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Still had the checkerboard when scrolling up and down.

It definitely loaded more images than my iPad will when opening a page.

I thought so too, but then I tried the same page on my iPad 1 and it loaded fine. There are many images on that page but they are small. Now, if only Engadget could go to boston.com/bigpicture and try that out, we'd have a real test.
 
Does the iPad 2 Really Only Have 256MB of RAM? http://gizmodo.com/#!5774768

It's not real hard to figure out that is wrong.

There is no way in hell the iPad 2 can have only 256 MB of ram. As a developer and seeing how fast it is in a few videos I am leaning very close to it having 1 GB of ram.

I would be very surprised if it came out that it had only 512 MB of ram.

I also can't see Samsung Manufacturing a Dual Core, Cortex A9 with 256 MB of ram, let alone 512 MB.
 
Still had the checkerboard when scrolling up and down.

It definitely loaded more images than my iPad will when opening a page.

It did have the checkerboard in the engedget video but it did it while the page was still loading all those images and it went away really fast. Much faster then it goes away on my iPhone 4.
 
It's not real hard to figure out that is wrong.

There is no way in hell the iPad 2 can have only 256 MB of ram. As a developer and seeing how fast it is in a few videos I am leaning very close to it having 1 GB of ram.

I would be very surprised if it came out that it had only 512 MB of ram.

I also can't see Samsung Manufacturing a Dual Core, Cortex A9 with 256 MB of ram, let alone 512 MB.

Samsung is just a "for hire" foundry. They didn't design the A5, Apple did.

If I wanted to print useless **** they would let me as long as I pay.
 
It isn't strange at all for Apple not to mention it.

They have long been trying to get consumers to stop worrying about specs.

Yet they're happy to talk about the dual-core A5 chip. Why they can't list the RAM on the tech-specs page is a real mystery to me. It just gives the impression they have something to hide. I feel the same whenever I see products advertised or listed somewhere with no price.

I'm not saying specs are everything. I'll choose overall user-experience over specs any day. But they're not entirely meaningless either, and going out of your way to hide them just seems counter-productive from a marketing perspective.
 
AT in their initial reporting said that Apple seemed to treat the spec as something 'not important' and would not tell them how much RAM.

Why not say? Simple, because Apples reps know its a shameful little amount. Going into this 1GB was the floor, and Apple screwed the pooch by either not increasing it or doing a life expectancy hampering 512 MB.

Sooooo glad I will be waiting for the REAL iPad 2, and not bite the hook of this iPad 1.5.
 
They never advertised that the iPhone 4 had 512 MB until a WWDC session. It was never part of the main keynote or the marketing.

Apple almost never advertises how much RAM their products have.
 
I'm cautiously optimistic that there's at least 512mb in the iPad 2, but will definitely wait for a tear down/confirmation before jumping on board. Safari constantly reloading tabs is my biggest gripe with the current iPad. I use Safari a lot, and not upgrading the RAM to help this issue is personally the deal breaker for me.

The latest iPod Touch, while having camera, retina display and A4 upgrades, kept only 256mb RAM and it's definitely noticeable. I see a lot of memory warnings get triggered on it, more so than the previous generation and iPhone 4. Really hope Apple didn't do the same thing again.
 
I have to agree.

The only reason to NOT say things is if you know they reflect poorly.

If there was, say 1GB Ram, you can be sure, Apple would have had "1 Gigabyte of RAM" printed up on there screen along with dual core CPU and 9X graphics.

If you know it's good then you shout about it, to show off your product and make it look and sound the very best.

If you know part of your product is poor then then just skip over it and don't bring it up.

For the same reason they would not have put "1 Megapixel Camera" up on their display either. They just put 720p HD recording as that's making the best of something.
 
I wonder if the people who talk about 1GB of ram in a tablet really know what they are or aren't gaining.

iOS doesn't need much ram to run smooth. In fact, tasks like HD video, surfing the net, viewing images, streaming content, etc. are much more streamlined and fast on an iPad with 256mb of ram than it was on my old HP netbook with 4GB ram.

It isn't always about ram folks. If iOS were to integrate MORE then obviously more ram would be needed, but why spend more in adding ram, increasing the price of a device, if there is little boost?

I suspect Apple is adding in enough ram in order to maximize the potential of what the iPad has to offer

Just like megapixels in a camera or Hz in a tv - it's all just marketing.

My macbook air with a solid state drive and 2GB of ram performs SOME tasks faster than my mac pro with 12GB of ram. Like opening programs, files, etc.

So though RAM is important, it's not the end all be all.

If we talk true multi tasking - that's a different story.

i am actually wondering if you know what you're talking about. RAM is far from a marketing ploy like megapixels on a camera. as for your macbook air being faster than your mac pro that has more to do with your SSD hard drive than RAM. RAM doesn't make things run faster it lets you do more things at the same time while trying to maintain a level of performance

that being said, a tablet like the iPad which is built for consumption of content rather than creation of content probably doesn't need huge amounts of RAM and 256-512mb is more than enough for it. but 1GB would be nice just to have the overhead in case someone comes up with an app that needs it
 
They never advertised that the iPhone 4 had 512 MB until a WWDC session. It was never part of the main keynote or the marketing.

Apple almost never advertises how much RAM their products have.

True, but when asked they are willing to say.

AT noted that Apple reps REFUSED to state the amount. I have never heard of an Apple rep declining to state a specification when asked by the gadget press.
 
Store Chat!

I never reply to anything, just sit back, read and giggle... But I thought I should send this your way because I thought it was funny..


According to the chat sales person, Ipad's do not use ram... see attached... :p
 

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RAM doesn't make things run faster it lets you do more things at the same time while trying to maintain a level of performance
I see what you're saying, and on one important level you're right. RAM won't make an existing app faster but having more RAM has the potential to make new apps faster which could be important for things like games.

If an existing app fits in the current 256MB iPad then you're right, giving it more RAM won't speed it up. When an app developer is writing their code however, they are often faced with a trade off between time efficiency (making it run faster) and space efficiency (making it need less RAM to run in). If a developer is writing an app for a specific hardware configuration then if the app is trying to get the maximum performance from the hardware it is very useful to have lots of RAM and to be have the option, for critical functions, to make them as time efficient as possible even if that is heavy on memory.

- Julian
 
AT in their initial reporting said that Apple seemed to treat the spec as something 'not important' and would not tell them how much RAM.

Why not say? Simple, because Apples reps know its a shameful little amount. Going into this 1GB was the floor, and Apple screwed the pooch by either not increasing it or doing a life expectancy hampering 512 MB.

Sooooo glad I will be waiting for the REAL iPad 2, and not bite the hook of this iPad 1.5.

This isn't a 1.5

All you need to see is how the tone changed on the hands on.

Many had reactions like you, only more polite. Changed it up pretty damn fast as soon as they started using it.

I think you are thoroughly incorrect, and this is a very worthy full upgrade over the first.
 
True, but when asked they are willing to say.

AT noted that Apple reps REFUSED to state the amount. I have never heard of an Apple rep declining to state a specification when asked by the gadget press.

What in the heck makes you think those apple reps even know?
 
Guys, you all need to calm down. The iPad 2 has 512mb of ram, and you can take that to the bank. Apple didn't announce the amount of ram, just like they never have with any iDevice. Heck, the spent no time really talking about the hardware in the keynote anyway.
You wont see 1Gb until iPad 3, or whenever it is that they increase screen resolution. Also consider when they do up the resolution, all the textures and images will need to be twice as large and will fill that ram alot quicker. It will be akin to the iPad 2 having 512, so its really all relative. Plus, Apple needs to hit that $499 price point. None of its competitors are able to touch that.
 
AT in their initial reporting said that Apple seemed to treat the spec as something 'not important' and would not tell them how much RAM.

Why not say? Simple, because Apples reps know its a shameful little amount. Going into this 1GB was the floor, and Apple screwed the pooch by either not increasing it or doing a life expectancy hampering 512 MB.

Sooooo glad I will be waiting for the REAL iPad 2, and not bite the hook of this iPad 1.5.

Sorry bro, this is the iPad 2 whether you like it or not, and there will be no 2nd iPad 2 (that even sounds stupid). Have fun waiting for the iPad 3 next March. I'll enjoy this one and sell it in February and take the $100 "rental" charge. ;)
 
i am actually wondering if you know what you're talking about. RAM is far from a marketing ploy like megapixels on a camera. as for your macbook air being faster than your mac pro that has more to do with your SSD hard drive than RAM. RAM doesn't make things run faster it lets you do more things at the same time while trying to maintain a level of performance

im sure the users still stuck with an iphone 3g (128MB RAM) would disagree. as with any desktop os, when theres not enough ram it will swap/page which decreases the speed of the app (and the entire system)

i don't see how they could put less than 1GB if they're going to allow users to edit HD video. *crosses fingers*
 
I'm guessing 1 GB. If only because Apple wants to tell the competition to shove off.
 
I was just on a chat with the an apple store person, they told me there is no ram and the A5 does everything. I'm thinking bull, anyone else?
 
im sure the users still stuck with an iphone 3g (128MB RAM) would disagree. as with any desktop os, when theres not enough ram it will swap/page which decreases the speed of the app (and the entire system)

iOS is not a desktop OS and it does not use swap. However, however it can still slow your device down as it shuffles and clears up RAM.
 
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