I agree; I've never had a home button fail. My current iPad is version 2. I exchanged my iPad version 1 for a $100 coupon some years ago. But never a home button fail.
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Apple Planning Thicker Bezel-Free 10.5" iPad Pro With 9.7" Footprint and No Home Button [Updated]
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Nothing. I have the iPad Pro. It is definitely better than the Air in any way. It is louder, the screen is richer and the processor is noticeably faster. But it is not a laptop replacement. I cannot do in it what I do on my MacBook Pro, so it is not a "Pro" device.
I am a Civil Engineer, I simulate, design, make calculations... all of this cannot be done in an iPad or it is more difficult. Even some useful spreadsheet formulaes cannot be used on the iPad.
I mostly use it to read, show project progress and watch series.
I get that snarky cynicism is supposed to impress everybody, but this is not a true statement. The additional tech built in to function with the pencil differentiates the device from previous models. You don't have to like it, but this is not just a case of calling it 'Pro' and increasing the price.
Agreed, although I think the "Pro" moniker has to go too.
There's a certain level of expectation from such a designation, and I think the reason why Apple is pissing a lot of people off lately is because they are using it so loosely.
Huh? "Pro" is a modifier to "iPad." The device is an iPad, not a MacBook. Why would you expect the "Pro" delineation to mean that it would replace your MacBook?
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Right. That is at the heart of the issue. Apple has loosely redefined what the term "Pro" means. In the case of the iPad, it's the iPad "Creative" or "Artist" Pro.
These terms were established internally at Apple when Steve came back and clearly delineated Pro vs Consumer, in his infamous 4-square matrix.
But the issue is that lately the product line has become so restrictive and (primarily) consumer-oriented that Apple itself is going against its own Pro vs Consumer attributes within its product catalog. This is confusing everybody except consumers, who obviously don't care what "Pro" really does or should mean.
Well, that's what I thought about my iPad 4th generation (or whatever the first gen retina version was). It used to work so smooth, apps responded instantly, pages loaded quickly, etc. With all the iOS updates it's almost unusable now for the same activities. By far the biggest annoyance is the delay in the keyboard when typing something, but app opening is slow too. I have to believe this is planned obsolescence rather than just incidental bloat. Unfortunately you can't downgrade to earlier iOS versions.
Really, I think it's because a significant portion of the people who post here either seek pleasure from trying to be snarky and dismissive, or are actually paid trolls whose job is essentially industrial sabotage. I don't doubt that there are also some people who are genuinely dissatisfied with various Apple developments, but an awful lot of the (very predictably) critical comments on this site are built around expectations that are incongruous with anything Apple has ever been. You can boil a lot of those comments down to "I don't like the new iWhatever because it doesn't function like Windows or Android." Well, Apple has very specifically charted a business model and product line that does not function like Windows or Android. The day they start trying to be more like Windows or Android is the day you actually could stick a pin in it and chart their demise.
Agree. The "pro" moniker is reaching. What the pro models got would have been normal upgrades on the iPad in the past. Now they call it a "pro" model and charge more for it. Being able to use the Apple Pencil is something that you should be able to do across the ipad line.
I don't think it's that complicated. The iPad has been primarily a consumer product up to this point. It's great for reading things, web surfing, and even light-duty office stuff. It has not, however, been particularly useful for creative and design work, because the UI was designed for Steve Jobs' finger. A finger or passive stylus isn't accurate enough for professional graphics or design. The Pencil fixes that. Ba da bing, you have a "Pro" device. Someone who does that kind of work professionally now has an iPad available that he or she can, with great precision, draw on. The consumer product is the iPad mini or Air. The Pro product is the iPad Pro. It's not that complicated.
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You could say that about any 'pro' feature, that it should just be available across the entire line. For consumer-level iPads, I think Steve Jobs was right about getting rid of the once-ubiquitous stylus (Palm Pilot, anyone?). People who just want to read and click (mostly) all have fingers and can do without carrying around a stick they're going to lose.
The internal iPad hardware required to work with the pencil adds extra cost to the device. Consumers who are just going to read and poke don't need that hardware or that cost. Graphics and design professionals do. That's what makes the case for having a separate 'pro' line.
A better example of "it doesn't meet MY needs so it isn't 'Pro'" would be hard to find.
(Doesn't meet my work needs, either, but I know two artists who spend nearly all their time on the large iPad Pro's, and a counselor who uses only a small iPad Pro).
I've got a 9.7" Pro and I love it. The only thing that would make me update is that I want a bigger surface to use the Pencil over to take handwritten notes. Yet the 12.9" at least looks too big (I haven't spent much time using it). I wonder if something around the size you're describing is right.
Of course maybe if I used the bigger iPad I'd get used to the size and realize that it isn't much bigger than a pad of paper.
Going bezel-less is going to lead to some challenges-- when I'm not writing on it, I use it almost exclusively handheld which is going to get tricky when there's no place to grip it that doesn't interfere with the view. Thickness will matter if I want to write on it like paper, so making it thicker might not be beneficial-- I won't know until I try. Also, how to radius the edges-- paper has a pretty square edge that lets you apply pencil pressure to the very edge, but glass really doesn't like sharp corners.
I didn't see mention of the Mac Pro in this article, but that sounds about right. I don't expect a new Mac Pro until Intel provides something that allows driving a 5k display with a single cable and the Kaby Lake Xeons aren't due until Q1 as far as I can tell. Intel has been having a real Motorola moment this past year...
If I own both those things, I definitely have enough money to not worry about buying a cable.
Seriously. Ever since my new MBP came a couple weeks back, I've been holding it in one hand, and my 9.7" ipad Pro in the other, staring in bafflement that the white cable that came with the iPad Pro doesn't fit in the MBP. I've tried both ends. Flipped it upside down. Doesn't work.
Of course, I don't actually need to plug the iPad Pro in (except to install apps I write via Xcode, which I'm sure almost all iPad Pro customers also do), but it's still immensely frustrating. If only Apple made a lightning cable with a USB-C port on one end. Or maybe someone could develop, say, a $3.50 adapter to convert USB-C to USB-A, that would really be something. Maybe I should invent that. Just so no one steals the idea, I'm going to patent it. I will claim:
1. An adapter for converting USB-A devices such that they work with USB-C ports, comprising:
A body;
A female USB-A port situated in said body; and
A male USB-C connector situated in said body, wherein said USB-A port is operatively connected to said USB-C connector.
No one steal that idea.
Anyway, my arms are getting tired from holding these two devices while staring at their ports with mouth agape, so I gotta go.
I think there will be a home button but it will be haptic like the new iPhone 7.
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I think it means that no matter the size of the iPad Pro, the Apple Pencil will work with it.
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A tablet when studying a subject(even on a professional level) is absolutely essential as a 2nd screen. The study material off to the side while the thing you're studying on the main screen(usually a PC). That's the ideal way.
[doublepost=1480363371][/doublepost]All the whining and moaning. The fact remains that Android tablets are a disaster and Windows tablets have no apps. So even as schizophrenic as the iPad lineup is and will be, it's still the only game in town.
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I think it means that no matter the size of the iPad Pro, the Apple Pencil will work with it.
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A tablet when studying a subject(even on a professional level) is absolutely essential as a 2nd screen. The study material off to the side while the thing you're studying on the main screen(usually a PC). That's the ideal way.
[doublepost=1480363371][/doublepost]All the whining and moaning. The fact remains that Android tablets are a disaster and Windows tablets have no apps. So even as schizophrenic as the iPad lineup is and will be, it's still the only game in town.
It's a question of who Apple markets it to. If you're a "Pro", you're not a student or a child. You are somebody who derives income from your work, and thus see value in having better tools.
"Pro" is not any one profession and Apple runs a very sparse product line. They don't have specialized models for artists, photographers, videographers, civil engineers, electrical engineers, developers, doctors, lawyers, salespeople, athletes, construction workers and rodeo clowns. They have one high end product aimed at many professions.
It's a tool, not a toy.
Certainly there is crossover, just as people seem to want to play games on the Mac Pro and complain that it has graphic cards optimized for OpenCL rather than triangles per second, but that doesn't make the "Pro" distinction meaningless. I'm a professional. I like to play games and watch movies in my down time.
Let me just say that it's pretty unprofessional to let little things like product naming piss you off.
Or keep the 'pro' moniker and make an iPad with pro capabilities. Maybe it's time to steal a page from MS and add a track pad to the smart keyboard. Or add wireless mouse capabilities.
Most of all, upgrade the iOS with a robust file system. But make this 'pro iOS' available only to pro iPads.
The non-pro models can continue to exist as many use them for surfing and watching movies anyways.
Making a tablet a notebook doesn't make it "pro". It just makes it another ****ing hybrid.
It's not a question of using your fingers instead. Of course most people will use their fingers. The apple pencil is a great drawing tool. For consumers & prosumers alike who like to draw or sketch. I'm just saying that at this point, the pro models aren't really pro enough to deserve that title and come with features that should be shared across the iPad line IMHO. You can disagree, and that's fine. But I just think it's a tad premature to slap a "pro" name on the ipads at this point.