iPad iPad Air is a Fantastic Device!

[whooleytoo]

I will agree this is an annoyance, but I will still maintain that the Air is by far the best tablet ever made. I can get a lot more productive internet research/work done on this tablet than any iPad prior.

Also I suspect about 50% of the problem is iOS 7 and I'm hoping for improvement in 7.1. I realize that 1 GB of RAM is 1 GB of RAM, but I notice memory inefficiencies and bugs in iOS 7. For example, after a hard reboot my Safari reloadings aren't nearly as bad as they get after many days without reboot. Memory usage efficiency is one of those things that seems like it always needs to be fine-tuned over a series of patches after a new OS is released. I think Apple is working on it.

In any case, the Air still rocks, and damn is it fast.

It's not the end of the world, but for some use-cases it would be a deal-breaker. If you're filling a form, and switch to (say) Mail to do something, and go back to safari to find the form re-loading and blank... I'd just give up and use a laptop.

If they could just save the form data when the page is being purged and re-populate when it reloads it would be almost a non-issue, given how fast the Air is.

And yeah, it's incredibly fast. Not sure why, but for browsing it's faster than my i7 MBP, many pages load with no noticeable delay at all. And the gaming experience is very nice.

 

[osofast240sx]

No. I've surmised that the leisure crowd who has nothing to do and kids in general are Apple's target market for this device. And I suspect this is the same for most of the enterprise market where MS Office is so entrenched in corporate ritual.

It's totally my fault. A few people at my day job warned me about Apple's "walled garden" but I fell in love with Apple's engineering.

It's more like cognitive dissonance is why so many use Microsoft office. What did you expect the tablet to do in the first place? There are workarounds for almost everything.

 

[lovmyipad]

Leisure time with my iPad

No. I've surmised that the leisure crowd who has nothing to do and kids in general are Apple's target market for this device. And I suspect this is the same for most of the enterprise market where MS Office is so entrenched in corporate ritual.

It's totally my fault. A few people at my day job warned me about Apple's "walled garden" but I fell in love with Apple's engineering.

I have had my iPad 2 for about 3 years now. It has served me well during my leisure time. While I am relaxing I can review work scopes, update material lists and share them with whatever contractors I am working with. On the jobsite I can redline engineering drawings, include photos to better illustrate my remarks and email them to architects right from the jobsite. I can conduct wage interviews and have workers sign them on the iPad and never carry paper around with me. I have drawings, notes, work scopes for all of the projects with me at all times and never carry paper. Yes, it is a shame the iPad cannot be used for work.

 

[bigjnyc]

I love my iPad air as well. My only complaint is the lack of RAM for safari... If i have more than one tab open and I switch between tabs the web page reloads each time. I guess the iPad doesnt have enough ram to keep the content of each tab in the cache like a laptop would. Other than that its great.

 

[Altis]

I love my iPad air as well. My only complaint is the lack of RAM for safari... If i have more than one tab open and I switch between tabs the web page reloads each time. I guess the iPad doesnt have enough ram to keep the content of each tab in the cache like a laptop would. Other than that its great.

It's just crappy iOS 7 Safari.

There are devices running iOS 7 with half the RAM that have the same problem. If iOS 7 runs on 512 MB, it should be able to keep a few MB worth of page data given another 512 MB.

 

[Albert1000]

Yes, it is a shame the iPad cannot be used for work.

Well, I can appreciate your testimonial but with a name like "lovmyipad" take no offense when I say I can't take you seriously.

 

[bigjnyc]

It's just crappy iOS 7 Safari.

There are devices running iOS 7 with half the RAM that have the same problem. If iOS 7 runs on 512 MB, it should be able to keep a few MB worth of page data given another 512 MB.

Aaah I see, so perhaps this is something Apple can fix via software update one day. fingers crossed.

 

[Altis]

Aaah I see, so perhaps this is something Apple can fix via software update one day. fingers crossed.

Supposedly it's fixed in 7.1... Here's to hoping!

 

[Tyler23]

Well, I can appreciate your testimonial but with a name like "lovmyipad" take no offense when I say I can't take you seriously.

And he/she can't love their iPad because it helps them with their work? They have to think it's good for work because they already blindly loved it before hand?

Makes no sense.

 

[Albert1000]

And he/she can't love their iPad because it helps them with their work? They have to think it's good for work because they already blindly loved it before hand?

No offense intended. Just the word "Love" associated with an inanimate object comes across as a bit overzealous to me. I tend to avoid people that engage in that kind of fanaticism (if indeed that's what it is).

 

[Altis]

I have had my iPad 2 for about 3 years now. It has served me well during my leisure time. While I am relaxing I can review work scopes, update material lists and share them with whatever contractors I am working with. On the jobsite I can redline engineering drawings, include photos to better illustrate my remarks and email them to architects right from the jobsite. I can conduct wage interviews and have workers sign them on the iPad and never carry paper around with me. I have drawings, notes, work scopes for all of the projects with me at all times and never carry paper. Yes, it is a shame the iPad cannot be used for work.

Out of curiosity, what apps are you using to accommodate this kind of work?

I cannot imagine trading in my drawing pages for projects, most are 2'x3' or 3'x4', to use a screen that's around 9"x6". Also, being able to make pen marks and edits all over, having many people working from the same master set at once... not even sure how you email all these around. Trying to use an iPad on a job site in any construction/retrofit environment would create a ton of extra work and inconvenience for me and my crew.

 

[HEK]

I read up a bit on MIMO and it appears that your access point also has to support it. Wonder if my Asus RTN65U wifi device from a year ago has this feature? It has no external antennas but not sure if that's a prerequisite for MIMO support or if it is built into the access point's wifi chip?

Latest AirPort Extreme has MIMO multiple antennas. Got one and it improved over prevous AirPort Extreme. In some corner rooms used to have reduced signal. Have great signal strength everywhere in my house now. Easy set up and streaming of movies. Also works great with AppleTV. Have comcast cable getting 60 to 90 megabits download.

 

[patseguin]

Cool man I hope you enjoy it. I opted for the 128GB version so that I could keep a lot of movies and tv shows on it in the event ona power outage in wonderful Buffalo. I think you did fine though and some people can even get by with 32 with iTunes Match and cloud storage being popular now. I think the Air is the best tablet available.

 

[KhunJay]

I had some problems getting a good ipad air...even tried refurb ip4s...but no dice. While using those defective pieces I realised my capacity requirements would be met by a 16GB instead of 32 gb.

Now I have a 16gb ipad air and I was lucky to get a perfect screen. I also use one tab at a time on safari and have not got a crash yet.

For my uses, this is a very good tablet.

 

[ET iPhone Home]

So last week, after tons of research, and after putting my hands on both the iPad Mini Retina and the iPad Air at my local Apple store, I picked up the new iPad Air 64GB (Wifi version). I toyed around with it all weekend, and I must say that it is truly a fantastic device!

I was able to watch streaming movies and TV shows using Amazon Prime, iTunes, and tons of web surfing, gaming and whatnot. First day's stats showed that I got nearly 11 hours out of the battery using headphones for video watching (most of the time) and having brightness set between 50% and 75%.

Thank you Apple for making a great, lightweight and powerful device that's comfortable to use and hold all day long without sacrificing anything

+1 to the list of happy iPad Air owners!

What's your experience with Safari - does it crash with multiple tabs or not?

I purchased my parents an iPad Air, they'll be away for 4 months. And I haven't been able to have them test Safari to see if these issues with multiple tabs are indeed crashing. I told them to just sell it, because I'm not sure if Apple will take it back after 4 months if this issue holds true.

 

[Rleelfd7]

What's your experience with Safari - does it crash with multiple tabs or not?

I purchased my parents an iPad Air, they'll be away for 4 months. And I haven't been able to have them test Safari to see if these issues with multiple tabs are indeed crashing. I told them to just sell it, because I'm not sure if Apple will take it back after 4 months if this issue holds true.

This should be covered by their one year warranty.

 

[lovmyipad]

My iPad at work

Out of curiosity, what apps are you using to accommodate this kind of work?

I cannot imagine trading in my drawing pages for projects, most are 2'x3' or 3'x4', to use a screen that's around 9"x6". Also, being able to make pen marks and edits all over, having many people working from the same master set at once... not even sure how you email all these around. Trying to use an iPad on a job site in any construction/retrofit environment would create a ton of extra work and inconvenience for me and my crew.

I mostly use Notability for the drawings and pdfs associated with whatever project I am working on. I allows me to organize projects in folders. Under a project I can group together all documents for that project. Engineering drawings (2' X 3' saved as a pdf), work scope, meeting notes, product specs etc. I can take type written or hand written notes at meetings. I can highlight things I want to make note of. All of this is with me all the time on all my projects, taining classes, board meetings whatever. From within a pdf click on the share button and print it, email it or share on google drive, dropbox or others.
I also use Form Tools to create forms to document things like wage interviews, daily construction logs, etc. With your finger or a stylus you can sign a document.

 

[BuickGS67]

What's your experience with Safari - does it crash with multiple tabs or not?

I purchased my parents an iPad Air, they'll be away for 4 months. And I haven't been able to have them test Safari to see if these issues with multiple tabs are indeed crashing. I told them to just sell it, because I'm not sure if Apple will take it back after 4 months if this issue holds true.

I haven't had Safari crash on me yet when having multiple open tabs.

 

[bobr1952]

I'm with you Buick--love my new iPad Air 32GB wi-fi--first iPad for me and it is truly a remarkable product. So far I have not seen any problems--or any programs crashing. Not sure about the Safari thing--I usually don't have that many tabs open at once. Just checked and I have 4 open plus streaming Spotify with no problem. Great product!

 

[AdonisSMU]

I need to join in the iPad love. I use it all the time. I even use it while I am using my rMBP.

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Supposedly it's fixed in 7.1... Here's to hoping!

I am downloading it to my iPad now. I will leet you know how it goes.

 

[rui no onna]

I read up a bit on MIMO and it appears that your access point also has to support it. Wonder if my Asus RTN65U wifi device from a year ago has this feature? It has no external antennas but not sure if that's a prerequisite for MIMO support or if it is built into the access point's wifi chip?

Yes, it's MIMO. It's dual-band 2.4/5GHz. One of the bands has an internal 2x3 (2 transmit, 3 receive) antenna setup and the other has 2x2. Can't remember which is which, though.

That said, despite my plan of swapping the iPad Air for the rMini, I ended up keeping my Air. It was mostly because I was too lazy to return it but I've also come to like it somewhat. iOS 7 has also been growing on me a bit (although in my case, all that really means is I've overcome my virulent hatred for iOS 7). I really like the new shortcuts on iOS 7. However, a darker theme, less neon colors, more prominent icons, thicker and more legible fonts, and less Safari reloads and app crashes would be very welcome. Frankly, I think all my gripes against the Air is due to iOS 7. If not for that, I think it would be my favorite iPad to date. As it is, that honor still belongs to my aging iPad 4 128GB on iOS 6.

 

[carjakester]

i just finished reading for about an hour with my iPad 4, and before the weight wasn't an issue but my wrists started to hurt from holding it up, i want to make the upgrade but it just doesn't seem that worth it for me. my iPad is in mint condition and i have no reason to replace it. hopefully i can wait until the air is updated.

 

[Señor]

Congratulations! Have fun with that beauty!

 

[Miguel760]

I exchanged the retina mini that I bought yesterday for a 128gb wifi air. So far I love it. It is so small compared to my ipad 1. I loved the size of the mini but it hurt my eyes after a hour of reading.