iPad Mini Confirmed to Carry Stereo Speakers

[lifeinhd]

Originally Posted by Glideslope

Intensional. Apple 1, Amazon Advertising -1.

Woah, woah, woah... when one team gains a point, the other team does not lose a point

[milo]

Originally Posted by techpr

No HD Movies or TV ?

Not on the mini, the resolution is below 720.

Originally Posted by Jeans89

I am just wondering that why would anyone buy iPad4 with monospeaker when they could have iPad mini with stereospeakers much cheaper.

Please tell me this post is satire. Please.

Originally Posted by Phazer

Even if it has 2 speakers it does not mean it's stereo.
Stereo and dual mono are 2 very different things.
Even if it had 20 speakers all over the place, it would still probably be mono.
Stereo is the ability to play one thing on one speaker, and another on the other speaker.

While that's true, what's your point? An exec from Apple said it's stereo, I assume he isn't lying.

[GeekLawyer]

Originally Posted by Apple Key

It still shows Single Speaker in this detailed comparison.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...d_i=B008GFRDL0

That's the iPad, which doesn't have stereo speakers.

But wow, that page is full of other hogwash.

[ugahairydawgs]

Originally Posted by BvizioN

Much less i understand. But what is it the much more?

Because Apple doesn't build their business model around content sales. They base everything around hardware sales. So when they sell a product, they aim to make X% profit.

Conversely, Amazon wants you to buy their content. So they sell you the Kindle at cost to get it in your hands so you will load it up with their media.

[Judas1]

Originally Posted by Small White Car

Which only shows how stupid the whole 'HD' thing is.

1280x720 on a 50" screen = HD
1024x600 on a 8" screen = not HD

Guess which one will look sharper? Doesn't matter, apparently.

The 'HD' term made a little bit of sense when most every TV was between 27" and 50". The fact that the tech industry went on to use the phrase for every screen from 4" to 100" is to biggest bunch of crap they've pulled in quite some time. And this is an industry FULL of crap advertising to begin with.

I agree that HD was originally a marketing term to make 720p more amazing/revolutionary than it is. Now, even 1080p looks bad if the screen size is big enough. But that term has evolved to just mean 720p and or 1080p. I've accepted it now.

[nfl46]

I saw the Kindle Fire HD in person and the screen was not good to me. I had it side by side the first Kindle Fire at Best Buy and I could barely tell the difference. I guess my eyes got so used HD on the iPad 3 that all tablet screens look pixelated to me.

[melendezest]

Originally Posted by Anuba

Yeah, if they bother with stereo, the speakers should be on the bottom and top. That way, you get stereo when you're watching a movie in landscape mode, and in portrait where sound experience is less relevant since you're probably just browsing the web or whatever, you won't get stereo but at least the sound will be centered. Now instead you get an extremely narrow stereo image in portrait and sound from one side in landscape... nifty feature wasted.

Agreed. But perhaps this is why they didn't tout it before.

To be fair though, if the each channel's output is being directed to one speaker only, then it is in fact stereo. This should still result in better sound than one speaker handling all the frequencies. Not optimal (I agree with the above), but better nonetheless.

[Small White Car]

Originally Posted by drew0020

Huh? There is nothing wrong with the current HD standards. I think you are talking about viewing distance. The iPad 2 and Mini the pixels are very noticeable at a foot viewing distance.

There is something wrong when you can put the same number of pixels in a 4" Android phone as in a 70" TV and give them both the same name.

At that point the term has lost all meaning.

[srxtr]

Originally Posted by ufwa

What i find stupid is that Apple themselves doesn't make this clear at the start.

People shouldn't have to email some exec to find out.

Is adding the word "stereo" that hard?

They don't need to. They just use words like "easy" "nice" "great" "amazing" "incredible" "awesome" "fantastic" followed by "better than anything we've seen", which is enough.

[iVoid]

It's about time. For a device of the iPad/iPad mini's size, lack of stereo speakers really was silly.

Although I'd think they'd be better off with speakers on the top and bottom so the stereo effect is noticeable when watching landscape movies. Both on the bottom is not the best choice.

[apolloa]

You are pushing a lot to even consider that as being 'stereo' speakers, they are only stereo by name IMO, not by feature.
And just where are the stereo speakers on the iPad 4 then?

[Defender2010]

Anyone else think the next iPad will follow the iPad Mini design only with a 9.7 inch display?

[Jeans89]

Originally Posted by Defender2010

Anyone else think the next iPad will follow the iPad Mini design only with a 9.7 inch display?

And they will call it iPad mini Max.

[MacAgnostic]

Apparently the iPad has always had stereo speakers.
Did Apple Fail to Mention iPad Stereo Speakers?

In this case it appears they have separated them more.

[scott911]

Originally Posted by ImperialX

Stereo or not, I won't be using it. Tablet or smartphone speakers don't ever do music justice.

many NON-APPLE product do a fair job reproducing sound.
and they should - these are multimedia device.

I'm an iphone 1 user - got mine week it was launched, and have had most iphone models and a ipod 2. All of them have lousy speakers

I keep hoping apple invests in speaker tech to at least equal their competition.

imperial - I'm not suggesting we should expect serious sound out of a portable - I owen THIEL speakers so I'm definitely on the critical side of the equation - I just want to be able to listen to device when I need to without hating apple's tendency to put form over function in the speaker department.

[apolloa]

Originally Posted by ugahairydawgs

Because Apple doesn't build their business model around content sales. They base everything around hardware sales. So when they sell a product, they aim to make X% profit.

Conversely, Amazon wants you to buy their content. So they sell you the Kindle at cost to get it in your hands so you will load it up with their media.

Sure, but I do believe in the keynote they stated that over 35 billion apps have been downloaded, with Apple taking a 30% cut from everyone that was sold, and then a further 30% cut from every purchase made through those apps.

I seriously doubt Apple has earned only chicken feed from the App store.

[macfacts]

Originally Posted by darkslide29

Serious question regarding the checklist, not baiting or trolling..

Cool to see about the stereo speakers, but what about a couple of the other items...

1) why can Amazon say they offer Movies and TV (with a PAID amazon prime subscription), yet they dismiss PAY movies and TV from the iTunes Store?

2) Is the iPad Mini (and iPad 2) really a low res display? I swore I watched 720p movies on my iPad 2. While they may have not been 720p exactly, I wouldn't have called it low res.

Is it just selective marketing on Amazons part?

1) why can "unbiased" reviews *cough*engadget*cough* put down the amazon kindle fire for trying to sell you music/movies/apps/stuff but when the itunes store does it, it is some magical ecosystem that is supreme.

2) HD resolution is defined as 1280×720 or 1920x1080, so yes the ipad1/2/2s/mini are standard definition at best. When you watch 720p movies on those ipads, the video is chopped off.

And the stereo speakers on the ipad mini is a nice feature, if you like watching videos in portrait mode

[tbrinkma]

Originally Posted by Mr Fusion

NO.

I am sick and tired of corporations manipulating the definition of words and phrases to suit their needs. 720p is NOT HD, unless the H stands for half-a$$. It's 1080p. 4G is NOT HSPA+ or WiMAX, it's LTE running at 100Mbps.

Apple can choose to put an HD screen in their iPad mini or keep their mouths closed when others point out their lack of one. They've chosen the latter. Now OWN IT.

Nobody's playing with definitions, but you. 720p is, and always has been, HD according to anything even remotely approaching an actual standard.

In fact, it's the best HD picture quality you'll get over the air, because the OTA signal can't accommodate the 1080p data rates.

[UmbraDiaboli]

Oh WOW, Amazon was wrong with one of the facts!

It doesn't change anything, Kindle HD is still a cheaper and better gadget.

[The Bulge]

199 US dollars of pure honesty.

[BvizioN]

Originally Posted by ugahairydawgs

Because Apple doesn't build their business model around content sales. They base everything around hardware sales. So when they sell a product, they aim to make X% profit.

Conversely, Amazon wants you to buy their content. So they sell you the Kindle at cost to get it in your hands so you will load it up with their media.

I totally understand that, that's why i said i understand the "for much less" part. The thing is it so much more you get with kindle (as they are claiming) that you don't get with iPad mini?

[jrswizzle]

Originally Posted by GeekLawyer

That's the iPad, which doesn't have stereo speakers.

But wow, that page is full of other hogwash.

Seriously....

Half the points focus on the screen - as a huge apple enthusiast I had been skeptical of the mini without retina BUT I understand why they did it. I also am not naive enough to believe resolution is everything (i.e. the Fire HD looks better to me than the N7, the iP5 screen is better than the 4S with the same res).

The Fire doesn't have the issue of catering to developers and the HUGE tablet specific app offering like Apple does. The best way I've seen the Fire HD described is this - it's a purchasing portal. The iPad mini is much more than that....

And from what I've read, the screen is actually quite good. No, it's not up to par with the retina displays (or the N10's new "super-retina" display, which BTW, seems like a spec gimmick to me....I'd love to see one in person as the retina display is named such because your eye can't detect the pixels at a normal viewing distance - so adding pixels really doesn't do anything except that now there's an Android tablet with an iPad-quality display).

Other issues i have with the Amazon page...

1) The stats they give for the WiFi speeds - supposedly I'm only supposed to get 22 MBPS with my lowly single antenna iPad.....even though I consistently clock my iPad (with speedtest) at 30+.

2) Obviously the stereo vs. mono will now have to be taken down or qualified.

3) This comparison is extremely similar to the ad Samsung ran comparing the GS3 to the iP5 - essentially leaving out key iPad/iOS features and cherry picking features that don't really tell the whole story.

I'm excited to try out the mini in person on Friday. I'll be buying one for my wife for christmas (and hope it'll be reciprocated as I'm eyeing the black 32gb LTE model )

[macfacts]

Originally Posted by ugahairydawgs

Because Apple doesn't build their business model around content sales. They base everything around hardware sales. So when they sell a product, they aim to make X% profit.

Conversely, Amazon wants you to buy their content. So they sell you the Kindle at cost to get it in your hands so you will load it up with their media.

Apple makes X% profit and Y% profit from the app store, sounds like apple wants to "have its cake and eat it too"

If Apple's online app store is just peanuts, why does EA (the video game company that loves to nickle and dime its customers with online passes and season passes) want to get in the online app/game store business?

[Jack97]

Ooh, looks like amazon hired Samsung's marketing team for that ad

[rjohnstone]

Originally Posted by GeekLawyer

That's the iPad, which doesn't have stereo speakers.

But wow, that page is full of other hogwash.

What exactly is "hogwash" on the comparison page?
They're highlighting features the Kindle has that are not available on an iPad.
Hardly hogwash.
The hardware comparison is accurate.