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All iPads It's over, returned iPad Air (updated:re-purchased!) - due to constrained 1GB RAM

meistervu said:
And who started with the crashing because of lack of RAM crap? It is possible to program an OS so that it doesn't crash when RAM is low. My point is, if it crash, it is a bug, and can be fixed in future software releases.
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Well, you are actually wrong. You are totally wrong. iOS keeps applications in memory when they go to the background - and when all the apps take too much memory, it _intentionally_ kills them. There is no crash. It's the iOS intentionally removing an application from memory to give that memory to someone else. Every app developer knows that. An app that goes to the background will save its state so that it can recover when it gets killed. Then it goes to the background, and it either comes back to the foreground later or is eventually killed.
 
I used to get crashes and the low memory issues in the diagnostic log. Tried everything from hard resets it factory resets. Nothing worked. Bought a new one yesterday and everything has worked fine. I haven't changed the way I use it, in fact I'm putting this one through more to make sure it's solid. Not one single crash yet. Not one.
 
You had a bad device...what's so hard to understand about that? I have had my Air since launch day and haven't had it crash once, and I use it pretty heavily...I almost guarantee you that if you had simply exchanged it, the second one would have worked great
 
I've never seen RAM to be a problem so I agree with others that maybe you had a defective unit.
 
I think the OP made his choice. Let's just all be happy with our iPads and let him cry in the corner. No point in trying to convince him. :)
 
iOS must be intelligent with its memory usage and unload the oldest used apps or the least used apps, right?
 
What a lot of dross. How many computers have you seen crashing because of low memory? Providing there are no other hardware problems, all that should happen with low memory is decreased performance. That is if the OS and the apps are solid. I am not saying the Air does not crash (mine did once), all I am saying is that it crashes because of bugs in the OS or the App that is in use at the time of crashing. Low memory has absolutely nothing to do with it.
 
darngooddesign said:
The iOS7 on the iPad 4 is 32 bit, iOS7 on the Air is 64Bit. 5 tabs on the iPad 4 doesn't use as much RAM as two tabs on the Air. Of course it depends on which sites you are visiting and how resource intensive they are. For example, two Macrumors tabs will use far less RAM than two Verge tabs. I think the iPad version of iOS7 still needs to be optimized to be really efficient, but by and large iOS7 on the new iPads is pretty resource hungry.
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An earlier post said 64-bit tasks use up about 20% more RAM. 2 64-bit tabs should take about about the same RAM as 2.4 32-bit tabs.
 
TWO2SEVEN said:
Just the original post. Thanks for noticing though!
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no problems :)

anyway,
I myself chose not to buy the iPad air because of the RAM. I found that since iOS 7, my iPad 4 is not caching websites or suspended apps as well as it used to.
I often switch from safari, to mail to facebook, to youtube, and when i go back to safari, on iOS 6, only sometimes would it need to reload.
on iOS 7, that sometimes becomes 'most of the time'
thats my only complaint with the iPad 4, and since the iPad air doesnt fix it, and there are suggestions that its 64bit architechture is actually worse for it, I'll wait for iPad 6.

still, at the end fo the day, more mooonnney to burn
 
I bought the iPad AIR knowing that it only had 1GB of RAM and was a bit peeved at Apple for not releasing it with 2GB. I fully expect the next release to have 2GB but I was not going to wait another year for that to happen.

I've had safari crash a couple of times for whatever reason but I had it back up where I left off in a matter of a couple seconds. FYI Safari on my iPad 1 was crashing much more frequently to a point I was getting annoyed.

I feel opinions that Apple was skimping on hardware to maximize their profits are valid but still my experience with the iPad Air has been positive and I feel no need to return it. The tablet alternatives with their better hardware specs aren't enough to get me to switch platforms.
 
McPc said:
I bought the iPad AIR knowing that it only had 1GB of RAM and was a bit peeved at Apple for not releasing it with 2GB. I fully expect the next release to have 2GB but I was not going to wait another year for that to happen.

I've had safari crash a couple of times for whatever reason but I had it back up where I left off in a matter of a couple seconds. FYI Safari on my iPad 1 was crashing much more frequently to a point I was getting annoyed.

I feel opinions that Apple was skimping on hardware to maximize their profits are valid but still my experience with the iPad Air has been positive and I feel no need to return it. The tablet alternatives with their better hardware specs aren't enough to get me to switch platforms.
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Those tablet alternatives actually got me to switch to this platform! :)
 
Crap.

I am using my air as a laptop replacement. Playing music, multi tabs open, running pages or keynote for stuff, and have no issues at all.
 
KPOM said:
An earlier post said 64-bit tasks use up about 20% more RAM.
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Has this 20% or 30% or whatever been truly confirmed apart from Anand's review mentioning it and that figure being parroted everywhere else as "common knowledge?" Just curious, last time I paid attention to one of these threads it hadn't, so I'm curious if someone's made an actual verifiable measurement yet?

2 64-bit tabs should take about about the same RAM as 2.4 32-bit tabs.
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If the data content displayed is the same, how would the space requirement change? Do PNG's and HTML code and text take up more space when the CPU is 64 bit?
 
KPOM said:
An earlier post said 64-bit tasks use up about 20% more RAM. 2 64-bit tabs should take about about the same RAM as 2.4 32-bit tabs.
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Ummmmm, no. I don't even know where to begin on this one. 64 bit tabs? As in browser tabs? Then the 64 bit calendar entries and 64 bit contact records probably take up more space... :rolleyes:

Technology education fail.
 
I've been getting by with half a gig of Ram on my Ipad Mini. So I expect I'll be happy with twice as much with the new retina, even if 64 bit applications do use up more of it.
 
x-evil-x said:
You do know that it is more than likely an ios7 problem and not ram right?
My old iPad 2 and retina 3rd gen never had issues with crashing of Safari and they had or equal amount of ram. It's an ios7 issue...
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And those old iPads are NOT 64-bit, which is everyone's point here... that the new architecture is more RAM hungry thus the root of the problem. But I don't know yet since I haven't done conclusive tests, just been reading a lot about people having this issue.
 
deeddawg said:
Has this 20% or 30% or whatever been truly confirmed apart from Anand's review mentioning it and that figure being parroted everywhere else as "common knowledge?" Just curious, last time I paid attention to one of these threads it hadn't, so I'm curious if someone's made an actual verifiable measurement yet?



If the data content displayed is the same, how would the space requirement change? Do PNG's and HTML code and text take up more space when the CPU is 64 bit?
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PIG will probably have the same size, HTC code is not kept by the browser "as is". It is converted into some hierarchical data structure that relies on the use of pointers. All pointers require double memory size on 64-bit system however since the entire data structure consists of pointers and actual data items (text) and only the pointers use more size the actual memory increase will be lower than 2x. Memory increase will vary from application to application depending on the types of data used by application. Compiled app code will also have bigger size for 64-bit apps.
 
lilo777 said:
PIG will probably have the same size, HTC code is not kept by the browser "as is". It is converted into some hierarchical data structure that relies on the use of pointers. All pointers require double memory size on 64-bit system however since the entire data structure consists of pointers and actual data items (text) and only the pointers use more size the actual memory increase will be lower than 2x. Memory increase will vary from application to application depending on the types of data used by application. Compiled app code will also have bigger size for 64-bit apps.
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Data structures will properly also be boundary aligned.

class X {
byte A;
long B;
byte C;
};

which means each of the entries in the class eat 8 bytes of memory each.
 
racer1441 said:
Crap.

I am using my air as a laptop replacement. Playing music, multi tabs open, running pages or keynote for stuff, and have no issues at all.
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While it may not be a RAM issue as OP proposes, the iPad air (or iOS7 on the ipad) suffers from some very real and reproducible problems. Take a 2048x2048 wallpaper, and "set both" homescreen and lockscreen. It restarted my ipad, and other peoples' ipads every time.

There is another one where you press some settings menu twice in a row, and that will cause the settings app to crash (or maybe the ipad to restart).

I have had several crashes, restarts and resprings in the two weeks I owned the air. I am not even counting the app crashes.

I don't know if it is RAM or software, but it is something.

If you haven't experienced it yet, just wait.
 
while i do not feel it is a deal breaker. Since the amount of RAM is never a marketing point on iOS devices, I dont see why Apple doesn't put an assload of ram in these devices, if anything, just to make the user experience that much more positive. The Safari Refresh is kind of annoying and reminds me of iPad 1 days. 2GB isnt going to put a dent in any of their manufacturing costs. hell even 4GB would be pennies for them, if that. Since its not marketed, there is no reason for them to skimp and then "increase it" on each model as a selling point.

Personally I think 4GB operating RAM (if not allow for shared memory with storage) and base all iPads at 32GB. Put 16GB to rest already.
 
jimmirehman said:
while i do not feel it is a deal breaker. Since the amount of RAM is never a marketing point on iOS devices, I dont see why Apple doesn't put an assload of ram in these devices, if anything, just to make the user experience that much more positive. The Safari Refresh is kind of annoying and reminds me of iPad 1 days. 2GB isnt going to put a dent in any of their manufacturing costs. hell even 4GB would be pennies for them, if that. Since its not marketed, there is no reason for them to skimp and then "increase it" on each model as a selling point.

Personally I think 4GB operating RAM (if not allow for shared memory with storage) and base all iPads at 32GB. Put 16GB to rest already.
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Quadrupling RAM to 4GB would not be a negligible cost. It would put a serious dent in the margins which are necessary in order for Apple to continue creating best of breed products in every category.

iOS is so efficient that even 512MB is adequate for almost every use. 1GB is very generous and nobody needs more.
 
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