “bye bye”) can confirm. Yeah – I think the updates are evolutionary, not revolutionary, but they are not the trivial updates that some people want to make them out to be. They are important and significant and people wil ultimately prove this out (as they did with the 4s) – NOT because they are “lemmings” as some online pundits will say – because that lemming mindset only carries things so far – but rather because Apple has made a decent device that delivers on what it promised. Period. Yeah – people keep expecting even more because Apple delivers, but guess what? THey delivered this time too, but the backing is ordinary, not shiny and flashy, so the bloggers and the haters are swinging their “meh” bats in full force without appreciating what they are looking at and how much has truly been improved here.
Call really really good points Chris. I am amazed at how big a difference the screen is making for me as well. It is just that much crisper and easier to read. I don’t think there is an issue if someone chooses to save money and get a refurbished iPad to but if you can get this updated model it is certainly a nice addition.
Most likely written with Siri. Please excuse any and all errors.
One problem I see is that people who are supposedly tech-savvy have only a top-level understanding of how stuff works. So for them dual-core is inherently better than single-core, and quad-core must therefore be better than dual-core and so on. So Apple sticking with a dual core solution – albeit an improved one with quad-core graphics – seems like a let-down.
It seems that if Apple is sad about this, then they must be crying all the way to the bank with all of the profits they are making. And I am sure that trolling like this gets Gizmodo a lot of page views and ad dollars, too. I stopped reading Gizmodo when they posted that iPhone-being-released-tomorrow prank in December 2006 and I have seen no reason in 5 plus years to go back and read them.
You should think about not giving Gizmodo the benefit of a link from now on. They are clearly posting this junk to get pageviews.
Good points. Even better suggestion. 🙂
Most likely written with Siri. Please excuse any and all errors.
Oh, and Doug… The screen IS all that!!!! Amazing.
Most likely written with Siri. Please excuse any and all errors.
What I find hilarious is this near techno-fetishist attitude about Specs. It seems that the Android uber-geeks are hyper-acutely aware of specs as the only measure of a device’s relative worth. For example, I can recall seeing (over and over again) how “Apple FINALLY puts 1 GB of RAM in the iPad OMGZORZ” when in reality up to that point, iOS ran efficiently enough on 512 MB that the extra memory was unnecessary.
The new iPad, with its 4G LTE modem on Verizon, may very well kill any remaining interest I had in the Android tablet platform, which is really a shame because I do enjoy tinkering around with my homepages on my Samsung GTab 7.7
Then again, I do enjoy the 7″ form factor…
I absolutely adore the 7″ form factor as well, which is why I keep buying them, only to be dissatisfied. For me the best so far is the Kindle Fire … Obviously not in terms of features or specs, but because of usability of stuff I care about.
You might want to give the GTab 7.7 a whirl if you haven’t tried it out yet. Basically, it is a squeezed-down GTab 10.1 and works reasonably well. There are lag issues (as with any Android device) but overall it has been a nice experience. Samsung’s TouchWiz UI takes some getting used to, and I am always annoyed that Samsung doesn’t support OS X very well, but as with anything in the tech world, there are ways around those issues.
Kindle on the 7.7 has been a real pleasure to use; the form factor is perfect and the higher screen resolution gives it a nudge over the Fire/Playbook IMO.