12.2-Inch 'iPad Air Plus' May Launch Between April and June 2015 With A9 Processor

iBook?

oliversl said:
I won't be surprised if Apple copies the Microsoft Surface 3 Pro. They already copied the Samsung Phablet thingie
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Expanding on this thought, could be a cool reintroduction of the iBook. A tablet/laptop design. Touch screen w/ keyboard & trackpad.
 
Pro Music apps

I see Logic Pro X has a lot of functions now that would lend itself to touchscreen operations. I think pro apps would have to be in the works for this. Possibly a surface pro is type of interface.
 
hackintoshers got yosemite up and kinda running in a touch capacitive state on their cintiq companions - indicating apple is at least currently incorporating touch into their OS. apparently, mavericks had no such luck.

so hopefully, this iPad pro will see real pro features. would really love to see it dock to a keyboard for OS X and pick up for iOS, but i don't know how possible that is.

if it's just 'an extra row of icons' and maybe some multitasking, i'll start conceding more to people's assertions that apple is playing catch-up.
 
blairh said:
Uh....the iPad Mini 3 will not be discontinued less than a year after release. If anything the 2 will be gone if the 4 is released in Q2.
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Remember the 3rd gen iPad (the first one with retina display) being released on March 16, 2012 and then discontinued on October 23 in the same year? Sure that made a lot of customers angry, but it's still better to realize a fault and set it right than sticking to a legacy product (or legacy technology in that particular product) just to not upset some customers who bought it.
 
No way they use an A9 chip before the iPhone 6S


The A8X chip is as powerful as a MacBook from a couple years ago
 
blairh said:
You're right. But this move is so maddening. To discontinue a device so quickly creates a lot of buyers remorse.
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You shouldn't be disappointed if you're buying the Mini 3 in the first place, it's the same as the 2 except for Touch ID.
 
Eh, I want to see what it does. To me the iPad Air is a good size and still portable. A nice balance. A 12.2" devices kind of defeats the purpose of a tablet unless it really brings some functionality. Still, owners of the iPad Air 2 are going to be pissed if they miss out on an optimized OS or split screen usage that to the "Pro" model since the current A8X could easily handle it.
 
munakib said:
OSX along with USBs, otherwise there is no point of this. We cant keep on making dumbing down computers - camon apple get out this mindset. The Tablet fad is over.
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I agree. With Apple moving into the phablet market with the iphone 6plus, they need to make a big leap in their tablets. An ipad that cannot run both iOS and OSX shouldn't be called an ipad pro. Sorry. A bigger screen & better speakers does not an ipad pro make.
 
Apple is going to have to innovate in this space soon. The corporate world is moving past tablets and what I am seeing is more and more people looking towards Surface Pro 3 type devices. Mobile and desktop are converging and this is where the growth will be. People don't want a tablet AND a laptop. They want one device that does both, especially if their computing needs are on the lighter end of the spectrum which is probably where 75% of people are.

My employer is moving our execs and mobile folks towards the Lenovo Tablet 10s and away from their iPads. I'm seeing it in other businesses as well. Someone is going to have to make the iOS world and OSX world play nice, and soon. The writing is on the wall.
 
Paddle1 said:
You shouldn't be disappointed if you're buying the Mini 3 in the first place, it's the same as the 2 except for Touch ID.
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I just think it makes Apple look bad when they discontinue a product less than 12 months after release.

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mrbyu said:
Remember the 3rd gen iPad (the first one with retina display) being released on March 16, 2012 and then discontinued on October 23 in the same year? Sure that made a lot of customers angry, but it's still better to realize a fault and set it right than sticking to a legacy product (or legacy technology in that particular product) just to not upset some customers who bought it.
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And they're potentially going to do it yet again. I don't think that's a good thing.
 
I don't see the value in this unless it is designed with a proper Wacom-style stylus for graphic designers and as a challenge to the art use of Windows tablets already sporting such screens (and challenging Wacom's own Cintique line of display+drawing tablet, and Windows/Android tablets).

If it's just a larger screen, I'm not interested. It's too big for what I want to do on an iPad (replace my iPhone 4 for Internet and reading use).

If it sports a legit professional Wacom stylus and digitizer, then I WILL feel a bit miffed when it comes out if I buy an iPad Air 2 this year.
 
mrwag said:
Apple is going to have to innovate in this space soon. The corporate world is moving past tablets and what I am seeing is more and more people looking towards Surface Pro 3 type devices. Mobile and desktop are converging and this is where the growth will be. People don't want a tablet AND a laptop. They want one device that does both, especially if their computing needs are on the lighter end of the spectrum which is probably where 75% of people are.

My employer is moving our execs and mobile folks towards the Lenovo Tablet 10s and away from their iPads. I'm seeing it in other businesses as well. Someone is going to have to make the iOS world and OSX world play nice, and soon. The writing is on the wall.
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It has nothing to do with "what people want". This is IT departments pushing the Microsoft "solution" because they have Microsoft accounts, Microsoft office subscriptions, Microsoft product support training, and Microsoft selling these Surface tablets at loss just to overcome their failure in marketing to people based on what people actually want. IT departments don't care about user friendliness. I've worked in IT long enough to know the people entrenched there.

People want ease of use, simplicity, and care nothing about back end stuff or institution-wide software license subscription discounts. That's why iPad succeeded in seriously wounding the PC industry.

It's now a game of seeing who wins the long term battle: entrenchment in IT, where there's a lot of leverage for Microsoft and lots of tech people that hate end users (and who tolerate bad technology in order to honor geekhood), OR the users themselves. I bet the final end result won't be to my liking, but at least things will have improved somewhat over the way things used to be, compared to the "prior to iPad" era.
 
Hey, I'd be down for an iPad mini 4 if it is a small iPad Air 2! I have an iPad mini 2, but it's weird having an A7 device and an A8 device. (I have an iPhone 6)

Anyway, I kind of would like for my mom to have an iPad, she wants to use mine quite a bit and yeah. I would buy the mini 4 and give her my mini 2. It'd be a win-win.

And I think this "iPad Air plus" will be a joke if it doesn't have OS X of some variant. I don't want an iPad air plus, with or without OS X, but still. To those of you who say "It's not happening, a touch UI and a Mouse/Keyboard UI are incompatible", I think you're wrong. If they worked really hard, they could add a lot of pinch to close gestures, a fancy on screen keyboard, and stuff of the like (gaming would be impossible with an onscreen keyboard, but Macs aren't big for gaming anyway. I think they should make some sort of keyboard like thing that Microsoft makes for their Surface tablets or something to help fight those 'the tablet that could replace your laptop' crap, and slagging of the MacBooks, etc....) it could be done with a little dedication and effort. If Apple is willing to do that.
 
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Cayden said:
Are they really going to do this with the iPad line again? Releasing two separate products under the exact same product category within months of each other is just a big middle finger to the customer
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It's not as bad this time since the iPad mini 3 was hardly an upgrade. The only people that would be upset are the ones who just purchased it as their first iPad. But even then it's a great iPad for someone who hasn't bought one before. This isn't like before when the 9.7" iPad 3 was a significant upgrade over its predecessor but left underspecced with the 4th gen being the real upgrade.
 
Rogifan said:
What software is it going to run?

And what was the point of the mini 3 again?
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Maybe they needed to "placehold" new update cause of problems with design of iPad Mini "4"?

However, for me, best information is about iPad Mini 4 with A8X.

2 Gigs of Ram, with great CPU and GPU, and most importantly - TouchID is what i was expecting from new Tablet from Apple with Mini form factor.
 
jterp7 said:
Mini 4, finally full gamut, only took 4 generations lol.
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It would be a good thing, but who says there will be enough IGZO production capacity? The new processor indicates there's something worthwhile about the update, but I'll believe a new display when I see it.

IGZO has been a tough technology for the manufacturers, it seems. Out of Apple's control.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
That sounds like a bit of an improvement. It's not available on my iPhone 6+ though :-/
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Swiping between apps has been available for several years, but is iPad only. I hope they change that soon, the 6+ has a big enough screen. It would be very tight on a 3.5" screen, and tight on a 4", but Apple should be pushing all the advantages of the new sizes.
 
XTheLancerX said:
Hey, I'd be down for an iPad mini 4 if it is a small iPad Air 2! I have an iPad mini 2, but it's weird having an A7 device and an A8 device. (I have an iPhone 6)

Anyway, I kind of would like for my mom to have an iPad, she wants to use mine quite a bit and yeah. I would buy the mini 4 and give her my mini 2. It'd be a win-win.

And I think this "iPad Air plus" will be a joke if it doesn't have OS X of some variant. I don't want an iPad air plus, with or without OS X, but still. To those of you who say "It's not happening, a touch UI and a Mouse/Keyboard UI are incompatible", I think you're wrong. If they worked really hard, they could add a lot of pinch to close gestures, a fancy on screen keyboard, and stuff of the like (gaming would be impossible with an onscreen keyboard, but Macs aren't big for gaming anyway. I think they should make some sort of keyboard like thing that Microsoft makes for their Surface tablets or something to help fight those 'the tablet that could replace your laptop' crap, and slagging of the MacBooks, etc....) it could be done with a little dedication and effort. If Apple is willing to do that.
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For what it's worth Apple applied for a patent for a touch-enabled version of OSX;

http://www.patentlyapple.com/patent...ultitouch-solution-for-os-x-on-macs-ipad.html

so someone deep in the dungeons of Cupertino thinks it's possible. Whether it happens or not...we'll see.
 
sualpine said:
Let me guess... Another row of icons?
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...and flatter than flat, maybe dropping all interface color too. ;)

But imagine how "thin" it will be! Please Apple, make it "thinner". Kick the battery out so we have to buy a separate battery case if necessary. Dump the camera if it gets in the way. Shift all the guts you can out of the thing so you can give us "thinner". Don't worry, we'll pay full price anyway and then spin to each other why your choices in support of "thinner"- even if they end up costing us more money- makes perfect sense. :rolleyes:
 
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