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This needs answering.

It already has, multiple times. More RAM means more power usage which means bigger batteries and fatter iPads. I'd rather have a thin iPad than bigger numbers which would be pretty meaningless for most apps and just cause developers to be lazy.
 
It would be a good security feature to add to the iPads but, I've been using my 5S with touch ID turned off. It's just more convenient and I like the way the works with it off when notifications come in.
 
at first i was excited about having Touch ID on my iPad but then i realized that i wouldnt really have use for it as i prefer to have my iPad automatically unlocked as soon as i flip open the smart cover
 
Not really. iPad 4th has A6x which was an improvement over A5x on iPad 3rd, beside the Lightning port. But yes, it was the shortest life cycle for an iPad.

Yeah, your right, it was the release of the 128GB ipad 4 I was thinking. They released it after the ipad 4 launched and it was one of the weakest updates, before going to the AIR.
 
at first i was excited about having Touch ID on my iPad but then i realized that i wouldnt really have use for it as i prefer to have my iPad automatically unlocked as soon as i flip open the smart cover

I hear ya. I rarely take my iPad Air out of my house. However, I can see the many pro's to adding TouchID. Lots of Colleges, Universities and school's use iPad's that get stolen/lost. This is just another feature to help manage that loss and prevent it. As a home user, I would just leave it disabled so things would still be the same.
 
I've been on the fence about getting an iPad air since it was announced.

if the revision comes out before August, has 2 GB ram. and GPS capabilities, I'm buying it.

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It already has, multiple times. More RAM means more power usage which means bigger batteries and fatter iPads. I'd rather have a thin iPad than bigger numbers which would be pretty meaningless for most apps and just cause developers to be lazy.

RAM battery usage is extremely minimal in comparison to everythign else in the device. They could easily throw in 2gb of memory and not impact battery performance overal.

Especially since the trade off of the low RAM is forcing the tablet to do more work when RAM becomes low.

For example, the pervasive tab reloading for many users. Everytime that tab has to reload, you kick off the cpu, and antennas and more data transfer. All of that will likely have a larger battery impact than just powering 2gb v 1gb.

if virtually all the competition has figured out how to put 2gb, and in many cases 3gb of RAM into their phones without impacting battery life, why is this a problem only for Apple?
 
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Yeah, your right, it was the release of the 128GB ipad 4 I was thinking. They released it after the ipad 4 launched and it was one of the weakest updates, before going to the AIR.

Oh, my mistake. But it's still the same, when iPad 4th came up with 128 GB option nobody would think "Oh crap, iPad has 128GB, I should've waited and bought that" because it costs $100 more than 64GB so most people were more than happy to keep their current iPad.

But this article refers to "free" Touch ID upgrade which I suspect will be included in all iPads down to 16GB. Same A7 chip, same storage, same display, etc but the Touch ID. And most likely it will have the same price, in which case, I'd say F U Apple.
 
It already has, multiple times. More RAM means more power usage which means bigger batteries and fatter iPads. I'd rather have a thin iPad than bigger numbers which would be pretty meaningless for most apps and just cause developers to be lazy.

Oh come on... This subject was discussed to death in a related thread. In a nutshell: given that the iPads have high-capacity batteries, the difference would be in the 1-4% region (at most). That is, the advantages of 2GB RAM would easily offset the (somewhat) increased power needs by the RAM.

Apple's trying to save battery life by not adding more RAM to the iPhone can be justified - after all, it only has a 1500 mAh battery. The essentially much more RAM-hungry Retina iPads, which not only require sometimes vastly more RAM memory than iPhones to do exactly the same tasks (e.g., loading the exact same Web page), would have an 5-8 times lower battery use hit because of the increased RAM size than an iPhone.

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RAM battery usage is extremely minimal in comparison to everythign else in the device. They could easily throw in 2gb of memory and not impact battery performance overal.

Especially since the trade off of the low RAM is forcing the tablet to do more work when RAM becomes low.

For example, the pervasive tab reloading for many users. Everytime that tab has to reload, you kick off the cpu, and antennas and more data transfer. All of that will likely have a larger battery impact than just powering 2gb v 1gb.

Exactly - see my above explanation too.

if virtually all the competition has figured out how to put 2gb, and in many cases 3gb of RAM into their phones without impacting battery life, why is this a problem only for Apple?

Because they want their users to upgrade every single year. Apple's usual greed and planned obsolescence at work.

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More like 6GB. 2gigs is borderline ok but 6 gigs is future proof.

6GB would only be needed if Apple added true, unrestricted windowed multitasking. It can be safely stated they won't ever do that. The vast majority of their customers, the tech-unsavvy, simply don't want "advanced" features. Hence, 6GB is plain not needed.
 
better start thinking about to ebaying my current Air then.
I don't care too much about the fp sensor but upgraded CPU and more importantly upgraded Ram is definitely a must.
 
I'm very much looking forward to TouchID in the new rMini. That + upgrade to 128GB LTE version and I'll be set for a long while.

Just picked up a refurb 16GB Air that I'll use around the house - TouchID isn't important there. But I carry my rMini with me pretty much everywhere. TouchID is a MUST imo.

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I've been on the fence about getting an iPad air since it was announced.

if the revision comes out before August, has 2 GB ram. and GPS capabilities, I'm buying it.

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RAM battery usage is extremely minimal in comparison to everythign else in the device. They could easily throw in 2gb of memory and not impact battery performance overal.

Especially since the trade off of the low RAM is forcing the tablet to do more work when RAM becomes low.

For example, the pervasive tab reloading for many users. Everytime that tab has to reload, you kick off the cpu, and antennas and more data transfer. All of that will likely have a larger battery impact than just powering 2gb v 1gb.

if virtually all the competition has figured out how to put 2gb, and in many cases 3gb of RAM into their phones without impacting battery life, why is this a problem only for Apple?

It's not a problem. They simply choose not to because the iPhone/iPad run smoothly with the current 1GB. No need to add cost in higher capacity RAM modules if its not necessary.

And despite the whining around here, its really not necessary. Has nothing to do with battery or "greed". The day the iPad/iPhone suffer due to lack of RAM we'll see Apple up the amount. May be soon - who knows. I use my devices for almost everything and my experience is every bit as good as it is with any other device that has more RAM.
 
The iPad seems like such a simple and refined product that apart from making it thinner, lighter and faster, the biggest advances they can make at the moment would be with software. Hopefully iOS 8 delivers this :)

Hopefully they fix the iPads inconsistent and choppy animations.

If you look at gesture multitasking, it looks clunky and old compared to what's available on the Mac.

Some of the square popups fade in, others fly in with system easing and others fly in linearly and feel iOS 6 clunky.

Besides that, Most iOS 7 redesigned apps don't take advantage of the large canvas. (I'm looking at you music app!)

Plus, on the iPad, control center, notification center and the multitasking UI doesn't take advance of screen real-estate. Control center, and notification center shouldn't take up the entire screen for something that could use much less screen space.

Also, popups that just "appear" with quick dimming of the background then fade out when you click outside or press done should mimic what happens on the mac with popups rather than stupid fades.

Also, a touch more shadows to convey what is on-top, I find myself confusing which part of the UI is layered on top.
 
Touch ID seems a lot less useful on iPads than iPhones, as I suspect most people rarely if ever have theirs outside of their home. But what would make it a really kick-ass feature is multi-user switching, or at minimum the ability to auto-switch certain things like logged-in iCloud and Game Center IDs. That's something worth an upgrade.

Touch ID that could be used to identify and/or switch between iPad user profiles would be incredibly useful. IMO.
 
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